Vonnegut Turns A Colder Eye

Igor Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat," will be performed in a benefit at the Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor on Sept. 6. It features a new text by Kurt Vonnegut.

The performance will raise money for The Paris Review and the New York Philomusica, and also honor the memory of Rosemary Sheehan, a supporter of the Philomusica and an irrepressible fixture on the East End social scene until her death last year.

"This was an unusual opportunity for a writer because the music and words are quite separate," said Mr. Vonnegut, who lives in Sagaponack. "In fact a unique opportunity - I can't think of any other music where this happens."

War Ignored

The original text, by a Swiss poet and novelist called Charles Ramuz, tells the story of a traveling soldier who meets and is tempted by the devil.

"What bothered me was that this was written while World War I was going on," said Mr. Vonnegut, remarking on how much bloodier that war had been than World War II, the war in which he himself had fought. "But neither Ramuz nor Stravinsky were ever in the war."

"The music has a Kurt Weill edge, a slightly nasty tone, but the way the story goes, the soldier is walking down the road - all by himself, no companions, just the way it would be in the middle of a war," he said sarcastically. "And what's he carrying? A violin! Just the thing to have with you if you're a soldier!"

Down And Dirty

"And then he's stopped. By a military policeman? No, by the devil, who wants to trick the soldier into giving him violin lessons - just the sort of things devils do in wartime!"

"The devil offers him a princess, wealth, a deal is struck and I suppose somewhere along the way the soldier loses his soul."

"I decided to write a libretto about a real soldier and a real war. A really angry story to match the down and dirty music."

Pat Birch, who directed the premiere, has done completely new choreography, and Ann Reinking and Ben Gazzara will appear in the production.

Orchestras Interested

"We workshopped it for four nights in St. Louis," said Mr. Vonnegut, "and I'm finally satisfied with it."

The text will be published in The Paris Review. Already a number of orchestras - Steppenwolf and the Chicago Symphony among them - have expressed interest in future productions.

Mrs. Sheehan, whose father worked for Carl Fisher, was raised in the Montauk Manor Hotel and, while still a schoolgirl, won an essay competition that launched a career as a publicist. In addition to steadfastly promoting the Philomusica, a New York City ensemble of winds, strings, and piano launched in 1971, she helped launch Guild Hall's Joys of Summers benefit and the Boys Harbor Grucci fireworks.

A literary quarterly founded by expatriate Americans living in Paris in 1953, The Paris Review is edited by one of its founders and another East Ender, George Plimpton. The magazine is noted for publishing work by emerging authors and for its interviews with established writers.

Tickets start at $250 and are available from Event Planning and Management in Sag Harbor. The performance will start at 8 p.m.