L'Histoire du soldat. The Soldier's Tale. Geschichte vom Soldaten.

Stravinsky: Ramuz and I were simply overwhelmed by the humanistic character of the tragic history of the soldier who comes to be the absolute victim of the devil

A soldier meets an old man on his way back to his home village; exchanges his fiddle for a book that tells things before they happen; soon walks rich in the world where nobody sees him or speaks to him; gets rid of all his wealth to be what he used to be; in another country advised by a stranger to try to win the health and the hand of a princess; steps over the borderline circumscribing his happiness - the frontier of the kingdom - when he attempts to retrieve his past; ends in the hands of the voices that led him all along.

Can we tell a story about a soldier who sells his soul to the devil?
Do we tell it or PLAY it?
Lue, Jouee et Dansee en Deux Parties.
To be read, played and danced in two parts
Gelesen, gespielt und getanzt in zwei Teilen.
Citana, igrana i svirana u dva dela.
No matter if we play it or tell it do we need to know who the devil is?
The representative of evil, the pre-existing negative force that eternally competes with the good?
Does Stravinsky's tale want us to necessarily moralize in terms of good and bad?
Or the devil is seen as the driving force, no matter if it is good or bad?
Is it 'the other' called the devil so as to be blamed?
Why doesn't one rather think what the soldier's chances to change the course of events are?
When led by the devil?
Or when narrated?
Is it easier to believe in the victim of a predetermined fate?
More accurately, easy when one is touched by a fairy-tale about the relentless tragic destiny of a helpless individual?
The soldier asks: "Cards, what do you say?"
Ease one's conscience by substituting the destiny for responsibility?
Narration at distance instead of immediate action?
Can we tell our story of the soldier?
An old man, who knows a lot, implies more than one could imagine, acts, narrates, suggests, leads, persuades, pushes and manipulates by creating the illusion of a fairy tale.
A boy, who indulges in the luxury of not making his own decisions by himself, accepts to be patronized in the game of theatre regardless of consequences.
Acting and non-acting meet where passivity triggers manipulation, the ideology of self-victimization revealed in the system of narration.
He could only ask himself one question: Why me and who by.
If he had become the subject of his sentences he eventually wouldn't have ended as a hero in a story.