Lepage's Nightingale wows France

The Robert Lepage production of The Nightingale and Other Fables that wowed Canadian Opera Company patrons in Toronto last fall is drawing rave reviews at Festival d'Aix-en-Provence in France.

The Canadian superstar producer combined the music of Stravinsky with Thai shadow puppets and an unusual set that involved singers standing in water to create the world premiere in Toronto.

The Toronto production won a Dora Award last month.

Le Rossignol et Autres Fables (Nightingale)is one of two COC co-productions at the world-renownedFrench music festival. The other is Mozart's Don Giovanni, which is a co-production with Teatro Real of Madrid and Moscow's Bolshoi Theatre, as well as Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.

Le Figaro magazine reported that Le Rossignol was met with a standing ovation.

"One is obliged to recognize that the illusionist Lepage, in the space of one evening, restored a childlike capacity for wonder to an audience of adults at the Grand Thtre de Provence," Le Figaro said, writing in French.

Opera Forum called the production "an enchantment."

"Stravinsky, a touch of the Orient and original theatre technique: three ingredients that the Canadian director used to reimagine Le Rossignol et Autres Fables as a lyrical spectaclethat conjuredamazement," Opera Forum wrote.

The opera ran July 3 to 10 in France and is now viewable online.

The Nightingale and Other Short Fables is a co-production with the Canadian Opera Company, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Opra national de Lyon and De Nederlandse Opera in collaboration with Lepage's Ex Machina.

It moves on to Lyon, France, in the fall and to Amsterdam in early 2012.