DESIGNS: CONCERT:

Petrushka

London's Barbican Concert Hall

April 2015

Theatre company Giants are Small uses puppets, dancers, film and the full New York Philharmonic to re-imagine Stravinsky’s Petrushka.

Petrushka is so familiar in the concert hall that it’s easy to forget that it was originally conceived as a breathtaking theatrical spectacle: a tale of love and death at a Russian Shrovetide Fair. Giants Are Small turns the New York Philharmonic into the fairground, conductor Alan Gilbert turns magician and – with puppets, dancers and electronic visuals – Petrushka and his fellow-marionettes come startlingly alive. Two of the 20th-century’s most glittering ballet scores, Bartók’s Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin and Debussy’s Jeux serve as a fairy-tale prequel to Petrushka.

New York Philharmonic
Giants Are Small
Alan Gilbert conductor, magician
Doug Fitch director, designer
Edouard Getaz producer, video director
Clifton Taylor, Lighting Designer