Nightingale: A New Musical is a musical (described by the composer as a children's opera) in one act, with book, music and lyrics by Charles Strouse. It is based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, The Nightingale, and tells the story of a Chinese emperor who learns, nearly too late, that wealth cannot buy happiness.
The work premiered at the Buxton Festival and then in London at the Lyric Hammersmith beginning on December 18, 1982 with a ca...
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Nightingale: A New Musical is a musical (described by the composer as a children's opera) in one act, with book, music and lyrics by Charles Strouse. It is based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, The Nightingale, and tells the story of a Chinese emperor who learns, nearly too late, that wealth cannot buy happiness.
The work premiered at the Buxton Festival and then in London at the Lyric Hammersmith beginning on December 18, 1982 with a cast including Sarah Brightman as the title character, Nightingale. In the U.S., in May 1982 a staged reading of the show was given by the First All Children's Theatre in New York. The group then gave a preview of the work in New York in March 1983 before giving the North American premiere at "The Barns" at Wolf Trap in April 1983. Since then, the show has been performed numerous times throughout the world.
A cast album was released in 1985 with the London cast.
The Emperor of China is powerful and wealthy, but isolated from the world around him...
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