Petrushka (; ) is a ballet by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1911 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Michel Fokine and stage designs and costumes by Alexandre Benois, who assisted Stravinsky with the libretto. The ballet premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet on 13 June 1911 with Vaslav Nijinsky as Petrushka, Tamara Karsavina as the lead ballerina, Alexander Orlov as the Moor, and Enrico Cecchetti as the charlatan.

Petrushka tells the story of the loves and jealousies of three puppets. They are brought to life by the Charlatan during the 1830 Shrovetide Fair (Maslenitsa) in Saint Petersburg. Petrushka is in love with the Ballerina, but she rejects him as she prefers the Moor. Petrushka is angry and hurt, and curses the Charlatan for bringing him into the world with only pain and suffering in his miserable life. Because of his anger, he challenges the Moor. The Moor, who is bigger and stronger than Petrushka, kills him with his scimitar. The crowd watching is horrified, and the Charlatan is called to the scene as well as a police officer. The Charlatan reminds everyone that Petrushka is nothing but a puppet made of straw and cloth, and that he has no real emotion nor 'life'. As the crowd disperses, the Charlatan is left alone onstage. At that moment, Petrushka's ghost rises above the puppet theatre as night falls. He shakes his fist and thumbs his nose at the Charlatan, making him flee, terrified. Petrushka then collapses in a second death.

Petrushka brings music, dance, and design together in a unified whole. It is one of the most popular of the Ballets Russes productions. It is usually performed today with the original designs and choreography. Grace Robert wrote in 1946, "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 themethe timeless tragedy of the human spiritunite to make its appeal universal".

Russian puppets

thumb|upright=1.5|left|250px|Petrushka performance in a Russian village, 1908

Petrushka is a puppet. He is a character known across Europe under different names: Punch in England, Polichinelle in France, Pulcinella in Italy, Kasperle in Germany, and Petrushka in Russia. He is a trickster, rebel, and wife-beater. He enforces moral justice with a wooden club, speaks in a high-pitched, squeaky voice, and argues with the devil. His plays are formulaic and subversive. They repeat key scenes from one play to another. The plays usually end with a dog, a policeman, or the devil dragging him away.

Empress Anna Ivanovna brought marionettes to Russia in the 18th century. They were an amusement for the aristocracy. Rod puppets were an Asian import. They performed religious plays, mostly at Christmas. But Petrushka was a hand puppet. He was loved by the common people. He performed in street theatres and other open-air venues in small portable booths or behind screens that could be easily assembled and disassembled. After the Russian Revolution, Soviet authorities forced Petrushka indoors to be better monitor his subversiveness.

Composition

thumb|340x340px|[[Igor Stravinsky with Vaslav Nijinsky in costume for Petrushka.]]

The gestation of Petrushka was not straightforward. While completing The Firebird in the spring of 1910, Stravinsky had a "vision" of a solemn pagan rite: sage elders, seated in a circle, watching a young girl dance herself to death. They were sacrificing her to propitiate the god of Spring. Such was the theme of The Rite of Spring. Immediately after the stunning success of The Firebird in June 1910, Diaghilev approached Stravinsky about a new ballet; the composer proposed the Rite theme. Diaghilev accepted in principle and suggested that the premiere might take place during the Paris season of the Ballets Russes in the spring of 1912.

At the end of September 1910, Diaghilev visited Stravinsky in Clarens, Switzerland, where he was living at the time. Expecting to discuss the new ballet, Diaghilev was astonished to find Stravinsky hard at work on a different project. He had had another vision: "I saw a man in evening dress, with long hair, the musician or poet of the romantic tradition. He placed several heteroclite objects on the keyboard and rolled them up and down. At this the orchestra exploded with the most vehement protestations – hammer blows, in fact".

Later, Stravinsky wrote: "In composing the music, I had in my mind a distinct picture of a puppet, suddenly endowed with life, exasperating the patience of the orchestra with diabolical cascades of arpeggios. The orchestra in turn retaliates with menacing trumpet blasts." Although Stravinsky had conceived the music as a pure concert work—a Konzertstück—Diaghilev realized its theatrical potential. The notion of a puppet put Diaghilev in mind of Petrushka, the Russian version of Punch and Judy puppetry that had formed a traditional part of the pre-Lenten Carnival festivities in 1830s St. Petersburg.

Stravinsky composed the music during the winter of 1910–11 for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. It was premièred in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet on 13 June 1911 with the Orchestre Colonne under conductor Pierre Monteux, choreography by Michel Fokine, and sets by Alexandre Benois. The title role was danced by Vaslav Nijinsky. The work is characterized by the so-called Petrushka chord (consisting of C major and F major triads played together), a bitonal device heralding the main character.

Instrumentation

1911 original version

This is scored as follows:

;Woodwind:

:4 flutes (3rd and 4th doubling piccolo)

:4 oboes (4th doubling cor anglais)

:4 clarinets in B (4th doubling bass clarinet in B)

:4 bassoons (4th doubling contrabassoon)

;Brass:

:4 horns in F

:2 trumpets in B and A (1st doubling piccolo trumpet in D)

:2 cornets in B and A

:3 trombones

:1 tuba

;Percussion:

:Timpani

:Bass drum

:Cymbals

:2 snare drums (one offstage)

:Tambourine (tambour de basque)

:Tenor drum (tambourin) (offstage)

:Triangle

:Tamtam

:Glockenspiel

:Xylophone

:Piano

:Celesta (2- and 4-hand)

:2 harps

;Strings

1946 revised version

Stravinsky's 1946 version, published in 1947, is for a smaller orchestra.

;Woodwind:

:3 flutes (3rd doubling piccolo)

:2 oboes

:1 cor anglais

:3 clarinets in B (3rd doubling bass clarinet in B)

:2 bassoons

:1 contrabassoon

;Brass:

:4 horns in F

:3 trumpets in B and C

:3 trombones

:1 tuba

;Percussion:

:Timpani

:Bass drum

:Cymbals

:Snare drum

:Tambourine

:Triangle

:Tamtam

:Xylophone

:Piano

:Celesta

:Harp

;Strings

Libretto and story

thumb|left|280x280px|The Shrovetide Fair by Benois

While the original idea was Stravinsky's, Alexandre Benois provided the ethnographic details of the Shrovetide Fair and the traditions of the Russian puppet theater. And although Petrushka is frequently cited as an example of the complete integration of libretto, music, choreography, and scenic design, Stravinsky had written much of the music (chiefly the second tableau) before Benois became involved with the project.

<!-- According to Leonard Bernstein on his Young People's Concerts, one of the hallmarks of this ballet and Stravinsky's The Firebird is that there are no divertissements in them; every single dance is firmly integrated into the plotline. -->

First tableau: The Shrovetide Fair

Petrushka begins with a festive orchestral introduction based, in part, on historical Russian street-hawkers' cries. The curtain rises to reveal St. Petersburg's Admiralty Square during the 1830s. The stage set (also by Benois) depicts several hucksters' booths, a Ferris wheel, a carousel, and (upstage center) a puppet theater. A crowd has gathered for the Shrovetide Fair (known as Maslenitsa), the carnival (analogous to Mardi Gras) preceding Lent.

In Fokine's original choreography, a group of Drunken Revelers emerges from the crowd, dancing to Stravinsky's adaptation of the folk-tune "Song of the Volochobniki" ("Dalalin' Dalalin'" from Rimsky-Korsakov Op. 24 No. 47).

As Petrushka gradually pulls himself together, we hear a strange arpeggio in the clarinets: the "Petrushka chord" (consisting of juxtaposed triads of C major and F major). Petrushka gets to his feet (shakily) to the accompaniment of waves of arpeggios from the piano (revealing the music's origins in Stravinsky's Konzertstück). The Petrushka Chord returns, now violently scored for trumpets, marked in the score "Petrushka's Curses", directed at the portrait of the Magician.

The music turns lyrical as Petrushka falls to his knees and mimes (in turn) his self-pity, love for the Ballerina, and hatred of the Magician.

The Ballerina (still en pointe) sneaks into Petrushka's room, at first unnoticed. As soon as Petrushka sees her, he begins a manic, athletic display of leaps and frantic gestures (although he was barely able to stand before she arrived). Frightened by his exuberance, the Ballerina flees. Petrushka falls to the floor to the mocking of the clarinets.

Another passage of arpeggios for piano grows into a second round of curses directed at the Magician, again represented musically by the Petrushka Chord, this time scored for full orchestra.

Basil Twist debuted his puppetry version of Petrushka at Lincoln Center in 2001; it was performed as well at New York City Center's 2009 Fall for Dance Festival.

A full transcription of the 1911 version for symphonic wind ensemble in the original key was made by Don Patterson.

Themes from Petrushka are played on banjo in the track "Russian Folk Themes and Yodel" on Pete Seeger's album Goofing-Off Suite, released in 1955 on Folkways Records.

In the 2022 film Goodbye, Petrushka, Petrushka is a major plot element.

Notable recordings

  • Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra, studio recording from 1937, Victor; reissued by Pearl (1911 version) (mono)
  • Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra, live performance from 1940, RCA (1911 concert suite) (mono)
  • Ferenc Fricsay conducting the RIAS Symphony Orchestra, live performance from 1953, Deutsche Grammophon, (1947 concert suite) (mono)
  • Ernest Ansermet conducting the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, studio recording from 1950 (London LLP 130) and 1957, Decca, (1911 version)
  • Pierre Monteux conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, studio recording from 1959, RCA (1911 version)
  • Eugene Goossens conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, studio Walthamstow Assembly Hall September 1959, 35mm film master Everest (1911 "original" version)
  • Igor Stravinsky conducting the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, studio recording from 1961, Sony (1947 version)
  • Karel Ančerl conducting the Czech Philharmonic, studio recording from 1962, Supraphon (1947 version)
  • Antal Doráti conducting the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, studio recording from 1962, Mercury (1947 version)
  • Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic, studio recording from 1969, Sony Classical (1947 version)
  • Seiji Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, studio recording from 1970, RCA (1947 version)
  • Pierre Boulez conducting the New York Philharmonic, studio recording from 1971, Sony (1911 version)
  • Kirill Kondrashin conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra, live performance from 1973, Philips (1947 version)
  • Bernard Haitink conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra, studio recording from 1973, Philips (1911 version)
  • Sir Colin Davis conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra, studio recording from 1977, Philips (1947 version)
  • Claudio Abbado conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, studio recording from 1980, Deutsche Grammophon (1947 version mislabeled as 1911)
  • Charles Dutoit conducting the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, studio recording from 1987, Decca (1911 version)
  • Riccardo Chailly conducting the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, studio recording from 1995, London (1947 version)
  • Robert Craft conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra, studio recording from 1997, Abbey Road Studios, London, Naxos (1947 version)
  • Lorin Maazel conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker in studio sessions March 23–26, 1998, RCA (1911 version)
  • Seiji Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra, studio recording from 1999, RCA (1947 version)
  • Paavo Järvi conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, recording in Cincinnati Music Hall from 2002, Telarc (1947 version)
  • Andrew Litton conducting the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, recording in Grieghallen, Bergen, Norway from 2008, BIS Records SACD (1911 version)
  • Sir Simon Rattle conducting the London Symphony Orchestra, recording in Barbican Centre from 2017, (1947 version)

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading

  • Taruskin, Richard. 25 October 1998. "Bartók and Stravinsky: Odd Couple Reunited?", The New York Times, pp. 88, 601.
  • Taruskin, Richard. 1998. "'Entoiling the Falconet': Russian Musical Orientalism in Context". In The Exotic in Western Music, edited by Jonathan Bellman, 194–217. Boston: Northeastern University Press. (cloth); (pbk).
  • Recording of Trois mouvements de Petrouchka, Alberto Cobo 2002 (piano)
  • Petrushka education website from the Klavier-Festival Ruhr