Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Prokofiev

Birth : 1891-04-23, Sontsovka, Bakhmut Uyezd, Yekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire [now Krasne, Krasnoarmiisk Raion, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine]

Death : 1953-03-05

History

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian Soviet composer, pianist and conductor. As the creator of acknowledged masterpieces across numerous music genres, he is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century. (via Wikipedia)

Profile

Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev

Movies

Peter & the Wolf
Other
A grieving 12-year-old Peter is now in the care of his grandfather after enduring the loss of a parent. Upon hearing stories of a wolf on the loose, Peter decides to explore the vast meadow and forest nearby to try and find the wolf himself. Along the way he encounters creatures who help him on his quest while contending with hunters aiming to win a prize for capturing the wolf.
Keys to the Heart
Music
Troubled and alone, a boxer moves in with his long-lost mother and autistic pianist brother — but must fit in with a family he hasn't known for years.
The Fiery Angel
Adaptation
The production by Calixto Bieito extracts all the potential from this work in a most convincing and spine-chilling way. The action takes place in a closed society of the 1950s, taking this story of witchcraft, sex and religion to the realism of imitation leather sofas, crochet cardigans, medical abuse and child molestation.
The Fiery Angel
Music
The production by Calixto Bieito extracts all the potential from this work in a most convincing and spine-chilling way. The action takes place in a closed society of the 1950s, taking this story of witchcraft, sex and religion to the realism of imitation leather sofas, crochet cardigans, medical abuse and child molestation.
Romeo and Juliet
Original Music Composer
Two young lovers, offspring of the feuding Montague and Capulet families, value feelings above the past, pitting love and forgiveness against hatred and revenge.
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet
Original Music Composer
Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet” has inspired generations of artists to adaptations like scarcely any other work. In his colorful, passionate music, the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev brilliantly captured the clash of love and hatred, and the proximity of tenderness and violence. Inspired by Prokofiev’s vivid music and the timeless quality of Shakespeare’s tragedy, choreographer Christian Spuck and the Ballett Zürich narrate the most famous love story in world literature using strong images that are full of enthralling theatricality and touching emotion. Michail Jurowski, a true Prokofiev expert, is at the rostrum of the Philharmonia Zürich. Recorded live at Opernhaus Zürich June 2019.
Matthew Bourne's Romeo + Juliet
Original Music Composer
Matthew Bourne's Romeo and Juliet is a passionate and contemporary re-imagining of Shakespeare's classic love story. Bursting with youth, vitality and Matthew Bourne's trademark storytelling.
Rostropovich: L'archet Indomptable
Self (archive footage)
Cinderella
Music
This inventive production from the English National Ballet fills the grand space of the Royal Albert Hall to tell one of the world’s favourite fairy tales. Magnificent sets and costumes, surprising theatrical tricks and lively choreography delight, move and astound, all to the melodious tunes of Prokofiev, performed by English National Ballet Philharmonic.
Cindarella
Music
Sergei Prokofiev's setting of the fairy tale "Cinderella" premiered at Moscow's Bolshoi Theater in 1945. In 1986, Rudolf Nureyev, then ballet director of the Paris Opera, choreographed the ballet anew and transposed the story into a private cinema, with sets reminiscent of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis." ARTE shows the Paris Opera performance from December 31, 2018.
Romeo & Juliet
Original Music Composer
50 Years of Dutch Ballet Orchestra
Music
An animated film to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Dutch Ballet Orchestra. Members of the Orchestra share their stories from the past years.
English National Ballet's Romeo and Juliet
Music
Shakespeare's heartbreaking tale, Nureyev's blazing ballet. Sumptuous costumes and sets transport you to Renaissance Verona, its piazza bustling with market traders, street entertainers and the restless factions of the Capulet and Montague families. Amidst the grandeur of the Capulet’s ball, our star-crossed lovers – Alina Cojocaru and Isaac Hernández – meet, unleashing a fateful sequence of events, from the romantic bedroom scene to their tragic final embrace.
San Francisco Ballet: Romeo & Juliet
Music
From grand spectacles to poignant close-ups, experience Helgi Tomasson's bravura interpretation of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet like you've never seen it before. With passionate choreography, spine-tingling swordsmansip, and a celebrated score by Sergei Prokofiev, San Francisco Ballet's passionate retelling of the Bard's greatest tragedy has packed houses around the world. Romeo & Juliet is one of the Company's most popular and widely toured ballets and has been seen by more than 200,000 people since it premiered in 1994. Choreographed by Helgi Tomasson, with sets and costumes by Jens-Jacob Worsaae, this visually stunning production and the brilliant dancers of San Francisco Ballet bring this powerful and touching tragedy - and Renaissance-era Verona - vivdly to life. ""Tomasson lifts Shakespeare's complex and familiar language off the gilded pages and translates it into lucid classical choreography that is visceral, fresh, and ultimately sublime"" (Huffington Post).
The Royal Ballet: Romeo & Juliet
Music
Given its premiere by The Royal Ballet in 1965 with Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn dancing the title roles, Kenneth MacMillan's first full-evening ballet has become a signature work for the Company, enjoying great popularity around the world. From the outset, the production teems with life and colour as the townspeople, market traders and servants of the rival Montagues and Capulets go about their daily business in vibrant crowd scenes. But Romeo and Juliet take centre stage for those great pas de deux: the meeting in the ballroom, the balcony scene, the morning after the wedding and the final devastating tomb scene. Although The Royal Ballet has performed Romeo and Juliet over 400 times, each performance and pairing is subtly different and Lauren Cuthbertson and Federico Bonelli are utterly captivating in the title roles.
Romeo and Juliet - Mariinsky Theatre
Music
One of history's most enduring love stories. Many people believe that Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet is the greatest ballet score ever written. The Mariinsky Ballet shows at its dramatic finest passionate choreography for Romeo and Juliet.  The ballet has become a true classic of the 20th-century ballet repertory. With its emotional choreography and Prokofiev’s famous score, this moving tale of star-crossed lovers that is sure to stay with you long after you leave the Mariinsky Theatre. Libretto – Lavrovsky, Prokofiev, Radlov, Piotrovsky Romeo and Juliet is a ballet by Sergei Prokofiev based on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Music from the ballet was extracted by Prokofiev as three suites for orchestra and as a piano work.
Legs - Atavism
Original Music Composer
In this 10-minute study the fi lm crew tries to get to the secrets of one of the wildest branches of experimental medicine.
Prokofiev Cinderella
Compositor
Christopher Wheeldon's acclaimed new Cinderella for the Dutch National Ballet is an imaginative interpretation of a much-loved classic. Inspired by the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale, Wheeldon gives the characters renewed depth and complexity, complementing Prokofiev's celebrated and colorful score. With sets and costumes by the renowned designer Julian Crouch, supported by stunning stage effects, this world premiere production is a truly magical experience, bringing an age-old fairy tale into the 21st century.
The Gambler
Original Music Composer
Conducted by Daniel Barenboim, the Staatskapelle Berlin performs THE GAMBLER, Prokofiev's moody, roiling opera based on a story by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
Alice in Not So Wonderland
Original Music Composer
The story of Alice in Wonderland, explored in the stop-motion world of the Quay brothers.
Romeo & Juliet - The Royal Ballet
Music
Carlos Acosta dances as one of the two star-crossed lovers in Shakespeare's timeless tragedy, presented with the classic Kenneth MacMillan choreography and beautifully staged by The Royal Ballet. In this perennial favourite, Carlos Acosta dances alongside Tamara Rojo in a celebrated stage partnership. The drama of the doomed lovers is set against the ravishing sets and costumes designs of Nicholas Georgiadis.
Peter & the Wolf
Music
An animated retelling set to Prokofiev's suite. Peter is a slight lad, solitary, locked out of the woods by his protective grandfather
Peter & the Wolf
Writer
An animated retelling set to Prokofiev's suite. Peter is a slight lad, solitary, locked out of the woods by his protective grandfather
Витрина
Music
La guerre et la paix
Writer
Napoleon's tumultuous relations with Russia including his disastrous 1812 invasion serve as the backdrop for the tangled personal lives of two aristocratic families.
Peter and the Wolf
Music
Sergei Prokofiev's symphonic masterpiece, first performed in Russia in 1936, has been lauded not only for the spectacular musical score, but also for the story itself--of a young boy who outwits a wily wolf. George Daugherty brings this timeless tale to modern audiences by seamlessly weaving live-action with animation and music by the RCA Symphony Orchestra. The story opens as a grandfather (Lloyd Bridges) hosts his daughter (Kirstie Alley) and grandson (Ross Malinger from Sleepless in Seattle) during a visit to his country cottage. After lunch, the trio settles in as grandfather recounts "The Story" of Peter's adventures with a bird, cat, and dizzy duck on the outskirts "of a very dark forest." The film morphs into a clever cartoon designed by the legendary Chuck Jones (of Wile E. Coyote fame). The "story within a story" leaps to life while the accompanying musical instruments also emerge as playful personalities.
The Fiery Angel
Original Music Composer
Serge Prokofiev's enigmatic work, this is a tale of the supernatural, religious hysteria and demonic possession which is set in Germany at the time of The Inquisition.
War and Peace
Writer
BBC production of 'Sergei Prokofiev (I)"s opera "War and Peace" performed by the Kirov Opera under the baton of Valery Gergiev in St. Petersburg, Russia. The love story of young Countess Natasha Rostova and Count Pierre Bezukhov, is intertwined with the "Great Patriotic War" of 1812 against the invading Napoleon's Armies. People of Russia from all classes of society stand up united against the enemy. Both sides suffer tremendous losses during the war, and Russian society is left irrevocably changed.
The Love for Three Oranges
Writer
With neat, plain building-block designs by Jacques Rapp, Louis Erlo's energetically-staged production of Prokofiev's surreal fairy-tale for the Lyon Opera is full of cartoon characters and swift farce. Based on a play by Carlo Gozzi, "L'Amour des Trois Oranges" tells the story of a doleful, hypochondriac Prince, who can only be cured through laughter. When he breaks into hysterics at the expense of the evil witch Fata Morgana, she curses him. His fate is to fall in love with three oranges
The Love for Three Oranges
Music
With neat, plain building-block designs by Jacques Rapp, Louis Erlo's energetically-staged production of Prokofiev's surreal fairy-tale for the Lyon Opera is full of cartoon characters and swift farce. Based on a play by Carlo Gozzi, "L'Amour des Trois Oranges" tells the story of a doleful, hypochondriac Prince, who can only be cured through laughter. When he breaks into hysterics at the expense of the evil witch Fata Morgana, she curses him. His fate is to fall in love with three oranges
Cinderella
Original Music Composer
This unusual and intriguing interpretation of the ballet Cinderella with choreography and staging by the renowned choreographer, Maguy Marin, is set in a doll’s house with costumes to suit. This avant-garde, breakthrough version of the tale of Cinderella, described as a brilliant theatrical triumph, has toured the world since its premiere in 1985 and is acclaimed for its amazing manipulation of mood, its intriguing narrative and innovative staging. The production is regarded by some critics as a stepping stone from classical ballet to something radically new.
Eine Bewegung der Zeit
Music
A sketch: Observation of everyday life of people and situations in Vienna. "Visual art is an excellent way of observation in our culture. The everyday situations are seen briefly, continously but rarely as perceived and consciously experienced." (Michael Kreihsl)
Romeo and Juliet
Writer
Ballet performance by The Royal Ballet, recorded at Covent Garden, London, United Kingdom, July 1984.
Romeo and Juliet
Musical
Ballet performance by The Royal Ballet, recorded at Covent Garden, London, United Kingdom, July 1984.
Dmitri Shostakovich. Sonata for Viola
Banned by Soviet authorities when it was first completed, this requiem for Russian composer and pianist Dmitri Shostakovich pays homage to the remarkable works and difficult path of the influential artist. Through personal documents, performances and archival footage, this emotional study charts Shostakovich's turbulent life, from his early success to his disgrace under Stalin and his eventual embrace as one of his country's most gifted talents.
Caligola
Music
The perversion behind imperial Rome, the epic story of Rome's mad Emporer. All the details of his cruel, bizarre reign are revealed right here: His unholy sexual passion for his sister, his marriage to Rome's most infamous prostitute, his fiendishly inventive means of disposing those who would oppose him, and more.
The Turning Point
Music
As young dancers, they were best friends and fierce rivals. Deedee left the stage for marriage and motherhood, while Emma would become an international ballet icon. But when Deedee's teenage daughter is invited to join Emma's dance company and begins an affair with a young Russian star, the two women are forced to confront the choices they've made, the resentments they've hidden and the emotional truths they must face at the turning point.
Love and Death
Music
In czarist Russia, a neurotic soldier and his distant cousin formulate a plot to assassinate Napoleon.
Любовь к трем апельсинам
Original Music Composer
Kamenný kvítek
Music
The Brain Eaters
Music
A huge, alien structure resembling an inverted cone, appears in the woods outside a small rural town. Sent from Washington to investigate the origin of the mysterious object, a team of investigators discovers that intelligent parasites from inside the "cone" can attach themselves to humans' nervous systems and control their minds, taking control of the authorities and workers, making communication with the outside world impossible, and leaving the responsibility of stopping the invasion up to seven people who have thus far been able to avoid possession by these creatures from parts unknown.
Ivan the Terrible, Part II: The Boyars' Plot
Original Music Composer
This is the second part of a projected three-part epic biopic of Russian Czar Ivan Grozny, undertaken by Soviet film-maker Sergei Eisenstein at the behest of Josef Stalin. Production of the epic was stopped before the third part could be filmed, due to producer dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's introducing forbidden experimental filming techniques into the material, more evident in this part than the first part. As it was, this second part was banned from showings until after the deaths of both Eisenstein and Stalin, and a change of attitude by the subsequent heads of the Soviet government. In this part, as Ivan the Terrible attempts to consolidate his power by establishing a personal army, his political rivals, the Russian boyars, plot to assassinate him.
Sergei Eisenstein
Himself (archive footage)
A USSR documentary about the filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein
The Beast with a Million Eyes
Music
An alien space craft lands in the desert. The alien takes over the minds of some of the local humans and animals and is able to see through them. The animals attack and the terror begins.
Romeo & Juliet
Music
Peter and the Wolf
Music
Disney's animated adaptation of Prokofiev's masterpiece, in which every character is represented musically by a different instrument. Young Peter decides to go hunting for the wolf that's been prowling around the village. Along the way, he is joined by his friends the bird, the duck and the cat. All the fun comes to end, however, when the wolf makes an appearance. Will Peter and his friends live to tell of their adventures?
Peter and the Wolf
Writer
Disney's animated adaptation of Prokofiev's masterpiece, in which every character is represented musically by a different instrument. Young Peter decides to go hunting for the wolf that's been prowling around the village. Along the way, he is joined by his friends the bird, the duck and the cat. All the fun comes to end, however, when the wolf makes an appearance. Will Peter and his friends live to tell of their adventures?
Ivan the Terrible, Part I
Original Music Composer
Set during the early part of his reign, Ivan faces betrayal from the aristocracy and even his closest friends as he seeks to unite the Russian people. Sergei Eisenstein's final film, this is the first part of a three-part biopic of Tsar Ivan IV of Russia, which was never completed due to the producer's dissatisfaction with Eisenstein's attempts to use forbidden experimental filming techniques and excessive cost overruns. The second part was completed but not released for a decade after Eisenstein's death and a change of heart in the USSR government toward his work; the third part was only in its earliest stage of filming when shooting was stopped altogether.
Lermontov
Music
Chronicle of the life of Russian poet Michail Lermontov, from the final days of Alexandr Pushkin to the fatal destiny of the poet himself.
Kotovsky
Original Music Composer
Kotovsky, who went a long revolutionary way and became the recognized military commander of the cavalry troops: commander, brigade commander, commander. Six times he escaped from prison, was sentenced to death, and again escaped to become one of the most ardent warriors of the revolution. His famous equestrian brigade fought with the enemy near Kiev and the Belaya Tserkov, at Nikolaev and Odessa, and did not know defeat anywhere.
Боевой киносборник 13: Наши девушки
Music
One of the anthology films about Soviet citizens resisting the Nazi invaders during World War II, the feature consists of two stories, one about a teenage woman telephone operator who sacrifices herself, the other about a farm girl tending a sick pig who deals with two paratroopers seeking shelter.
Alexander Nevsky
Original Music Composer
When German knights invade Russia, Prince Alexander Nevsky must rally his people to resist the formidable force. After the Teutonic soldiers take over an eastern Russian city, Alexander stages his stand at Novgorod, where a major battle is fought on the ice of frozen Lake Chudskoe. While Alexander leads his outnumbered troops, two of their number, Vasili and Gavrilo, begin a contest of bravery to win the hand of a local maiden.
Lieutenant Kizhe
Original Music Composer
A copying error by a military scribe turns the Russian words "the lieutenants, however" into what looks like "lieutenant Kizhe". The Tsar reads the error, and wants to meet this (non-existent) lieutenant. The courtiers, eager to avoid the wrath of the temperamental Tsar, create a Kizhe to serve as their royal scapegoat.