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composer: Igor Strawinsky
ballet librettist: M. Malaieff - Igor Strawinsky

Ballet in Three Rounds

Premiere: 27. April 1937 New York · Metropolitan Opera-American Ballet · Dirigent: Igor Strawinsky · Choreographie: George Balanchine · Bühnenbild: Irene Sharaff
Orchestra instrumentation: 2 (2. auch Picc.) · 2 (2. auch Engl. Hr.) · 2 · 2 - 4 · 2 · 3 · 1 - P.S. (gr. Tr.) - Str. (12 · 10 · 8 · 6 · 6)
Cast of characters: 7 Tänzer - 8 Tänzerinnen - (Die Karten eines Pokerspieles)
Publisher: Schott Music
Duration: 25' 0''
Year of composition: 1936
Material on hire

Description:

They play for high stakes in Igor Stravinsky’s ballet Jeu de cartes, written for the first Stravinsky Festival mounted by George Balanchine for the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1937. Stravinsky, himself a keen poker player, invented an abstract drama for the various card ‘characters’, full of deceit and intrigue, which unfolds almost immediately on the card table as a ‘ballet in three deals’. At the start of each deal, the cards are shuffled in an ironic gesture, with the opposing hands played against each other in constantly changing combinations. The malicious joker interferes with the flow of the game several times by demonstrating his power, but can ultimately be defeated by a royal flush in hearts. There is a lot of bluffing in this game, even with regard to the music: Stravinsky parodies and combines alienated fragments from Rossini’s Barber of Seville and Johann Strauss’ Fledermaus or musical allusions to Beethoven, Ravel and Tchaikovsky.

This June, the musical world will celebrate the 125th birthday of Igor Stravinsky.

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