Edmund Dulac "Firebird"
The Princeton Symphony Orchestra is delighted to present Igor Stravinsky's masterpiece, The Firebird Suite, as part of its PSO BRAVO! concert on May 3. This year, the PSO is offering a new opportunity to a limited number of their PSO BRAVO! partner schools:
Firebird Program Art Contest!
While 5th grade students are learning about the composer Igor Stravinsky, the composition and the Russian folktale upon which it is based in music class, Mrs. Johnson will work them on program artwork submissions during their regularly scheduled art classes . The artwork is sought for the May 3 PSO BRAVO! Orchestra Concert program, on the theme of the Russian fairy tale, The Firebird. Winning entries will be included in the program, along with the artist's name and school. In addition, artwork by 20-24 finalists will be displayed at JaZam's, Palmer Square East in Princeton, for the month of April.
From the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Program Notes:
"Stravinsky composed The Firebird between November 1909 and May 1910; the ballet was first performed by
Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes at the Paris Opéra on June 25, 1910. The complete ballet score calls for three
flutes and two piccolos, three oboes and english horn, three clarinets, clarinet in E-flat and bass clarinet, three
bassoons and two contrabassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones and tuba, timpani, triangle,
tambourine, cymbals, bass drum, tam-tam, bells, xylophone, celesta, piano, two harps, and strings. Playing
offstage are three trumpets, four tenor tubas, and bells. Performance time is approximately forty-seven minutes.
... [librettist] Fokine’s adaptation of the fairy tale pits the Firebird, a good fairy, against the ogre Kashchei, whose soul is preserved as
an egg in a casket. A young prince, Ivan Tsarevich, wanders into Kashchei’s magic garden in pursuit of the Firebird.
When he captures her, she pleads for her release and gives him one of her feathers, whose magic will protect him from
harm. He then meets thirteen princesses, all under Kashchei’s spell, and falls in love with one of them. When he tries to
follow them into the magic garden, a great carillon sounds an alarm and he is captured. Kashchei is about to turn Ivan to
stone when the prince waves the feather; the Firebird appears. Her lullaby puts Kashchei to sleep, and she then reveals
the secret of his immortality. Ivan opens the casket and smashes the egg, killing Kashchei. The captive princesses are
freed, and Ivan and his beloved princess are betrothed."
