Nightsongs is a hauntingly atmospheric response to the famous and magically beautiful gardens at Ninfa, created a century or so ago around the remains of an ancient settlement southeast of Rome. At night in the garden, intoxicating scents, moonlit vistas and the song of nightingales can combine to flood the senses. And in the same way that Ninfa grew and evolved from its original planting, roses and climbers now enveloping those ruins, Powers uses
Monteverdi's madrigal Amor: Lamento della Ninfa as the source material, the seed from which the work grows.Nightsongs was commissioned and first performed by the Schubert Ensemble at the Purcell Room, on 29 February 2008.