Reflecting on Peter and the Wolf: Fantasy or Prophecy

The article discusses the socio-cultural aspect of the popular musical tale Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953). The discussion takes into account the circumstances of composer’s life at time of writing the piece, as well as the political and ideological context of Soviet Russia of the 1930s. The main discussion is connected with the campaign of the Soviet authorities against formalism in musical art, which led to a ban on the staging of many works for the musical theater, including Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet commissioned by the Kirov (Mariinsky) Theater in Leningrad just a year before the ban. The circumstances surrounding the arrest of Prokofiev’s first wife are part of the discussion, along with an explanation of what “pioneer Peter” means. The author claims that, conceived as a children’s fairy tale, the work has an ambiguous ending, which can be viewed as a kind of prophecy expressed in Aesopian language.

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