The Moor, the character with whom Petrushka vies for the Ballerina’s affections, when unable to crack a coconut with his scimitar, assumes the coconut is a god, and begins to worship it.
Petrushka is a puppet made of straw and has a bag full of sawdust for his body.
The Shrovetide Fair is the Russian equivalent of Mardi Gras.
In music theory circles, Petrushka is known for its “Petrushka chord”, which are two major chords sounding a tritone apart (C and F-sharp major). It is used to represent the character of Petrushka, especially at the end of the piece, where the two trumpets play the triads together to represent Petrushka’s ghost hectoring the Charlatan.
The coconut thing is actually quite profound — the arrogance of believing that anything you don’t understand or which bests you in some way must be a god!
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The coconut thing is actually quite profound — the arrogance of believing that anything you don’t understand or which bests you in some way must be a god!