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L’histoire du Soldat(The Soldier’s Tale)
Music by Igor Stravinsky
Edited by John Carewe
Presented under license from G. Schirmer, Inc. o/b/o Chester Music Ltd., copyright owners.
Written during the deadly 1918 influenza pandemic, Stravinsky designed The Soldier’s Tale to be easily toured and performed by small forces in small venues (large venues, including concert halls were requisitioned as hospitals and for other pandemic needs).
The 60-minute work is written for a distinctive assortment of instruments and inspired by popular music of the period, including tango and ragtime. It includes speech, mime and dance. Another aspect of the work’s popularity is the story-line which is based on an old Russian folk tale. A soldier, on leave from the army, trades his old violin for a magic book that can tell the future and make him rich. He soon discovers, however, that he has made a deal with the devil and that money does not bring happiness.
Towards the end of World War I, Stravinsky was facing the harsh realities of economic deprivation. Sensing disaster, Stravinsky, ever a pragmatist, formulated with his friends, writer C.F. Ramuz and conductor Ernest Ansermet, a plan to get himself out of his vexing situation.
As he explained it: “Ramuz and I got hold of the idea of creating a sort of little traveling theatre, easy to transport from place to place and to show in even small localities.” Thus out of necessity came the chamber-sized neo-classic orchestra.
And from Ramuz’s perspective: ‘Not being a man of the theatre, I had proposed to Stravinsky that we write, not a play in the strict sense of the word, but “a story”, persuading him that the theatre might be conceived in much broader terms than usual and that it could adapt itself perfectly, for example to what one might call the narrative style.’
L’Histoire du Soldat is a seminal work of the early 20th Century, one of the final works from Stravinsky’s Russian Period (preceded by The Rite of Spring of 1913). When Stravinsky died in 1971, his position as the century’s most significant composer was summed up by co-worker Pierre Boulez: “The death of Stravinsky means the final disappearance of a musical generation which gave music its basic shock at the beginning of this century and which brought about the real departure from Romanticism. Something radically new, even foreign to Western tradition, had to be found for music to survive, and to enter our contemporary era. The glory of Stravinsky was to have belonged to this extremely gifted generation and to be one of the most creative of them all.”
Although a canonical work of 20th Century music, L’Histoire du Soldat is a rare gem. Often presented as an instrumental suite, this full production is a treat not to be missed.
Featuring:
Stage Direction by Jennifer Norton
Musical Direction by Bill White
Choreography by Nikki Ervice
Peter Norton as the Narrator
Tyler Munns as the Soldier
Kaylin Holmes as the Devil
Nikki Ervice as the Princess
Ola Mulliken on Clarinet
Jane Parrish on Bassoon
Emily Thiem on Trumpet
Mary Simondson on Trombone
Scott Bartlett on Batterie
Daniel Perry on Violin
Kent Peterson on Contrabass
Homer Performance:
Friday, January 29th at 7pm
in the HHS Mariner Theater
https://homerart.org/events/category/performance/
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Event venue
Mariner Theatre, 600 E Fairview Ave, Homer, AK 99603-7661, United States
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