Following in the footsteps of David Bowie, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sting, Leonard Bernstein, and many others, ABC Kids star Jay Laga'aia narrates Prokofiev's musical retelling of the tale of Peter and the Wolf.
About Peter and the Wolf
Peter and the Wolf performed by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra with Jay Laga'aia appears on the album Carnival of the Animals: A Parade of Kids' Classics, available from ABC Music, iTunes, and Spotify.
Prokofiev’s elder son Sviatoslav was 12, and his younger son Oleg was seven, when their father took them to see his new piece, Peter and the Wolf. It had been written at the request of Natalia Satz, director of the Central Children’s Theatre in Moscow, who was keen to find a way to keep her young audiences interested once the talking and acting stopped and the music took over. Prokofiev, having seen his own sons’ reactions to classical music, took up the challenge with great enthusiasm and finished the first draft (including writing his own poetry) in just four days. One week later, the orchestral version was complete.
Inexplicably, the first performance on 2 May 1936 seems to have attracted little attention – Prokofiev later described the premiere as ‘inauspicious at best’ – but a few days later, it was performed at a major Russian arts festival, in front of journalists from around the world. This time, it was a huge success. The word spread quickly, and Peter and the Wolf has remained a favourite with children and adults alike.
Sviatoslav later described the experience: ‘The hall was full, there were a lot of children in motley clothes and the abundance of red colour amazed me! An exciting, festive and unusual atmosphere reigned -- everybody was speaking Russian!’ (Prokofiev had left Russia in 1918, and his boys had grown up in Paris.) ‘The text was expressively and brilliantly read by Natalia Satz -- a young attractive woman who, as the action went on, was transformed into Peter or Grandfather or the Wolf or the Duck! It was a great success, the children were joyfully shouting. Father and Natalia Satz came out many times to bow. I remember how all of our family was returning on foot along the boulevard with a pond where real ducks were swimming. It was a beautiful sunny day in May. Father was pleased and walked joyously and excited, recalling various episodes of the concert.’
Prokofiev links the music with the story by giving each character a musical ‘signature’, a distinctive tune which appears whenever that character is featured. Each of these tunes is associated with a particular instrument: the Bird’s melody is played on the flute, the Duck’s on the oboe. The Cat slinks through the story to the sound of the clarinet; a rather grumpy tune from the bassoon is Peter’s grandfather; three sinister horns represent the wolf; the hunters’ guns are heard on the bass drum and timpani, and Peter himself is full of boyish energy and enthusiasm with a jaunty tune from the violins.
-From the liner notes of Carnival of the Animals: A Parade of Kids' Classics (ABC Classics)
For Teachers
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