The coloratura twittering of ‘Ah, joie, emplis mon coeur’ from Stravinsky’s miniature opera Le rossignol was a highlight of Sabine Devieilhe’s 2017 album ‘Mirages’, where she was partnered by Les Siècles and François-Xavier Roth. Devieilhe was the raison d’être for Olivier Py’s staging of the opera at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in March 2023, where it was paired with Poulenc’s saucy, surreal Les mamelles de Tirésias.

Py’s concept was that Le rossignol features backstage life as performers prepare to stage Mamelles; indeed, the production photo on the CD cover here shows Devieilhe in the feathered showgirl outfit she wears as Thérèse/Tirésias. The Stravinsky was recorded by Erato, released here by itself – short measure for a full price disc at under 47 minutes.

The opera, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s story, features a Nightingale, a Fisherman, the Emperor of China, a mechanical nightingale and the contralto figure of Death. Act 1 was composed in 1908, when Stravinsky’s music was still influenced by his mentor, Rimsky-Korsakov. Acts 2 and 3 were composed in 1913 14, after the composer had scored Parisian successes with The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring; their musical world is more sharply focused and spare. The chinoiserie features pentatonic music, albeit bitonal.

Roth and the period-instrument Les Siècles are no strangers to Stravinsky’s scores premiered by the Ballets Russes and they are alert to every precise detail here. Devieilhe’s diamantine coloratura is exquisite in Stravinsky’s high-lying vocal writing. Lucile Richardot plumbs the depths impressively as Death, and Cyrille Dubois is affecting as the Fisherman, his light lyric tenor with its distinctive flutter appealing. Jean-Sébastien Bou is firm-voiced in the brief role of the Emperor.