Ballet dancers rehearse Stravinsky's Petrushka
-Compiled by Brian Mendonca
Work: Petrushka: A Ballet Burlesque in Four Scenes
Scenes
I. The Shrovetide Fair
II. In Petrushka's Room
III. In the Moor's Room
IV. The Shrovetide Fair (Evening)
Instrumentation: Orchestra
Form: Ballet
Year: 1911, Paris
Genre: Western classical
Period: Modern
Duration: Scene I (9.49 minutes)
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Bolshoi ballet company
Directed by Andrey Chistiakov
About: Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) was a Russian composer. Petrushka is set in 1830 at the Shrovetide Fair - observed just before Lent - in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is about three puppets viz. a sorrowful clown named Petrushka, his rival (the Moor), and a ballerina. A magician brings them to life in his puppet theatre. However, things go awry when the puppets assume human form and jealousy simmers.
Stravinsky's music can be described as polytonal i.e. the simultaneous use of two or more keys in a musical composition, In Petrushka he uses black keys against white, combining C major with F# major. Stravinsky used a lot of Russian folk music in his compositions.
Trivia: Stravinsky thought of the title Petrushka for his ballet while walking by the side of lake Geneva in Switzerland where he had gone for his summer vacation.
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Pic courtesy interlochenpublicradio(dot)org; sources: interlude(dot)hk, open.spotify(dot)com, britannica
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