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Ninety-six years ago today, a riot broke out among audience members witnessing the premiere of a piece that changed classical-music history.

The composer, Igor Stravinsky, was horrified; the impresario, Serge Diaghilev, was delighted.

Feelings ran high at the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris that night, from the very opening bars of Stravinsky’s ballet “The Rite of Spring” as choreographed by the great Russian dancer Vaslav Nijinsky.

The audience was expecting a ballet according to the straitlaced standards of the day. What they got was a pagan spectacle with savage, pulsing rhythms, dissonances and jerky dancing. Boos and catcalls escalated to slaps and fisticuffs. The brouhaha was so loud, according to reports from the scene, that the dancers couldn’t hear the music pounding up out of the orchestra pit.

Diaghilev flipped the house lights on and off hoping to quell the disturbance, while Nijinsky yelled a beat-count from the wings to give the dancers something to dance to. Gendarmes arrived and hauled out some of the most obstreperous patrons between parts I and II, but the mania broke out again following that intermission.

Stravinsky, writing about the incident later — after “The Rite of Spring” was safely recognized as a classic — said the incident left him deeply dismayed. But buzzmeister Diaghilev famously remarked,

“It was just what I wanted.”

On June 4, the Library of Congress will open an exhibition in the Music Reading Room in the James Madison Memorial Building in Washington, D.C., commemorating the 100th anniversary of Diaghilev’s famous Ballets Russes.

The Library holds significant items from the music and papers of Igor Stravinsky (who wrote his piece “Apollon-Musagete” on a commission from the Library’s patron Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge) and Serge Diaghilev.

Comments (3)

  1. I LOVE this article on the premier of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring! I can almost feel the potential of complete chaos, though can’t quite envision it in our modern society. Thank you for posting controversy of yesteryear. As an artist of literary art / photographic imagery it makes taking some strong creative chances seems more valid to me. It must have been a wonderful symphony to hear / see! Amazing!

  2. On June 4, the Library of Congress will open an exhibition in the Music Reading Room in the James Madison Memorial Building in Washington, D.C., commemorating the 100th anniversary of Diaghilev’s famous Ballets Russes. I can’t believe I missed the event. I’m a bit upset at myself, and I hope there’s another one similar to it sometime in the near future.

  3. Thanks for noting the Ballet Russes exhibition. I just visited LC yesterday, and the exhibit was fabulous!

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