Reflection on the Russian character in Petrushka and Juliet

    When I was young, some of the musical compositions that touched me the most profoundly were Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, and I think the especially Russian character of these works may be why they still speak to me so pointedly. Though I have never seen either ballet in real life, and I saw only a mashed-up video of  Petrushka, I know about the way the themes fit the main characters from reading liner notes and short articles about the musical scores.

    In both ballets, there is a very strong musical theme that is attached to the main character, and each one is terribly oppressed by forces far more powerful than he or she is. In Petrushka the title character is a puppet who falls in love with a ballerina, but she prefers a bigger, stronger, more primitive and masculine puppet, a Moor. In Romeo and Juliet, the heroine loves Romeo, but the family (and, by extension, the society) she is a part of forbids her love. In both compositions, we have a feeling that the forces that work against the one who loves are an order of magnitude greater than the resources that the lover has. The theme of the Moor is ominous, dark and deep; meanwhile, the theme of the puppet hero, Petrushka, is light, innocent and tender. The music tells us also that the ballerina is beautiful and vain, so the deck is stacked pretty badly against the puppet. Meanwhile, regarding Juliet, the themes that represent family and society are very powerful, repressed and even terrifying. Juliet’s themes are sweet, vulnerable and passionate. The music seems to have its greatest sympathy for the lone individual pitted against enormous social power, power that will ultimately destroy the lovers.

    To me, the Russian character of these ballets is inherent in the way that the power structure is so heavily stacked against the one individual who desires love, whether that love is a more innocent and childish desire (Petrushka) or a more vulnerable and passionate desire (Juliet). The ones we have the most sympathy with are destroyed, and that also seems to reveal something about the Russian national character. That may also explain why Stravinsky and Prokofiev became exiles. It seems that in the long history of Russia, there has been a very strong oppressive ruling class or ruling state, long before the Czars, and throughout the time of the communists. So perhaps that is another way to understand the terror and oppression that inspires these stories.