Petrushka, one-act ballet with music by young Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, had the stunning success at the Paris season of the Ballets Russes during the 1911. A riot of colors, expressiveness, and national characters, exerted in music, costumes, decorations, and choreography, delighted the Parisian audience. (Soundtimes.)
However, at home (Russia) Petrushka was perceived with harsher reception. For the spectators and critics accustomed to the euphony of ballet music, Stravinsky’s score seemed jarring. The music of ballet was loud, sharp, saturated with ,,street’’ motifs. And it took some time for compatriots to appreciate unique character, drawing and imagery of Petrushka. (Soundtimes.)
Collaboration between compositor Igor Stravinsky, choreographer Michele Fokine and painter Alexandre Benois created true masterpiece, that became a symbol of Russian avant-garde in ballet, as well as a symbol of Russian culture – Petrushka. (Soundtimes.) Petrushka brings music, dance, and design together in a unified whole. (Petrushka (ballet)).
“Although more than thirty years have elapsed since Petrushka was first performed, its position as one of the greatest ballets remains unassailed. Its perfect fusion of music, choreography, and décor and its theme—the timeless tragedy of the human spirit—unite to make its appeal universal”
Grace Robert (Petrushka (ballet)).
Legendary ballet
Petrushka is a legendary ballet, and it continuous to be successfully performed on the stages of many theaters till this day across the world. Original cast of famous ballet included Vaslav Nijinsky as Petrushka, Tamara Karsavina as the lead ballerina, Alexander Orlov as the Moor, and Enrico Cecchetti the charlatan. (Petrushka (ballet).) The role of Petrushka was glorified by many famous dancers, including Rudolf Nureyev, Vladimir Vasiliev end including Andris Liepa, famous Russian ballet dancer who attempt to restore Fokin’s ballet Petrushka, in it’s original form. Liepa became the inspirer and director of the film project Petrushka (Mosfilm in collaboration with Bolshoi Ballet), in which he also played main lead role. (Soundtimes.)
Despite the external primitivism of the storyline, Petrushka is extremely deep in its semantic content. It embodies the aesthetic search for a new path in the art of the early XX century. 100 years later, “Petrushka” has not lost its relevance. This is a ballet about the freedom and non-freedom of the individual, about the struggle of a suffering lonely soul against the surrounding universal lack of spirituality. In it, as in life, fun and sadness, joy and despair are intertwined, and all these feelings are expressed in a single round dance. (Soundtimes.)
Story
Petrushka tells the story of the loves and jealousies of three puppets. The three are brought to life by the Charlatan during the 1830 Shrovetide Fair (Maslenitsa) in Saint Petersburg. Petrushka loves the Ballerina, but she rejects him. She prefers the Moor. Petrushka is angry and hurt, and challenges the Moor. The Moor kills him with his scimitar. (Petrushka (ballet).)
It is a one-act ballet in four tableaux (approximately 35min). Order of numbers (from course material):
First tableau: The Shrovetide Fair
| Second tableau: Petrushka’s Room
| Third tableau: The Moor’s Room‘
| Fourth tableau: The Shrovetide Fair (Toward Evening) |
1 Introduction (at the Shrovetide Fair) 3 The Magic Trick 4 Russian Dance |
| 1 The Moors Room 2 Dance of the Ballerina (cornet in hand) 3 Waltz (the Ballerina and the Moor) 4 Appearance of Petrushka – The Fight between the Moor and Petrushka.
| 1 The Shrove-Tide Fair 2 The Wet Nurses’ Dance 3 Dance of the Peasant and the Bear 4 Dance of the Gypsy Girls 5 Dance of the Coachmen and Grooms 6 The Mummers 7 The Scuffle: The Moor and Petrouchka 8 Deach of Petrouchka 9 The Policeman and the Magician 10 Petrouchka’s Ghost |
Dance language
For the choreographic embodiment of Petrushka, Diagilev invited an innovative choreographer of the time – Michail Fokin. The choreographer bravely rejected everything ,,beautiful’’ and ,,elegant’’. In Petrushka, no one danced in the usual sense of the word. The dance styles of the main heroes are boxy, angular, stiff and simplistic. Ballerina stepped woodenly on pointe shoes, the Moor paced up and prayed to a coconut and Petrushka was emphatically ugly. (Petrushka (Journal).)
The first and the fourth tableau, at the Shrovetaide fair, choreographer represents Russian folk dances. And it reminds me more of the pure folk dance choreographies then the classic ballet interpretation of folk dances, maybe because it is danced without point shoes?
I think that this ballet, represents the idea of conceptualism in art – in which the idea of form (story) is more important than the form (dance/music and its aesthethics). The ballet was revolutionary for its time, in it’s unique synthesis of music, decorations and daring choreography (movement language). It may have affected and influenced future generations view on the dance form, norms, tabu’s and perception of beauty and harmony in art.
During the first rehearsal of the orchestra in Paris, musicians (even professionals) began to laugh out loud, so amusing did the music of Petrushka seem to them. Conductor P. Monto needed all his gift of persuasion to explain to his colleagues that Stravinsky’s music should not be perceived as a joke. (Soundtimes.)
One more lesson for me: professionalism and ethics are helping me to approach respectfully towards all kinds of art forms and norms in industry, but personal taste and sense of beauty are also important signals from my body, which I should newer deny, but always pay attention to.
Film, produced by Mosfilm, in collaboration with Bolshoi Ballet
The video represents cinematic version of ballet named Petruska. The ballet was filmed at Mosfilm Studios as cinematically as possible, and it is not a stage performance. This ballet movie is a part of the film project (1997-) called Return of the Fire Bird, directed and created by Andris Liepa. In which, Liepa included ballets of the Michail Fokin – Firebird, Petrushka and Scheherazade. In 1992 Liepa was inspired to recreate in its original form ballets such as Petrushka and Shehrezade. (Soundtimes.)
Despite the fact that the video is a cinematic version of Petrushka, Liepa may have exploit his previous recreation of original Petrushka ballet, and implemented it in the cinematic version as much as possible. And this may be one of the reasons why my professor chose exactly this video for assignment.
Description of the video informs readers about production, artists, choreographers and music:
Charackters | Set and costume | Directors of photography | Music, conductor, orchestra | Choreographic work |
Petrushka – Andris Liepa Ballerina – Tatiana Baletskaya Blackamore – Gennady Taranda Magician – Sergey Petukhov Devil – Vitaly Breusenko
| based on the original sketches of Alexander Benois; | Maria Soloviova, Bogdan Verzhbitsky, Boris Mikhailov
| Music – Igor Stravinsky Conductor – Andrey Chistiakov Orchestra – Bolshoy State Academic Theatre Orchestra | Liepa after Fokine |
Extra
Stravinsky composed individual musical pieces, and Diagilev and the famous artist Alexandre Benois, in between the tours, were coming up with storylines and events that could correspond to individual musical pieces of Stravinsky. Because of it, the 3 creators (Benois, Diagilev and Stravinsky) had a hand in building the dramaturgy of the ballet. (Soundtimes.)
In the music of the ballet, Stravinsky skillfully wove the motifs of famous Russian folk songs («Под вечер осенью ненастной», «Чудный месяц», «Вдоль по Питерской», «Ах, вы сени, мои сени», «Не лед трещит, не комар пищит», «А снег тает».). (Sountimes.)
In 1947 Stravinsky published revised version for a smaller orchestra, and as a result music for Petrushka began to exist in two versions – as ballet and as orchestral. (Soundtimes. )
