The Fiery Angel, Op. 37, is an opera by Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. The opera was composed between 1919 -and 1927. It was premiered posthumously in 1955 in Venice, in Italian. The work was not presented to Russian audiences until the 1990s, most notably by the Mariinsky Theatre, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Scene in a 1973 production, photographed by Paolo Monti
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who later worked in the Soviet Union. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. His works include such widely heard pieces as the March from The Love for Three Oranges, the suite Lieutenant Kijé, the ballet Romeo and Juliet—from which "Dance of the Knights" is taken—and Peter and the Wolf. Of the established forms and genres in which he worked, he created—excluding juvenilia—seven completed operas, seven symphonies, eight ballets, five piano concertos, two violin concertos, a cello concerto, a symphony-concerto for cello and orchestra, and nine completed piano sonatas.
Prokofiev, c. 1918
Composer Reinhold Glière, Prokofiev's first composition teacher
Prokofiev, as drawn by Henri Matisse for the premiere of Chout (1921)
Sergei Prokofiev (c. 1918)