Theatre
The Blue Bird
L'Oiseau bleu
Maurice Maeterlinck · 1908
Opening lines
Tyltyl
Tu dors?
Are you asleep?
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
On Christmas Eve, Tyltyl and Mytyl, the children of a woodcutter, are watching the rich children's party through the window when the fairy Bérylune asks them to find the Blue Bird for her very sick little girl. A diamond set on Tyltyl's hat lets them see the soul of things: Bread, Sugar, Fire, Water, Milk, the Dog and the Cat come to life and accompany them, guided by Light. The quest leads them to the land of Memory, where they find their dead grandparents, to the palace of Night and to the kingdom of the Future, among the children who are not yet born.
Context
The play was premiered on 30 September 1908 at the Moscow Art Theatre, in a staging by Stanislavski, more than two years before the French premiere, given on 2 March 1911 at the Théâtre Réjane; in the meantime, it had been performed in New York. In 2015, a production descended in a direct line from that of 1908 was still playing at the Moscow Art Theatre. Cinema took it up as early as 1910, then in 1940 and in 1976, and Albert Wolff drew an opera from it, premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1919.
Who it is for
A fairy play in six acts and twelve scenes, made for the stage, with sets and changes in full view; readable by children and adults alike.
Prizes and reception
Staged in Moscow, New York and Paris in under three years, adapted for the cinema on several occasions and still being reissued.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.