View source for Pulcinella (ballet)

{{Short description|1920 ballet by Igor Stravinsky}}
{{About|Stravinsky's ballet|Justin Peck's ballet|Pulcinella Variations{{!}}''Pulcinella Variations''}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Infobox Ballet
|name       = Pulcinella
|image      = SAND Maurice Masques et bouffons 12.jpg
|image_size = 
|caption    = [[Pulcinella]] (Maurice Sand)
|choreographer  = [[Léonide Massine]]
|composer     = [[Igor Stravinsky]]
|based_on   = An 18th-century play
|premiere   = 15 May 1920
|place     = [[Paris]]
|ballet_company  = [[Ballets Russes]]
|design  = [[Pablo Picasso]] 
|characters = [[Pulcinella]]<br />Pimpinella<br />Furbo<br />Prudenza<br />Rosetta<br />Florindo<br />Cloviello
|setting    = 
|created for     = 
|genre      = [[Neoclassical ballet]]
|type   = Classical ballet
}}

'''''Pulcinella''''' is a 21-section [[ballet]] by [[Igor Stravinsky]] with arias for soprano, tenor and bass vocal soloists, and two sung trios. It is based on the 18th-century play ''Quatre Polichinelles semblables'', or ''Four similar Pulcinellas'', revolving around a [[stock character]] from ''[[commedia dell'arte]]''. The work premiered at the [[Palais Garnier|Paris Opera]] on 15 May 1920 under the baton of [[Ernest Ansermet]]. The central dancer, [[Léonide Massine]], created both the libretto and the choreography, while [[Pablo Picasso]] designed the costumes and sets. The ballet was commissioned by [[Sergei Diaghilev]], impresario of the ''[[Ballets Russes]]''. A complete performance takes 35–40 minutes. Stravinsky revised the score in 1965.

==History==
Diaghilev wanted a ballet based on an early 18th-century ''commedia dell'arte'' libretto and music then believed to have been composed by [[Giovanni Battista Pergolesi]]. This attribution has since been proved to be spurious.<ref>Dunning 1988.</ref> Some of the music may have been by [[Domenico Gallo]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095841447?rskey=BfJfBX&result=15|title = Domenico Gallo}}</ref> [[Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer]], [[Carlo Ignazio Monza]] and [[Alessandro Parisotti]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hubscher|first=Philip|title=Program Notes|url=https://cso.org/uploadedFiles/1_Tickets_and_Events/Program_Notes/ProgramNotes_Stravinsky_Pulcinella.pdf |access-date=2021-08-13 |archive-date=2020-11-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201105231847/https://cso.org/uploadedFiles/1_Tickets_and_Events/Program_Notes/ProgramNotes_Stravinsky_Pulcinella.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Conductor [[Ernest Ansermet]] wrote to Stravinsky in 1919 about the project. The composer initially did not like the idea of music by Pergolesi, but once he studied the scores, which Diaghilev had found in libraries in [[Naples]] and [[London]], he changed his mind. Stravinsky adapted the older music to a more modern style by borrowing specific themes and textures, but interjecting his modern rhythms, cadences, and harmonies.

''Pulcinella'' marked the beginning of Stravinsky's second phase as a composer, his [[Neoclassicism (music)|neoclassical]] period. He wrote: 
<blockquote>''Pulcinella'' was my discovery of the past, the epiphany through which the whole of my late work became possible. It was a backward look, of course—the first of many love affairs in that direction—but it was a look in the mirror, too.<ref>''Saint Louis Symphony Program Notes,'' in External Links</ref></blockquote>

The ballet was revived and revised by [[New York City Ballet]]'s balletmasters [[George Balanchine]] and [[Jerome Robbins]] for their 1972 Stravinsky Festival. They both danced in the performance, Robbins in the title role, and were joined in the premier by [[Francisco Moncion]], who danced the role of The Devil.<ref>Francisco Moncion as The Devil in the premier of Balanchine's "Pulcinella" [http://www.balanchine.org/balanchine/display_result.jsp?id=456&current=24&sid=Francisco%20Moncion&searchMethod=exact "Pulcinella" - Francisco Moncion], ''The George Balanchine Foundation''</ref>

== Story ==
Pulcinella is taken from a manuscript from Naples, dating from 1700, containing a number of comedies portraying the traditional character of the popular Neapolitan stage. This libretto was derived from ''Quatre Polichinelles semblables'' ("Four similar Pulcinellas").

The one-act ballet features Pulcinella, his girlfriend Pimpinella, his friends Furbo, Prudenza and Rosetta, and Florindo and Cloviello. The story starts with Florindo and Cloviello serenading Prudenza and Rosetta. The two women are unimpressed and reply by showering the suitors with water. Prudenza's father, a doctor, appears and chases them away.

A new episode begins with Rosetta, when her father appears. Rosetta dances for Pulcinella and they kiss. But Pimpinella sees this and interrupts them. Florindo and Cloviello arrive and, jealous of Pulcinella, they beat him up.  Pulcinella appears to be stabbed, but this is a ruse to gain Pimpinella's forgiveness of him. Furbo, disguised as a magician, comes and appears to resurrect Pulcinella in front of everybody. Pimpinella forgives Pulcinella, and Prudenza and Rosetta succumb to Florindo's and Cloviello's wooing. The ballet ends with the marriages of the three couples.

== Music ==
The music is based on pieces then believed to have been by the Italian composer [[Giovanni Battista Pergolesi]]. The following is a description of the musical forces and movements.

=== Instrumentation ===
''Pulcinella'' is scored for a modern [[chamber orchestra]] with three solo singers:

{{col-begin}}
{{col-break}}
;[[Vocal music|Voices]]:
:Solo [[soprano]]
:Solo [[tenor]]
:Solo [[Bass (voice type)|bass]]

;[[Woodwind instrument|Woodwinds]]:
:2 [[Western concert flute|flutes]] (2nd doubling [[piccolo]])
:2 [[oboe]]s
:2 [[bassoon]]s

;[[Brass instrument|Brass]]:
:2 [[Horn (instrument)|horns]] in F
:1 [[trumpet]] in C
:1 [[trombone]]

{{col-break}}
;[[String instruments|Strings]]:
:''[[Concertino (group)|Concertino]]'':
::2 [[violin]]s
::1 [[viola]]
::1 [[cello]]
::1 [[contrabass]]

:''[[Ripieno]]'':
::8 violins
::4 violas
::3 celli
::3 contrabasses
{{col-break}}
{{col-end}}

=== Form ===
[[File:Picasso's costume design for "Pulcinella" (1920).jpg|thumb|Picasso’s costume design for ''Pulcinella'' (1920)]]
The 35–40-minute ballet has these 21 sections: 

# Overture (Allegro moderato)
# Serenata (Larghetto): ''Mentre l'erbetta pasce l'agnella'' (tenor)
# Scherzino (Allegro)
# Poco più vivo
# Allegro
# Andantino
# Allegro
# Ancora poco meno: ''Contento forse vivere'' (soprano)
# Allegro assai
# Allegro ― Alla breve: ''Con queste paroline'' (bass)
# Trio (Andante): ''Sento dire no' ncè pace'' (soprano, tenor, bass)
# Allegro: ''Chi disse cà la femmena'' (tenor)
# Presto: ''Ncè sta quaccuna pò'' (soprano, tenor) … ''Una te fa la nzemprece'' (tenor)
# Allegro ― Alla breve
# Tarantella
# Andantino: ''Se tu m'ami'' (soprano)
# Allegro
# Gavotta con due variazioni
# Vivo
# Trio (Tempo di minuetto): ''Pupillette, fiammette d'amore'' (soprano, tenor, bass)
# Finale (Allegro assai)

== Pieces based on ''Pulcinella'' ==

===''Pulcinella Suite''===
Stravinsky extracted a purely instrumental suite from his ballet which was premiered by the [[Boston Symphony Orchestra]], conducted by [[Pierre Monteux]], on 22 December 1922. It has these eight movements:
{{ordered list|list_style_type=upper-roman
|Sinfonia
|Serenata
|Scherzino – Allegretto – Andantino
|Tarantella
|Toccata
|Gavotta (con due variazioni)
|Vivo (Duetto prior to revision)
|Minuetto – Finale}}
The suite was revised in 1947 to correct printing errors, change metronome markings and rename part VII.<ref>{{cite web |title=K034 Pulcinella |website=Kirchmeyer Catalog |url=http://www.kcatalog.org/index.php/browse-chapters/kcatalog/220-k034-pulcinella |access-date=August 31, 2022 }}</ref>
<!-- From K catalog: Revised version published by Boosey & Hawkes in 1949.
The revision of the concert suite was made in 1947. There were no changes in the notation, but existing printing errors were eradicated. The most important changes refer to metronome settings and to the re-naming of part seven from ‘duetto’ to ‘vivo’. The same goes for the ballet edition of 1965. Here, too, the changes referred mainly to metronome settings.
-->

===''Suite italienne''===
Stravinsky based the following works on the ballet:
*1925: ''Suite d'après des thèmes, fragments et morceaux de Giambattista Pergolesi,'' for violin and piano (in collaboration with [[Paul Kochanski]]).
*1932/33: ''Suite italienne,'' for cello and piano (in collaboration with [[Gregor Piatigorsky]]).
*1933: ''Suite italienne'', for violin and piano (in collaboration with [[Samuel Dushkin]]).
*Violinist [[Jascha Heifetz]] and Piatigorsky later made an arrangement for violin and cello, which they also called ''Suite italienne''.

=== ''Other pieces'' ===

* 2021: Bassoonist Cornelia Sommer wrote an arrangement for bassoon and piano that includes five movements from the ballet: Overture, Serenata, Toccata, Gavotta, and Menuetto e Finale.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*Dunning, Albert (1988). "Un gentilhomme hollandais, diplomate-compositeur, à la cour de Louis XV : Nouvelles recherches sur le comte Unico Wilhelm van Wassenaer". ''Revue de Musicologie'' 74, no. 1:27–51.
* White, Eric Walter (1966). ''Stravinsky : The Composer and His Works'', second edition. Berkeley: University of California Press. {{ISBN|978-0-520-03983-4}}.

==External links==
* {{IMSLP|work=Pulcinella, K034 (Stravinsky, Igor)}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070619050440/http://fmg-www.cs.ucla.edu/geoff/prognotes/stravinsky/pulcinella.html Programme notes]

{{Igor Stravinsky}}
{{Balanchine ballets}}
{{Pablo Picasso}}
{{Neoclassicism (music)|state=autocollapse}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ballets Russes productions]]
[[Category:Ballets by Léonide Massine]]
[[Category:Neoclassicism (music)|Pulcinella]]
[[Category:1920 ballets]]
[[Category:1920 compositions]]
[[Category:Ballets by Igor Stravinsky]]
[[Category:Songs with music by Igor Stravinsky]]
[[Category:Ballets designed by Pablo Picasso]]
[[Category:New York City Ballet Stravinsky Festival]]
[[Category:Stefan Zweig Collection]]
[[Category:Pulcinella]]
[[Category:Arrangements of classical compositions]]
[[Category:Orchestral compositions with vocals]]