Il mio primo Debussy

Children’s Corner
Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum
Jimbo’s Lullaby
Serenate for the Doll
The Snow is Dancing
The Little Shepherd
Golliwogg’s Cake-Walk

La boîte à joujoux
Ballet for children in one act and four scenes
(original version 1913)

Choreography, Direction, Set Design and Lighting
Irina Kashkova

Assistant choreographer
Olga Birukova

Costumes
Sartoria Russian Ballet College Inna Parigina

Piano
Dario Bonuccelli (1, 2, 6, 12 e 13)
Valentina Messa (3, 4, 10 e 11)

Balletto Fondazione Formazione Danza e Spettacolo “For Dance” ETS

The show introduces young audiences to the world and love that Debussy devoted to childhood. It begins with the piano suite Children’s Corner, which he composed inspired by his three-year-old daughter, Emma-Claude, and continues with the ballet La boîté à joujoux (“The Toy Box”), a ballet for children in one act and four scenes, composed in 1913. Here too, Debussy drew inspiration not only from the very popular tradition of puppet ballet, but also from the world of childhood, and so the toys come to life, emerge from the box where they had been stored, and take us on many adventures.

Each of the three protagonists – a doll, a soldier and a Pulcinella – is musically characterised by a theme, and so a waltz, a military march and an ironic, playful melody recur several times. The three are involved in a love triangle that ends with the happy marriage of the doll and the toy soldier, whom we find again years later in the fourth scene, surrounded by their children. In the finale presents, all toys return into the initial box.