Performers
Programme
Stravinsky brings the puppets to life. Even when the curtain has fallen, Petrushka, a wooden marionette in a fairground booth, is full of life and emotion. The fairground is Petrushka's world, and the composer has captured it with almost brutal clarity. This vivid music has been described as a 'noise ballet' or a 'street ballet'. You can hear drunks stomping and bears stumbling, money jingling and a barrel organ playing; all of these sounds are part of a big, garish sound collage. The fairground is a vibrant and fascinating world, but also a harsh one – too harsh for the sensitive Petrushka and his love for the ballerina. The carnival in Rome is a more relaxed affair. The 'Ouverture caractéristique' by the French Romantic composer Hector Berlioz is exuberant, celebratory music, without the emotional and physical stress of Stravinsky's fairground. And nobody ends up with a split wooden head on the wooden floor.
