The Fiery Angel is an opera in five acts with music and libretto in Russian by Sergey Prokofiev, based on the novel The Fiery Angel (1908) by Valery Bryusov. It was first staged at La Fenice in Venice on September 14th 1955. Passion, obsession and demonic possessions are some of the elements that permeate this opera, one of Prokofiev’s most controversial works.

The plot revolves around Renata’s obsessive quest to find a strange fiery angel, a vision that first appeared in her childhood and later led her to explore her darkest desires. Ruprecht, a traveller, finds Renata possessed by spirits and decides to help her; during their search, he falls madly in love with her. Renata decides to withdraw into a convent, but the demons that plague her resurface and end up possessing the other inhabitants of the place in a grand operatic finale.