[Dance] [Ballets Russes] [Firebird] Stravinsky, Igor. (1882–1971)

"Danse Infernale" [Firebird] - Autograph Musical Quotation

Boldly penned two-measure AMQS from the "Danse Infernale" of his "Firebird," penned on a small card and signed "Igor Stravinsky / Voreppe (Isère) / Le 1 oct / 32." Slight smudge to the location and date, mounting remnants on verso, else fine. On a card measuring 8 x 6 cm, together with several halftone portrait photographs and the original transmissal envelope, postmarked from Voreppe on the day following the quotation's date.

Composed for the 1910 Paris season of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes with choreography by Michel Fokine, Stravinsky' s "Firebird" was first performed on 25 June 1910. Based on Russian folk tales of the magical glowing bird of the same name that is both a blessing and a curse to its captor, the ballet centers on the journey of its hero, Prince Ivan who enters the magical realm of Kashchei the Immortal. When Kashchei sends his magical creatures after Ivan, the Firebird, true to its pledge, intervenes, bewitching the creatures and making them dance an elaborate, energetic dance, the "Infernal Dance" of the present AMQS. (9803)

AMQS Classical Music