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L'Oiseau de Feu (The Firebird) is a 1910 symphonic poem and ballet by Igor Stravinsky, based on the Russian folk tales of the magical glowing bird (see Firebird) that is both a blessing and doom of its captor.
The music was premiered as a ballet by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, the first of their productions with music specially composed for them. The ballet has historic significance as Stravinsky's breakthrough piece, and as the beginning of the collaboration between Diaghilev and Stravinsky that would also produce Petrouchka (also written Petrushka) and The Rite of Spring.
The chapter in the animated film Fantasia 2000 based on Stravinsky's piece takes an unrelated approach, telling the story of a spring Sprite and her companion Elk. After a long winter the Sprite attempts to restore life to a forest but accidentally wakes the Firebird spirit of a nearby volcano. Angered, the Firebird proceeds to destroy the forest and seemingly the sprite. She is restored to life after the destruction and the forest life is reborn with her. The Fantasia 2000 Firebird chapter is considered an exercise in the theme of life-death-rebirth deities; the depiction of the Firebird in it as a violent, flaming volcanic spirit is not related to Stravinsky's original theme.
Stravinsky's work has had a great deal of influence in musical genres outside of classical. Throughout their career, the progressive rock group Yes have opened their live concerts with an excerpt from the Firebird, and their 1975 song "The Gates of Delirium" is heavily influenced by musical ideas pioneered by Stravinsky.
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