Details

Pierrot Lunaire is a setting of 21 surrealist poems for a soloist communicating halfway between song and speech, is an enthralling journey into the subconscious. Soldier's Tale is an entertainment 'to be read, played and danced', combines a narrator, actor-dancers and a brilliantly colourful instrumental septet to tell a spellbinding Russian story with a profound moral. The Soldier's Tale proved an inspiration to the music-theatre movement in its informality - the music sets the story of the Soldier and the Devil in its own very distinctive sound world. Stravinsky incorporated music from the opera house and concert-hall and drew on various folk, church, dancehall and jazz sources. The violin represents the soul the Soldier, having won his violin back from the Devil, plays it to arouse the sick Princess and restore her to health. The Devil's Dance, in which the Soldier fiddles his rival to exhaustion, is his last musical word, however. The Soldier's Tale is staged reading

Cast/Performers

Jane Manning (soprano), Kathy Hinde (video artist), David John (Soldier), Michael Rolnick (Devil)

Creatives/Company

Music(s): Schoenberg (Pierrot Lunaire), Stravinsky (The Soldier's Tale)
Director: Elaine Tyler-Hall
Design: Becky Brown
Lighting: Simon Opie