Europe Day Children’s Concert

On 9 May 2007, the BiH Parliament hosted an unusual audience for such a venue and was filled with the sound of about 800 children from some six schools in both Sarajevo and East Sarajevo. They were there to listen to a special concert in honour of Europe Day – Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf”, a children’s story spoken by a narrator accompanied by an orchestra, in this case the “Youth Symphony Orchestra South Eastern Europe”, conducted by Sinisa  Markovic.

 

Before the concert began, Mr. Nikola Spiric, Chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers, told the children that they are the best part of BiH and it is his job to enable them to celebrate Europe Day together as Members some day.

 

 

Ambassador Koukoulas told the children that he has been to many countries and that Bosnia and Herzegovina is the most beautiful – they should be proud of their country and proud to be Europeans.  The cheering in response seems to indicate that they already are!

Peter and the Wolf  – the story

Peter, a young boy, lives with his grandfather in the Russian countryside. One day Peter leaves the garden gate open, and the duck takes the opportunity to go swimming on the nearby pond. She starts arguing with a little bird (“What kind of bird are you if you can’t fly?” – “What kind of bird are you if you can’t swim?”). A cat sneaks up on them, and the bird – warned by Peter – flies into a tall tree.

Peter’s grumpy grandfather takes him back into the garden and locks the gate in case the wolf comes. Shortly afterwards the wolf does indeed come out of the woods. The cat climbs into the tree, but the duck, who has left the pond, is swallowed by the wolf.

Peter fetches a rope and climbs over the garden wall into the tree. He asks the bird to fly around the wolf’s head, while he lowers a noose and catches the wolf by his tail.

Hunters come out of the woods and fire at the wolf, but Peter stops them. Everyone leads the wolf to the zoo in a triumphant procession. At the end one can hear the duck quacking in the wolf’s stomach, “because the wolf had swallowed her alive.”

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