The Firebird is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Michel Fokine, who collaborated with Alexandre Benois and others on a scenario based on the Russian fairy tales of the magical Firebird and the blessing and curse it possesses for its owner. Set in the evil immortal Koschei's castle, the ballet follows Prince Ivan, who battles Koschei with the help of the Firebird. It was an immediate success, catapulting Stravinsky to international fame and leading to future collaborations between Diaghilev and Stravinsky, like Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). Other choreographers have reinterpreted the music with new productions, settings and themes. Stravinsky's 1919 concert suite remains the most popular today. A film version with the original choreography, featuring what is now the Royal Ballet, was created in 1959.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Firebird

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1812:

New Orleans, the first steamship on the Mississippi River, arrived at New Orleans to complete its maiden voyage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Orleans_%28steamboat%29

1929:

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets, the first volume of The Adventures of Tintin by the Belgian cartoonist Hergé, began serialisation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herg%C3%A9

1993:

The Braer Storm, the strongest extratropical cyclone ever recorded in the North Atlantic, reached peak intensity. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braer_Storm

2004:

Helge Fossmo, the village priest of Knutby, Sweden, orchestrated the murders of his wife and his neighbor, a crime that shocked the country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knutby_murder

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

backfriend: 1. A friend who supports someone; a person who has someone's back; a backer, a supporter. 2. Synonym of hangnail (“a loose, narrow strip of nail tissue protruding from the side edge and anchored near the base of a fingernail or toenail”) 3. (obsolete) A person who pretends to be someone's friend; a false friend, a secret enemy. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/backfriend

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

He takes it in the naked ecstasy; it breaks in his hand, the atom is broken, the power that massed it Cries to the power that moves the stars, "I have come home to myself, behold me. I bruised myself in the flint mortar and burnt me In the red shell, I tortured myself, I flew forth, Stood naked of myself and broke me in fragments, And here am I moving the stars that are me." I have seen these ways of God: I know of no reason For fire and change and torture and the old returnings.   --Robinson Jeffers https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robinson_Jeffers