Enchanted gardens! Magic birds! The captivating story and thrilling music that filled Russian composer Igor Stravinsky's ballet "The Firebird" fascinated audiences when it premiered in Paris more than 113 years ago.
"The Firebird" made Stravinsky an overnight sensation, and the work remains extraordinarily popular, whether it's performed in its original ballet setting or as an orchestral suite.
Stravinsky wrote "The Firebird" in 1910, but he'd been interested in ballet since he was 8, when he attended a performance of Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Sleeping Beauty."
20 years later, Sergei Diaghilev, a Russian ballet producer, asked Stravinsky to write a ballet for the famed Ballet Russes in Paris.
At the time, Stravinsky was writing music that was considered "modernist" — music that broke out of traditional western harmonic and rhythmic conventions.
To create "The Firebird," he paired this new musical approach with Russian folktales about the mythical firebird and Koschei the Deathless, the evil, immortal keeper of a creepy garden.
"The Firebird" follows a prince named Ivan on his quest for true love, and things quickly go wrong when he finds himself in Koschei's garden.
But Prince Ivan also runs into a flock of firebirds, who leave him with a magic feather.
In Koschei's garden, Prince Ivan finds a group of evilly charmed maidens playing a game with golden apples.
Ivan seems to click with one maiden in particular, but Koschei has other plans and sends the maidens to attack Ivan.
But Ivan remembers his magic feather, which he uses to summon a firebird.
The bird helps Ivan defeat Koschei and break the maidens' spell, and everyone lives happily ever after (except Koschei).
Listen to the episode to hear the fiery music Stravinsky illuminates this story with!
Extra Stravinsky fun:
Fun fact: Stravinsky loved cats.
"The Firebird": Disco Edition:
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Classical Sprouts is produced by Emily Duncan Wilson. Kacie Brown is the digital content manager.
