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Description
A Stegosaurus and a T Rex dance on the stage of the Thatre De Champs-Elysees in Paris while wearing Pagan costumes.

The 31-year-old Igor Stravinsky wrote The Rite of Spring for the 1913 season of the Ballet Russes which was a Russian ballet company based in Paris that toured Europe and the United States from the 1910's to the 1920's but they never toured Russia because of the revolution going on at that time. It was widely regarded as the most influential ballet company of the 20th century because it promoted ground breaking artistic collaborations among choreographers, artists, dancers and composers. The Ballet Russes was founded by Sergei Diaghilev who was a Russian art critic and ballet impresario. He commissioned works from composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, and Sergei Prokofiev and artists such as Vasily Kandinsky, Alexandre Benois, Pablo Picasso, Nicholas Roerich and Henri Matisse. Igor Stravinsky was a young, and virtually unknown composer when Diaghiev hired him to write ballets for the Ballet Russes, The Rite of Spring was his third project after the acclaimed Firebird and Petrushka. The concept behind it were pictures of Pagan Russia in two parts. In the ballet there are several dancers performing a ceremony celebrating the advent of spring, a young girl is chosen as a sacrificial victim and she dances herself to death.

The original choreography of the Rite of Spring was done by a dancer and choreographer named Vaslav Nijinsky who was one of the greatest male ballet dancers of all time, He was best known for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations. He could even dance en pointe which is a ballet move where a ballet dancer stands on their toes. Mostly women do this move and it is a very rare skill for men. Nijinsky danced in some of the greatest ballets of all time like Le Spectre de la rose (The Spirit of the Rose) and Debussy’s L'Après-midi d'un faune (The Afternoon of a Fawn).

The costumes and backdrops for The Rite of Spring was designed by an artist named Nicholas Roerich who painted several paintings that are said to have hypnotic expression. He was also a writer and an archeologist. His costumes in the Rite of Spring were based on primitive village life. The dancer’s legs were wrapped with swaddling and straps and the women wore long intricate wigs while the men wore wigs that were wacky, both the men and women wore tunics and furry hats. The women wore colorful tunics and crown like headbands.

The Rite of Spring was conducted by Pierre Monteux who was a French conductor that collaborated with The Ballet Russes from 1911 to 1914. He also conducted Stravinsky’s other ballet Petrushka, Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, and Debussy's Jeux. In April of 1912 Stravinsky played the Rite of Spring on a grand piano in front of Monteux and Diaghilev. Monteux hated the music, he was appalled at mere sound of it. He told Diaghilev that he would never conduct music that sounds anything like it, but Diaghilev managed to persuade and convince him to conduct the project in which the conductor accepted the challenge. “I decided then and there that the symphonies of Beethoven and Brahms were the only music for me, not the music of this crazy Russian” Monteux later said “My one desire was to flee that room and find a quiet corner in which to rest my aching head. Then Diaghilev turned to me and with a smile said, "This is a masterpiece, Monteux, which will completely revolutionize music and make you famous, because you are going to conduct it." And, of course, I did” Despite his opinion on music, Monteux worked with Stravinsky, giving practical advice to help the composer to achieve the orchestral balance and effects he sought Together they rehearsed with the orchestra for three months from March to the premiere in May. They got the orchestra to cope with the unfamiliar and difficult music Monteux held seventeen rehearsals, an unusually enormous number. Monteux's real attitude to the score is unclear. In his old age he told a biographer, "I did not like The Rite of Spring then. I have conducted it fifty times since. I do not like it now." However, he told his wife in 1963 that the Rite was "now fifty years old, and I do not think it has aged at all. I had pleasure in conducting the fiftieth anniversary of The Rite of Spring this spring"

Stravinsky filled his music of The Rite of Spring with energy and powerful rhythms and it’s as loud as a heavy metal rock band. It’s much freer, wilder, improvisatory. The Rite of Spring starts out with a bassoon solo followed by an English horn solo that switches back and forth. Stravinsky introduces these woodwind solos because they are unusual members of the orchestra. Many people in the audience didn’t know that the instrument they hear at the beginning was a bassoon, one of those very famous audience members was the composer Camille Saint-Saens who was said to have turned to his neighbor and said “What is that instrument?” the neighbor said, “That’s the bassoon, maestro” and Saint-Saens said “If That is a bassoon, I am a baboon” he meant baboon as in a ugly or rude person not a African monkey.
The Rite of Spring premiered at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris on May 29th,1913. The avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a riot in the auditorium, many of the audience members were shouting, booing, heckling and fighting but the performance still went on. Dozens of witnesses left accounts of the evening, but they tend to say different things. According to some, blows were exchanged, objects were thrown at the stage, and at least one person was challenged to a duel. Many of the audience members were shouting rude things at the dancers like “Get them a Dentist!”, “Long live Lennon!” and “Go Back to Russia!” Diaghilev expected that something like this would happen, so he told Monteux to keep the orchestra going no matter what happens.

Stravinsky was sitting in the orchestra section of the auditorium and when the riot broke out he got up and waked back stage. The audience was so loud that the dancers on stage could not hear the orchestra, so Nijinsky cued the dancers himself by standing on a chair in the wings of the theater while Stravinsky stood beside him. The performance continued to the end, despite the rowdiness of the audience, and one thing most accounts seem to agree on is that there was an ovation, some of the audience members were clapping while others were booing. The first performance of the Rite of spring was a disaster, however in time it would become one of the most important pieces of music of the 20th century.

Twenty-seven years later in 1940 It was used in Disney's Fantasia in which we see the Earths beginnings to the age of the Dinosaurs. As a matter of fact, Stravinsky was the only living composer at the time Fantasia was in production, at that time he was 58 years old which is the same age as the conductor Leopold Stokowski. Originally Walt Disney wanted to use Stravinsky’s the Firebird, but his screenwriters decided to use the Rite of Spring instead, however The Firebird was later used in Fantasia 2000. In January of 1939 Igor Stravinsky signed a contract giving Walt Disney the rights to record The Rite of Spring. In Christmas of that year Stravinsky came to the Disney studios in Burbank California and they welcomed him with a Christmas party. Stravinsky saw The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, he saw the work in progress of The Dance of the Hours and Walt Disney showed him the artwork for The Rite of Spring.
Stravinsky even explored the studio and while he was wondering he peaked into the office of animator Wolfgang Ritherman who was drawing the dinosaur fight and playing the music of The Rite of Spring backwards on a record player. Wolfgang glanced from his work and was surprised to see Igor Stravinsky standing in his office. Stravinsky told him “It sounds good backwards too” Disney even had Stravinsky see the original animation tests for the Rite of Spring and when he saw the animation his companion said, “Well that’s not what Mr. Stravinsky had in mind” but Stravinsky said “oh, yes, it is” Igor Stravinsky loved the project, but he didn’t like the fact that Stokowski made his music shorter.

Description
A Stegosaurus and a T Rex dance on the stage of the Thatre De Champs-Elysees in Paris while wearing Pagan costumes.

The 31-year-old Igor Stravinsky wrote The Rite of Spring for the 1913 season of the Ballet Russes which was a Russian ballet company based in Paris that toured Europe and the United States from the 1910's to the 1920's but they never toured Russia because of the revolution going on at that time. It was widely regarded as the most influential ballet company of the 20th century because it promoted ground breaking artistic collaborations among choreographers, artists, dancers and composers. The Ballet Russes was founded by Sergei Diaghilev who was a Russian art critic and ballet impresario. He commissioned works from composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, and Sergei Prokofiev and artists such as Vasily Kandinsky, Alexandre Benois, Pablo Picasso, Nicholas Roerich and Henri Matisse. Igor Stravinsky was a young, and virtually unknown composer when Diaghiev hired him to write ballets for the Ballet Russes, The Rite of Spring was his third project after the acclaimed Firebird and Petrushka. The concept behind it were pictures of Pagan Russia in two parts. In the ballet there are several dancers performing a ceremony celebrating the advent of spring, a young girl is chosen as a sacrificial victim and she dances herself to death.

The original choreography of the Rite of Spring was done by a dancer and choreographer named Vaslav Nijinsky who was one of the greatest male ballet dancers of all time, He was best known for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations. He could even dance en pointe which is a ballet move where a ballet dancer stands on their toes. Mostly women do this move and it is a very rare skill for men. Nijinsky danced in some of the greatest ballets of all time like Le Spectre de la rose (The Spirit of the Rose) and Debussy’s L'Après-midi d'un faune (The Afternoon of a Fawn).

The costumes and backdrops for The Rite of Spring was designed by an artist named Nicholas Roerich who painted several paintings that are said to have hypnotic expression. He was also a writer and an archeologist. His costumes in the Rite of Spring were based on primitive village life. The dancer’s legs were wrapped with swaddling and straps and the women wore long intricate wigs while the men wore wigs that were wacky, both the men and women wore tunics and furry hats. The women wore colorful tunics and crown like headbands.

The Rite of Spring was conducted by Pierre Monteux who was a French conductor that collaborated with The Ballet Russes from 1911 to 1914. He also conducted Stravinsky’s other ballet Petrushka, Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé, and Debussy's Jeux. In April of 1912 Stravinsky played the Rite of Spring on a grand piano in front of Monteux and Diaghilev. Monteux hated the music, he was appalled at mere sound of it. He told Diaghilev that he would never conduct music that sounds anything like it, but Diaghilev managed to persuade and convince him to conduct the project in which the conductor accepted the challenge. “I decided then and there that the symphonies of Beethoven and Brahms were the only music for me, not the music of this crazy Russian” Monteux later said “My one desire was to flee that room and find a quiet corner in which to rest my aching head. Then Diaghilev turned to me and with a smile said, "This is a masterpiece, Monteux, which will completely revolutionize music and make you famous, because you are going to conduct it." And, of course, I did” Despite his opinion on music, Monteux worked with Stravinsky, giving practical advice to help the composer to achieve the orchestral balance and effects he sought Together they rehearsed with the orchestra for three months from March to the premiere in May. They got the orchestra to cope with the unfamiliar and difficult music Monteux held seventeen rehearsals, an unusually enormous number. Monteux's real attitude to the score is unclear. In his old age he told a biographer, "I did not like The Rite of Spring then. I have conducted it fifty times since. I do not like it now." However, he told his wife in 1963 that the Rite was "now fifty years old, and I do not think it has aged at all. I had pleasure in conducting the fiftieth anniversary of The Rite of Spring this spring"

Stravinsky filled his music of The Rite of Spring with energy and powerful rhythms and it’s as loud as a heavy metal rock band. It’s much freer, wilder, improvisatory. The Rite of Spring starts out with a bassoon solo followed by an English horn solo that switches back and forth. Stravinsky introduces these woodwind solos because they are unusual members of the orchestra. Many people in the audience didn’t know that the instrument they hear at the beginning was a bassoon, one of those very famous audience members was the composer Camille Saint-Saens who was said to have turned to his neighbor and said “What is that instrument?” the neighbor said, “That’s the bassoon, maestro” and Saint-Saens said “If That is a bassoon, I am a baboon” he meant baboon as in a ugly or rude person not a African monkey.
The Rite of Spring premiered at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris on May 29th,1913. The avant-garde nature of the music and choreography caused a riot in the auditorium, many of the audience members were shouting, booing, heckling and fighting but the performance still went on. Dozens of witnesses left accounts of the evening, but they tend to say different things. According to some, blows were exchanged, objects were thrown at the stage, and at least one person was challenged to a duel. Many of the audience members were shouting rude things at the dancers like “Get them a Dentist!”, “Long live Lennon!” and “Go Back to Russia!” Diaghilev expected that something like this would happen, so he told Monteux to keep the orchestra going no matter what happens.

Stravinsky was sitting in the orchestra section of the auditorium and when the riot broke out he got up and waked back stage. The audience was so loud that the dancers on stage could not hear the orchestra, so Nijinsky cued the dancers himself by standing on a chair in the wings of the theater while Stravinsky stood beside him. The performance continued to the end, despite the rowdiness of the audience, and one thing most accounts seem to agree on is that there was an ovation, some of the audience members were clapping while others were booing. The first performance of the Rite of spring was a disaster, however in time it would become one of the most important pieces of music of the 20th century.

Twenty-seven years later in 1940 It was used in Disney's Fantasia in which we see the Earths beginnings to the age of the Dinosaurs. As a matter of fact, Stravinsky was the only living composer at the time Fantasia was in production, at that time he was 58 years old which is the same age as the conductor Leopold Stokowski. Originally Walt Disney wanted to use Stravinsky’s the Firebird, but his screenwriters decided to use the Rite of Spring instead, however The Firebird was later used in Fantasia 2000. In January of 1939 Igor Stravinsky signed a contract giving Walt Disney the rights to record The Rite of Spring. In Christmas of that year Stravinsky came to the Disney studios in Burbank California and they welcomed him with a Christmas party. Stravinsky saw The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, he saw the work in progress of The Dance of the Hours and Walt Disney showed him the artwork for The Rite of Spring.
Stravinsky even explored the studio and while he was wondering he peaked into the office of animator Wolfgang Ritherman who was drawing the dinosaur fight and playing the music of The Rite of Spring backwards on a record player. Wolfgang glanced from his work and was surprised to see Igor Stravinsky standing in his office. Stravinsky told him “It sounds good backwards too” Disney even had Stravinsky see the original animation tests for the Rite of Spring and when he saw the animation his companion said, “Well that’s not what Mr. Stravinsky had in mind” but Stravinsky said “oh, yes, it is” Igor Stravinsky loved the project, but he didn’t like the fact that Stokowski made his music shorter.