Abstract

Music

Two of the smaller stage works of musician Igor Stravinsky, "Renard" and "L'Histoire du Soldat," have never found a well-defined place in the repertory of the U.S. rather rigidly stratified institutions of musical theatre. Described as "a burlesque story about the fox, the cock, the cat and the goat, to be sung and played on the stage," Renard is not an opera but rather a cantata with pantomimed stage action. Its instrumentation, including the Hungarian cimbalom, and its use of a vocal quartet put it beyond the usual resources of a ballet company, while the mimic demands far exceed the capabilities of average opera company's ballet wing. The challenges of L'Histoire were equally well met, with a fine sense of timing, especially in the "Three Dances" episode, where the transition from waltz to ragtime was perfectly meshed with Stravinsky's score.