Chout was Prokofiev's first completed ballet score for
Sergei Diaghilev. Diaghilev had first commissioned
Ala and Lolli but rejected the score submitted by Prokofiev. Although the composer recast some of the music as the
Scythian Suite, the projected ballet never saw the light of day. Instead, Diaghilev asked Prokofiev to write a ballet based on a folk tale recorded by
Alexander Afanasyev. The story had been previously suggested to Diaghilev by
Igor Stravinsky as a possible subject for a ballet, and Diaghilev and his choreographer
Léonide Massine helped Prokofiev to shape this into a ballet scenario. The story involves seven buffoons who all murder their wives after being told by an eighth buffoon that he has killed his own wife and brought her back to life with a magic whip and promises to do the same for them. When he fails to deliver on his promise, the other buffoons seek revenge. The principal buffoon is forced to disguise himself as a woman and is chosen for marriage by a wealthy merchant. He escapes after swindling the merchant out of 300 roubles. Prokofiev wrote the score in 1915. Although Diaghilev was again not happy with the music, this time he was prepared to work with the composer to recast it into six scenes and retain the best parts of the music already written. He also wanted new
''entr'actes to make the music play continuously, which Prokofiev did, but not until 1920. In the meantime, the ballet was not produced. He revised the score while staying at
Mantes-sur-Seine near
Paris. He wrote the
piano reduction while travelling by ship to the United States and finished the full score in early 1921 after his return to France. He played through the score for Stravinsky in Paris, who liked it. Shortly afterwards, Diaghilev also approved the changes. Over 40 per cent of the original score was either deleted or rewritten, and the required additional entr'actes'' were composed. The first performance of the ballet was given by the
Ballets Russes on 17 May 1921, at the
Théâtre Municipal de la Gaîté, Paris, with choreography by Fyodor Slavinsky and supervision by
Mikhail Larionov. The orchestra was conducted by the composer. It was fairly well received, however the
London premiere on 9 June was bitterly attacked by audiences and critics alike. == Structure ==