SERGEI PROKOFIEV

Mama's Boy With a Piano Problem

Yo yo yo, buckle up, fam, 'cause I popped out on 27 April 1891 in Sontsovka, in what's now Ukraine, and my mom Maria, a legit pianist, was already schoolin' me on the keys like a tiny drill sergeant, no joke! By nine I'd cooked up a whole opera called The Giant, bruh, while other kids were still eatin' crayons and cryin' over nap time, straight-up wild! Then I got private lessons from Reinhold Glière, and at thirteen, in 1904, I strutted into the St Petersburg Conservatory like I owned the block, deadass! My teachers there were stacked, y'all: Anna Essipova on piano, Rimsky-Korsakov on orchestration, Lyadov on harmony and counterpoint, plus Nikolai Tcherepnin on conducting, so my brain was gettin' pumped full of music like a balloon at a birthday bash, I swear!

Class Dismissed, World Unlocked

Okay, so I walked out of that conservatory in 1914, diploma in hand, feelin' like a rocket with zero brakes, no cap! Then 1918 rolled around, the Revolution shook everything like a snow globe, and I peaced out of Russia for America, just gone, poof, see ya! My music was loud, cheeky and kinda spiky, like a cat in a bathtub, and people sat up and went 'whoa, who's this wild dude?', bro! That's the moment I stopped bein' a student and started bein' a name, and honestly, it felt crazy good, fam!

Paris Nights and a Moscow Homecoming

So I stayed in the West for seventeen whole years, hoppin' around and finally settlin' in Paris, where the coffee was tiny and the opinions were huge, ya feel me? In 1923 I married the singer Carolina Codina, who went by Lina Llubera, and we ended up with two sons, so my house got loud real quick, yo! Then in 1936 I pulled a U-turn, moved back to the Soviet Union and settled in Moscow for good, which, spoiler alert, was a spicy choice! From that point on, Moscow was my home base, my workshop, my whole world, and I'm still shakin' my head about it, honestly!

The Greatest Hits, Baby

Alright, here's the main event, 'cause Romeo & Juliet is the one you'll find on this site, and it's a ballet, so picture dancers throwin' feelings around like confetti, bruh! The Kirov Theatre commissioned it, then their production got postponed indefinitely, which is a fancy way of sayin' 'ehh, never mind,' and I wanted to flip the table, no lie! But the Kirov Ballet finally staged it on 11 January 1940, with Leonid Lavrovsky choreographin', and the thing took off like a firework in a phone booth, let's gooo! Around that time I also whipped up Peter and the Wolf in 1936 for Natalya Sats's Central Children's Theatre in Moscow, plus Alexander Nevsky in 1938, so I was cookin' on every burner at once, dude!

When the Bosses Slammed the Door

Even back in 1917 my opera The Gambler, four acts after Dostoevsky's novel, got its premiere cancelled, and I was totally bummed, like, come on, man! But February 1948 was the real gut punch, 'cause the Zhdanovshchina called me and other composers 'formalists,' which sounds like a lame dinner club but was seriously bad news, yo! On 20 February 1948 Lina got arrested and charged with espionage for tryin' to send money to her mother in Spain, and I mean, what kind of nonsense is that, right?! My whole world felt like a dropped pizza, face-down on the floor, and nobody was laughin', not even me, and I'm the joker here!

The Final Stretch

Through the rough patch I kept writin', 'cause quittin' ain't in my blood, and my second wife, Mira Mendelson, worked with me on the opera War and Peace, a gigantic beast of a project, whoa! Before all that, my Fifth Symphony got its first performance on 13 January 1945, and the crowd went bananas, which felt like a big warm hug after a lotta cold shoulders, fam! Then on 5 March 1953 I died in Moscow at sixty-one, of a hypertensive crisis, bummer, I know! And get this, Joseph Stalin died that very same day, so the newspapers had zero room for me, which is the most ridiculous scheduling clash in history, I can't even, bruh!

Still Rattlin' the Walls

So what's left of me, ya ask? Well, kids still meet the orchestra through Peter and the Wolf, where every character gets its own sound, and that's basically a cartoon for your ears, no cap! Dancers still sweat their hearts out in Romeo & Juliet, and folks still crowd into halls for my Fifth Symphony, which blows my mind, deadass! I went through exile, bans and bad luck, yet my tunes keep poppin' up everywhere, like a cockroach with perfect rhythm, and I'm weirdly proud of that, y'all!

My Gift to Your Ears

Here's the deal, friend: I wanna hand you a good time, plain and simple, no fancy degree needed, nada, zip! Press play on Romeo & Juliet, and let the sweet bits melt ya and the stompy bits make ya wanna stomp around the kitchen, seriously! Don't stress about gettin' it 'right,' 'cause there's no quiz at the end, just you, some wild sounds and a big ol' grin, bruh! So go on, hit play, turn it up, and let me crash your day in the best way possible, 'cause I've got plenty more where that came from, fam!