The Firebird the Russian composer Anatoly Lyadov (1855–1914) to write the music. There is no evidence, however, despite the much-repeated story that Lyadov was slow to start composing the work, that he ever accepted the commission to begin with. There is evidence to suggest that Nikolai Tcherepnin had previously started composing music for the ballet—music which became "The Enchanted Kingdom"—but that Tcherepnin, for reasons unexplained, withdrew from the project after completing only one scene. Diaghilev eventually transferred the commission to the 28-year-old Stravinsky. The ballet was premiered by the Ballets Russes at the Palais Garnier in Paris on 25 June 1910, conducted
The Rite of Spring Rite" in the autumn; the sketchbooks indicate that he had finished the outline of the final sacrificial dance on 17 November 1912. During the remaining months of winter he worked on the full orchestral score, which he signed and dated as "completed in Clarens, March 8, 1913". He showed the manuscript to Maurice Ravel, who was enthusiastic and predicted, in a letter to a friend, that the first performance of the "Le Sacre" would be as important as the 1902 premiere of Debussy's "Pelléas et Mélisande". After the orchestral rehearsals began in late March, Monteux drew the composer's attention to