A História de um Soldado
The Soldier’s Tale is the result of a collaboration between the composer Igor Stravinsky and the Swiss writer C. F. Ramuz during the period of the First World War, in 1918. The story is told by three actors, a group of dancers, and a band of seven musicians.
Musically, The Soldier’s Tale occupies an important place in Igor Stravinsky’s body of work, and in the history of 20th-century music in general. A soldier returning home on fifteen days’ leave stops to rest and plays his small violin. He is interrupted by the Devil, disguised as an old man, who persuades him to give up the violin in exchange for a magical book that predicts the future. The Devil invites the soldier to go home with him for three days to teach him how to play.
When the soldier finally arrives at his village, he finds his sweetheart married to someone else, and everyone who sees him — even his own mother — believes he is a ghost. He realizes he has been deceived — “it was not three days, but three years” — and falls into despair. Not even the great fortune he has accumulated can lift his spirits.
When the Devil, this time disguised as an old woman, offers him the violin back, he is unable to produce any sound from the instrument. Distressed, he throws it away, tears up the book, and decides to leave.
Eventually, he arrives in another country, where a King lives with a daughter trapped in a strange melancholy. The King has decreed that any man who can cure her may marry her. The soldier decides to try his luck and boldly heads to the palace.
There, he encounters a rival: the Devil, disguised as a virtuoso violinist. But the soldier manages to defeat him in a card game by deliberately losing all the fortune he had gained dishonestly. He then discovers that he can play the violin once again and, even more remarkably, the sound of his music revives the Princess.
The Devil, finally in his true form, tries to intervene, but is forced to dance to the sound of the violin until he collapses in exhaustion. The Soldier and the Princess are joyfully united, but the Devil swears revenge.
Musically, The Soldier’s Tale occupies an important place in Igor Stravinsky’s body of work, and in the history of 20th-century music in general. A soldier returning home on fifteen days’ leave stops to rest and plays his small violin. He is interrupted by the Devil, disguised as an old man, who persuades him to give up the violin in exchange for a magical book that predicts the future. The Devil invites the soldier to go home with him for three days to teach him how to play.
When the soldier finally arrives at his village, he finds his sweetheart married to someone else, and everyone who sees him — even his own mother — believes he is a ghost. He realizes he has been deceived — “it was not three days, but three years” — and falls into despair. Not even the great fortune he has accumulated can lift his spirits.
When the Devil, this time disguised as an old woman, offers him the violin back, he is unable to produce any sound from the instrument. Distressed, he throws it away, tears up the book, and decides to leave.
Eventually, he arrives in another country, where a King lives with a daughter trapped in a strange melancholy. The King has decreed that any man who can cure her may marry her. The soldier decides to try his luck and boldly heads to the palace.
There, he encounters a rival: the Devil, disguised as a virtuoso violinist. But the soldier manages to defeat him in a card game by deliberately losing all the fortune he had gained dishonestly. He then discovers that he can play the violin once again and, even more remarkably, the sound of his music revives the Princess.
The Devil, finally in his true form, tries to intervene, but is forced to dance to the sound of the violin until he collapses in exhaustion. The Soldier and the Princess are joyfully united, but the Devil swears revenge.