Stravinsky: Perséphone (Live)

Featuring

Esa-Pekka Salonen
Andrew Staples
Pauline Cheviller
Finnish National Opera Orchestra
Finnish National Opera Chorus
Finnish National Opera Children's Chorus

Igor Stravinsky

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Critical Reception

Perséphone premiered on April 30, 1934, with Ida Rubinstein in the title role and Stravinsky conducting, to mixed public reactions, and has only been performed sporadically since.

Composition History

The text for Perséphone is based on a pre-WWI reworking of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter by French writer and Nobel Prizewinner André Gide, which Ida Rubinstein desired as the work's foundation.

Composition History

Stravinsky's Perséphone was commissioned by Ida Rubinstein, a Russian dancer and member of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, who also commissioned works from Debussy, Ravel, and Honegger.

Compositional Technique

The title role of Perséphone is a purely speaking role, which Ida Rubinstein also danced at the premiere, while the priest Eumolpus is assigned to a tenor.

Compositional Technique

The orchestral score of Perséphone is distinctly lyrical and often has a chamber-music character, with moments of incredible clarity and sharply reduced dynamics, contrasting with the brutal excesses of Stravinsky's earlier Rite of Spring.

Compositional Technique

Perséphone is a 'Melodrama with Dance' that uniquely mixes elements from different genres, including melodrama, song, chorus, dance, and pantomime.

Composer Biography

Stravinsky's collaboration with André Gide on Perséphone was strained, with Stravinsky prioritizing musical sound over the text's inherent meaning, deeply hurting Gide.