<P> Peter and the Wolf (Russian: "Пе́тя и волк", tr . "Pétya i volk", IPA: (ˈpjetjə i volk)) Op. 67, a' symphonic fairy tale for children', is a musical composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 . The narrator tells a children's story, while the orchestra illustrates it . It is Prokofiev's most frequently performed work, and one of the most frequently performed works in the entire classical repertoire . It has been recorded many times . </P> <P> In 1936, Sergei Prokofiev was commissioned by Natalya Sats, the director of the Central Children's Theatre in Moscow, to write a musical symphony for children . Sats and Prokofiev had become acquainted after he visited her theatre with his sons several times . The intent was to introduce children to the individual instruments of the orchestra . The first draft of the libretto was about a Young Pioneer (the Soviet version of a Boy Scout) called Peter who rights a wrong by challenging an adult . (This was a common theme in propaganda aimed at children in the Soviet Union at the time .) However, Prokofiev was dissatisfied with the rhyming text produced by Antonina Sakonskaya, a then popular children's author . Prokofiev wrote a new version where Peter captures a wolf . As well as promoting desired Pioneer virtues such as vigilance, bravery and resourcefulness, the plot illustrates Soviet themes such as the stubbornness of the un-Bolshevik older generation (the grandfather) and the triumph of Man (Peter) taming Nature (the wolf). Prokofiev produced a version for the piano in under a week, finishing it on April 15 . The orchestration was finished on April 24 . The work debuted at a children's concert in the main hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the Moscow Philharmonic on 2 May 1936 . However, Sats was ill and the substitute narrator inexperienced, and the performance failed to attract much attention . Later that month a much more successful performance with Sats narrating was given at the Moscow Pioneers Palace . The American premiere took place in March 1938, with Prokofiev himself conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall, Boston with Richard Hale narrating . By that time Sats was serving a sentence in the gulag, where she was sent after her lover Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky was shot in June 1937 . </P> <P> Peter, a Young Pioneer, lives at his grandfather's home in a forest clearing . One day, Peter goes out into the clearing, leaving the garden gate open, and the duck that lives in the yard takes the opportunity to go swimming in a pond nearby . The duck 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?"). Peter's pet cat stalks them quietly, and the bird--warned by Peter--flies to safety in a tall tree while the duck swims to safety in the middle of the pond . </P>

Who narrated the original peter and the wolf