Last March at the 2009 World Figure Skating Championships, a tuxedo-clad Evan Lysacek skated to Gershwin and won his first world title.

On the ice in Lake Placid last night, the American won the short program of Skate America outfitted in a black bird costume. He skated to Stravinsky’s Firebird, the 1910 ballet about a magical firebird who gives up a feather to its captor Prince Ivan in return for its freedom.

The music is dramatic, ominous, foreboding, and Lysacek looked Edgar Allan Poe-ish. His all-black costume designed by his friend, Vera Wang, featured black gloves with black feathers dripping over his hands, and when he flexed his fingers, they evoked talons. Five-o-clock shadow added to his overall look of doom.

All I could think of was nevermore, nevermore.

But his performance was more like evermore, evermore. He didn’t just skate. He did ballet on ice — a character acting out a story. By the end, his feather-bedecked hands were his wings. And his short program score was 79.17, over six points ahead of Florent Amodio from France with 72.65, and Lysacek’s American teammate Brandon Mroz with 71.40.

“[Vera Wang] has taken such interest and such excitement in really developing these characters for me,” he said after the performance. “The costume sort of wraps up the whole idea and character of the program into one complete package.”

Lysacek — who skated to Ravel’s Bolero and selections from the movie Zorro in previous seasons — called Stravinsky’s music “bizarre,” and said “having those little accent pieces of feathers and interesting textures on the costume just sort of added to it.”

Not that he was gong-ho on the bird idea at first. His coach Frank Carroll worked with choreographer Lori Nichol to develop the program.

“This was their idea,” asserted Lysacek. “[Carroll] can tell you, I was quite skeptical at first. I’m like that’s so not me. I don’t know how this program is going to work.”

But he was a quick convert. He liked the character — although he never specified exactly what sort of bird his character is. And he liked the costume after he “interpreted” it — “the way you would interpret art,” he said.

While the bird jokes were flying in the pressroom, Lysacek was no Dodo. His bird really flew.