Peter and the Wolf coming to town

The show was written and composed by Sergei Prokofiev.

By Umer NangianaA classic musical symphony composed for children by the legendary 20th century Russian musician Sergei Prokofiev, Peter and the Wolf, has been staged and adapted into animations world over for decades.Since its first concert performance in Dublin, Ireland in 1942, the play has toured many countries and enthralled audiences. Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO) is all set to bring the show as ‘Peter and the Wolf for woodwind quintet, violin and percussion’ to town in February next year.Written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 in the USSR, it is a children’s story, with both music and text by Prokofiev, spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra. Christoph Schmitz from QPO will narrate the show.Each character in the story has a particular instrument and a musical theme —Bird is the flute, Cat clarinet, Duck oboe, Grandfather bassoon, Hunters woodwind and trumpet theme, with gunshots on timpani and bass drum, Peter string instruments (including violin, viola, cello, and bass), and Wolf French horns.Peter, a young pioneer, lives at his grandfather’s home in a forest clearing. One day, he goes out into the clearing, leaving the garden gate open, and the duck that lives in the yard takes the opportunity to go swimming in a pond nearby.The duck starts arguing with a little bird. Peter’s pet cat stalks them quietly, and the bird, warned by Peter, flies to safety in a tall tree while the duck swims to safety in the middle of the pond. Peter’s grandfather scolds Peter for being outside in the meadow alone, and, when Peter defies him, his grandfather takes him back into the house and locks the gate.Soon afterwards a big, grey wolf does indeed come out of the forest. The cat quickly climbs onto a tree, but the duck, who has jumped out of the pond, is chased, overtaken, and swallowed by the wolf.Peter fetches a rope and climbs over the garden wall into the tree. He asks the bird to fly around the wolf’s head to distract it, while he lowers a noose and catches the wolf by its tail. The wolf struggles to get free, but Peter ties the rope to the tree and the noose only gets tighter.Some hunters, who have been tracking the wolf, come out of the forest ready to shoot, but Peter gets them to help him take the wolf to a zoo in a victory parade that includes himself, the bird, the hunters leading the wolf, the cat, and grumpy grumbling grandfather.Walt Disney produced an animated version of the work in 1946, with Sterling Holloway providing the voice of the narrator. It was released theatrically as a segment of Make Mine Music, then reissued the next year, accompanying a reissue of Fantasia then separately on home video in the 1990s. This version makes several changes to the original story.For example, during the character introduction, the pets are given names: ‘Sasha’ the bird, ‘Sonia’ the duck, and ‘Ivan’ the cat. As the cartoon begins, Peter and his friends already know there is a wolf nearby and are preparing to catch him.The hunters get names in a later part of the story as Misha, Yasha, and Vladimir. Peter daydreams of hunting and catching the wolf, and for that purpose exits the garden carrying a wooden ‘pop gun.’At the end, in a reversal of the original, and to make the story more child-friendly, the narrator reveals that the duck Sonia has not been eaten by the wolf. Earlier in the film, the wolf is shown chasing the duck, who hides in an old tree’s hollow trunk.The wolf attacks out of view and returns in view with some of the duck’s feathers in his mouth, licking his jaws. Peter, the cat, and the bird assume the duck has been eaten. After the wolf has been caught, the bird Sasha is shown mourning the duck. The duck comes out of the tree trunk at that point, and they are happily reunited.In 1957, for one of his television programmes, Disney recalled how Prokofiev himself visited the Disney studio, eventually inspiring the making of this animated version. The show will take place at Katara Opera House on February 5.