ALICE COOPER Channeled Tommy Chong For Peter And The Wolf

Peter And The Wolf In Hollywood, narrated by Alice Cooper, a brand new DG recording of Prokofiev’s children’s classic, Peter And The Wolf – now coupled for the first time with a specially-written prequel (pre-story) will be released on November 13th via Deutsche Grammophon.

In a new interview with Billboard, Cooper says he channeled Tommy Chong for the album.

“I kept picturing Cheech and Chong,” Cooper says of the grandfather character, which was his favorite to portray in the story. “You know, an old hippie. I kind of channeled Tommy Chong and gave him that voice: ‘Hey man, cool.’”

The concept developed by the New York production company Giants Are Small extends for the first time ever the Peter And The Wolf we all know by a 30min prequel with the full blessing of the Prokofiev Foundation to a one hour piece of family entertainment

The best-loved story is now placed in an urban contemporary setting – Los Angeles – with a thrilling plot full of suspense and humour. The imaginative pre-story places Peter And The Wolf in Hollywood, whilst weaving together excerpts from some of the greatest symphonic masterpieces by Wagner, Mahler, Elgar, Puccini, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Schumann, Satie, Zemlinsky, Grieg, Smetana.

The story in a nutshell: Young, orphaned Peter comes to live with his “hippy” grandfather in LA and is having the time of his life; suddenly, this special trip is interrupted by a Fox News “breaking news” bulletin: A Wolf Has Escaped From The Zoo!

A tumultuous series of events involving Peter, his Grandfather, the duck, a cat, a little bird, the police and insatiable paparazzi (as the “hunters”), and of course the Wolf, lead us directly into the famous original story by Prokofiev: “And so Peter opened the gate and went out into the big green garden …”

By discovering the hero in himself Peter captures the beast and becomes Hollywood’s unintended celebrity. Performed by Germany’s National Youth Orchestra, and under the baton of excellent, young conductor Alexander Shelley, this is a fresh, energetic and extremely powerful interpretation made for the young and the young at heart.

Alexander Shelley has recently been named the Music Director of the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, 2015/16 being his first season at the helm.

Trailer: