Stravinsky - L'Oiseau de Feu = The Firebird; Jeu de Cartes / Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Josep Pons / Musique D'Abord / Harmonia Mundi France Audio CD 2004 / HMA 1951728

UPC 794881739127

The Firebird (French: L'Oiseau de feu; Russian: Жар-птица, romanized: Zhar-ptitsa) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Michel Fokine, who collaborated with Alexandre Benois on a scenario based on the Russian fairy tales of the Firebird and the blessing and curse it possesses for its owner. It was first performed at the Opéra de Paris on 25 June 1910 and was an immediate success, catapulting Stravinsky to international fame. Although designed as a work for the stage, with specific passages accompanying characters and action, the music achieved equal if not greater recognition as a concert piece.

Stravinsky was a young, virtually unknown composer when Diaghilev recruited him to create works for the Ballets Russes; L'Oiseau de feu was the first such major project. The success of the ballet was the start of Stravinsky's partnership with Diaghilev, which would subsequently produce further ballet productions until 1928, including the acclaimed Petrushka (1911), The Rite of Spring (1913), and Apollon Musagete (1928).

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