Prom 16 – Stravinsky, Debussy & Wagner

Part of the BBC Proms.

Sabine Devieilhe and Anna Stephany are the soloists in centenary composer Claude Debussy’s Wagner-infused, mythical-fantasy cantata La damoiselle elue. Wagner’s relationship with Paris soured over his opera Tannhauser but Stravinsky was practically adopted by the city. Tonight’s second half features two of the latter’s most colourful scores, whose striking resemblances result from the fact that Stravinsky broke off work on The Nightingale (the opera on which tonight’s symphonic poem is based) in order to write his first ballet, The Firebird.