Maurice Sendak’s "Pincus and the Pig: A Klezmer Tale"
(based on Prokofiev’s "Peter and the Wolf")

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"Did you hear of Boychick Pincus, how he opened wide the gate and hippity-hopped over the sweet warm meadow?" So begins Maurice Sendak’s inimitable recasting of Prokofiev’s "Peter and the Wolf" in which Peter has become Pincus and the wolf is Chozzer Pig. Like Prokofiev’s ever-popular piece, this version is a narrated story with musical accompaniment in which each character is represented by a theme in the music. Sendak and Shirim have collaborated to create a delightful multi-layered Jewish version of the story and music which, in live performance, features large-screen projections of Sendak’s fantastical artwork. Shirim’s remarkable klezmer reworking of the score captures the excitement and humor of Sendak’s script, from the scuffles between the kvetchy bird and the cranky duck, through the daring capture of the beastly Chozzer Pig,
to the triumphant march as Pincus, his grandfather (Zeyde) and the Cossacks carry the pig off.
 
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