The Nightingale and the Chinese Emperor after Andersen

Andersen's fairy tale The Nightingale and the Emperor sums up the beauty of bird music and song: they are elusive and always renew our sense of wonder. The Nightingale and the Emperor provides plenty of food for thought, and gives us the opportunity to hear some of the vanished instruments so dear to 18th-century birdwatchers and bird lovers: the bird flageolets. This tale also offers a contemporary look at the relationship between man and animal, at a time when biodiversity is under threat and birds are gradually disappearing from our soundscape.