My wife and I, who, had never seen a full-length ballet before, although she had taken lessons as a child, watched this together and it is fair to say we were enraptured. Living in the heart of the Brazilian outback, youtube is the only chance we ever have to see such things. It is also a privilege to see a performance that is more or less as it would have been done 100 years ago when this was first produced. What an amazing thing! We are now going to look for Petrushka and (God help us) The Rite of Spring. Still, l if it comes up to this standard...
Find Petrushka with Andris Liepa, there is a wonderful Russian film .. he was amazing dancer before he retired. So reminiscent of heroes Russian Fairy Tale boxes and in books.
Andris was also gorgeous in Firebird, it was like looking at the illustrations in a fairy tale book. I have it on one DVD with Petrushka and Scherezade
Petrushka is one of my favourites. Also, if you have time, try The Green Table done by the Joffrey Ballet. It's on youtube in approx 7 installments. Very worth the trouble of watching in 7 segments! :)
Synopsis: One day, the Tsar's son, Ivan Tsarevich, goes hunting and manages to capture a bird with wings like fire, who is obviously the Firebird the name is mentioning. The Firebird begs for her release, and offers Ivan one of her magic feathers. Ivan agrees and is told to wave that feather whenever he is in trouble. Ivan releases the Firebird and keeps hunting. He comes across 12 maidens and a princess that are all playing a game with golden apples from a tree. Ivan joins their game and learns that they are captives of an evil king named Kastchei, whose soul is protected inside of an egg in a casket. If the egg is destroyed, he dies. The maidens and the princess leave, and warn Ivan not to follow. But he does, and enters Kastchei's palace. He sets off an alarm, and is captured. Kastchei tries to turn him to stone. Ivan waves the feather the Firebird gave him and the Firebird sends Kastchei and all of his "subjects" in to a mad dance. Eventually, they crash and the Firebird shows Ivan where the casket with Kastchei's soul is. Ivan breaks the egg, killing Kastchei. Although Stravinsky didn't mention this in the original score, a lot of productions end with Ivan marrying the princess. So there you go.
@Ian Welsman I want to give you tip. You can use the word the 'aforementioned' for the 'the name is mentioning'. You can say 'the name aforementioned' :D
8:49 Ivan captures the Firebird. 14:54 The Firebird gives Ivan the magic feather for help in time of trouble. 20:42 Ivan encounters the 12 maidens and the princess, King Kastchei's captives. 33:05 Ivan summons the Firebird to redeem her promise. 43:16 Ivan breaks the soul egg, killing evil king Kastchei thereby freeing the captive maidens and princess. 47:21 Ivan marries the princess.
This is, by far, the best Firebird I have ever seen. Usually, the opening Firebird-Prince pas is the major dancing, and the rest is pantomime. This was much more fully realized, and gave the great score its due. I loved Vishneva, and I thought the Prince and Princess were very good too. A great production!
Diana embodies music and dance all by herself. Her vivacious, classy, unassuming and charming personality matches the plot and theme of the masterpiece by Stravinsky, who is embodiment of music himself. Agility, flexibility, artistic fluidity, musicality, subtleness and beauty swept me off my feet. Diana must have nee sent from above like her great predecessor and role model- Yulia Mikhalina.... though both utterly different personalities. Stravinsky the greatest revolutionary and visionary composer of the XXth century produced an imaginary, mystical opus... the most breath-takingly ballet of the last century. Thank for posting the marvelous rendition....
Hello, I have a question and I hope someone can answer it for me! I'm working on a project about ballet trough the ages for school and I have to find a version of The Firebird that is very close to the original one. I don't know of this one is because I have never seen this ballet before. If you know please say so and if you know another one that is more suitable for my project please comment. Thank you!
The best way to watch the original Nijinsky choreography to Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), especially for dancers who are accustomed to Swan Lake type beautiful ballet, is to think of it as 2/3 aerobics and 1/3 ballet. The Nijinsky choreography is absolutely stunning and mirrors perfectly the music which is about Pagan rituals in ancient Russia. After watching the Joffrey performance (or perhaps even before) one should definitely watch Riot at the Rite which gives great background including the commotion which took place at the first performance of the ballet on May 29, 1913.
bravo bravissimo............Tres bien fait. Merci Monsieur Stravinsky. J'aime bein l'histoire L'Oiseau de Feu. Zhar Ptitsa en Russe. C'est tres spirituael and ca nous aide de devenir Le varie Soi que nous sommes.
Fabulous pas de Deux with intense fluidity sensual passion truly a masterpiece preserved with reverence to detail for 'Fokine's' genius to 'Stravinsky's beautiful score. Wonderful dancers here!!!
It‘s so electrifying. Wonderful dance, costumes, stage.. I believe this is also a lot of fun for the dancers to be part of the production. Despite all the hard work. I guess many of them are still students from Vaganova academy
Although I much prefer the Royal Ballets Goncharova designs- the dancing in this is far superior to the Benjamin -Cope version also the acting is of a much more commited and higher standard You can really believe in the characters !!1
This is a more modern , much longer and wonderful version of the Firebird, wonderfully done , entrancing in every way, though I love parts of the original version too.
I’ve heard of Stravinsky’s firebird but I’ve never watched it before this. Yet I knew for sure that it was firebird the moment she walked in at 7:24 ! And it wasn’t even stated in the title! (Not in English anyways)
Comme je l'ai déjà dit,je préfère de très loin ces ballets aux pauvres films qui ne montrent que l'éternel EGO de nous autres pauvres humains BRAVISSIMO!!!!!!
One thing I don't like, is that if Firebird could do all she did at the end, then why didn't she just overpower the prince in the beginning?... If I could rewrite it, I'd have Firebird humble the prince, instead of begging HIM to spare HER, and only give him the feather, as she stumbles upon him, broken, and alone, after being rejected by the girl.
I don't think it's a mistake because fairy tale is a genre that is unrealistic in principle. There must be logic in it but not so strict. The main thing is fantasy, beauty, archetypes, emotions, poetry... And this is a superb fairy tale in its scenic and musical realization.
I'd guess there was something in the original stories this ballet is based on to explain that a little. But nonetheless I think it's more interesting this way. It's kind of a funny paper-rock-scissory dynamic. Prince>mythical creature>sorcerer>prince.
Диана Вишнева прекрасная балерина, балет получился красивый, магический. Музыка особенно магическая, опасная для эмоционального зрителя. Спасибо, baletart!
Yes Diana Vishneva is beautiful. Stravinsky composed many other ballets but not sepcialy for her. The most famous is "The Rite of Spring" but there is also "Petrouchka" or less known "Apollo" whose music is beautiful ! Sincerely
I am unfortunately not as familiar with Stravinsky as with others - my personal favourites include the classic Tschaikovsky (all of his ballets) and Ludwig Minkus specifically, 'La Bayadère' and 'Don Quixote'. However, my favourite role that Diana Vishneva did was a variation from 'Carmen' at the Mariinsky Gala in 2013. I had never seen anyone dance so remarkably then.
According to other commentators, the conductor could not have Stravinsky because he died before the ballerina was born, though he was a conductor, when he was alive.
