right. what i'm looking for is the libretto of the children's operetta, the emperor's nightingale, which is, yes, adapted from hans andersen's "the nightingale." i don't know who wrote it, but i have been looking for it for some years. it is in english. i heard it when i was ten. i can sing from it too. i told julian about it once, and he has tried to find it for me, without success. i do want to find this not only because i am fond of it but because we already accuse each other of having hallucinations and if i don't come up with the goods eventually he might decide i hallucinated the whole thing. what i do remember of it, that might help in identifying it, are the following songs:

the prologue had a traveller come on and sing:

in cathay so far beyond ocean and sea
in cathay so long ago
there lived an emperor over his realm
yes lord of his kingdom ruled he
so beautiful was his palace there
beyond the forest glade
[two lines i can't remember]
now this proud emperor liked to read
about his kingdom fair
of great events in his domain
and all about his people there
one day he discovered as he read
a traveller's story true
a nightingale dwelled within the woods
a nightingale he never knew


and there then followed a scene at court that had the following lines, but probably in the wrong order -

the emperor announcing:
"there is a nightingale within the woods
where the trees grow close to the sea
she sings to the fishermen mending their nets
she sings from her perch in a tree

and the prime minister replying:
in a tree? dear me! what an idiosyncracy!
the nightingale has never been presented at court
nightingales would never be accepted in our society
(i'm quite sure about that, because idiosyncracy as a rhyme for tree and me was to my mind most reprehensible)

and when the mechanical nightingale breaks down, there was a song that went: "send for the doctor, send for the watchmaker, send for the men who generally fix things!" and the diagnosis went "indeed this is a sad affair. we have examined her everywhere! from her head to her tail we can certainly attest that she's sadly in need of repair!"

anyway. tell me.