Original Compositions / English Translations of Art Songs & Arias / Program Notes
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
And so begins the most famous play in the world ... with a spoiler.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) penned these lines circa 1595, and the intervening centuries have done nothing to diminish the impact of the epic tragedy that has inspired more authors, composers and filmmakers than any other secular work. So it's surprising that, as late as 1935, Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) became the first to write a ballet about the ill-fated lovers. With his Romeo and Juliet, Prokofiev composed the only full-length ballet that approaches the popularity of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.
In 1918, the Ukrainian-born enfant terrible abandoned the chaos that followed the Russian Revolution, finally settling in Paris. Even though Comrade Lenin revoked the citizenship of all expatriates in 1921, when Prokofiev left Russia for the Decadent West the fledgling Communist government had given him its blessing. As his star grew ever brighter, Prokofiev received recurring invitations from the Soviets to resume permanent residency in the USSR. By the mid-1930s performance royalties were waning while his homesickness was waxing, and Prokofiev began to take the invitations seriously. In January 1936, the Soviets denounced Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), their heretofore favorite composer, and this provided an unexpected lure. Failing to appreciate the foreboding of Stalinist censure, Prokofiev jumped at the chance to become the biggest sturgeon in the pond. That spring he settled in Moscow with his wife and two sons.
Prokofiev carried with him his most recent disappointment: Romeo and Juliet. The ballet had been rejected twice, first by Leningrad's Kirov Ballet, and then by Moscow's Bolshoi. The biggest problem was with Prokofiev's happy ending, which had Juliet reviving in time to stop Romeo from drinking poison. The composer said this was necessary because, you know, dead people can't dance, but the companies feared government condemnation for "corrupting" the beloved story. Prokofiev eventually restored The Bard's dénouement, and the revised ballet premiered in 1938, in Brno, Czechoslovakia. Two years later the Kirov gave the Russian premiere, and Romeo and Juliet finally danced onto the Bolshoi's stage in 1946, after more revisions along the way. It has remained in the international repertoire ever since.
While still struggling for his own happy ending with the star-crossed score, Prokofiev was determined to get the music before the public, even without toe-shoes. He performed selections as 10 Pieces for Piano, Op. 75 (1937), and arranged two orchestral concert suites (Opp. 64a and 64b), which successfully premiered in 1936 and 1937. He later culled a third suite (Op. 101, 1946) to coincide with the first Bolshoi production. It has become commonplace to mix movements from the different suites to suit the needs of individual concerts—which brings us to now.
1. Montagues and Capulets combines the ominous Introduction to Act III with Dance of the Knights, which introduces the Capulet clan during the Act I ballroom scene. It is the best-known music from the ballet, and its bellicose haughtiness aptly conjures both feuding families. The blustering is silenced by a chilly minuet during which the 13-year-old Juliet fails to warm to Paris, an older suitor to whom she‘s been betrothed. The creepiness is brilliantly underscored with viola portamenti tracing a filigree of flute melody, against an icy background with harp, triangle, tambourine and celesta.
2. The Child Juliet takes place earlier that afternoon, while the exuberant Juliet and her friends tease her nursemaid as they prepare for the evening’s ball. Lady Capulet interrupts their frolic, hoping to persuade Juliet to welcome Paris's marriage proposal.
3. Masks returns to the Capulet's ball, as mischievous Montagues crash the party, namely Romeo and his cousin Benvolio, along with Mercutio, Romeo's best friend.
4. Death of Tybalt moves into the morning streets soon after Romeo and Juliet’s secret marriage. Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, challenges Romeo to a duel, but Romeo refuses because he alone knows they are now related. Mercutio accepts the challenge, and turns the duel into a farcical dance. Tybalt surreptitiously stabs Mercutio, who dies while his friends congratulate him on his convincing death scene. When Romeo realizes that his friend really is dead, he pursues and slays Tybalt, punctuated by 15 violent chords. The Capulets bear their slain kinsman before the Prince of Verona to demand justice. Romeo is spared execution, but is banished.
5. Romeo at the Grave of Juliet presents the heart-wrenching grief of the teenaged groom who has no idea that his bride will soon break from her drug-induced trance. Amid death-theme variations comes a recollection of young love as Romeo prayerfully tries to resurrect Juliet's seemingly lifeless body. Laying her again to rest, he downs a fatal draught. Juliet wakens—Romeo's prayer has been answered too late.
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earlier drafts:
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
And so begins the most famous play in the world ... with a spoiler.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) penned these lines around 1595, and the intervening centuries have done nothing to diminish the impact of the epic tragedy that has inspired more authors, composers and filmmakers than any other secular work. So when Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) began working on his version of Romeo and Juliet as late as 1935, it is surprising that he became the first to write a ballet about the ill-fated lovers. And also with this score, Prokofiev became the only composer to write a full-length ballet that approaches the popularity of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.
In 1918, the Ukrainian-born enfant terrible abandoned the chaos that followed the Russian Revolution, setting out first for the United States, and then settling in Paris. Even though Comrade Lenin revoked the citizenship of all Russian expatriates in 1921, when Prokofiev left Russia for the Decadent West it had been with the State's blessing, and as his star grew ever brighter he received recurring invitations from the Soviets to resume permanent residency in the USSR. By the mid-1930s performance royalties were waning while his homesickness was waxing, and Prokofiev began to take the invitations seriously. In January 1936, the Soviets denounced Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), their heretofore favorite composer, and, rather than heeding this as a warning, Prokofiev jumped at the chance to be the biggest sturgeon in the pond. That spring he settled in Moscow with his wife and two sons.
Prokofiev carried with him his most recent disappointment: Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (1935-1946). The ballet had been rejected twice, first by Leningrad's Kirov Ballet, and then by Moscow's Bolshoi. The biggest problem was with Prokofiev's scenario, which had Juliet reviving in time to stop Romeo from poisoning himself. The composer said this was necessary because, you know, dead people can't dance, but the companies feared government censure for "corrupting" such a beloved story. Prokofiev eventually restored the Bard's dénouement, and the ballet premiered in 1938, in Brno, Czechoslovakia. It took until 1940 to get a Russian premiere at the Kirov, and until 1946 to reach the Bolshoi, but Romeo and Juliet has remained in the repertoire ever since.
While still struggling for his own happy ending with the star-crossed score, Prokofiev was determined to get the music before the public, even without toe-shoes. He performed selections as 10 pieces for piano, Op. 75 (1937), and arranged two orchestral concert suites (Opp. 64a and 64b), successfully premiered in 1936 and 1937. He later culled a third suite (Op. 101, 1946) to coincide with the first Bolshoi production. It has become commonplace to mix movements from the different suites to suit the needs of individual concerts—which brings us to now.
1. Montagues and Capulets combines the ominous 3rd Act Introduction with Dance of the Knights, used to introduce the Capulet clan during the 1st Act ballroom scene. It is the ballet’s best-known music, and its bellicose haughtiness aptly conjures both feuding families. The blustering is silenced by a chilly minuet during which the 13-year-old Juliet fails to warm to Paris, an older suitor to whom she‘s been betrothed. The creepiness is brilliantly underscored with viola portamenti tracing a filigree of flute melody, against an icy background with harp, triangle, tambourine and celesta.
2. The Child Juliet takes place earlier that afternoon, while the exuberant Juliet and her friends tease her nursemaid as they prepare for the evening’s ball. Their frolic is interrupted when Lady Capulet attempts to sell Juliet on the idea of an engagement to Paris.
3. Masks returns to the Capulet's ball, as mischievous Montagues crash the party, namely Romeo and his cousin Benvolio, along with Mercutio, Romeo's best friend.
4. Death of Tybalt moves into the morning streets soon after Romeo and Juliet’s secret marriage. Juliet's cousin, Tybalt, challenges Romeo to a duel, but Romeo refuses because he alone knows they are now related. Mercutio accepts the challenge, and turns the duel into a farcical dance. Tybalt surreptitiously stabs Mercutio, who dies while his friends congratulate him for his convincing death scene. When Romeo realizes that his friend really is dead, he pursues and slays Tybalt, punctuated by 15 violent chords. The Capulets bear their slain kinsman before the Prince to demand justice. Romeo is spared execution, but is banished from Verona.
5. Romeo at the Grave of Juliet presents the heart-wrenching grief of the teenaged groom who has no idea that his bride will soon break from her trance. Romeo's lament becomes variations on a death theme, and a tender love theme is recalled as Romeo dances with Juliet's seemingly lifeless body. Paris appears, and assumes Romeo is desecrating Juliet's tomb. Romeo kills Paris, returns to where Juliet lies, and downs a fatal draught just as she begins to waken.
--------------------------------DRAFTS / NOTES :
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
And so begins the most famous play in the world ... with a spoiler.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) penned these lines sometime around 1595, and the intervening centuries have done nothing to diminish the impact of the epic tragedy that has inspired more authors, composers and filmmakers than any other secular work. So when Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) began working on his version of Romeo and Juliet as late as 1935, it is surprising that he became the very first to write a ballet about the ill-fated lovers. And also with this score, Prokofiev became the only composer to write a full-length ballet that approaches the popularity of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.
Prokofiev ranks among the greatest composers of the 20th Century, and biographer Simon Morrison reckons that Prokofiev's concert music is played more often in America than that of any of his contemporaries. To put some of his compositional achievements in perspective, Prokofiev wrote his "Classical" Symphony No. 1, Op. 25, in 1917, three years before Stravinsky took up neoclassicism; and Prokofiev's brilliant Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26 (1911-1921), appeared five years before Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 1 (1926).
Even with a growing stack of successful "absolute music" in his piano bench, Prokofiev always saw himself primarily as a dramatic composer--an identity cultivated since childhood. The young Sergei wrote his first opera at age nine, and by the time he was accepted into the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the fall of 1904, he was already at work on his fourth. Discounting these early works, Prokofiev completed seven operas to which he assigned opus numbers, eight ballets, and three brilliant film scores.
After World War I and the ensuing Russian Revolution, Prokofiev abandoned the chaos of Russia and set out first for the United States in 1918, and then for Paris in 1920. So, Prokofiev was living as an expatriate, but he was not living in exile. Even though Comrade Lenin had revoked the citizenship of all Russian expats in 1921, when Prokofiev left for the Decadent West it had been with the State's blessing, and by 1927 he traveled freely in and out of the Soviet Union. He also got recurring invitations from the Soviet authorities to take up permanent residency in the USSR, especially once his star was shining brightly over the international stage. Come the mid-1930s, his performance royalties were waning while his homesickness was waxing, and Prokofiev began to take the invitations seriously. In January 1936, Pravda ("Truth"), the primary newspaper of Soviet propaganda, denounced its heretofore favorite composer, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), and rather than heeding the news as the warning it should have been, Prokofiev jumped at the chance of finally being the biggest sturgeon in the pond. That spring he moved to Moscow with his wife and two sons.
Prokofiev carried with him his newest ballet and most recent disappointment: Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (1935-1946). The ballet had been rejected by first by Leningrad's Kirov Ballet and then by Moscow's Bolshoi. Even more than the music, the bigger problem seems to have been with Prokofiev's original scenario, which had Juliet reviving just in time to stop Romeo from downing any poison. The composer said this was necessary because the dead can't dance--and, since Shakespeare hadn't the foresight to introduce zombies--. Kidding aside, fearing government censure for "corrupting" such a famous story, the revision was deemed too radical (even without the walking dead). Prokofiev was convinced to restore the Bard's dénouement--which the composer decided really was more in keeping with his music anyway--and the ballet finally premiered in 1938, in Brno, Czechoslovakia. It took until 1940 to get a Russian premiere at the Kirov and until 1946 to reach the Bolshoi. The score got several revisions along the way, but Romeo and Juliet has remained in the repertoire ever since.
While still struggling for his own happy ending with the star-crossed score, Prokofiev was determined to get the music before the public, even without toe-shoes. He adapted ten of the dances as 10 pieces for piano, Op. 75 (1937), and he arranged two concert suites of seven dances each for orchestral performance (Opp. 64-bis & 64-ter). He later would cull a third suite (Op. 101) to coincide with the 1946 Bolshoi production. The complete ballet lasts almost two-and-a-half hours, so the music is more widely known through the concert suites. It is a common practice (of which Prokofiev approved) to mix movements from the different suites to suit the needs of individual concerts. Which brings us to now.
1. Montagues and Capulets is the title of the first movement from Suite No. 2, but in the context of the opera it combines an ominous Introduction to Act 3 with Dance of the Knights, used to introduce the Capulet clan in the Act I ballroom scene. It is the best-known music from the ballet, with an air of belligerent haughtiness that easily conjures the feuding Veronese. (Apart from the ballet, this music has been put to many other uses, such as to depict tyrants--Stalin, Hitler, Caligula--and even to sell perfume.) The blustering is silenced by a stately, if somewhat chilly, minuet in which the 13-year-old Juliet fails to warm up to Paris, a much older suitor to whom Papa Capulet lately has pledged his daughter's hand, with the understanding, for the time being, that the wedding itself will be delayed a couple of years. The creepiness of the situation is brilliantly underscored with viola portamenti tracing the delicate filigree of the flute melody--if zombies had been invited into the mix, this likely would have been their favorite bit.
2. The Child Juliet (Suite No. 2, 2nd movement) takes place earlier that afternoon, while the exuberant Juliet teases her nanny as she excitedly prepares for the masked ball that evening. The frolic is interrupted when Lady Capulet attempts to warm Juliet to the idea of entering into an engagement with Paris.
3. Masks (Suite No. 1,.5th movement) takes us back to the Capulet's ball, as some masked Montagues crash the party, namely the teenaged Romeo and his cousin Benvolio, along with Mercutio, Romeo's best friend and a relative of Verona's reigning Prince.
4. Death of Tybalt (Suite No. 1, 7th movement) moves the action forward a couple of days, and into the city streets the morning after Romeo and Juliet have secretly married. Juliet's cousin Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel. Romeo refuses to fight, but is unable to reveal that he and Tybalt are now kinsmen, so Mercutio takes up the challenge to save face. Mercutio is a better swordsman and a real cut-up, and he turns the would-be duel into farcical dance. But when Romeo tries to break it up, Mercutio literally becomes cut up and dies while his friends congratulate him on what they think is a mock-death scene. Romeo realizes that the blood is real and that his friend is dead; he pursues and slays Tybalt, and is banished.
5. Romeo at the Grave of Juliet (Suite No. 2, 7th movement) presents the heart-wrenching grief of the young groom who has no idea that his bride will soon waken from her death-like trance, because he never received the note from Friar Laurence explaining the situation. Romeo's lament is a set of variations on a "death" theme from the previous scene in the ballet, heard amidst the mourning when the drugged and motionless Juliet was discovered by the Capulets. The love theme from earlier in the ballet also is recalled, as Romeo dances with Juliet's apparently lifeless body. Paris appears, and, knowing nothing of the nuptials, he assumes Romeo is desecrating Juliet's tomb. Romeo kills Paris in the brief struggle that ensues, and then drinks poison just a Juliet begins to waken.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
And so begins the most famous play in the world ... with a spoiler.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) penned these lines sometime around 1595, and the intervening centuries have done nothing to diminish the impact of the epic tragedy that has inspired more authors, composers and filmmakers than any other secular work. So when Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) began working on his version of Romeo and Juliet as late as 1935, it is surprising that he became the very first to write a ballet about the ill-fated lovers. And also with this score, Prokofiev became the only composer to write a full-length ballet that approaches the popularity of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker.
Prokofiev ranks among the greatest composers of the 20th Century, and biographer Simon Morrison reckons that Prokofiev's concert music is played more often in America than that of any of his contemporaries. To put some of his compositional achievements in perspective, Prokofiev wrote his "Classical" Symphony No. 1, Op. 25, in 1917, three years before Stravinsky took up neoclassicism; and Prokofiev's brilliant Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26 (1911-1921), appeared five years before Bartok's Piano Concerto No. 1 (1926).
Even with a growing stack of successful "absolute music" in his piano bench, Prokofiev always saw himself primarily as a dramatic composer--an identity cultivated since childhood. The young Sergei wrote his first opera at age nine, and by the time he was accepted into the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the fall of 1904, he was already at work on his fourth. Discounting these early works, Prokofiev completed seven operas to which he assigned opus numbers, eight ballets, and three brilliant film scores.
After World War I and the ensuing Russian Revolution, Prokofiev abandoned the chaos of Russia and set out for the United States in 1918. The Yanks welcomed him warmly, but in 1920 Prokofiev fell into financial hardship and packed off to Paris, where his widowed mother recently had settled. In France things improved dramatically (so to speak) with the successful premiere of Prokofiev's first completed ballet, Chout (The Buffoon, Op. 21, 1915-1921), which Stravinsky praised in the most glowing terms and Ravel declared a work of genius.
All the while that Prokofiev was living as an expatriate he was not living in exile. Even though Comrade Lenin had revoked the citizenship of all Russian expats in 1921, when Prokofiev left for the Decadent West it had been with the State's blessing, and by 1927 he traveled freely in and out of the Soviet Union. Despite the suppression of a few of his works, most were well-received, and Prokofiev received some commissions from the Motherland as well. He also got recurring invitations from the Soviet authorities to take up permanent residency in the USSR, especially once his star was shining brightly over the international stage. Come the mid-1930s when the Great Depression was in full swing, performance royalties were waning while his homesickness was waxing, and Prokofiev began to take the invitations seriously. In January 1936, Pravda ("Truth"), the primary newspaper of Soviet propaganda, denounced its heretofore favorite composer, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), and rather than heeding the news as the warning it should have been, Prokofiev jumped at the chance of finally being the biggest sturgeon in the pond. That spring he moved to Moscow with his wife and two sons.
Prokofiev carried with him his newest ballet and most recent disappointment: Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64 (1935-1946). The ballet originally had been commissioned in 1934 by Leningrad's Kirov Ballet, but they backed out; Moscow's Bolshoi stepped in, ultimately to reject it as well, for not being "danceable." But apparently the music wasn't really the biggest problem. Prokofiev's original scenario included a happy ending, with Juliet reviving just in time to stop Romeo from downing any poison. The composer said this was necessary because the dead can't dance--and, since Shakespeare hadn't the foresight to introduce zombies--. Kidding aside, fearing government censure for "corrupting" such a famous story, the revision was deemed too radical (even without the walking dead). Prokofiev was convinced to restore the Bard's dénouement--which the composer decided really was more in keeping with his music anyway--and the ballet finally premiered in 1938, in Brno, Czechoslovakia. It took until 1940 to get a Russian premiere at the Kirov and until 1946 to reach the Bolshoi. The score got several revisions along the way, but Romeo and Juliet has remained in the repertoire ever since.
While still struggling for his own happy ending with the star-crossed score, Prokofiev was determined to get the music before the public, even without toe-shoes. He adapted ten of the dances as 10 pieces for piano, Op. 75 (1937), and he arranged two concert suites of seven dances each for orchestral performance (Opp. 64-bis & 64-ter). He later would cull a third suite (Op. 101) to coincide with the 1946 Bolshoi production. The complete ballet lasts almost two-and-a-half hours, so the music is more widely known through the concert suites. It is a common practice (of which Prokofiev approved) to mix movements from the different suites to suit the needs of individual concerts. Which brings us to now.
1. Montagues and Capulets is the title of the first movement from Suite No. 2, but in the context of the opera it combines an ominous Introduction to Act 3 with Dance of the Knights, used to introduce the Capulet clan in the Act I ballroom scene. It is the best-known music from the ballet, with an air of belligerent haughtiness that easily conjures the feuding Veronese. (Apart from the ballet, this music has been put to many other uses, such as to depict tyrants--Stalin, Hitler, Caligula--and even to sell perfume.) The blustering is silenced by a stately, if somewhat chilly, minuet in which the 13-year-old Juliet fails to warm up to Paris, a much older suitor to whom Papa Capulet lately has pledged his daughter's hand, with the understanding, for the time being, that the wedding itself will be delayed a couple of years. The creepiness of the situation is brilliantly underscored with viola portamenti tracing the delicate filigree of the flute melody--if zombies had been invited into the mix, this likely would have been their favorite bit.
2. The Child Juliet (Suite No. 2, 2nd movement) takes place earlier that afternoon, while the exuberant Juliet teases her nanny as she excitedly prepares for the masked ball that evening. The frolic is interrupted when Lady Capulet attempts to warm Juliet to the idea of entering into an engagement with Paris.
3. Masks (Suite No. 1,.5th movement) takes us back to the Capulet's ball, as some masked Montagues crash the party, namely the teenaged Romeo and his cousin Benvolio, along with Mercutio, Romeo's best friend and a relative of Verona's reigning Prince.
4. Death of Tybalt (Suite No. 1, 7th movement) moves the action forward a couple of days, and into the city streets the morning after Romeo and Juliet have secretly married. Juliet's cousin Tybalt challenges Romeo to a duel. Romeo refuses to fight, but is unable to reveal that he and Tybalt are now kinsmen, so Mercutio takes up the challenge to save face. Mercutio is a better swordsman and a real cut-up, and he turns the would-be duel into farcical dance. But when Romeo tries to break it up, Mercutio literally becomes cut up and dies while his friends congratulate him on what they think is a mock-death scene. Romeo realizes that the blood is real and that his friend is dead; he pursues and slays Tybalt, and is banished.
5. Romeo at the Grave of Juliet (Suite No. 2, 7th movement) presents the heart-wrenching grief of the young groom who has no idea that his bride will soon waken from her death-like trance, because he never received the note from Friar Laurence explaining the situation. Romeo's lament is a set of variations on a "death" theme from the previous scene in the ballet, heard amidst the mourning when the drugged and motionless Juliet was discovered by the Capulets. The love theme from earlier in the ballet also is recalled, as Romeo dances with Juliet's apparently lifeless body. Paris appears, and, knowing nothing of the nuptials, he assumes Romeo is desecrating Juliet's tomb. Romeo kills Paris in the brief struggle that ensues, and then drinks poison just a Juliet begins to waken.
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LONGER VERSION:
Even with a growing stack of successful "absolute music" in his piano bench, Prokofiev always saw himself primarily as a dramatic composer--an identity cultivated since childhood. The young Sergei wrote his first opera at age nine, and by the time he was accepted into the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the fall of 1904, he was already at work on his fourth. Discounting these early works, Prokofiev completed seven operas to which he assigned opus numbers (another, Maddelana, Op. 13, was abandoned in 1911 before the composer finished orchestrating it), eight ballets (though Trapeze, Op. 39, was recast by the composer as the Quintet, Op. 39), and three brilliant film scores.
After World War I (1914-17) and the ensuing Russian Revolution (1917), Prokofiev abandoned the chaos of Russia and set out for the United States in 1918. The Yanks welcomed him warmly, and early successes included a commission from the Chicago Opera Association for L'amour des trois oranges (1919, The Love for Three Oranges, Op. 33). But in 1920, after the opera's intended conductor died and the premiere was delayed until 1921, Prokofiev fell into financial hardship and packed off to Paris, where his widowed mother recently had settled. Only he didn't go alone: Carolina "Lina" Codina (1897-1989), a young Spanish soprano who had been living in New York City, followed him--despite her Russian mother's objections and the composer's unwillingness to get married. Nonetheless, the composer and soprano did have a Bavarian wedding in 1923, a few months before the birth of their first son, Sviatoslav (1924-2010); their second son, Oleg (1928-1998), was born four years later.
In Paris things improved dramatically (so to speak) with the premiere of Prokofiev's first completed ballet, Chout (The Buffoon, Op. 21, 1915-21). Originally commissioned in 1915 by Serge Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes, the famous impresario had personally worked with Prokofiev to develop a satisfactory scenario, but the project was interrupted by the war and the composer's sojourn in America. The 1921 premiere was a resounding success, such that Stravinsky praised it in the most glowing terms, and Ravel declared it a work of genius. Prokofiev's many later successes included two more ballets with the same company, namely Le pas d'acier (The Stride of Steel, Op. 41, 1926), and Le fils prodigue (The Prodigal Son, Op. 46, 1928-29), which was Diaghilev's last new production before his death.
Prokofiev was living as an expatriate in Paris, but he was not living in exile. Even though Comrade Lenin had revoked the citizenship of all Russian expatriates in 1921, when Prokofiev left for the Decadent West it had been with the State's blessing, and he traveled freely in and out of the Soviet Union, beginning with a tour in 1927. Despite the suppression of a few of his works, most were well-received, and Prokofiev received some commissions from the Motherland as well, including the film score for Lieutenant Kijé, Op. 60 (1933). Prokofiev also got recurring invitations from the Soviet authorities to take up permanent residency in the USSR, especially once his star was shining brightly over the international stage. Come the mid-1930s, with the Great Depression in full swing, performance royalties were waning while his homesickness was waxing, and Prokofiev began to take the invitations seriously.
While Prokofiev was hardly a "fish out of water" in Paris, there were a lot of hungry mouths scrambling for dwindling bait (as it were), and even among the ex-Russians, Prokofiev wasn't likely to outpace Rachmaninoff in America, nor Stravinsky in Europe. So, in 1935, when Pravda ("Truth"), the primary newspaper of Soviet propaganda, denounced its heretofore favorite composer, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975), rather than heeding the news as a warning, Prokofiev apparently jumped at the chance of finally being the biggest sturgeon, even in a smaller pond. He moved his family to Russia in 1936.
In 1934, Prokofiev received a commission for a full-length ballet from the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, and in response he finished the original version of his Romeo and Juliet (Op. 64, 1935-40) the following year. His first scenario included a happy ending, with Juliet reviving just in time to stop Romeo from downing poison. The composer said this was necessary because the dead can't dance--in other words, since Shakespeare had lacked the foresight to use a literary device which today is fairly commonplace, i.e., the introduction of zombies, they needed to keep the couple alive. But the un-tragic ending and the music apparently were deemed too radical (even without the undead ...), and both the Kirov and the Bolshoi declined to accept it. Prokofiev was finally convinced to restore the Bard's unhappy ending--which he decided really was more in keeping with his music anyway.
But then the Moscow company also backed out of Prokofiev's increasingly star-crossed score, so he arranged ten of the dances for solo piano (Op.75, 1937), and extracted two concert suites of seven movements each for orchestral performance.
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largely because one of the collaborators on the scenario was Adrian Piotrovsky (1898-1937), a prominent Soviet stage director
with the collaboration of Prokofiev completed the score of their original version in 1935, but it had a happy ending, with Juliet reviving just in time to stop Romeo from downing poison. Prokofiev said that the change was necessary because the dead can't dance; in other words, since Shakespeare had lacked the foresight to use a literary device which today is fairly commonplace, i.e., zombies, they needed to keep the couple alive. However, this proved too radical a treatment for the Kirov, and they withdrew their commission. Piotrovsky was already out of favor with the government and the company was fearful of attracting censure. But Prokofiev was convinced to keep the tragic demise, and the Bolshoi agreed to take up the commission.
in 1938, premiered in Brno, Czechoslovakia.
Russian premiere at the Kirov Theater on January 11, 1940. -problems with dancers -reorchestrated
The Bolshoi in 1946
Despite his proclivity, his operas represented his greatest professional disappointment: of the eight operas composed and revised between 1911 and 1948 to which he assigned opus numbers, Prokofiev would live to see only three given public performances, and only one, L'amour des trois oranges (1919, The Love for Three Oranges, Op. 33), would receive international exposure and praise, after its 1921 premiere in Chicago.
In 1912, the 21-year-old enfant terrible premiered his Piano Concerto No. 1 in D-flat major, Op. 10, and in 1913, the Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16, the "modernity" of which caused something of a riot. By this time Prokofiev already had secured a contract with a music publisher, who provided the financial backing for him to tour Paris and London in 1914. Momentously, this brought Prokofiev into contact with Serge Diaghilev, the impresario whose commissions for his company, the famous Ballets Russes, had already resulted in some of the most glorious scores from the early 1900s, including The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), and The Rite of Spring (1913), by Stravinsky, and Daphnis et Chloé (1909-1912), by Ravel. Although Diaghilev rejected Prokofiev's first attempt at a dance score, Ala and Lolli (1915, reworked by the composer as Scythian Suite, Op. 20), the impresario eventually would produce three very successful ballets he commissioned from Prokofiev: Chout (The Buffoon, Op. 21, 1915-21), Le pas d'acier (The Stride of Steel, Op. 41, 1926), and Le fils prodigue (The Prodigal Son, Op. 46, 1928-29), Diaghilev's last new production before his death.
In the meantime World War I (1914-1917) and the Russian Revolution (1917) intervened, so Prokofiev abandoned the political uncertainty of Russia, and set out for the United States in 1918, where he met with a fair amount of success, as both pianist and composer. But the delay in the production of a newly-commissioned opera, L'amour des trois oranges, brought on financial hardship. He returned to Paris in 1920, where his widowed mother had recently moved. And he didn't return alone: a young Spanish soprano (with a Russian mother), Carolina "Lina" Codina (1897-1989), who had immigrated to New York City with her family, followed him, despite the composer's unwillingness to marry her until 1923, when she became pregnant with their first son, Sviatoslav (1924-2010) and Oleg (1928-1998)
The Yanks gave him a warm welcome, and following successful performances of his First Piano Concerto and Scythian Suite, Prokofiev received a commission from the Chicago Opera, which manifested in the comically satirical fairy tale opera, L'amour des trois oranges (1919, The Love for Three Oranges, Op. 33). Illness and work on the new opera had resulted in Prokofiev quitting the concert circuit, so when the conductor died and the production was delayed, Prokofiev found himself in financial hardship. Although he would return to America a number of times, Prokofiev moved to Paris in 1920, where his mother, widowed since 1910, had recently moved. And he didn't return alone: a young Spanish soprano, Carolina "Lina" Codina, who had immigrated to New York City with her family, followed him, despite the composer's initial unwillingness to marry her.
2 concert suites introduced to the public before the ballet's premiere—Suite No. 1 on November 24, 1936, in Moscow; Suite No. 2 on April 15, 1937, in Leningrad—and a third suite, labeled Op. 101, was introduced in Moscow on March 8, 1946. he made further additions to full score in 1941, and then still more for the Bolshoi premiere in 1946—in which year he also introduced a third concert suite from the score
Montagues and Capulets.
Minuet: Juliet's point of view of Paris (not as creepy in the play as the music makes him seem) Ones suspects that had Shakespeare been forward thinking enough to introduce zombies into the plot, this would have been their favorite dance.
The original scenario included a happy ending, with Juliet reviving in time to prevent Romeo downing the fatal draught. Prokofiev said the alteration was purely practical, because they couldn't dance if they were dead. (So, basically, Shakespeare had lacked the foresight to include literary conventions that now have become quite commonplace, and failed to take advantage of the whole zombie phenomenon.)
Recordings at instantencore (excl. Masks) COMPLETE BALLET
1. Montagues and Capulets (II.1)
2. The Child Juliet (II.2)
3. Masks (I.5) [Act I No.12 Montagues enter: Romeo, Mercutio & Benvolio in masks]
4. Death of Tybalt (I.7) [No. 33 Tybalt & Mercutio fight -scherzo/ No. 35 Romeo Avenges Mercutio's death] Funeral cortege of Tybalt's corpse; Romeo becomes an outlaw -Act.II Sc.5
5. Romeo at the Grave of Juliet (II.7) variations on death theme (first heard at Juliet's Funeral)--sad:strings;horn;brass--love music--sad again-etheral love music Act IV. Epilogue
1. Building chords - shattering death-cry dissonance / BALL: Dance of the Knights (Capulets) - muscular, macho march; flute & harp: cold, passionless, creepy minuet (Juliet & cousin Paris) celesta; return of knights (tenor sax)
2. Flighty, nervous--young girl getting ready for a party duh - jittery excitement
Prokofiev: b. 1891 in Ukraine; d. 1953 Moscow
Only child (sisters died); started formal lessons with Gliere at age 11, but at 12 enrolled in St. Petersburg Conservatory; made a name with radical works: polytonality, dissonance, chromaticism; changing meters
1911 (age 20) ; contract with publisher; 1913 toured Paris & London: met with Diaghilev/Ballet Russes
1918: Russian revolution - moved to New York (example of Rachmaninoff) but traveled often to Europe, and moved back with in 1922-1936
1934: Commission from Kirov Theater (Leningrad, now St. Petersburg) for full-length ballet-Kirov backed out, but Bolshoi took over contract, but then backed out
1936: USSR
first version composed in summer 1935; premiere of complete ballet 12/30/38 Brno, Czechoslovakia; but Prokofiev continued to revise the score until 1946, with the first production at the Bolshoi Ballet
piano suite (10 pieces) & two orchestral suites performed first-- Suite 1:11/24/36; Suite 2: 4/15/37; later a Suite 3: 1946
New Grove Dorothea Redepenning - P. returned to USSR in 1936 because Rachmaninoff #1 Russian in USA & Stravinsky in Europe/ Shostakovich temporarily out of favor re; Lady Mc./Mensk