The Tale Of The Stone Flower (Prokofiev)
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''The Tale of the Stone Flower'', Op. 118 (), is
Sergei Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...
's eighth and last ballet, written between 1948 and 1953. It is based on the Russian Ural 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 ...
and is also the last of the trilogy of ballets Prokofiev wrote in the Russian ballet tradition. It was premiered posthumously in 1954, conducted by
Yuri Fayer Yuri Fyodorovich Fayer (also seen as Faier) (3 August 1971), was a Soviet conductor specializing in ballet. He was the chief ballet conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre from 1923 to 1963. Fayer's range extended from the classical repertoire (he conduc ...
.


Numbers

;Prologue: ::1 The Mistress of the Copper Mountain ::2 Danila and his work ;Act I: :Scene 1 ::3 Danila in search of the flower ::4 Danila meets some fellow villagers ::5 Scene and Duet of Katerina and Danila ::6 Interlude :Scene 2 ::7 Round Dance ::8 Katerina dances with her friends ::9 The Peasant Girls' Dance ::10 Danila's and Katerina's Dance ::11 The unmarried men's dance ::12 Severyan's Dance ::13 Altercation over the malachite vase ::14 Scene of Katerina and Danila ::15 Danila's Meditation :Scene 3 ::16 Danila enticed away by the Mistress of the Copper Mountain ;Act II: :Scene 4 ::17 The Mistress shows Danila the treasures of the earth ::18 Duet of the Mistress and Danila ::19 Scene and Waltz of the Diamonds ::20 Dance of the Russian precious stones ::21 Waltz ::22 Danila's Monologue and the Mistress' Reply ::23 The Mistress shows Danila the stone flower ::24 Severyan and the Workers; The Mistress' Warning :Scene 5 ::25 Scene and Katerina's Dance ::26 Severyan's Arrival ::27 "Where are you, sweet Danila?" ::28 The Appearance of the Mistress; Katerina's Joy :Scene 6 ::29 Ural Rhapsody ::30 Interlude ::31 Russian Dance :Scene 7 ::32 Gypsy Dance ::33 Severyan's Dance ::34 Solo of the Gypsy Girl and Coda ::35 Katerina's Appearance and Severyan's Rage ::36 The Appearance of the Mistress and Scene of Severyan transfixed to the earth ::37 Severyan follows the Mistress ::38 Severyan dies :Scene 8 ::39 Katerina sits by the fire and yearns for Danila ::40 Scene and Dance of Katerina and the skipping of the Fire Spirits ::41 Katerina follows the Fire Spirits ::42 Dialogue of Katerina and the Mistress ::43 Danila turned to stone ::44 The Joy of the reuniting of Katerina and Danila ::45 The Mistress presents gifts to Katerina and Danila ::46 Epilogue


Instrumentation

The work is scored for an orchestra consisting of 2
flute The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
s (2nd doubling
piccolo The piccolo ( ; Italian for 'small') is a half-size flute and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. Sometimes referred to as a "baby flute" the modern piccolo has similar fingerings as the standard transverse flute, but the so ...
), 2
oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. A ...
s (2nd doubling
cor anglais The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn in North America, is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially an alto ...
), 2
clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...
s (1st doubling
E-flat clarinet The E-flat (E) clarinet is a member of the clarinet family, smaller than the more common B clarinet and pitched a perfect fourth higher. It is typically considered the sopranino or piccolo member of the clarinet family and is a transposing inst ...
, 2nd doubling
bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays notes an octave bel ...
), 2
bassoon The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family, which plays in the tenor and bass ranges. It is composed of six pieces, and is usually made of wood. It is known for its distinctive tone color, wide range, versatility, and virtuo ...
s (2nd doubling
contrabassoon The contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower. Its technique is similar to its smaller cousin, with a few notable differences. Differences from the bassoon The reed is consi ...
), 4
french horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...
s, 3
trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
s, 3
trombone The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the Standing wave, air column ...
s, tuba,
timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionall ...
,
percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...
(
triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...
,
castanet Castanets, also known as ''clackers'' or ''palillos'', are a percussion instrument (idiophone), used in Spanish, Kalo, Moorish, Ottoman, Italian, Sephardic, Swiss, and Portuguese music. In ancient Greece and ancient Rome there was a similar ...
s,
wood block Woodblock or wood block may refer to: * Woodblock (instrument), a percussion musical instrument * Woodblock printing, a method of printing in which an image is carved into the surface of a piece of wood * Woodblock graffiti * Toy block Toy bloc ...
s,
tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...
,
snare drum The snare (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often used ...
,
cymbal A cymbal is a common percussion instrument. Often used in pairs, cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys. The majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs soun ...
s,
bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. Th ...
, tam-tam,
tubular bell Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...
s,
xylophone The xylophone (; ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel (which uses metal bars), the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned wooden keys arranged in the ...
),
harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...
,
piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...
, and
strings String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...
.


Premiere

12 February 1954, Bolshoi Theater, Moscow, conducted by
Yuri Fayer Yuri Fyodorovich Fayer (also seen as Faier) (3 August 1971), was a Soviet conductor specializing in ballet. He was the chief ballet conductor at the Bolshoi Theatre from 1923 to 1963. Fayer's range extended from the classical repertoire (he conduc ...
. Choreography by Yuri Grigorovich. Dancers included (one of the title roles),
Raisa Struchkova Raisa Stepanovna Struchkova (russian: Раиса Степановна Стручкова) (5 October 19252 May 2005) was a Russian dancer and People's Artist of the USSR. Biography Struchkova was born on 5 October 1925 in Moscow to a factory wo ...
(Yekaterina),
Galina Ulanova Galina Sergeyevna Ulanova (russian: Галина Сергеевна Уланова, ; 21 March 1998) was a Russian ballet dancer. She is frequently cited as being one of the greatest ballerinas of the 20th century. Biography Ulanova was born ...
(Yekaterina's sister),
Aleksey Yermolayev Aleksey Nikolayevich Yermolayev (Russian: Алексе́й Никола́евич Ермола́ев; 12 December 1975) was a Soviet and Russian ballet dancer, choreographer and teacher. He played an important role in the development of Russian ba ...
(Severyan),
Maya Plisetskaya Maya Mikhailovna Plisetskaya (russian: link=no, Майя Михайловна Плисецкая; 20 November 1925 – 2 May 2015) was a Soviet and Russian ballet dancer, choreographer, ballet director, and actress. In post-Soviet times, she he ...
(Icy Rusalka of the Copper Mountain), (Danila's brother), (one of the good bailiffs), and (Danila) and more.Israel V. Nestyov, trans. Florence Jones, ''Prokofiev'', 1960


Recordings


Orchestral suites from ''The Tale of the Stone Flower''

As usual, Prokofiev extracted music from the ballet for concert performance.


''Wedding Suite'', Op. 126 (1951)

Available recordings:


''Gypsy Fantasy'', Op. 127 (1951)

Available recordings:


''Urals Rhapsody'', Op. 128 (1951)

There are no available recordings.


''The Mistress of the Copper Mountain'', Op. 129

Available recordings:


See also

*
List of ballets by title __NOTOC__ The following is a list of ballets with entries in English Wikipedia. The entries are sorted alphabetically by ballet title, with the name of the composer (or the composer whose music the ballet is set to) and the year of the first perf ...


References


External links


''The Tale of the Stone Flower'' at prokofiev.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tale of the Stone Flower, The
Ballets by Sergei Prokofiev This is a list of musical compositions by the 20th-century Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. By genre Operas *'' The Giant'' (1900) *'' On Desert Islands'' (1900; unfinished) *''A Feast in Time of Plague'' (1903, rev. 1908–09; unfinished) *'' ...
1954 ballet premieres 1950 compositions Ballets premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre Ballets based on fairy tales