The Firebird

National Ballet of Japan 2010

by Igor Stravinsky

choreography MICHEL FOKINE set designer DICK BIRD costume designer NATALIE GONCHAROVA lighting designer YUJI SAWADA

In 2009 David Bintley comissioned new settings for Acts 1 and 2 of The Firebird for the National Ballet of Japan, drawing on the designs of Natalia Goncharova, but with a more three dimensional and narrative quality. The first two pictures show Goncharova’s designs for the 1954 production by the Royal Ballet.  The following are various stages of the design and modelling process, and pictures of the new sets on stage at the New National Theatre Tokyo, including an extended recreation of Goncharova’s final backcloth.