PETER AND THE WOLF
Sergej Prokof’ev

Scene illustrations

The well-known symphonic tale for reciting voice and orchestra was commissioned to Prokof’ev back in 1936 by the Central Theatre for Young People of Moscow. The musician wrote the story of a brave child who lives in the Russian countryside with his grandfather and anticipates the narrative by introducing the characters who are linked to different musical instruments and themes: the flute for the bird, the oboe for the duck, the clarinet for the cat, the bassoon for the grandfather, the horns for the wolves, the strings for Peter, the timpani for the firing of the hunters’ rifles. Music and history blend in the story until Peter, with the complicity of his fellow animals, captures the ferocious wolf and delivers it to the zoo in a triumphal march that closes the story.

Teatro alla Scala
Milan, Italy, 2020

Cameristi della Scala, Directed by Ernest Hoetzl