The Rite of Spring

’I had dreamed of a scene of pagan ritual in which a chosen sacrificial virgin danced herself to death.’ Raw and untethered, Stravinsky’s modern masterpiece shocked audiences at its 1913 Paris premiere. Presented by the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, The Rite of Spring had its premiere as a ballet commissioned by then director of Ballet Russes, Sergei Diaghilev, with choreography by dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. Stravinsky himself supposedly retreated to the wings during the riotous debut, as audience members jeered. There are reports of police being called. With its freewheeling energy – animalistic, stamping rhythms, dissonant lines – Rite challenged classical convention of the time, submitting into the public consciousness the frightening idea of just how far music could go.

’Very little immediate tradition lies behind The Rite of Spring – and no theory. I had only my ear to help me; I heard and I wrote what I heard. I am the vessel through which The Rite passed.’ Drawing inspiration from Russian folk tales and Lithuanian folk song, Stravinsky composed Rite shortly after completing two earlier ballet scores for Diaghilev, The Firebird (1910) and Petrushka (1911). With painter Nicholas Roerich, who specialised in pagan subjects, Stravinsky wrote the scenario depicting rituals celebrating the advent of spring. Split across movements or ’episodes’ (including ’Ritual of Abduction’, ’Ritual of the Rival Tribes’) the work culminates with ’Sacrificial Dance’ – in which a chosen virgin dances herself to death.