The Nightingale Quotes

“The Nightingale Aria is about more than a bird who is lost in the forest. The nightingale is angry, she is miserable, she is in pain. It is a song of transformation, of transcendence. You see, when her melody returns, it transcends into something new. She finds love amid despair and wretched loneliness; it is this new transformation, this change in her song, that allows her to finally find her way home. It is meant to make the listener weep and feel joy at the same time.”
― Elizabeth Lim, When You Wish Upon a Star

“There is something worse than kissing the wrong person.
It is wanting to.”
― Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale

“The nightingale waits for a song to go along,Ily sang.
It was a bittersweet aria, whose story Ilaria had mastered sharing with not only her voice, but also with the expressions on her face, the movements of her arms, and the carefully choreographed blocking she performed as she crossed one side of the room to the other. Yet tonight, something was off. Her tone carried more melancholy than usual, and the tempo she led was a beat slower than when they'd practiced. Chia doubted anyone would notice. Ily's pride was in her coloratura, and every moment was still magnificent---each note in the impressive cascades attacked with vim and beauty---as if she were truly a bird chirping. But behind the technical difficulties of the piece, Ily managed to slow her musicality and bring emotion to her voice; that was what cast a spell over everyone who listened.”
― Elizabeth Lim, When You Wish Upon a Star