Almost a hundred years following its creation, in the Russia of 1936, what story can we tell Pierre and the Wolf ? What happens to the big bad predator at a time when we rejoice in its return, when we prefer the king of canines to hunters, and when we are more concerned with preserving our forests than protecting themselves from them? ? But it doesn’t really matter that times have changed. Because Pierre and the Wolf is above all an initiatory tale, a tale of emancipation, a universal fable where a child finds himself confronted with the dangers of exploration (walking in a large bushy meadow where a predator can roam), and with the dilemma between wisdom and pleasure (should you obey the grandfather and stay at home as a precaution, or give in to the bewitching sirens of an unattended bucolic excursion?). Pierre and the Wolf tells us that it is not force that counts, but cunning, and that everything is relative. When the chick says to the duck: “What kind of bird are you then, if you cannot fly?” The duck answers him: “What kind of bird are you that can’t swim?” And he plunges into the pond. Certainly, this poor duck will meet a tragic end, but it is together that Petit Pierre and the little bird will manage to capture the wolf.
Asked to narrate this great classic in the company of the national orchestra of Pays-de-la-Loire, singer Dominique A takes over here from prestigious reciters – Gérard Philipe, Robert lamoureux, Jacques Brel, and even David Bowie en 1978. He offers us, in addition to the beautiful educational orchestration of Prokofiev (a type of instrument, a character), a homemade song with ecological sensitivity, musical comedy style. “Stories love wolves, but wolves in stories, we don’t like them very much”, sings with his inimitable Dominique A vibrato, once morest a backdrop of voluptuous strings. The set, which has a crazy charm, forms a CD-book nicely illustrated by Lili the Whale.
Pierre and the Wolf by Serge Prokofiev, Maison Eliza-ONPL, played by the Pays-de-la-Loire national orchestra, conducted by Pascal Rophé. Narrator: Dominique A. Illustrator: Lili la Baleine. CD book and QR code. 32 pp., € 19. From 2 years old.
.