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Summary
Summary
Sergei Prokofiev composed his Peter and the Wolf in 1936 with the hope of introducing children to the instruments of the orchestra. It happens that he also devised a wonderfully dramatic story. The characters - boy, bird, duck, cat, grandfather, wolf, hunters - and their doings have been beloved by young and old for decades.
Writer, artist, musician, and Caldecott Medalist Chris Raschka has given the original story a new setting: a stage performance. Here you will relish language inspired music; enjoy mischief, suspense, and triumph in the theater; and delight in a surprise (and an additional character) Prokofiev's merry tale didn't provide. Please do not turn immediately to the last page.
Author Notes
The music of 20th century, Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev is a sharp mix of traditional and modern elements. His innovative style is characterized by emotional restraint, strong drumlike rhythms, harsh-sounding harmonies, and humor.
Prokofiev was born in the town of Sontzovka, in the Ukraine. His mother, an accomplished pianist, encouraged her young son to play along with her as she practiced. The young Prokofiev showed unusual talent and began composing music at the age of five. At the age of 13, he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied with some of the finest teachers of the day, including Rimsky-Korsakov. By the time he graduated in 1914, Prokofiev has established himself as a musical innovator.
In 1918 Prokofiev left Russia to appear as a pianist and conductor in Europe and the United States. While in America, he composed his most popular opera, Love for Three Oranges (1919), a musical satire of traditional operatic plots and conventions. From 1922 to 1933, Prokofiev lived mostly in Paris, where he composed two ballets, three symphonies, and four concertos.
In 1934 Prokofiev returned to the Soviet Union. Back in his native land, Prokofiev's style mellowed, and he accepted the idea that a state-supported artist must appeal to a wide audience. During the next few years, he composed some of his most popular and best-known pieces, including Peter and the Wolf (1936) and Romeo and Juliet (1938). Prokofiev won the Stalin Prize during World War II. However, in 1948 Prokofiev and other leading Russian composers were denounced by Soviet Communist party leaders for "antidemocratic tendencies alien to the Soviet people." He returned to favor in the early 1950s and enjoyed great success in the Soviet Union, winning the Stalin Prize a second time. By the year of his death, in 1953, Prokofiev's music had become well known throughout the world.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 5-Without musical notation, how does one convey the thematic phrases and unique rhythms associated with each character created by Sergei Prokofiev in his classic introduction to the instruments of the orchestra? The ever-experimental, sound-sensitive Raschka employs color, shape, line, and idiosyncratic language to distinguish each cast member in his utterly beguiling production. Characters appear one after the other on sequential versos to offer opening monologues. Peter enters on a strip of chartreuse, his large, oval face topped by a Russian cap, his lyrical style inspired by e. e. cummings: "See I/Spin around and twirl around and jump around/In this perfect, most perfect/Place I've been." The bluebird twitters a jazzy scat on a path of cheerful yellow. The menacing wolf-all jagged lines and primal grunts against a field of red-gobbles the oblivious duck, as has been destined. Rectos feature a stage framed in brown columns and constructed from four sheets of painted paper that have been glued together; the resulting shadows produce a convincing depth. The action occurs as the watercolor figures, outlined with Raschka's signature thick strokes, interpret their roles. The three hunters enter in a martial bluster, but ultimately the entire crew proceeds to the zoo. Gentle readers and purists alike will appreciate Raschka's solution to the duck's fate; he allows readers to choose either Prokofiev's finale (so labeled) or his one-page epilogue in which a veterinarian performs "emergency surgery." Make room for this inventive, spirited interpretation. A bravura performance from a musical maestro.-Wendy Lukehart, Washington DC Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
As in his interpretation of John Coltrane in Giant Steps, Raschka now turns Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf into poetry and pictures. The illustrations present the story as a theatrical performance (action unfolds alternately in freestanding illustrations and on an elaborate stage), but without an orchestra. As Peter cavorts, calmly but boldly opening himself to the climactic encounter with the wolf, Raschka conveys the mounting suspense in lilting words, swerving zigzags and curves. Carefree Peter is supported by an animal chorus in sound poetry, including a blue bird who speaks in stutters and rhyme, and of course the predator, who swallows the duck with a panting, "Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme... GULP!" Raschka's pictures--of characters venturing close to the wolf's bear-trap jaws, of the cat's enormous face looming over a tiny Peter--gain extra energy from geometrically shaped color blocks on the same spreads; each character is assigned a certain spectrum--e.g., red for the wolf--like the solo instruments in Prokofiev. His book best rewards patient readers capable of linking the continuous dialogue and amped-up visuals in the action spreads with scenes viewed within a complex, 3D cut-paper theater. One reading will not be enough to appreciate the artist's keen attention to detail. Ages 3-7. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved