staging the bauhaus XV

“Read, played, danced” appears as the subtitle beneath the heading The Soldier’s Tale. And indeed, it is impossible to categorise this extraordinary piece within any specific genre. The poet Charles Ferdinand Ramuz and the composer Igor Stravinsky wrote it in 1918 with the intention of touring Switzerland with it on a mobile fairground stage. Everything was to be as simple as possible and performable with a small cast: a narrator, two actors, a dancer and an ensemble of seven musicians plus a conductor.

Inspired by a Russian fairy tale, the work tells the tragic story of a soldier who sells his soul to the devil. This is presented in a matter-of-fact, sober tone, accompanied by music which, using the most sparing of means and employing parodic distortions of traditional forms and compositional techniques, consistently maintains an ironic distance from the events. It is no wonder that this unromantic, entirely novel work of musical theatre attracted the attention of the artistic avant-garde in Germany after the First World War. In 1923, The Soldier’s Tale was performed at the Bauhaus Week in Weimar, and on 16 May 1928 the work was staged for the first time in Dessau as part of the ‘Junge Bühne’ special subscription series.

To mark the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Bauhaus Building in Dessau, it can now be experienced once again. The evening is rounded off by Stefan Wolpe’s Chamber Piece 1 (1965) and Paul Hindemith’s Chamber Music No. 1, Op. 24 No. 1 (1922).

Performance rights:
Chester Music Ltd/Edition Wilhelm Hansen AS, represented by Bosworth Music GmbH/Wise Music Group