Stravinsky: Petrushka - The Untimely Death of a Poor Unfortunate Puppet

1/24/11 – Stravinsky: Petrushka

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge.
- Igor Stravinsky

            I seem to find myself hitting a stumbling block with all of these dramatic, programmatic pieces; operas, ballets, and the like.  Listening to them is only a part of the experience, as they are meant to be seen as part of the work’s coming alive.  I found this to be the case more with Pertushka than with Stravinsky’s other famous (and occasionally infamous) ballets, The Firebird and The Rite of Spring.  As usual, I’ve read a couple synopses of the story, but they still seem a pale second to viewing the work as the artist intended.  Yet another argument for live music, it seems.  (Or in this cast, live theatre or ballet.)

            The first tableau depicts a festival of Shrovetide or Mardi Gras/Carnival in a Moscow square.  The flute twitters away a bright birdsong melody over fluttering winds and strings alike – the quintessential spring sound, and a repeated motif throughout the first scene.  There is an air of excitement and forward motion to the building sound until a triumphant brass chorus erupts, heralding some great event that is to come.  Stravinsky evokes folk dance and a festival atmosphere with his use of the brittle glockenspiel lines over the sound of a street organ-grinder and ever changing orchestral textures.  Even without seeing it on stage, you can easily imagine the carousel and Faris wheels turning in the background.  The snare drum introduces the entrance of the charlatan or puppeteer, who enters with a dark, cumbersome bassoon solo which quickly gives way to a soft, lyric flute as he brings the puppet ballerina, moor, and Petrushka to life.  And as in any good ballet, they dance.

            The following scene darkens considerably as Petrushka is “put away” in his room after the puppet show is complete.  Of course, he is no mere puppet, but has feelings and emotions of his own, including disdain for the puppet master and unrequited love for the beautiful ballerina.  Stravinsky’s writing here reminds me of Carl Stalling, who wrote the very soundtracks for many of Warner Brother’s early cartoons, including the “Wile E Coyote vs. The Roadrunner” sketches.  Short phrases, often ending on tense, unresolved harmonies that punctuate the action more than accompany it.  The ballerina for her part falls in love and seduces the moor, and Petrushka flies into a jealous rage.  When he sees the two of them dancing, Stravinky’s music changes to a complex, disjunct rhythm; the ballerina and moor waltz in 3/4, while Petrushka’s theme builds up underneath at a seemingly unrelated tempo.  Years later, Charles Ives employed a similar effect by having two marching bands performing unrelated pieces cross through the same intersection of a town square from different angles.  (I would love to see how this is intended to be conducted.)  At any rate, Petrushka tried to overcome the moor who grabs his scimitar and chases Petrushka away.

            The final scene returns to the fair, where a number of other performers have their own dances – nurse-maids, gypsies, coachmen, groomsmen and masqued dancers.  Here Stravinsky draws again much from Russian folk melodies and peasant dances.  As the dancers whirl away into a frenzy, a cry is heard from the puppet theatre, where the Moor continues to chase Petrushka, eventually striking a fatal blow to him with the sword.  The police arrive and question the charlatan, who holds Petrushka aloft to remind them that he’s nothing but a mere puppet.  The ballet ends, however, with the ghost of Petrushka appearing and hovering over the puppeteer, just as the charlatan hovered over Petrushka, asking the question, who pulls the strings, and who is the puppet.

             Of Stravinsky’s three famous ballets, Petrushka was the one I was least familiar with.  I find it lacks the shock factor of The Rite of Spring, but is as flavorful in its imagery.  The Firebird seems to lag behind the other two in both story and execution, in my opinion.  Petrushka however, has both a rustic folksy charm and a dark, intriguing plot.  One day, I hope to see a staged performance, but for now, this recording and my imagination will have to suffice.

Tomorrow – Selling England by the Pound (Genesis)

Next week – Harvey: Tombeau de Messiaen