“Hearing their version was a simply stunning experience! Crabb and Draugsvoll had used Stravinsky’s piano score in their arrangement and, although the end result was wonderfully innovative, at the same time, it was astonishingly faithful to the original. The universality and, conversely, the intimacy of the accordion sound also felt like the right building material for the triangle drama that I wanted to create.
The central figure in Petrushka is an intriguing character, clearly a relative of many of the loser archetypes that appear in the history of film and literature. I suppose that many of us can occasionally identify with the figures of Petrushka, Punch, Pulcinella, Gelsomina, or even Buster Keaton, who in all their naivety and ingenuousness still come out on top, even when they lose.
My own work concentrates solely on Petrushka, the Ballerinaand the Moor. For example, I didn’t want to make a Fokin-style literal depiction of the market hubbub of the opening scene. I preferred to discover the inner joy and carnival spirit that the doll figures feel when they finally break free of the grip of their manipulator, and hence to participate in human feelings and in – apparent – freedom.”
– Tero Saarinen