The Soldier’s Tale (1918), by Igor Stravinsky, with text by Charles F. Ramuz. A work that Stravinsky composed while in exile in Switzerland during World War I.
The staging of this work has few instruments (violin, double bass, clarinet, fagot, trumpet, trombone and percussion) and is designed for a travelling theatre. It is a work in which the music and the story are in perfect balance. Both languages are direct and clear.
The protagonists of The Soldier’s Tale are a peculiar soldier/violinist, a sick princess, and an intriguing Devil. The text, based on Russian folktales, includes the clash of the material and the spiritual, of what costs money and what has no price, of what good and evil. So that it could be read, danced and played, Igor Stravinsky composed The Soldier’s Tale in the summer of 1918 in collaboration with the Swiss librettist, Charles Ramuz. The result is a chamber opera that tells the story of the adventures of a soldier who, on his way home, has to face a demon who wants to take his soul, symbolically represented by a violin.
This is why we have brought the work of Stravinsky to the stage from the world of puppet theatre. We believe that it is an ideal work to be played with a puppet that recreates the environment of the fair shows of the early 20th century.
An interdisciplinary work that is musically rich and with a text that is still current. A play that is highly appropriate for puppet theatre, which by its nature, has the character of the travelling show that Stravinsky sought in his work. So that it could reach as many places as posssible.