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What is Stravinsky's ballet parsley about? See what "Petrushka (ballet)" is in other dictionaries

"Parsley. funny scenes in four pictures»

Stravinsky's ballet "Petrushka" made him world-famous. Such innovations and boldness were revealed in this ballet that those who had just proclaimed him the successor of Rimsky-Korsakov recoiled in fear, whispering that the new generation was calling for new thoughts and new sounds. Nor was it given to them to stop the ever-growing success of Stravinsky!

The event that determined a whole stage in the life of Igor Stravinsky was his acquaintance with Sergei Diaghilev, a man who devoted himself to the promotion of Russian art. Thanks to him, the acquaintance of the European public with the work of Igor Stravinsky began.

One day he had an idea for a virtuoso piano piece with orchestra accompaniment. Composing it, the composer, according to him, imagined a toy dancer who “with his cascades of diabolical arpeggios brings the orchestra out of patience ... It turns out an oppressive fight, which, having reached the highest degree excitement, ends with the mournful and plaintive exhaustion of the poor dancer. When Stravinsky played this work to Diaghilev, he enthusiastically exclaimed: “But this is a ballet! After all, this is Petrushka! Thus, the idea of a ballet performance was born.

The script was written by the artist Alexander Benois. He also became the author of scenery and costumes.

The party of the protagonist at the premiere was brilliantly performed by Vaslav Nijinsky. “Then I never saw such Petrushka,” choreographer Mikhail Fokin later said.

With Petrushka, Stravinsky's work reached its full maturity. Caused at its appearance rather sharp differences in assessment, this work over time received general recognition.

The action of the ballet takes place in the 30s of the 19th century on Admiralteiskaya Square in St. Petersburg during the Maslenitsa festivities, as if written off from nature - the folk scenes are depicted so brightly, colorfully, authentically. This is not surprising, because the favorite childhood impressions of the authors were reflected in the ballet. As children, Sasha Benois and Igor Stravinsky were taken to Shrove Week to popular amusements, as Benois later said, "to learn Russia."

Folk scenes in the ballet are reminiscent of paintings by artists from the association "World of Art" - Philip Malyavin ("Red Whirlwind", "Women"), Boris Kustodiev ("Fair", "Balagany"). They also reflected the Russian musical tradition: their prototype was the mass folk scenes in the operas "The Enemy Force" by Serov, "Sadko", "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh" by Rimsky-Korsakov.

At the center of events is love drama dolls - Petrushka, Moor and Ballerina, depicted in the spirit ancient theater masks. Passion for puppetry was typical at the beginning of the twentieth century for the artists of the "World of Art". The doll was perceived as an actor more perfect, ideal than a living human actor. Alexandre Benois even wanted to open his own puppet theater.

Summary of the ballet

During the Maslenitsa revelry, an old magician of the oriental type shows puppets come to life: Petrushka, Ballerina and Moor, performing a frenzied dance among the astonished crowd.

The Magician's magic informed the dolls of the feelings and passions of real people. Richer than others, Petrushka is endowed with them: he suffers more than both the Ballerina and the Moor.

He bitterly feels the magician's cruelty, his bondage, his cut off from the rest of the world, his ugly and ridiculous appearance. He seeks consolation in the love of the Ballerina and it seems to him that he finds the answer in her heart, but in reality she is only afraid of his oddities and avoids him.

The life of Arap, stupid, evil, but smart, is the complete opposite of the life of Petrushka. He likes the Ballerina, who tries her best to charm him. She finally succeeds, but Petrushka, furious with jealousy, bursts in and violates the love explanation. The arap becomes furious and throws Petrushka out.

Shrovetide fun reaches extreme limits. A merchant walking with gypsies throws piles of banknotes to the crowd, court coachmen dance with smart nurses; a crowd of mummers captivates everyone in a wild dance. At the moment of the greatest revelry, screams are heard from the Magician's theater. The misunderstanding between Arap and Petrushka took a sharp turn. The revived puppets run out into the street, the Moor strikes Petrushka with a saber blow, and the miserable Petrushka dies in the snow, surrounded by a crowd of revelers. The magician, brought by the watchman, hurries to calm everyone down. Under his hands, Petrushka returns to its original puppet form, and the crowd, having made sure that the crushed head is made of wood and the body stuffed with sawdust, disperses. But things do not end so easily for the most crafty Magician, left alone with the doll; To his horror, the ghost of Petrushka appears above the theater, which threatens his tormentor and mocks everyone who believes in an obsession.

Sounds of music

There are four in the ballet small paintings running without interruption. They are connected by a drumbeat. The two middle pictures show the life of dolls, the outer pictures are mass scenes of festive festivities. They widely use Russian melodies from archaic simple motives to street songs.

The beginning of the first picture sounds interesting: “harmonica” quarter-tert chants of flutes, clarinets, horns, cellos, harps are intertwined horizontally and vertically, forming a noisy sound complex. It either sounds like a theme, or it forms the background for other themes.

There is a crowd on the stage, humming, motley, drunken, and colorful characters flicker in it every now and then. Here the revelers passed, Balaganny Grandfather, trying to shout down the crowd, beckons the audience. An old, cold hurdy-gurdy with a falling valve began to play the song “In the evening in a rainy autumn” (two clarinets). She is interrupted by the unpretentious song “Wooden Leg”, accompanied by a tinkling triangle, to which a street dancer in felt boots dances. Stravinsky recorded the melody of this song from an organ grinder on the outskirts of Nice. Later, by court order, he had to pay a fee to its author - a certain Spencer. At the other end of the stage, the music box began to play the song "A wonderful moon floats over the river" (bells), and the hurdy-gurdy continues its tedious hum of its melody. These counterpoints create real impression street variegation and dissonance, increasingly intensifying towards the end of the scene.

The Magician appears and the noise immediately stops. In the low register of bassoons and contrabassoon, the mysterious theme of the Conjurer, built on chromatic motifs, sounds muffled, and in the high register, the celesta, harp, and violins with a mute shimmer ghostly.

Playing the simplest melody on the flute, built on the sounds of the dominant seventh chord, the Magician approaches one group of spectators, then another, as if bewitching them, and then opens the curtain of his theatre. The crowd sees three dolls - Petrushka, Moor and Ballerina. The magician touches them with his flute, and the puppets dance "Russian". Their dance is sharp, mechanically rhythmic music with a predominance of piano timbre. In it you can find out the theme of the Russian song "Ay, there is a linden in the field."

In the second picture, the action takes place in the room of Petrushka, a small, ugly little man who suffers severely from unrequited love ... The door abruptly opens, and someone's foot roughly pushes Petrushka. He falls on his face, trembles with sobs, then jumps up, rushing about the room, knocking on the door. All his movements express despair and protest.

Petrushka's music is improvisational in nature, the development is based on frequent changes in motives, tempos, timbres, textures, conveying instantaneous transitions from one mood to another.

Petrushka dreams of the Ballerina. Three small lyrical dances - Adagietto, Andantino, Allegro - are his love dreams. The first two dances sound in a high register at the piano, fragile, broken, tender.

The Ballerina appears on the threshold of the room. Petrushka is happy, but the Ballerina is indifferent to him, she leaves, and again the toy man rushes about in despair. In a rage, he threatens with his fist the portrait of the Magician on the wall.

The sad irony of Petrushka's characterization is reminiscent of the heroes of Charlie Chaplin's films, just as ugly, awkward, lonely, but possessing an infinitely kind, loving heart. According to A. Benois, "Parsley is the personification of everything that is spiritualized and suffering in a person, in other words, the beginning of the poetic."

Completely different - outwardly beautiful, smart, but stupid, primitive - Stravinsky depicts the Moor and the Ballerina in the third picture. The action takes place in the Arap's room. He lies on an ottoman against the background of bright oriental rugs and intently studies a large coconut. Arap throws him upside down, shakes him, listens to what is inside the nut, tries to split it with a saber, but in vain. Then the Arap kneels down and begins to respectfully bow to the nut as to a deity.

The Arap dance with a nut is a caricature of oriental music. He is clumsy and clumsy. Bass clarinet and clarinet play in unison at a distance of two octaves against the background of a "waddle" accompaniment.

Music becomes even more caricatured with the appearance of the Ballerina. She dances to the accompaniment of a military drum and a cornet-a-piston, the theme of which is reminiscent of a student study.

Arap during the dance of the Ballerina is worried that she can see the nut, and tries to hide it deeper under the pillow. Then the traditional classical ballet love duet. But with what merciless irony and sarcasm Stravinsky portrays this "lyrical" scene!

Two most banal waltzes in E flat major and B major alternate, forming a three-part form. In the first waltz, the accompanying bassoon continuously "hiccups" on the first eighth, accompanying the primitive melody of the flute and cornet-a-piston.

The second waltz is a parody of the sensitive everyday waltzes of the early twentieth century. In the bass, the Arapa theme joins it, but it cannot get into the beat in any way and all the time sounds on 2/4, across the three-beat measure. Arap clearly does not know how to dance a waltz!

Suddenly, Petrushka's head pops through the door. He is confused, he cannot believe in any way that the Ballerina does not love him, but the stupid, evil Moor. There is a quarrel. Arap in a rage grabs a curved saber and pursues the fleeing Petrushka. In music on the themes of Arap and Petrushka, a small “battle symphony” sounds.

In the fourth picture, the action again takes place in the square. The festivities continue, but already in the evening.

Stravinsky wrote about this picture: “The last act develops in an interesting way: continuous fast pace, majors, gives off some kind of Russian food, cabbage soup or something, then, boots, an accordion. Ugar! Excitement! Various characters appear in the humming crowd: nurses, coachmen, grooms dance, a man shows a learned bear, a tipsy merchant, surrounded by gypsies, throws money into the crowd, mummers have fun.

The dances form a large suite, in which the composer effectively uses the themes of popular songs: “Along the Piterskaya”, “Oh, you, canopy”, “Along the pavement street”. They seem to float out of a continuously sounding rhythmophone, now piercingly sonorous, as in the dance of wet nurses, then ponderous, as in the dance of coachmen and grooms. From dance to dance, more and more strength, power, and prowess accumulate, culminating in the dance of the mummers. Everything was spinning in a frenzied carbon monoxide dance. And suddenly a piercing fanfare stops the dance: Arap is chasing Petrushka around the square, overtakes him and kills him. The death of Petrushka is just a few bars of music, but they contain a whole drama of life and death. The tambourine falls (in the score, Stravinsky wrote: “Hold the tambourine very low and drop it”), against the background of a very high tremolo of the strings, the flutes sigh plaintively. Like an echo, the leitmotif of Petrushka arises, the piccolo flute softly and gently recalls the theme of the love dance. She breaks off, unfinished...

The "businesslike" steps of the bassoon are heard. The magician raises Petrushka, ordering the hushed crowd that this is just a puppet, and everything that happened is part of a theatrical performance.

The crowd slowly disperses. The harmonica picks are getting quieter. The lights go out. The magician drags a rag doll behind him. Suddenly, fear seizes him: Petrushka appears above the screen, threatening him. Petrushka's leitmotif sounding piercingly at the piccolo trumpet and the echoes of the music of the festivities complete the ballet.

Ballet music is distinguished by exceptional richness, inexhaustible ingenuity and skill. Infinitely varied harmonic means, a brilliant, colorful orchestra is magnificent. Whole musical material- folk-genre, lyrical, fantastic, parody-oriental, caricature-everyday - clothed in a harmonious four-part symphonic composition - a kind of symphonic cycle. It is no coincidence that the music of the ballet "Petrushka" is often included in the repertoire symphony orchestras as a concert piece.

Questions and tasks:

Who was the author of the script, costumes and scenery for the ballet "Petrushka"?
In what year and where did this ballet premiere?
What is the name of the first performer of the role of Petrushka.
How is the ballet structured and what is its content?
What tunes folk songs used by Stravinsky in the first and fourth scenes of the ballet?

Afterword

The ballet "Petrushka" was considered the masterpiece of Diaghilev's Russian Seasons before the First World War. During the premiere of the ballet exactly one hundred years ago in the Paris Chatelet, no one could have imagined that the Petrushka doll with its ridiculous poses and sad face would become the avant-garde of Russian ballet.

"Petrushka" is not such a simple ballet as it might seem at first glance, it combines the aesthetic searches of the early twentieth century with the first images of emerging impressionism. Attentive viewer will see in the plot of "Petrushka" and "personal motives", namely the relationship between the soloists in the theater troupe. The famous impresario Sergei Diaghilev is easily recognizable as a mysterious conjurer who knows how to pull the “correct” strings of his “theater of living figures” puppets.

In the image of Petrushka, one intuitively guesses tragic fate the great dancer Vaslav Nijinsky: Petrushka was imprisoned in a tiny theater locker, while Nijinsky spent more than one year in an insane asylum. In the ballet "Petrushka" there is also a "love affair" of the artists. It is known that Fokine and Nizhinsky were not indifferent to the beautiful ballerina Tamara Karsavina, who played the role of the ballerina of the puppet theater. At first, Karsavina rejected Fokine, and he, having decided to avenge her humiliation, created the image of a soulless empty puppet in love with a stupid and rich Arap. Karsavina was indifferent to Nijinsky - just like the ballerina was to Petrushka. Despite numerous love affairs within the troupe, Karsavina and Nijinsky remained the real stars of the Parisian Russian seasons. Tamara Karsavina really liked the role of a ballerina, she danced it until the end of her career.

The ballet "Petrushka" is a ballet about the personal freedom and lack of freedom of the artist, it intertwines both fair festivities and romantic story, and the Russian folk theater. A hundred years later, the ballet "Petrushka" is still relevant and interesting to the viewer, it is a living picture lyrical world puppets and the cruel world of people, which is intertwined in a single round dance.

Presentation

Included:
1. Presentation - 20 slides, ppsx;
2. Sounds of music:
Stravinsky. Ballet "Petrushka":
Waltz, mp3;
Carnival festivities in St. Petersburg, mp3;
Russian, mp3;
At Petrushka, mp3;
3. Accompanying article, docx.

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Books

Ballet. 15 libretto (convolute), . The presented convoy contains 15 librettos of famous ballets. The book also contains essays dedicated to the place ballet in history musical theater, the history of the creation of ballet, ...
Tales of the Ballet, Golzer N.. To be fabulous ballet world came to life, each time the efforts of the most different people. The main one is the composer: he creates music. The librettist composes the libretto - a brief plot basis of…

The Rite of Spring reflected Stravinsky's further innovative searches in the field of harmony, orchestra and rhythm, reaching here an unprecedented degree of complexity. In the thematics of the ballet, a large place is occupied by brief archaic folk chants, which become typical of Stravinsky's language in a number of subsequent works with national themes. Found in the "Rite of Spring" new means of expression had a huge impact on the development of European music of the XX century.

Since the production of The Firebird, Stravinsky, associated with the Diaghilev entreprise, actually settled abroad, only running into Russia in the summer months. Since 1914, the composer, cut off from his homeland by military operations, remained forever in a foreign land (in the early 30s he took French citizenship).

During the next few years of his foreign period, Stravinsky's creative connection with national themes, with folk musical and poetic sources, was still preserved. This is evidenced by a number of his vocal and instrumental cycles on folklore texts (“Jests”, “Cat’s Lullabies”) and several musical stage works - “A Tale about a Fox, a Rooster, a Cat and a Sheep”, “Wedding”, “The Story of a Runaway soldier and devil, comic opera"Mavra" on the plot of the poem "House in Kolomna" by Pushkin. At the same time, a number of new aesthetic and stylistic trends appear in Stravinsky's work, gradually leading him away from Russian themes and from artistic principles that determined early period his creative way. The further stages of Stravinsky's evolution go beyond Russian pre-October music. They are not considered in this essay.

"PARSLEY". Funny scenes in four scenes.

The action of this "ballet-street", as one of the co-authors, A. Benois, called it, takes place in old St. Petersburg in the 1830s, during festivities during Shrove Tuesday. Main characters- puppets, between which the drama unfolds, very simple, even banal. This is the story of the unhappy love of Petrushka, a traditional character folk theater, to the Ballerina, who rejects him and prefers him to Arap, who eventually kills his rival - Petrushka. The background of the drama is wide-ranging pictures of the Shrovetide festivities, in which a multifaceted, colorful, merry crowd is shown. The essence of the idea is to reveal the theme of the mental loneliness of the unfortunate Petrushka, which is opposed by the world around him - a rude and evil Moor, an empty frivolous Ballerina, their common master and owner - the Magician and an indifferent idle crowd.

Folk festivities at Shrovetide. Admiralteyskaya Square in St. Petersburg, bright winter day. In the center of the stage is the theater of the Magician. There is also a raeshnik, carousels, swings, ice mountains, shops with sweets. Passes a group of tipsy revelers. The farcical grandfather amuses the crowd. An organ grinder appears with a street dancer. At the same time, the sounds of a music box are heard from the opposite side. Another dancer dances around him. The old magician comes out. The curtain of the theater moves, showing three dolls - Petrushka, Ballerina and Moor. The magician revives them with the touch of a flute, and they start dancing.

..Stravinsky is a truly Russian composer... The Russian spirit is indestructible in the heart of this truly great, multifaceted talent, born of the Russian land and vitally connected with it...
D. Shostakovich

Ballet "Petrushka"- one of the brightest ballets of I.F. Stravinsky. This music is so lively and expressive that you can not look at the stage - the imagination itself draws images of Petrushka, Arap, Ballerina, oil festivals. In general, Stravinsky's music is like bright colored spots, shimmering into each other, this is a combination of incongruous. Many melodies and rhythms from the music of Stravinsky (including the ballet Petrushka) formed the basis of modern musical art.

Fragment of the program "Absolute Rumor"

The music for the ballet, as you know, began with the fact that Stravinsky composed a small concert piece for an orchestra with a solo piano: moreover, the orchestra and the piano, in a fierce dispute excelling each other in technical mastery, do not just fight for supremacy - they fight in different ways: and the virtuoso piano turns out to be helpless in the face of the primitive, but purposefully crushing force of the group of performers. The orchestra suppresses the piano with its "mass", the monstrous power of the "lower classes" - and this manifests the philosophical symbolism of social systems. Crowd and Artist. In a team of like-minded people, talents are not needed, they are doomed and destroyed - purposefully, usually vilely and vilely, by lies and sanctimonious self-justifications.
In fact, this idea, embodied in music, was immediately seized on by S. Diaghilev, instantly transferring all other plans to later and starting to develop a ballet based on this plot. The symbol of a lonely talent and became folk hero Petrushka - first hunted, and after death - or murder - exalted by the same people.
This is the main idea of the work.
But it also required an appropriate musical incarnation.
His composer found in the use of folklore.
Stravinsky attached great importance to mass scenes, they immediately took the leading position (the people, the orchestra, the collective, the joint persecution - where everyone is alone - it seems that he is not responsible for anything). They were embodied in the usual melodies of Russian folk songs of both urban and rural folklore woven into the music: “And the snow is melting”, “In the evening in the rainy autumn”, “Wonderful month”, “Along the Piterskaya”, “Oh, you canopy”, “ It’s not ice cracking, it’s not a mosquito squeaking”, “Dalalyn, dalalyn”, “Ay, Liponka in the field”, and others. people.
And against this background - light and pure sounds - the motives of love and suffering; love and suffering of the Petrushka doll, so similar to a defenseless hunted person. This image is also formed by folklore, but with completely different musical symbols.
Such a decision of music in folk tones and tunes also determined the general nature of the plot.

"Petrushka" (film-ballet)
Incendiary masterpiece! It has a broad Russian soul, Russian prowess! The music is absolutely famous, originally folk, but in what a skillful form it is dressed! As Stravinsky himself wrote, “before my eyes I had the image of a toy dancer, suddenly breaking loose from the chain, who, with his cascades of diabolical arpeggios, brings the orchestra out of patience, which in turn responds to him with menacing fanfare. A fight ensues, which finally ends with a drawn-out lament from a tired dancer. The premiere of the ballet "Petrushka" took place on June 13, 1911 in Paris.
Plot
“During the Maslenitsa revelry, an old magician of the oriental type shows puppets coming to life: Petrushka, Ballerina and Moor, performing a frenzied dance among the astonished crowd.
The Magician's magic communicated to the dolls all the feelings and passions of real people. Richer than others, Petrushka is endowed with them: he suffers more than the Ballerina and the Moor. He bitterly feels the magician's cruelty, his bondage, his cut off from the rest of the world, his ugly and ridiculous appearance. He seeks consolation in the love of the Ballerina, and it seems to him that he finds the answer in her heart, but in reality she is only afraid of his oddities and avoids him.
The life of Arap, stupid, evil, but smart, is the exact opposite of the life of Petrushka. He likes the Ballerina, who tries her best to charm him. She finally succeeds, but Petrushka, furious with jealousy, bursts in and violates the love explanation. The arap becomes furious and throws Petrushka out.

Shrovetide fun reaches extreme limits. A merchant walking with gypsies throws piles of banknotes to the crowd, court coachmen dance with smart nurses; a crowd of mummers captivates everyone in a wild dance. At the moment of the greatest revelry, screams are heard from the magician's theater. The misunderstanding between Arap and Petrushka took a sharp turn. The revived puppets run out into the street, the Moor strikes Petrushka with a saber blow, and the miserable Petrushka dies in the snow, surrounded by a crowd of revelers. The magician, brought by the watchman, hurries to calm everyone down. Under his hands, Petrushka returns to its original puppet form, and the crowd, having made sure that the crushed head is made of wood and the body stuffed with sawdust, disperses. But things do not end so easily for the most crafty Magician, left alone with the doll; to his horror, the ghost of Petrushka appears above the theatre, threatening his tormentor and mocking everyone who believes in a delusion” (I. Stravinsky).

The music of "Petrushka" is a new word in musical art. It is woven from the most popular intonations of Russian urban folklore cleverly used. musical form"Parsley" is very peculiar. Four of his paintings correspond to parts of the symphony: the first is Allegro, the second is slow, the third is similar to the symphonic scherzo, the fourth is the finale. In the widely written genre scenes, motifs of folk songs “Along the Piterskaya Street”, “Oh you, canopy, my canopy”, dance “And the snow is melting” and the composer’s own melodies, sustained in the folk spirit, sound.
The ballet "Petrushka" has repeatedly been and continues to be included in the repertoires of many ballet companies.

Music for "Petrushka" by I. Stravinsky exists both as a ballet and as an orchestra

I. Stravinsky with the orchestra. Recorded in 1948

" in Paris. At that time, no one could have thought that Petrushka, with his inherent clumsy plasticity and sad face, would become a symbol of the Russian ballet avant-garde. But the brilliant creative triumvirate of composer I. Stravinsky, choreographer M. Fokin and artist A. Benois created a masterpiece that became one of the symbols of Russian culture. The riot of colors, expressiveness, national flavor, manifested both in music and in costumes, scenery, choreography, led the audience into complete admiration and set the fashion for everything Russian in Europe.

Summary of Stravinsky's ballet "" and many interesting facts read about this work on our page.

Characters	Description
	funny puppet theater
Ballerina	the doll that Petrushka is in love with
arap	doll, object of interest Ballerinas
Magician	puppet master
Organ grinder	Street musician

Summary of "Parsley"

The ballet is a funny scene in 4 scenes. At the merry Shrovetide festivities, the attention of a motley crowd of townspeople is attracted by the magician's farce. He brings three puppets onto the stage - Petrushka, Ballerina and Moor, who, to the bewitching melody of his pipes, gradually come to life and begin to behave like real people. Petrushka acutely feels his isolation from others, he is tormented by the realization that he is ugly and ridiculous. The only consolation for him is the Ballerina, with whom he is passionately in love.

But the frivolous Ballerina does not understand his torments and avoids him in every possible way. She has another goal - to charm the stupid, lazy Arap, who, compared to Petrushka, seems to her handsome and strong. She almost achieves what she wants, but in the midst of a love date, Petrushka, blinded by jealousy, appears. Arap rushes at him with a saber, Petrushka tries to run away, but Arap catches up with him on the street and cuts off his head with a saber. The horror of the crowd is dispelled by the Magician who arrives in time, who shows that Petrushka's body and head are stuffed with sawdust, like an ordinary doll. The fun, interrupted by the incident, resumes, and here the mischievous, lively, teasing Petrushka mysteriously appears over the square, demonstrating the triumph of his spirit over the crowd with all his appearance.

Photo:

Interesting Facts

Petrushka is a Russian character puppet theater, which has "big brothers" in other cultures: Pulcinella in Italy, Polichinelle in France, Karagöz in Turkey, Pancha in England, Ganswurst in Germany.
One of the authors of "Petrushka" artist and librettist A. Benois called it "ballet-street". Among his characters are mummers, hussars, a coachman, an organ grinder, a cook, a merchant, gypsies, and strollers.
In the ballet, a street dancer spins to the old song "Wooden Leg". Her unpretentious motive Stravinsky heard in one of the streets of Nice from an organ grinder. Subsequently, the author of the song appeared - a certain Spencer, and the court ordered the composer to pay him the amount of the fee.
At the first rehearsal of the orchestra in Paris, the musicians began to laugh out loud, the music of "Petrushka" seemed so funny to them. Conductor P. Monto needed all his gift of persuasion to explain to his colleagues that Stravinsky's music should not be taken as a joke.
The role of Petrushka has become a key one in the life and work of such dancers as V. Nizhinsky, V. Vasiliev, M. Tsivin, S. Vikharev, R. Nureyev and others.
It is believed that it was Stravinsky's talent that revealed to the world. When he first heard young composer, he did not even have a higher musical education.

Mikhail Fokin considered the best performer Ballerina dolls Tamara Karsavina. She, in turn, loved this role very much and danced it until the end of her ballet career.
Contemporaries unmistakably guessed in the characters of "Petrushka" the real participants in the "Russian Seasons". The image of the Magician was directly associated with Sergeev Diaghilev, who disposed of his artists, as a puppeteer controls puppets. Nijinsky was compared to Petrushka, seeing in him an artist who, by the power of his art, rose above the crowd.
In 1993, a platinum coin dedicated to Stravinsky was issued. It features a relief image of the composer against the background of a scene from the ballet Petrushka.

In 1947, Stravinsky created a second edition of Petrushka for a smaller number of musicians. Instead of a "quadruple" composition of the orchestra, the score was remade for a "triple" composition, and the music for "Petrushka" began to exist in two versions - as ballet and as orchestral.
Based on the ballet "Petrushka" created in 1993 Russian cartoon"Christmas Fantasy"
In the music of the ballet, Stravinsky skillfully wove motifs of famous Russian folk songs “In the evening in a rainy autumn”, “Wonderful month”, “Along the Piterskaya”, “Ah, you canopy, my canopy”, “It’s not ice cracking, it’s not a mosquito squeaks”, “ And the snow is melting."
Music from the ballet "Petrushka" sounds in the films "Charming Prankster", "Kiss of the Vampire", "Our Lady of Turkey".

Popular numbers from the ballet "Petrushka"

"Along the St. Petersburg" (listen)

"Russian" (listen)

Ballerina dance (listen)

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The history of the creation of "Petrushka"

The ballet "Petrushka", unlike many brilliant creations, whose idea matures in the head of the author for a long time, was born ... by accident. After the resounding success of the ballet The Firebird, which premiered in 1910, Stravinsky at the suggestion of Diaghilev, he was ready to plunge into work on the new ballet The Rite of Spring. The composer was aware of how complex and multifaceted the subject he was about to take on, and decided to give himself some respite. While vacationing in Switzerland, for his own amusement, he sketched a piece for piano and orchestra, and built musical themes in such a way that the piano part and the orchestral accompaniment did not harmonize with each other, but sounded in obvious dissonance, as if entering into a constant and irresolvable conflict. Subsequently, the composer admitted that during creative process he saw a toy dancer who "with his cascades of diabolical arpeggios brings the orchestra out of patience."

As a result, music was born, the character of which seemed strange even to its ingenious creator, until one day an association dawned on Stravinsky - this is Petrushka! Pungent, sharp music with unexpected rhythm changes fully corresponded to the internal content of the cocky character of Russian fair festivities. Perhaps, "Petrushka" would have existed in the form of a concert piece for piano and orchestra, if one day Stravinsky had not played its founder "Russian Seasons"

Intuition unmistakably prompted the experienced impresario - this is ballet, which he immediately declared to Stravinsky. Further work on the ballet fully justified its name - complete chaos reigned in it. Instead of composing music to the proposed libretto, as is usually the case when creating a ballet, Stravinsky composed separate pieces of music, and Diaghilev and famous artist Alexandre Benois, in between tours, came up with what plot and events could correspond to such music. Benois is still considered the librettist of "Petrushka", although all its creators had a hand in building the dramaturgy of the ballet.

Productions

For the choreographic incarnation of Petrushka, Diaghilev invited the innovator choreographer Mikhail Fokin, and Alexander Benois worked on the scenery. Premiere ballet took place in 1911. This evening on the stage Parisian theater The stars of the Diaghilev entreprise shone on the Chatelet - Vaclav Nijinsky, Tamara Karsavina and Alexander Orlov. The sophisticated Parisian spectator, who was difficult to surprise with anything, was shocked to the core by the luxury of the performance. In it, the Parisians saw Russian life with its national traditions, prowess, raging passions capable of captivating anyone into their whirlpool.

However, at home, "Petrushka" was waiting for a more severe reception. Spectators and critics, accustomed to the euphony of ballet music, were struck by Stravinsky's score. The music of the ballet was noisy, harsh, saturated with "areal" motifs. It took time for her compatriots to appreciate her unique character, drawing and imagery, which made it possible to imagine what was happening on the stage, even with her eyes closed.

In 1920, the famous dancer Leonid Leontiev brought "Petrushka" to the stage Mariinsky Theater. Leontiev once worked with Diaghilev, so he was able to reliably recreate the psychological atmosphere of the ballet. It was the Leontief edition that was taken as a standard by choreographer K. Boyarsky, who returned Petrushka to the stage of the Mariinsky Theater in 2008.

In 1921, Moscow audiences saw Stravinsky's ballet staged by Fokine. The leading actors played the main roles Bolshoi Theater V. Smoltsov, E. Geltser and V. Ryabtsev.

Between 1925 and 1932 "Petrushka" was staged in Copenhagen, Hannover, Essen, Buenos Aires.

An absolutely original interpretation of Fokine's ballet was Oleg Vinogradov's production at the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theatre. Kirov in 1990. Vinogradovsky Petrushka is not a pathetic and clumsy doll, but a living young man who is infinitely lonely among the soulless masks surrounding him. The part of Petrushka was danced by Sergei Vikharev.

In 1992 National artist Russia Andris Liepa made an attempt to restore two of Fokine's ballets - "Petrushka" and " Firebird - in their original form. This painstaking work took place in Moscow cultural center"Dyagilev Center", and the premieres were organized in St. Petersburg in 1993. In 1997, Liepa became the inspirer and director of the film project "Return of the Firebird". The famous dancer included in it three performances by Fokine - "Petrushka", "Scheherazade" and "The Firebird". Leading male roles in television versions of the performances he resurrected, Liepa performed himself.

”, despite the external primitivism of the plot, is extremely deep in its semantic content. It embodied the aesthetic search for a new path in the art of the early 20th century. After 100 years, "Petrushka" has not lost its relevance. This is a ballet about the freedom and lack of freedom of the individual, about the struggle of a suffering lonely soul against the surrounding general 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. If 100 years ago "Petrushka" was perceived as a ballet sensation, then for the modern audience it is a ballet legend, the brightest diamond in the crown of world ballet art. He successfully continues to go on the stages of many theaters, proving that true art is timeless.

Igor Stravinsky "Petrushka"

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