Histoire du soldier

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Histoire du soldat ( L'histoire du soldat, lue, jouée et dansée , Eng . "The story of the soldier", 1917 ) is a musical theater work for a small ensemble, which the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky in collaboration with the Vaudois poet Charles- Ferdinand Ramuz created.

Emergence

The work was written for a touring stage, consisting of a reader, two actors, a dancer and seven musicians. For the theater text, Ramuz used two stories from a collection of Russian fairy tales by Alexander Afanassjew . The text is sometimes declaimed rhythmically by the reader along with the music in poetry , and sometimes spoken by the reader and the actors (soldier, devil) as a drama (the reader usually still speaks in rhymes and the devil only speaks in dialogue with the soldier).

The first German adaptation ( The Story of the Soldier ) was written by Hans Reinhart , the brother of the Winterthur music patron Werner Reinhart , who gave the work's premiere (on September 28 or, according to Stravinsky's memories, on September 29, 1918 in the Théâtre Municipal de Lausanne under the Led by Ernest Ansermet ) and to whom this work is dedicated.

In 1919 Stravinsky arranged five movements by Histoire du soldat for violin, clarinet and piano, which were published under the title Suite from 'The Soldier's Tale' .

occupation

Actors: the narrator, the soldier, the devil, the king's daughter (dancer).

Orchestra: clarinet in A and B, bassoon , cornet in A and B, trombone , violin , double bass , percussion (1 player: two small drums of different sizes without snares, military drums with and without snares, bass drum , cymbals , tambourine , triangle ) . The orchestra performs with a conductor. The score contains extensive explanations on the line-up of the orchestra and its execution.

content

A soldier exchanges his violin with the devil for a book that promises great riches. He also has to teach the devil to play the violin within three days. In truth, however, three years pass, so that the soldier is considered deserted. When he gets home he is no longer recognized and his bride is married. With the help of the book he becomes a rich businessman, but the money does not make him happy. Instead, he wishes to heal the sick princess by playing the violin. If he loses a card game with the drunken devil, he may get the violin back, but he is no longer allowed to enter his home. Once again in possession of his violin, he heals the princess by playing and they become a couple. When he returns home, the devil is already waiting for him. Whether the soldier will ultimately follow the devil into his kingdom remains to be seen.

The moral of this simple fairy tale is:

“One should covet what one possesses, not what used to be. You cannot be who you are and who you were at the same time. You can not have everything. What was does not return. "

Recordings

Book editions

  • The story of the soldier. Read, played and danced . In 2 parts. Free rework by Hans Reinhart. Music by Igor Stravinsky. Hottingen Reading Circle, Zurich 1924; supplemented by 9 woodcuts by Frans Masereel : Oprecht, Zurich 1951
  • The story of the soldier . Using the free rewrite by Hans Reinhart based on the last version of the original French text, translated into German by Hans Rudolf Hilty and Erich Holliger . Tschudy, St. Gallen 1961
  • L'histoire du Soldat / The story of the soldier. Decors et costumes / sets and costumes . With stage designs by Fritz Wotruba . Erker, St. Gallen 1979
  • Histoire du soldier. The story of the soldier . Bilingual edition based on the last version revised by Ramuz from 1946, first translated by Mani Matter . Edition Lesabéndio, Bern 1991, ISBN 3-905498-00-6 . New edition by Zytglogge-Verlag, Oberhofen 2012, ISBN 978-3-7296-0844-3

literature

  • Joël Aguet: Histoire du Soldat . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz - Dictionnaire du théâtre en Suisse. Volume 2, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 849. (French)
  • Werner Krützfeldt: The story of the soldier. Analysis and interpretation . Junker, Altenmedingen 2000, ISBN 3-928783-88-2 (= opera & theater for everyone, volume 8)
  • Peter Loeffler: The story of the soldier. The profile of the premiere in Lausanne in September 1918 . Birkhäuser, Basel 1994, ISBN 3-7643-2958-0
  • Andreas Traub : Stravinsky. L'histoire du soldier . Fink, Munich 1981, ISBN 3-7705-1738-5 (= masterpieces of music, issue 22)
  • Matthias Theodor Vogt : The genesis of the “Histoire du soldat” by Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, Igor Stravinsky and René Auberjonois . Diss. TU Berlin 1989
  • Richard Taruskin : Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions. A Biography of the Works through Mavra. University of California Press, Los Angeles 1996.
  • Alexander N. Afanasjew: Russian folk tales - complete edition. DTV classic, Frankfurt am Main 1985

Productions

Under the title The Story of the Soldier , the Italian choreographer Gaetano Posterino staged the work in 2010 with the ballet company of the Theater Augsburg as part of a ballet evening Stravinsky Trilogy together with Pulcinella and Les Noces . The premiere was on October 6, 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sigrid Neef : Handbook of Russian and Soviet Opera. Henschelverlag Art and Society, Bärenreiter 1989. ISBN 3-7618-0925-5 , p. 604.