LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Sergei Prokofiev’s musical fairy tale Peter and the Wolf is popular with children but not with wolf lovers, and two former world leaders — Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev — aim to put that right in a new recording.
They have teamed up in a new recording that couples the tale with a contemporary version featuring the same two protagonists but a very different ending.
Prokofiev’s version ends with Peter capturing the wolf and leading a triumphant procession to the zoo, paining music-loving environmentalists with romantic visions of wolves in the wild.
In the new version, narrated by former U.S. president Clinton and called Wolf Tracks, Peter again captures the wolf, but this time repents of his act and releases the animal, who howls a grateful goodbye.
…The accompanying booklet includes an article supposedly written by a wolf.
“On behalf of all wolves, I would like to thank Kent Nagano and the Russian National Orchestra, Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren for coming together to make this recording,” the wolf writes.
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Bill Clinton as a wolf would be typecasting. If I was to rewrite this classic story and had Peter release the wolf. I would have the Wolf eat that stupid naive tree-hugging Peter and then follow up with dessert of a PETA member of two.
