Stravinsky’s Petrushka: Dance and Traditions

Petrouchka captures all the magic of a puppet suddenly coming to life, with its charm, mischief and touching awkwardness. Stravinsky creates a wildly inventive theatre of sound, inspired by the boldness of his original collaborators—Fokine, Benois and Diaghilev—who dreamed of a performance blurring the boundaries between puppets and human beings. That avant-garde spirit still resonates in the score: a Russian fair bursts into vivid colour, merchants shout, organs creak, and three puppets emerge from the crowd, struggling with feelings too great for them. Blending humour, rusticity and poetic illusion, Petrouchka remains an enchantment in which fantasy becomes dizzying.