Peter and the Wolf

Synopsis

Peter (Russian: Petya), a Soviet Young Pioneer, lives at his grandfather's home in a forest clearing. One day, he goes out into the clearing, leaving the garden gate open, and a duck that lives in the yard takes the opportunity to swim in a pond nearby. The duck and a bird argue over whether a bird should be able to swim or fly. A local cat stalks them quietly, and the bird—warned by Peter—flies to safety in a tall tree while the duck swims to safety in the middle of the pond.

Peter's grandfather scolds him for staying outside and playing in the meadow alone, because a wolf might attack him. When Peter shows defiance, believing he has nothing to fear from wolves, his grandfather takes him back into the house and locks the gate. Soon afterward, a ferocious wolf comes out of the forest. The cat quickly climbs into the tree with the bird, but the duck, who has jumped out of the pond, is chased, overtaken, and swallowed by the wolf, who then begins prowling around the tree's base.

Seeing all of this from inside, Peter fetches a rope and climbs over the garden wall into the tree. He asks the bird to fly around the wolf's head to distract him, while he lowers a noose and catches the wolf by his tail. The wolf struggles to get free, but Peter ties the rope to the tree and the noose only gets tighter.

Hunters who have been tracking the wolf come out of the forest with their guns ready, but Peter gets them to instead help him take it to a zoo in a victory parade (the piece was first performed for an audience of Young Pioneers during May Day celebrations) that includes himself, the bird, the hunters leading the wolf, the cat, and lastly his grumbling grandfather, still disappointed that Peter ignored his warnings, but proud that he caught the wolf.

At the end, the narrator says that careful listeners can hear the duck still quacking inside the wolf's belly, because she was swallowed whole.

Performance directions

Prokofiev produced detailed performance notes in English and Russian. According to the English version:

Each character of this tale is represented by a corresponding instrument in the orchestra: the bird by a flute, the duck by an oboe, the cat by a clarinet playing staccato in a low register, the grandfather by a bassoon, the wolf by three horns, Peter by the string quartet, the shooting of the hunters by the kettle drums and bass drum. Before an orchestral performance it is desirable to show these instruments to the children and to play on them the corresponding leitmotivs. Thereby, the children learn to distinguish the sonorities of the instruments during the performance of this tale.

Instrumentation

Peter and the Wolf is scored for an orchestra:

• Woodwinds: a flute, an oboe, a clarinet in A, and a bassoon
• Brass: 3 horns in F, a trumpet in B♭ and a trombone
• Percussion: timpani, a triangle, a tambourine, cymbals, castanets, a snare drum, and a bass drum
• Strings: first and second violins, violas, violoncellos, and double basses

Each character in the story has a particular instrument and musical theme:

Bird

Flute

Duck

Oboe

Cat

Clarinet

Grandfather

Bassoon

Wolf

French horns

Hunters

woodwind and trumpet theme, with gunshots on timpani and bass drum

Peter

string instruments (including violin, viola, cello, and double bass)

A performance lasts about 25 minutes.

Recordings

Jeremy Nicholas wrote for classical music magazine Gramophone in 2015, claiming that the best overall recording of Peter and the Wolf was by the New Philharmonia Orchestra, narrated by Richard Baker and conducted by Raymond Leppard in 1971. Gramophone's best DVD version is the 2006 film by Suzie Templeton; its music is performed, without narrator, by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Mark Stephenson.

Adaptations

Walt Disney, 1946

Prokofiev, while touring the West in 1938, visited Los Angeles and met Walt Disney. Prokofiev performed the piano version for "le papa de Mickey Mouse" (French for "Mickey Mouse's dad"), as Prokofiev described him in a letter to his sons. Disney was impressed, and considered adding an animated version of Peter and the Wolf to Fantasia, which was to be released in 1940. Due to World War II, these plans fell through, and it was not until 1946 that Disney released his adaptation, narrated by Sterling Holloway. It is not known whether Prokofiev, who was by that point behind the Iron Curtain, was aware of this. It was released theatrically as a segment of Make Mine Music, then reissued the next year, accompanying a reissue of Fantasia (as a short subject), then separately on home video in the 1990s. This version made several changes to the original, including:

• During the character introduction, the pets are given names: Sascha the songbird, Sonia the duck, and Ivan the cat.
• As the production begins, Peter and his friends already know that a wolf is nearby and are preparing to catch him.
• The hunters get names later in the story: Misha, Yasha, and Vladimir.
• Peter daydreams of hunting and catching the wolf, and for that purpose exits the garden carrying a wooden pop gun.
• At the end, in a reversal of the original (and to make the story more child-friendly), the narrator reveals that Sonia had not been eaten by the wolf. Earlier in the film, the wolf is shown chasing Sonia, who hides in a tree's hollow trunk. The wolf attacks out of view and returns in view with feathers in his mouth, licking his jaws. Peter, Ivan, and Sascha assume Sonia has been eaten. After the wolf is caught, Sascha is shown mourning Sonia. She comes out of the tree trunk at that point, and they are happily reunited.

In 1957, for one of his television programs, Disney recalled how Prokofiev had visited, inspiring Disney's animated version. Disney used pianist Ingolf Dahl, who resembled Prokofiev, to re-create how the composer had played the themes from the score.

British–Polish co-production, 2006

In 2006, Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman directed and produced, respectively, a stop-motion animated adaptation. It has no dialogue or narration: the story was told only via images and music, interrupted by sustained periods of silence. The soundtrack was performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra. The film premiered with a live accompaniment in the Royal Albert Hall. The film won the Annecy Cristal and the Audience Award at the 2007 Annecy International Animated Film Festival, and the 2007 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. This version makes some changes to the original Prokofiev story, including:

• Peter bumps into one of the "hunters" (teenage bullies in this telling), who throws him in a rubbish bin and aims at him with his rifle to scare him; the second hunter watches without interfering (thus, a dislike towards the hunter/bullies is immediately created).
• Because of a broken wing, the bird has trouble flying and takes Peter's balloon to help it get aloft.
• Peter captures the wolf in a net and then the hunter gets him in his rifle's sight coincidentally, but just before shooting, the second hunter stumbles, falls on him and makes him miss the shot.
• The caged wolf is brought into the village on a cart, where Peter's grandfather tries to sell it. The hunter comes to the container and sticks his rifle in to intimidate the animal (as he did with Peter earlier on). At that time Peter throws the net on the hunter, entangling the hunter.
• Before the grandfather has made a deal, Peter unlocks the cart after looking into the eyes of the wolf. They walk side by side through the awestruck crowd and then the freed wolf runs away in the direction of the silver moon shining over the forest.

In copyright law

In the United States, the US Supreme Court's decision in 2012 in Golan v. Holder restored copyright protection in the United States to numerous foreign works that had entered the public domain. Peter and the Wolf was frequently cited by the parties and amici, as well as by the Court's opinion and by the press, as an example of a well-known work that would be removed from the public domain by the decision. The restored copyright per current law is 95 years after publication. Therefore the piece is expected to enter the public domain on 31 December 2031.

In many other countries, the piece is already in the public domain.