VDM Verlag Conducting L'Histoire du Soldat: A Tale of Two Libretti

Igor Stravinsky's collaborations with contemporaries including Picasso, Nijinsky, and Cocteau are well-documented. Less familiar, however, are the anachronistic "collaborations" suggested in one short movement Stravinsky wrote in 1918, and involving the Germans Luther and Bach, the Swiss Ramuz, and the American Kurt Vonnegut Jr. The historical context in which each of the "collaborators" contributed to L'Histoire as well as an analysis of "Grand Choral", the penultimate movement of the work, provides a key for unlocking the mysteries of construction, ideology, and by extension, performance of the work. Angelene Tysseland presents the process and findings of her study, research, and performance of each of the two versions of the work based on her theatrical production of it in 2009 with a full cast of actors, musicians and dancers. Angelene offers practical "tips and tricks" for conductors of this well-loved and famously difficult masterpiece of the chamber theatre literature.