tomekkobialka | "The Wooden Prince" by Béla Bartók (Audio + Sheet Music) @tomekkobialka | Uploaded August 2016 | Updated October 2024, 1 week ago.
pf: Pierre Boulez cond/ Chicago Symphony Orchestra
TIMECODES:
0:00 - Introduction
5:14 - 1st Dance: Dance of the Princess in the Forest
10:18 - 2nd Dance: Dance of the Trees
15:45 - 3rd Dance: Dance of the Waves
27:20 - 4th Dance: Dance of the Princess with the Wooden Doll
42:42 - 5th Dance: The Princess Pulls and Tugs at the Wooden Prince and Tries to Make Him Dance
44:36 - 6th Dance: She Tries to Attract the Real Prince Using Her Seductive Dancing
46:13 - 7th Dance: Dismayed, The Princess Attempts To Hurry After The Prince, But The Forest Bars Her Way
The Wooden Prince (Hungarian: A fából faragott királyfi) Op. 13, Sz. 60, is a one-act pantomime ballet composed by Béla Bartók in 1914-1916 (orchestrated 1916-1917) to a scenario by Béla Balázs. It was first performed at the Budapest Opera on 12 May 1917 under the conductor Egisto Tango.
The Wooden Prince has never achieved the fame of Bartók's other ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin (1926), but it was enough of a success at its premiere to prompt the Opera House to stage Bartók's opera, Bluebeard's Castle the following year (it had been waiting for a performance since 1911). Like Bluebeard, The Wooden Prince uses a huge orchestra (it even includes saxophones), though the critic Paul Griffiths believes it sounds like an earlier work in style [this uploader agrees!]. The music shows the influence of Debussy and Richard Strauss, as well as Wagner (the introduction echoes the prelude of Das Rheingold). Bartók used a scenario by the poet Béla Balázs, which had appeared in the influential literary journal Nyugat in 1912.
SYNOPSIS:
A prince falls in love with a princess, but is stopped from reaching her by a fairy who makes a forest and a stream rise against him. To attract the princess' attention, the prince hangs his cloak on a staff and fixes a crown and locks of his hair to it. The princess catches sight of this "wooden prince" and comes to dance with it. The fairy brings the wooden prince to life and the princess goes away with that instead of the real prince, who falls into despair. The fairy takes pity on him as he sleeps, dresses him in finery and reduces the wooden prince to lifelessness again. The princess returns and is finally united with the human prince.
pf: Pierre Boulez cond/ Chicago Symphony Orchestra
TIMECODES:
0:00 - Introduction
5:14 - 1st Dance: Dance of the Princess in the Forest
10:18 - 2nd Dance: Dance of the Trees
15:45 - 3rd Dance: Dance of the Waves
27:20 - 4th Dance: Dance of the Princess with the Wooden Doll
42:42 - 5th Dance: The Princess Pulls and Tugs at the Wooden Prince and Tries to Make Him Dance
44:36 - 6th Dance: She Tries to Attract the Real Prince Using Her Seductive Dancing
46:13 - 7th Dance: Dismayed, The Princess Attempts To Hurry After The Prince, But The Forest Bars Her Way
The Wooden Prince (Hungarian: A fából faragott királyfi) Op. 13, Sz. 60, is a one-act pantomime ballet composed by Béla Bartók in 1914-1916 (orchestrated 1916-1917) to a scenario by Béla Balázs. It was first performed at the Budapest Opera on 12 May 1917 under the conductor Egisto Tango.
The Wooden Prince has never achieved the fame of Bartók's other ballet, The Miraculous Mandarin (1926), but it was enough of a success at its premiere to prompt the Opera House to stage Bartók's opera, Bluebeard's Castle the following year (it had been waiting for a performance since 1911). Like Bluebeard, The Wooden Prince uses a huge orchestra (it even includes saxophones), though the critic Paul Griffiths believes it sounds like an earlier work in style [this uploader agrees!]. The music shows the influence of Debussy and Richard Strauss, as well as Wagner (the introduction echoes the prelude of Das Rheingold). Bartók used a scenario by the poet Béla Balázs, which had appeared in the influential literary journal Nyugat in 1912.
SYNOPSIS:
A prince falls in love with a princess, but is stopped from reaching her by a fairy who makes a forest and a stream rise against him. To attract the princess' attention, the prince hangs his cloak on a staff and fixes a crown and locks of his hair to it. The princess catches sight of this "wooden prince" and comes to dance with it. The fairy brings the wooden prince to life and the princess goes away with that instead of the real prince, who falls into despair. The fairy takes pity on him as he sleeps, dresses him in finery and reduces the wooden prince to lifelessness again. The princess returns and is finally united with the human prince.
![Ravel; Lenfant et les sortilèges [excerpt] (WORLD ANIMAL DAY TRIBUTE)](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OmLQQMiRci0/hqdefault.jpg "Ravel; Lenfant et les sortilèges [excerpt] (WORLD ANIMAL DAY TRIBUTE)
~~~ HAPPY (belated) WORLD ANIMAL DAY! ~~~
Yes, I know its a bit late but I hadnt realized before, and thenameisgsarcis posts informed me of the occasion. Just pretend its World Animal Week instead...
Anyway, this is a charming yet very witty work by the late Ravel and I fully recommend listening to the whole thing if you havent done so already. This excerpt covers the final scene from the first part and the second part (i.e. the bits with the animals and the magic garden!).
pf: R. T. F. National Orchestra cond/ Lorin Maazel
Lenfant et les sortilèges: Fantaisie lyrique en deux parties (The Child and the Spells: A Lyric Fantasy in Two Parts) is an opera in one act, with music by Maurice Ravel to a libretto by Colette. It is Ravels second opera, his first being Lheure espagnole. Written from 1917 to 1925, Lenfant et les sortilèges was first performed in Monte Carlo in 1925 under the baton of Victor de Sabata.
SYNOPSIS:
Part 1
This is the story of a rude child who is reprimanded by the objects in his room which he has been destroying. After being scolded by his mother in the beginning of the opera, the child throws a tantrum destroying the room around him. He is then surprised to find that the unhappy objects in his room come to life. The furniture and decorations begin to talk; even his homework takes shape as it becomes an old man and a chorus of numbers.
Part 2
The bedroom becomes a garden filled with singing animals and plants which have been tortured by the child as well. The child attempts to make friends with the animals and plants, but they shun him because of the injuries he did to them earlier before they could talk. They leave him aside, and in his loneliness, he eventually cries out Maman. At this, the animals turn on him and attack him, but the animals wind up jostling among each other as the child is tossed aside. At the culmination, a squirrel is hurt, which causes the other animals to stop fighting. The child bandages the squirrel, then collapses exhausted. The animals have a change of heart toward the child, and decide to try to help him home. They carry the child back to his house, and sing in praise of the child. The opera ends with the child singing Maman, as he greets his mother, in the very last measure of the score.
SOURCE: Wikipedia")
