L’Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale), by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz “is the Faustian story of a young soldier who sells his soul to the Devil in return for infinite wealth.”
Perhaps then, it’s no coincidence that it was created by Stravinsky, alongside writer Ramuz, in a Switzerland surrounded by the ravages of World War I.
First time I’ve listened to the Stravinsky’s music theatre piece, The Soldier’s Tale, was in Campos do Jordão Music Festival, in Brazil. It was in 2004. John Neschling was the music director and the Narrator. I have never seen anything as extraordinary as this - so far.
One year later, I was on the way to school, into the tube station, picked up a copy of a free newspaper and saw that Jeremy Irons was going to make a rare stage appearance (his first stage role for many years) in The Soldier’s Tale at London’s Old Vic theatre on Sunday, November 21, 2004.
Besides having the chance to see one of my favourite actors on stage - playing the Narrator - I would have the chance to see The Soldier’s Tale once again!
What I saw in London was one of the best presentations ever. The play begins with Jeromy Irons narrating the story while there’s something being prepared on the microwave oven. It’s modern, it’s fabulous.
The idea of the companion was to make a single presentation in London to raise money for a bigger project - to take this same production to Baghdad, using a new Arabic/English translation and introducing Arabic music, spreading an antiwar march.
The original play, written in 1918 is an antiwar story, and I think it’s quite an interesting initiative to update The Soldier’s Tale to the Iraq war. The most important - they were not aiming to be polemic and spread any kind of political engagement.
That’s the reason the companion didn’t made clear who the devil is - they didn’t want people to believe that the devil was Saddam, Osama or George, for instance.
After all, the message of the story is that it is ideology, not money, which leads people to Hell, the idea that there is only one truth, our own truth.
