Performed by:
Bolshoi Theater Orchestra
Gennady Rozhdestvensky

“The Tale of the Stone Flower", op. 118 is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev in four acts and eight scenes with a prologue and epilogue to a libretto by Mira Mendelson and Leonid Lavrovsky based on the Ural fairy tales of Pavel Petrovich Bazhov. The ballet premiered on February 12, 1954 at the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR under the title “The Tale of the Stone Flower.” The second edition of the ballet, staged by Yuri Grigorovich and Alla Shelest, was called “The Stone Flower” and consists of three acts; the premiere took place on April 22, 1957 at the Kirov Theater.



The idea of ​​creating a ballet based on a Russian national plot came to Sergei Prokofiev back in the late 1930s while working on “ Cinderella ”. In search of a suitable plot, he turned to the works of Pushkin and to Ostrovsky's The Snow Maiden. However, all these works had already been used as subjects by other composers, and Prokofiev abandoned this idea for a while.

A few years later, Bazhov's " Malachite Box " fell into Prokofiev's hands. Impressed by the book, he began composing music based on its plot. The composer's wife Mira Mendelson-Prokofieva and choreographer Leonid Lavrovsky took up the work of composing the libretto. The plot was based on Bazhov’s tales “The Stone Flower” and “The Mining Master”. Some storylines, in particular the image of the clerk Severyan, were borrowed by the authors from two other Bazhov tales: “The Clerk's Soles” and “ The Jumping Fire Girl".

The composer wrote the music for the ballet quite quickly. Having started work on September 18 , 1948 , at the end of 1949 he had already completed the clavier. The ballet was approved by the administration of the Bolshoi Theater , but work on the production began only four years later. During this time, Prokofiev rewrote some numbers from the ballet again. The first rehearsals at the Bolshoi Theater took place on March 1, 1953.

Sergei Prokofiev did not live almost a year before the premiere of his ballet. He died on the evening of March 5, 1953 . There is evidence that on the day of his death he was working on the orchestration of new numbers of “The Stone Flower”.

Intro 00:00-00:05

PROLOGUE
1. The Mistress of the Copper Mountain 00:05-03:37
2. Danila and his work 03:37-06:09

ACT I.
SCENE I:
3. Danila in search of the flower 06:09-08:07
4. Danila meets some fellow villagers 08:07-09:55
5. Scene and Duet of Katerina and Danila 09:55-14:40
6. Scene of a Northerner with workers 14:40-17:32

SCENE II:
7. Round Dance 17:32-20:43
8. Katerina dances with her friends 20:43-23:10
9. The Peasant Girls' Dance 23:10-26:08
10. Danila's and Katerina's Dance 26:08-27:21
11. The unmarried men's dance 27:21-28:57
12. Severyan's Dance 28:57-31:49
13. Altercation over the malachite vase 31:49-35:59
14. Scene of Katerina and Danila 35:59-38:24
15. Danila's Meditation 38:24-41:33

SCENE III.
16. Danila enticed away by the Mistress of the Copper Mountain 41:33-47:20