The Soldier’s Tale

The Malta Philharmonic Orchestra in collaboration with St James Cavalier present another in its series of Music Programmes targeting families and children. Building on the huge success of the recent Winnie the Pooh programme, musicians from the MPO will be teaming up with actors, a dancer and a narrator to produce one of Stravinsky’s masterpieces; The Soldier’s Tale (L’Histoire du Soldait)

Cast
Soldier PAUL PORTELLI
Devil CHARLOTTE STAFRACE
Narrator SARAH SPITERI
Princess MARISHA BONNICI

Mis-en-Scene SARAH SPITERI
Set & Props PIERRE PORTELLI
Conductor MICHAEL LAUS

The Soldier’s Tale comes from 1918, a lean post-war time when jazz was just beginning to emerge into the mainstream. Stravinsky was broke, deprived of his royalties because of the Revolution, and his other source of income, Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes was also going through lean times.

The story is a dark Faustian fable about a deserting soldier and the Devil who eventually possesses his soul. The soldier’s violin becomes a symbol of both the soldier’s soul and the Devil’s wiles. The story is based on an old Russian folk tale but the music is as far removed from Russian traditionalism as possible, making it a lesson for all cultures and times.

The most obvious sound is jazz, a form of music that Stravinsky had never actually heard. He was familiar with it through scores that his friend Ernest Ansermet had brought from America. Stravinsky also uses tango rhythms, marches, a waltz and a chorale, never faithfully but more as an artisan uses tools to fashion something new.