''Chout'', Op. 21 (pronounced "shoot"), is the usual English-language title of a
ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
by
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, ...
, written in two versions between 1915 and 1921. It is sometimes known as "The Tale of the Buffoon", or simply "The Buffoon". There also exists a symphonic suite from the ballet, Op. 21 bis, which is much more often performed than the full ballet score.
The original Russian-language full title was Сказка про шута, семерых шутов перешутившего (''Skazka pro shuta, semerykh shutov pereshutivshevo''), meaning "The Tale of the Buffoon who Outwits Seven Other Buffoons". The spelling "Chout" is a French
romanization
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, a ...
of the Russian word ''шут'' meaning "buffoon".
Background
''Chout'' was Prokofiev's first completed ballet score for
Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪˈrɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), usually referred to outside Russia as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, pa ...
. Diaghilev had first commissioned ''Ala and Lolli'' but rejected the score submitted by Prokofiev. Although the composer recast some of the music as the ''
Scythian Suite
The ''Scythian Suite'', Op. 20 is an orchestral suite by Sergei Prokofiev written in 1915.
Background
Prokofiev originally wrote the music for the ballet ''Ala i Lolli'', the story of which takes place among the Scythians. Commissioned by Serge ...
'', the projected ballet never saw the light of day. Instead, Diaghilev asked Prokofiev to write a ballet based on a folk tale recorded by
Alexander Afanasyev
Alexander Nikolayevich Afanasyev (Afanasief, Afanasiev or Afanas'ev, russian: link=no, Александр Николаевич Афанасьев) ( — ) was a Russian Slavist and ethnographer who published nearly 600 Russian fairy and folk ta ...
. The story had been previously suggested to Diaghilev by
Igor Stravinsky as a possible subject for a ballet, and Diaghilev and his choreographer
Léonide Massine helped Prokofiev to shape this into a ballet scenario.
The story involves seven buffoons who all murder their wives after being told by an eighth buffoon that he has killed his own wife and brought her back to life with a magic whip and promises to do the same for them. When he fails to deliver on his promise, the other buffoons seek revenge. The principal buffoon is forced to disguise himself as a woman and is chosen for marriage by a wealthy merchant. He escapes after swindling the merchant out of 300 roubles.
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Prokofiev wrote the score in 1915. Although Diaghilev was again not happy with the music, this time he was prepared to work with the composer to recast it into six scenes and retain the best parts of the music already written. He also wanted new ''entr'actes'' to make the music play continuously. This Prokofiev did, but not until 1920. In the meantime, the ballet was not produced. He revised the score while staying at Mantes-sur-Seine near Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
. He wrote the piano reduction
In music, a reduction is an arrangement or transcription of an existing score or composition in which complexity is lessened to make analysis, performance, or practice easier or clearer; the number of parts may be reduced or rhythm may be ...
while travelling by ship to the United States and finished the full score in early 1921 after his return to France. He played through the score for Stravinsky in Paris, who liked it. Shortly afterwards, Diaghilev also approved the changes. Over 40 per cent of the original score was either deleted or rewritten, and the required additional ''entr'actes'' were composed.[Stephen D. Press, Prokofiev’s Ballets for Diaghilev](_blank)
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The first performance of the ballet was given by the Ballets Russes on 17 May 1921, at the Théâtre Municipal de la Gaîté, Paris, with choreography by Fyodor Slavinsky and supervision by Mikhail Larionov
Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov ( Russian: Михаи́л Фёдорович Ларио́нов; June 3, 1881 – May 10, 1964) was a Russian avant-garde painter who worked with radical exhibitors and pioneered the first approach to abstract Ru ...
. The orchestra was conducted by the composer. It was fairly well received, however the London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
premiere on 9 June was bitterly attacked by audiences and critics alike.
Structure
The structure of the ballet is:
* Scene 1: The Buffoon's Kitchen
* ''Entr'acte'' 1
* Scene 2: The Seven Clowns
* ''Entr'acte'' 2
* Scene 3: The Buffoon's Courtyard
* ''Entr'acte'' 3
* Scene 4: The Buffoon's Sitting Room
* ''Entr'acte'' 4
* Scene 5: The Buffoon's Bedroom
* ''Entr'acte'' 5
* Scene 6: In the Merchant's Garden
Suite
Although he initially thought that a symphonic suite of 12 movements would be too long, in 1922-23 Prokofiev arranged such a suite from the ballet, which was premiered in Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
on 15 January 1924 under Frans Rühlmann. The suite consists of:
# The Buffoon and His Wife
# Dance of the Wives
# Fugue. The Buffoons Kill Their Wives
# The Buffoon as a Young Woman
# Third ''Entr'acte''
# Dance of the Buffoons' Daughters
# Entry of the Merchant and His Welcome
# In the Merchant's Bedroom
# The Young Woman Becomes a Goat
# Fifth ''Entr'acte'' and the Goat's Burial
# The Buffoon and the Merchant Quarrel
# Final Dance.
The 12 movements take 35–40 minutes to play (as compared to an hour for the full ballet).
While neither the ballet nor the suite can be said to have found a large following, the suite is performed more often than the ballet. The ballet was only presented once in the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
, in January 1928 under the Ukrainian title ''Blazen'' at the Kiev Theatre of Opera and Ballet under A. S. Orlov. The music had to be reconstructed from the symphonic suite, minus the ''entr'actes'', resulting in prolonged pauses. Other attempts to stage it in the Soviet Union failed – Prokofiev refused to allow any changes. The suite has been recorded a number of times and has often been performed in concert, but it was not until the mid-1980s that Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Gennady Nikolayevich Rozhdestvensky, CBE (russian: Генна́дий Никола́евич Рожде́ственский; 4 May 1931 – 16 June 2018) was a Soviet and Russian conductor.
Biography
Gennady Rozhdestvensky was born in Moscow. ...
made the first recording of the entire music for the ballet.Answers.com
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References
External links
Answers.com
{{Authority control
Ballets by Sergei Prokofiev
1921 ballet premieres
1915 compositions
1921 compositions
Suites by Sergei Prokofiev