The Rite of Spring piano version, subsequently lost, which he may have used to demonstrate the work to Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes conductor Pierre Monteux in April 1912. He also made a four-hand piano arrangement which became the first published version of "The Rite"; he and the composer Claude Debussy played the first half of this together, in June 1912. Following Diaghilev's decision to delay the premiere until 1913, Stravinsky put " The Rite" aside during the summer of 1912. He enjoyed the Paris season, and accompanied Diaghilev to the Bayreuth Festival to attend a performance of "Parsifal". Stravinsky resumed work on "The
Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf Tsarevitch Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf "Tsarevich Ivan, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf" is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in "Narodnye russkie skazki". It is Aarne-Thompson type 550, the quest for the golden bird/firebird. Others of this type include "The Golden Bird", "The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener", "The Bird 'Grip, "How Ian Direach got the Blue Falcon", and "The Nunda, Eater of People". A king's apple tree bore golden apples, but every night, one was stolen. Guards reported that the Firebird stole them. The king told his two oldest sons that the