Petrushka

Ballet (burlesque) in four scenes by Stravinsky to a story by Benois (1911, Paris).

Ballet in one act with choreography by Fokine, libretto by Benois and Stravinsky, music by Stravinsky, and designs by Benois. Premiered 13 June 1911 by the Ballets Russes de Diaghilev at Théâtre du Chatelet in Paris, with Nijinsky, Karsavina, Orloff, and Cecchetti. The story, a Russian version of commedia dell'arte's Harlequin, unfolds during Butterweek Fair (Russia's answer to Mardi Gras) in St Petersburg in 1830. In Admiralty Square three puppets in a puppet theatre come to life: Petrushka, the Ballerina, and the Moor. Petrushka falls in love with the Ballerina, but she loves the Moor, who eventually kills Petrushka in a jealous rage. It was one of the greatest successes of the Diaghilev company. There have been many revivals of Fokine's ballet, including Fokine's for Ballet Theatre in 1942, Serge Lifar's and Nicholas Zvereff's staging for the Paris Opera Ballet in 1948, Beriozoff's for London Festival Ballet in 1950, Grigoriev's and Tchernicheva's for the Royal Ballet in 1957, Boyarsky's for the Maly Theatre Ballet in Leningrad in 1961, and Léonide Massine, Yurek Lazowski, and Tatiana Massine's for the Joffrey Ballet in 1970. Other choreographers have created entirely new versions, including Jooss (Essen, 1930), T. Gsovsky (Berlin, 1946), Béjart (Brussels, 1977), Neumeier (Hamburg, 1982), Vinogradov (Scottish Ballet, 1989), and Macdonald (Gothenburg Ballet, 1998) and Alston (1994).

Petrushka was a Russian puppet theater spectacle and also the name of its main character (cf. the English Punch).

The play Petrushka seems to derive from a native older Russian buffoon and minstrel tradition and the Western European puppet theater tradition with its roots in the Italian commedia dell'arte. Possible evidence of the Petrushka play in Russia is found as early as 1637 in an engraving and description by a Dutch traveler, Adam Olearius. From around the 1840s to the 1930s, the Petrushka show was one of the most popular kinds of improvisational theater in Russia, often performed at fairs and carnivals and on the streets on a temporary wooden stage (balagan). The show was presented by two performers, one of whom manipulated the puppets, while the other played a barrel-organ. Recorded textual variants from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries depict the adventures of Petrushka, a dauntless prankster and joker, who uses his wit as well as a vigorously wielded club to get the better of his adversaries, who often represent established authority. The themes tend to be sexist and violent. Petrushka is usually dressed in a red caftan and pointed red cap, and has a hunch-back, a large hooked nose, and a prominent chin. The most popular scenes involve Petrushka and a handful of characters, among them his fiancée or wife, a gypsy horse trader, a doctor or apothecary, an army corporal, a policeman, the devil, and a large fluffy dog. Igor Stravinsky's ballet Petrushka (1911) is probably the most famous adaptation of this puppet theater show.

Bibliography

Kelly, Catriona. (1990). Petrushka: The Russian Carnival Puppet Theatre. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Zguta, Russell. (1978). Russian Minstrels: A History of the Skomorokhi. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

—PATRICIA ARANT

For the ballet by Stravinsky, see Petrushka (ballet).

Petrushka (Russian: Петрушка) is a stock character of Russian folk puppetry (rayok) known at least since 17th century. Petrushkas were used as marionettes, as well as hand puppets. Traditionally he was a kind of a jester distinguished by red dress, red kolpak (a kind of pointy hat), and often a long nose.

The name is actually a hypocoristic for "Pyotr" (Пётр), which is Peter in Russian (incidentally, petrushka is also the Russian word for parsley). However, the character has little or nothing in common with such stock characters as Petruccio or Pierrot. Petrushka is rather a Russian Punch or Pulcinella in character.

Initially, Petrushka was a character of typical slapstick comedy targeting the adult audience. As puppet theatre gradually became predominantly children's entertainment, Petrushka became less vulgar and aggressive.

Russian Children's Welfare Society (RCWS) hosts annual "Petroushka Ball", which is named after Petrushka character who fell in love with a graceful ballerina. ^[1]

References

1. ^ http://www.rcws.org/events_petroushka.htm

External links

• Petrushka (Russian)

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