Mikhail Gorbachev is teaming up with former US president Bill Clinton and actress Sophia Loren to record a new version of the classic children's musical "Peter and the Wolf."
Retitled "The Wolf and Peter", the remake of Sergei Prokoviev's tale will tell the story from the point of view of the wolf, faced with the encroachments of urbanisation on his dwindling forest habitat.
Real or not, you can bet that it won't be any more fit for youngsters than a Michael Jackson sleep-over would be.
I had a hard time believing it too, so I did a search, and it is being reported all over, so I guess it's true.
Here is a more detailed account from The Moscow Times
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/02/05/002.html
Past Presidents Play 'Peter and the Wolf'
By Kevin O'Flynn
Staff Writer
Rno.ru
Mikhail Gorbachev will team up with Bill Clinton and Sophia Loren for his English-language recording debut in a new narration of Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf."
The last leader of the Soviet Union will join the former U.S. president and the Italian actress on a special charity recording of Prokofiev's work by the Russian National Orchestra. The recording will be issued by PentaTone Classics this spring.
Gorbachev follows in the footsteps of a host of stars — including Boris Karloff, David Bowie, Jack Lemmon, Sean Connery and Sting — in participating in "Peter and the Wolf."
Three-time Grammy-winning conductor Kent Nagano has already conducted the music and will work with Gorbachev when he records his narration Monday.
Clinton and Loren recorded their parts with Nagano in Geneva in December.
Nagano and Sergei Markov, the general director of the RNO, were shy at a news conference Tuesday about saying which parts each of the three will narrate. Their unwillingness may have been prompted by the laviscious way one reporter posed the question: "Who is the wolf and who is Peter?" — in a reference to Loren and Clinton. The RNO web site says Gorbachev will narrate the introduction.
As well as narrating Prokofiev's tale, the three are recording a newly written piece, "The Wolf and Peter," with music by French composer Jean-Pascal Beintus and text by writer Walt Kraemer.
Prokofiev's version tells the tale of a young boy's encounter with a dangerous wolf and eventual capture of the hungry animal. In the new version, the story is more from the wolf's side.
"We thought it would be interesting to see the story from the point of view of the wolf," Nagano said. "He's in the forest, but the forest is disappearing, urbanization is cutting the trees away. ... We see why the wolf is so desperate."
The new version perhaps especially appeals to Gorbachev, who is heavily involved in environmental work. He is donating his fee for the performance to Green Cross International, an environmental organization he founded in 1993. Clinton is donating his fee to the International AIDS trust, whose advisory committee he chairs with former South African leader Nelson Mandela.
Loren is donating her fee to the orchestra's own charity Music for the Masses, which brings art therapy to orphanages and facilities for the physically and mentally disabled. The album will be decorated with pictures by children from some of the orphanages.
"We chose former politicians who have a great ability to communicate," said Nagano, when asked why Clinton and Gorbachev were picked.
It was an answer that might seem odd to many Russians because Gorbachev, when in power, was often criticized for his provincial accent and long, indecipherable sentences.
Nagano and Markov said Gorbachev speaks English very well, although a spokesman at his foundation said earlier Tuesday that he didn't speak English at all.
The recording comes in a year filled with events to mark the 50th anniversary of Prokofiev's death.
"Peter and the Wolf" was one of Prokofiev's first compositions after his return to the Soviet Union in 1936. Written in a week for a Moscow children's theater, the piece acts as a child's introduction to the orchestra, with each character played by a different instrument or group of different instruments — Peter by the strings, the wolf by the horn section and the cat by the clarinet.
The new version is much in keeping with Prokofiev's original intentions.
"The idea was born from the goal of trying to create a recording that would be very stimulating for families and at the same time for connoisseurs," Nagano said.
"In the United States we live in very difficult times where education of music for the young generation is undervalued," he said. "When I was young, the study of music was advanced and not just for musicians but for the whole class."
Nagano has previously recorded "Peter and the Wolf" with the Orchestra de L'Opera de Lyon and "Star Trek" actor Patrick Stewart.
Peter and the Wolf is the piece with a different instrument representing each character. I hate to think of the instrument that Clinton will be represented by and who will be blowing playing it.
LOL. I'm not sure whether Clinton will be the wolf or not, because hey, there are a lot of people who see him as a complete Peter.
On the other hand, maybe Sophia will be the one who handles Peter. It wouldn't be the first time, according to published reports.
for the both of them!