Le roi des étoiles (The King of the Stars; Russian: Звездоликий, romanized: Zvezdolikiy) is a cantata by Igor Stravinsky, composed in 1911–12. It is set to a text by the Russian poet Konstantin Balmont and published in 1913 by P. Jurgenson. The original Russian title literally means "Star-face" or "The Star-Faced One". The work is more commonly known by the French title as translated by Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi.
The work is very rarely performed, primarily because it is written for an unusually large orchestra — quadruple woodwind, eight horns, three trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, bass drum, tam-tam (the entire percussion section only plays in one measure), two harps, celesta, and heavily divided strings—plus six-part men's chorus — and because it lasts barely five minutes and encompasses just 54 measures. Claude Debussy, to whom the work is dedicated, praised the work in a 1913 letter to the composer; though describing it as "extraordinary", he doubted that it would soon find an audience, given its complexities and its short duration.[1]Le roi des étoiles was not performed in public until 1939. On 19 April of that year, in Brussels, Belgium, the conductor Franz André led the Orchestra of Radio Brussels.
