For the first performance of Firebird, June 25th, 1910, the Ballets Russes programme of the Théâtre National de l'Opéra, Paris, published the following synopsis:

The Firebird, one of the most popular Russian folktales, begins when Ivan Tsarevich, the crown prince, sees a marvelous bird of flaming gold. He pursues but fails to catch it, and only succeeds in snatching one of its glittering feathers. The chase has taken him into the domain of Kastchei the Immortal, demi-god of evil, who attempts to capture him and, as he has already done with many valiant knights and princes, turns him to stone. Kastchei's daughters and thirteen princesses intercede for Ivan Tsarevich and try to save him. Finally the Firebird appears, breaks Kastchei's spell, and rescues everyone. Ivan Tsarevich and the knights, delivered from their fate, seize the golden apples from Kastchei's garden.

This neglects to say that the ballet concludes with the coronation and wedding of Ivan Tsarevich, which was Igor Stravinsky's idea, and it does not explain that the Firebird's supernatural powers are stronger than the demonic powers of Kastchei.

Michel Fokine, who choreographed the ballet, gave a greatly amplified summary of the plot, from which we learn that Ivan first sees the Firebird at moonlight is blinded by her lucency, prepares to shoot her (!), and on second impulse to take her alive. She flies to the tree with the golden apples in Kastchei's garden, where Ivan captures her. She pleads with him, and he releases her, whereupon she gives him one of her fiery feathers, telling him that it will prove useful to him. He places the talisman in his tunic and starts to leave. The door of Kastchei's castle opens and twelve beautiful princesses, followed by the Princess of Unearthly Beauty, steal out and into the garden where they play with the golden apples. Unearthly Beauty's apple rolls into a bush, where Ivan is hiding. He retrieves it, bows to her, and returns the apple. The frightened princesses, though attracted by his beauty, modesty, and gallant manners, shyly withdraw. Unearthly Beauty falls in love with him and him with her.

The approaching dawn warns the princesses to return to Kastchei's palace. Ivan follows but Unearthly Beauty stops him, saying that it would mean his death. Outside the wall, he realizes that he cannot live without her and returns to search for her. Hacking at the gate with his sword, he sets off the magic carillon, Kastchei's alarm, whereupon fiendish bolibotchki and kikimoras stream out of the castle and capture him. Kastchei appears and questions his prisoner, who respectfully doffs his hat, then, on beholding the sorcerer's hideous visage, spits at him. Ivan is placed against the wall, constructed of petrified knights, and Kastchei begins the incantation that will turn him to stone as well. Suddenly Ivan remembers the Firebird's feather. He waves it and she appears, casting a spell over Kastchei and his demons and forcing them to dance until they fall exhausted to the ground. Meanwhile, Ivan tries to rescue Unearthly Beauty, but the Firebird leads him to a chest concealed in a tree stump. This contains an egg that represents Kastchei's soul and the secret of his immortality. When Ivan squeezes the egg, Kastchei squirms. When Ivan tosses it from hand to hand, Kastchei flies from side to side of the stage. When Ivan smashes it on the ground, Kastchei falls dead. His kingdom of evil disappears and is replaced by a resplendent city. Ivan and Unearthly Beauty are married and crowned Tsar and Tsarina.

The ballet world is indebted to Sergey Dyagilev above all for discovering Stravinsky's genius and, on the strength of the young composer's three-minute Fireworks (1908), entrusting him with the commission for this first modern ballet. Stravinsky began the composition in December 1909, interrupting work on his opera The Nightingale. The sketch-score was finished in March, the reduction for piano two-hands on 3rd April, the full score on 18th May.

Stravinsky arrived in Paris for rehearsals on 7th June. During them, he revised and corrected extensively, leaving only a few pages without his red ink, or pencil, changes. During one of the rehearsals, Dyagilev was heard to say: "Mark the young composer well; he is a man on the eve of celebrity." The prediction proved true. The première, at the Paris Opéra, was an enormous success. Extra performances had to be scheduled and the season extended into the summer. Stravinsky became an international figure overnight. Claude Debussy praised the music and invited him to lunch with Erik Satie, who photographed the two of them together. But before many years Stravinsky was suffering from the universal popularity of the piece, and its use all his life as a stick with which to beat his newer, ground-breaking later music.

One of the many differences between the present performance and its predecessors is the restoration of two long, valveless trumpets on stage, each playing a single note. The clarion sonority of these instruments standing out above the entire orchestra, a thrilling effect in all likelihood heard for the first time since 1910 in this recording.

Writer: Robert Craft