Cinderella (ballet)

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Cinderella , also Cinderella or Soluschka (Russian: Золушка), is a full-length ballet in three acts , seven pictures and six decorations with music by Sergei Prokofiev . It bears the number op. 87 in its catalog raisonné. The libretto comes from the Soviet playwright, librettist and theater scholar Nikolai Wolkow (1894–1965) and is based on a model by Charles Perrault . The world premiere took place on November 21, 1945 in the choreography of Rostislaw Sakharov at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. In the German-speaking area, the work is marketed by Sikorski Musikverlage .

history

Together with the librettist, Prokofiev began sketching the ballet in the winter of 1940. The outline of the first two acts was completed by the summer of 1941. Interrupted by World War II, he resumed work on Cinderella in 1943 and completed it in 1944. Due to the consequences of the Leningrad blockade by the German Wehrmacht, the ballet could not, as originally planned, be premiered at the Kirov Theater , today's St. Petersburg Mariinsky Theater , because the theater and ballet ensemble was relocated to Perm for security . After the premiere in Moscow, a new arrangement by Konstantin Sergejew followed in 1946 in the Kirov Theater in Leningrad. Both versions remained in the repertoire of the Moscow and Leningrad theaters for a long time.

In western countries, the ballet was given for the first time on December 23, 1948 in London by Sadler's Wells Ballet , now the Royal Ballet , at Covent Garden Opera House in a production by Frederick Ashton . The performance with Moira Shearer in the title role was a success, and the ballet's triumphant advance continues to this day. Together with Romeo and Juliet , Cinderella is one of Prokofiev's most popular ballet compositions . Significant new productions were u. a. Created by Tom Schilling (1968), Valery Panov (1977) and John Neumeier (1992).

What is remarkable is the adaptation of the work by Rudolf Nurejew in Paris in 1986, in which the plot is moved to Hollywood and Cinderella, an unknown actress, becomes a film star after being discovered by a producer.

The main features of the ballet follow the fairy tale Cinderella , as it was recorded in the children's and house tales by the Brothers Grimm . The story is present in variations in many cultures in Europe. In the spirit of socialist realism , the work is designed to tell a fairytale story, but according to the socialist art doctrine, the emphasis is on the humanistic, i.e. the victory of the good and the simple over greed, arrogance and oppression.

music

In its structure, Cinderella is a classic narrative ballet with character dances, ensemble dances, solos and pas de deux of the protagonists according to the number principle. Prokofiev's humorous, bizarre, rhythmically pointed music meets the fairytale tone of the original and offers the dancers effective, virtuoso presentation options. In his composition he uses a technique in which leitmotifs play an important role for the protagonists. Cinderella has several of these recognizable leitmotifs depending on her state of mind, sadness, happiness and love. In each act, the dances appear as a kind of divertissement and represent the respective musical highlights.

In the second act, in Step Sisters' Dance with Oranges , No. 35, Prokofiev quotes motifs from the well-known march from his opera The Love of the Three Oranges .

first act

The first act consists of two images. The first picture shows a room in which Cinderella's step-sisters, today mostly represented by affected men, quarrel. Suddenly a "beggar fairy" appears and asks for a mild gift. Her stepmother and sister reject her, but Cinderella gives her the last piece of bread. The preparations for a big ball for the prince who wants to get married are under way. Suppliers bring beautiful clothes, shoes and jewelry to the bad sisters. Since they cannot dance, a "dance master" tries to teach them the bare essentials. Cinderella has to stay at home, the stepmother goes to the ball with her daughters. Now the beggar appears again and brings her a pair of beautiful dancing shoes that only fit her.

In the second picture, the room in which Cinderella stayed is transformed into a magical garden populated by the “fairies of the seasons” and their entourage. Cinderella is dressed up for the ball she would so much like to attend. However, the magic ends at midnight, by then Cinderella has to be home at the latest. Dwarves, who embody the digits 1 to 12 and emerge from a clock, warn them urgently of a delay, otherwise they will remain trapped in the magic. The train starts moving to reach the prince's castle.

Second act

The first picture of the second act shows the ballroom, in which there is already dancing. Stepmother and sisters arrive. Soon the sisters will also be asked to dance. Then the prince appears with four friends. Shortly afterwards, Cinderella appears and all eyes are on her. From now on, the prince will only dance with her. Meals are served, Cinderella takes three oranges and gives them to her stepmother and the sisters (this is an allusion to Prokofiev's 1919 opera The Love for Three Oranges , in which the “three oranges” contain princesses, but only one of them contains their Prince Charming gets). After all the dancers have stepped off the stage, Cinderella and the prince are left alone and confess their love for one another. Later the ball goes on. Until shortly before midnight, Cinderella and the prince dance the well-known great waltz , which, however, when the clock strikes midnight, has to be abruptly ended by Cinderella.

The second picture shows a Cinderella running away in a hurry, who loses a shoe on the steps of the castle. She no longer wears a festive dress, but her gray, simple work clothes again. The prince, who has lost sight of her, takes the shoe.

Third act

The castle courtyard can be seen in the first picture. The prince had all known shoemakers come to find out the origin of the shoe, but it is in vain, no one made this shoe. Now he decides to look for the princess and has to make some trips around the world. He meets beautiful women in Spain, India and China, but none of them fit the shoe.

In the second picture, as at the beginning of the work, the room in which Cinderella is cleaning appears again. She remembers the ball wistfully and hides the other shoe in her poor dress when the sisters reappear with her mother and, as usual, argue. Then word gets around that the prince is looking for the girl he danced with at the ball and who lost the shoe. The prince also visits this house and asks all women present to try the shoe on. It doesn't suit the sisters. When Cinderella is supposed to help them get dressed, the other shoe falls out of her dress. The prince recognizes them immediately. At that moment the beggar fairy appears and transforms the room back into the fairy garden.

Edits

In 1946 Prokofiev put together three orchestral suites (op. 107, 108 and 109) for concert use, but they did not achieve the popularity of the suites after Romeo and Juliet . As early as 1944, before the first performance of the ballet, the composer published a suite for piano, the six pieces from the ballet, including the great waltz from the ball scene (No. 30) in the second act and the slow waltz (No. 49) from the Detection scene, contains. For piano there are also Three Pieces from Cinderella , op. 95 (1942) and Ten Pieces from Cinderella , op. 97 from 1943, as well as the Adagio for violoncello and piano .

literature

Staging example

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedbert Streller: Prokofjew and his time. Laaber 2003, ISBN 3-89007-554-1 , p. 263.
  2. ↑ Klaus Kieser and Katja Schneider: Reclam's ballet guide . Stuttgart 2009. ISBN 978-3-15-011030-0 , p. 71 ff.
  3. ^ Website of the Sikorski music publishers with a description of the work and information on the instrumentation and sheet music