FIREBIRD

The Firebird (Zhar–ptitsa ) is one of the most colorful legendary animal figures of Russian magical tales (fairy tales). With golden feathers and eyes like crystals, she is a powerful source of light, and even one of her feathers can illuminate a whole room. Sometimes she functions as little more than a magical helper who flies the hero out of danger; in other tales her feather and she herself are highly desired prizes to be captured. "Prince Ivan, the Firebird, and the Gray Wolf" depicts her coming at night to steal golden apples from a king's garden and becoming one object of a heroic quest by the youngest prince, Ivan. Helped by a gray wolf, he ends up with the Firebird as well as a noble steed with golden mane and golden bridle and Princess Yelena the Fair.

The tales became the narrative source for the first of two famous folklore ballets composed by Igor Stravinsky under commission from Sergei Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes. L'Oiseau de feu, with choreography by the noted Russian Michel Fokine, premiered at the Paris Opera on June 25, 1910, with great success and quickly secured the young Stravinsky's international reputation. Like his Petrushka that followed it, The Firebird impressed audiences with the colorfulness of both story and music and with its bold harmonic innovations. The two ballets also helped spread awareness of Russia's rich folk culture beyond its borders.

See also: ballet, folklore

bibliography

Guterman, Norbert, tr. (1973). Russian Fairy Tales, 2d ed. New York: Pantheon Books.

Taruskin, Richard. (1996). Stravinsky and the Russian Traditions: A Biography of the Works through Mavra. 2 vols. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Norman W. Ingham