''The Stone Flower'' (), is a

ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...

by the Soviet composer

Alexander Fridlender Alexander Grigoryevitch Fridlender ( rus, Александр Григорьевич Фридлендер; 2/15 July 1906 – 13 September 1980) was a Soviet composer, pianist and conductor, Professor at the Urals Mussorgsky State Co ...

, based on the Russian

Ural Ural may refer to: *Ural (region), in Russia and Kazakhstan *Ural Mountains, in Russia and Kazakhstan *Ural (river), in Russia and Kazakhstan * Ual (tool), a mortar tool used by the Bodo people of India *Ural Federal District, in Russia *Ural econ ...

folk tale ''

The Stone Flower "The Stone Flower" ( rus, Каменный цветок, Kamennyj tsvetok, p=ˈkamʲɪnːɨj tsvʲɪˈtok), also known as "The Flower of Stone", is a folk tale (also known as ''skaz'') of the Ural region of Russia collected and reworked by Pave ...

'' by

Pavel Bazhov Pavel Petrovich Bazhov (russian: Па́вел Петро́вич Бажо́в; 27 January 1879 – 3 December 1950) was a Russian writer and publicist. Bazhov is best known for his collection of fairy tales ''The Malachite Box'', based on Ural ...

. Iosif Keller wrote the Russian language

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

Background

The first version of ''The Stone Flower'' was created by the Ural composer Alexander Fridlender in 1944. It premiered at the State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in Sverdlovsk. Alexander Fridlender himself was the conductor, with Konstantin Muller as the ballet master, and Vladimir Lyudmilin as the

stage manager Stage management is a broad field that is generally defined as the practice of organization and coordination of an event or theatrical production. Stage management may encompass a variety of activities including the overseeing of the rehearsal p ...

. It was met with significant praise by critics. Bazhov who was at first sceptical about the ballet adaptations of his stories, watched the ballet and liked it in the end. Another production was made in 1947. Fridlender revised the

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses List of musical symbols, musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chord (music), chords of a song or instrumental Musical composition, musical piece. Like ...

, made a lot of changes to the music, scenes, and rewrote the ending of the first act. Emmanuil Krasovitsky was the conductor, Konstantin Muller the ballet master, and Vladimir Lyudmilin the stage manager. Another production was done in 1975, with the ballet master Vitaly Timofeev, the conductor Evgeny Manayev, the artist Nikolay Sitnikov. ''The Stone Flower'' is still performed at the Yekaterinburg State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre.

Original cast

* Nikolay Oreshkevich as Danilo the Craftsman * Kira Kuzmicheva as Katyenka * Nina Mladzinskaya as

the Mistress of the Copper Mountain The Mistress of the Copper Mountain ( rus, Хозяйка медной горы, Hozjajka mednoj gory), also known as The Malachite Maid, is a legendary creature from Slavic mythology and a Russian fairy tale_character,_the_mountain_spirit_from_ ...

References

Soviet ballets 1944 ballet premieres Ballets based on fairy tales {{Ballet-stub