rite of spring
Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring caused a riot when it was premiered in Paris in 1913, partly due to the dissonant music but also because of Vaslav Nijinsky’s unorthodox choreography. In 1987 the Joffrey Ballet attempted to reconstruct the choreography, costumes and sets from notes, drawings and the personal reminiscences of the original dancers from the Ballets Russes.
Part I of Joffrey’s restoration is below. Follow the links for parts two and three.
January 10th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
I am reminded of my history of theater classes, my professor was very enamored of this particular time period before and after WWI. The movement away from Victorian Romanticism and towards Realism. I can only imagine what that first audience was like, expecting something lovely and spring like all frou-frou and full of pretty ballerinas on their toes throwing petals and instead they get something totally unexpected, no wonder they rioted. One day I will have to tell you the story of my history of theater professors Dada lecture and the dumb acting major it’s one my better college theater stories.
January 11th, 2009 at 6:36 pm
You’re absolutely right about the audience and their defied expectations. I’ll do a somewhat expanded post about Rite of Spring at some point, but basically the audience started flipping out as soon as the bassoon solo at the beginning started (Stravinsky deliberately wrote it at the upper limit of the instrument’s range: it was intended to be grotesque, and only in subsequent decades did players try for a more “beautiful” sound), and didn’t stop. The choreography was intentionally grotesque as well, and was as much to blame for the riot as the music.
I’d enjoy hearing the Dada lecture story! The whole Dada and Surrealist thing is so playful and cool that I’m always stunned when people don’t get it. (That shouldn’t be viewed as a judgment, Dada non-fans!)
January 14th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
The story is much better when told in person or over the phone. I have always wished that I could have seen one of Brecht’s plays as it was originally staged. He really broke down the third wall and the stories of some of the performances sound fascinating. I found my History of Theater classes absorbing it was then that I finally realized that art does not happen in a vacuum, that art is a reaction to what is happening in the world. It will be very interesting to see what people say about the late twentieth/early twenty first century. Probably, they will say that as a culture we enjoyed watching stuff blow up or get smashed and shot. If I had the money to burn and I could reconcile myself to writing term papers from here to eternity I would go back to school and get my history degree.
February 8th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
[...] the same choreographer and company would stage the first presentation of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. It wins the all time prize for “Best Ballet Featuring A Masturbating [...]