Editing The Rite of Spring (section)

== Performance history and reception ==
=== Premiere ===
[[File:RiteofSpringDancers.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|Dancers in Nicholas Roerich's original costumes. From left, Julitska, [[Marie Rambert]], Jejerska, Boni, Boniecka, Faithful]]
Paris's [[Théâtre des Champs-Élysées]] was a new structure, which had opened on 2 April 1913 with a programme celebrating the works of many of the leading composers of the day. The theatre's manager, [[Gabriel Astruc]], was determined to house the 1913 Ballets Russes season, and paid Diaghilev the large sum of 25,000 francs per performance, double what he had paid the previous year.<ref>Kelly p. 276</ref> The programme for 29 May 1913, as well as the Stravinsky premiere, included ''Les Sylphides'', [[Carl Maria von Weber|Weber]]'s ''[[Le Spectre de la Rose]]'' and Borodin's ''Polovtsian Dances''.<ref name=K284>Kelly, pp. 284–285</ref> Ticket sales for the evening, ticket prices being doubled for a premiere, amounted to 35,000 francs.<ref>Kelly, pp. 305, 315: Gustav Linor, ''[[Comœdia]]'' 30 May 1913, reported 38,000, while a later review in ''Comœdia'' on 5 June reported 35,000</ref> A dress rehearsal was held in the presence of members of the press and assorted invited guests. According to Stravinsky, all went peacefully.<ref name=S46 /> However, the critic of ''[[L'Écho de Paris]]'', [[Adolphe Boschot]], foresaw possible trouble; he wondered how the public would receive the work, and suggested that they might react badly if they thought they were being mocked.<ref name=K282>Kelly, p. 282</ref>

On the evening of 29 May, Gustav Linor reported, "Never&nbsp;... has the hall been so full, or so resplendent; the stairways and the corridors were crowded with spectators eager to see and to hear".<ref>Kelly, p. 304, quoting Gustav Linor writing in ''[[Comœdia]]'', 30 May 1913, ''At the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées: Le Sacre du printemps''</ref> The evening began with ''Les Sylphides'', in which Nijinsky and Karsavina danced the main roles.<ref name=K284 /> ''Le Sacre'' followed. Some eyewitnesses and commentators said that the disturbances in the audience began during the Introduction, and grew noisier when the curtain rose on the stamping dancers in "Augurs of Spring". But Taruskin asserts, "it was not Stravinsky's music that did the shocking. It was the ugly earthbound lurching and stomping devised by Vaslav Nijinsky."<ref>{{cite web |last=Taruskin |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Taruskin |date=14 September 2012 |title=Shocker Cools into a 'Rite' of Passage |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/arts/music/rite-of-spring-cools-into-a-rite-of-passage.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220905134424/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/arts/music/rite-of-spring-cools-into-a-rite-of-passage.html |archive-date=2022-09-05 |access-date=28 November 2014 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> [[Marie Rambert]], who was working as an assistant to Nijinsky, recalled later that it was soon impossible to hear the music on the stage.<ref name=H28>Hill, pp. 28–30</ref> In his autobiography, Stravinsky writes that the derisive laughter that greeted the first bars of the Introduction disgusted him, and that he left the auditorium to watch the rest of the performance from the stage wings. The demonstrations, he says, grew into "a terrific uproar" which, along with the on-stage noises, drowned out the voice of Nijinsky who was shouting the step numbers to the dancers.<ref name=S46>Stravinsky 1962, pp. 46–47</ref> Two years after the premiere the journalist and photographer [[Carl Van Vechten]] claimed in his book ''Music After the Great War'' that the person behind him became carried away with excitement, and "began to beat rhythmically on top of my head with his fists".<ref name=White177 /> In 1916, in a letter not published until 2013, Van Vechten admitted he had actually attended the second night, among other changes of fact.<ref>''The Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten'', edited by Edward Burns, Columbia University Press, 2013, pp. 850–851</ref>

[[File:Russian Ballet in Paris - New York Times 1913-06-08.png|thumb|right|''[[The New York Times]]'' reported the sensational premiere, nine days after the event.<ref>''[[The New York Times]]'' (8 June 1913). [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1913/06/08/100627576.pdf "Parisians Hiss New Ballet"]. Retrieved 4 November 2014.</ref>]]
At that time, a Parisian ballet audience typically consisted of two diverse groups: the wealthy and fashionable set, who would be expecting to see a traditional performance with beautiful music, and a [[Bohemianism|"Bohemian"]] group who, the poet-philosopher [[Jean Cocteau]] asserted, would "acclaim, right or wrong, anything that is new because of their hatred of the boxes".<ref>Ross, p. 74</ref> Monteux believed that the trouble began when the two factions began attacking each other, but their mutual anger was soon diverted towards the orchestra: "Everything available was tossed in our direction, but we continued to play on". Around forty of the worst offenders were ejected—possibly with the intervention of the police, although this is uncorroborated. Through all the disturbances the performance continued without interruption. The unrest receded significantly during Part II, and by some accounts Maria Piltz's rendering of the final "Sacrificial Dance" was watched in reasonable silence. At the end there were several curtain calls for the dancers, for Monteux and the orchestra, and for Stravinsky and Nijinsky before the evening's programme continued.<ref name=K292>Kelly, pp. 292–294</ref>

Among the more hostile press reviews was that of ''[[Le Figaro]]''{{'}}s critic [[Henri Quittard]], who called the work "a laborious and puerile barbarity" and added "We are sorry to see an artist such as M. Stravinsky involve himself in this disconcerting adventure".<ref>Kelly p. 307, quoting [[Henri Quittard|Quittard]]'s report in ''[[Le Figaro]]'', 31 May 1913</ref> On the other hand, Gustav Linor, writing in the leading theatrical magazine ''[[Comœdia]]'', thought the performance was superb, especially that of Maria Piltz; the disturbances, while deplorable, were merely "a rowdy debate" between two ill-mannered factions.<ref name=K304>Kelly pp. 304–305, quoting Linor's report in ''[[Comœdia]]'', 30 May 1913</ref> Emile Raudin, of ''Les Marges'', who had barely heard the music, wrote: "Couldn't we ask M. Astruc&nbsp;... to set aside one performance for well-intentioned spectators?&nbsp;... We could at least propose to evict the female element".<ref name=K292 /> The composer [[Alfredo Casella]] thought that the demonstrations were aimed at Nijinsky's choreography rather than at the music,<ref>Kelly, pp. 327–328, translated from [[Alfredo Casella|Casella, Alfredo]]: ''Strawinski''. La Scuola, Brescia 1961. {{OCLC|12830261}}</ref> a view shared by the critic [[Michel-Dimitri Calvocoressi]], who wrote: "The idea was excellent, but was not successfully carried out". Calvocoressi failed to observe any direct hostility to the composer—unlike, he said, the premiere of Debussy's ''Pelléas et Mélisande'' in 1902.<ref>Calvocoressi, pp. 244–245</ref> Of later reports that the veteran composer [[Camille Saint-Saëns]] had stormed out of the premiere, Stravinsky observed that this was impossible; Saint-Saëns did not attend.<ref>Kelly, p. 283</ref>{{refn|group=n|Monteux's biographer records that Saint-Saëns walked out of the Paris premiere of the concert version of ''The Rite'', which Monteux conducted in April 1914; Saint-Saëns opined that Stravinsky was "mad".<ref>Canarina, p. 47</ref>}} Stravinsky also rejected Cocteau's story that, after the performance, Stravinsky, Nijinsky, Diaghilev and Cocteau himself took a cab to the [[Bois de Boulogne]] where a tearful Diaghilev recited poems by [[Alexander Pushkin|Pushkin]]. Stravinsky merely recalled a celebratory dinner with Diaghilev and Nijinsky, at which the impresario expressed his entire satisfaction with the outcome.<ref>Stravinsky and Craft 1959, pp. 47–48</ref> To Maximilien Steinberg, a former fellow-pupil under Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky wrote that Nijinsky's choreography had been "incomparable: with the exception of a few places, everything was as I wanted it".<ref name=H109 />

=== Initial run and early revivals ===
The premiere was followed by five further performances of ''Le Sacre du printemps'' at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the last on 13 June. Although these occasions were relatively peaceful, something of the mood of the first night remained; the composer [[Giacomo Puccini]], who attended the second performance on 2 June,<ref>Kelly, p. 294</ref><ref>Hill, p. 116</ref> described the choreography as ridiculous and the music cacophonous—"the work of a madman. The public hissed, laughed—and applauded".<ref>Adami, p. 251</ref> Stravinsky, confined to his bed by typhoid fever,<ref>Stravinsky 1962, p. 49</ref> did not join the company when it went to London for four performances at the [[Theatre Royal, Drury Lane]].<ref>{{cite web|title= Diaghilev London Walk|date= 28 June 2011|url= http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/d/diaghilev-london-walk/|publisher=[[Victoria and Albert Museum]]|access-date= 27 August 2012}}</ref> Reviewing the London production, ''[[The Times]]'' critic was impressed how different elements of the work came together to form a coherent whole, but was less enthusiastic about the music itself, opining that Stravinsky had entirely sacrificed melody and harmony for rhythm: "If M. Stravinsky had wished to be really primitive, he would have been wise to&nbsp;... score his ballet for nothing but drums".<ref>{{cite news|title= The Fusion of Music and Dancing|newspaper= The Times|date= 26 July 1913|page=8}}</ref> The ballet historian Cyril Beaumont commented on the "slow, uncouth movements" of the dancers, finding these "in complete opposition to the traditions of classical ballet".<ref name=White177>White 1966, pp. 177–178</ref>

[[File:Massine, Leonide (1895-1979) - 1914 - Ritratto da Leon Bakst.jpg|thumb|right|upright|[[Léonide Massine]], who choreographed the 1920 revival]]
After the opening Paris run and the London performances, events conspired to prevent further stagings of the ballet. Nijinsky's choreography, which [[Thomas Forrest Kelly|Kelly]] describes as "so striking, so outrageous, so frail as to its preservation", did not appear again until attempts were made to reconstruct it in the 1980s.<ref name=K292 /> On 19 September 1913 Nijinsky married [[Romola de Pulszky]] while the Ballets Russes was on tour without Diaghilev in South America. When Diaghilev found out he was distraught and furious that his lover had married, and dismissed Nijinsky. Diaghilev was then obliged to re-hire Fokine, who had resigned in 1912 because Nijinsky had been asked to choreograph ''Faune''. Fokine made it a condition of his re-employment that none of Nijinsky's choreography would be performed.<ref>Buckle, p. 268</ref> In a letter to the art critic and historian [[Alexandre Benois]], Stravinsky wrote, "[T]he possibility has gone for some time of seeing anything valuable in the field of dance and, still more important, of again seeing this offspring of mine".<ref>Walsh 1999, p. 219, quoting letter to Benois of 20 September/3 October 1913</ref>

With the disruption following the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 and the dispersal of many artistes, Diaghilev was ready to re-engage Nijinsky as both dancer and choreographer, but Nijinsky had been placed under house arrest in Hungary as an enemy Russian citizen. Diaghilev negotiated his release in 1916 for a tour in the United States, but the dancer's mental health steadily declined and he took no further part in professional ballet after 1917.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Acocella |first=Joan |author-link=Joan Acocella |title=Secrets of Nijinsky |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1999/01/14/secrets-of-nijinsky/ |magazine=[[The New York Review of Books]] |date=14 January 1999 |volume=46 |issue=1 |access-date=18 February 2025 |url-access=registration |archive-url=https://archive.today/20210510061339/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1999/01/14/secrets-of-nijinsky/ |archive-date=2021-05-10 |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1920, when Diaghilev decided to revive ''The Rite'', he found that no one now remembered the choreography.<ref>Buckle, p. 366</ref> After spending most of the war years in Switzerland, and becoming a permanent exile from his homeland after the 1917 [[Russian Revolution]], Stravinsky resumed his partnership with Diaghilev when the war ended. In December 1920 [[Ernest Ansermet]] conducted a new production in Paris, choreographed by [[Léonide Massine]], with the [[Nicholas Roerich]] designs retained; the lead dancer was [[Lydia Sokolova]].<ref name=White177 /> In his memoirs, Stravinsky is equivocal about the Massine production; the young choreographer, he writes, showed "unquestionable talent", but there was something "forced and artificial" in his choreography, which lacked the necessary organic relationship with the music.<ref>Stravinsky 1962, pp. 92–93</ref> Sokolova, in her later account, recalled some of the tensions surrounding the production, with Stravinsky, "wearing an expression that would have frightened a hundred Chosen Virgins, pranc[ing] up and down the centre aisle" while Ansermet rehearsed the orchestra.<ref name=H86>Hill, pp. 86–89</ref>

=== Later choreographies ===
The ballet was first shown in the United States on 11 April 1930, when Massine's 1920 version was performed by the [[Philadelphia Orchestra]] in Philadelphia under [[Leopold Stokowski]], with [[Martha Graham]] dancing the role of the Chosen One.<ref name=Juillard>{{cite web|last= Berman|first= Greta|title= Painting in the Key of Color: The Art of Nicholas Roerich|url= http://www.juilliard.edu/journal/painting-key-color-art-nicholas-roerich|work=Juilliard Journal Online|publisher=[[Juilliard School]]|date= May 2008|access-date= 27 May 2013}}</ref> The production moved to New York, where Massine was relieved to find the audiences receptive, a sign, he thought, that New Yorkers were finally beginning to take ballet seriously.<ref name=J233>Johnson, pp. 233–234</ref> The first American-designed production, in 1937, was that of the [[modern dance]] exponent [[Lester Horton]], whose version replaced the original pagan Russian setting with a [[American frontier|Wild West]] background and the use of [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] dances.<ref name=J233 />
[[File:Moscow Bolshoi Theatre 2011.JPG|thumb|left|The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, where the 1965 production of ''The Rite'' was described by a critic as "Soviet propaganda at its best"]]

In 1944 Massine began a new collaboration with Roerich, who before his death in 1947 completed a number of sketches for a new production which Massine brought to fruition at [[La Scala]] in Milan in 1948.<ref name=Juillard /> This heralded a number of significant post-war European productions. [[Mary Wigman]] in Berlin (1957) followed Horton in highlighting the erotic aspects of virgin sacrifice, as did [[Maurice Béjart]] in Brussels (1959). Béjart's representation replaced the culminating sacrifice with a depiction of what the critic Robert Johnson describes as "ceremonial coitus".<ref name=J233 /> The [[Royal Ballet]]'s [[The Rite of Spring (MacMillan)|1962 production]], choreographed by [[Kenneth MacMillan]] and designed by [[Sidney Nolan]], was first performed on 3 May and was a critical triumph. It has remained in the company's repertoire for more than 50 years; after its revival in May 2011 ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]''{{'}}s critic Mark Monahan called it one of the Royal Ballet's greatest achievements.<ref>{{cite web|last= Monahan|first= Mark| title= Covent Garden and Salisbury Playhouse, review|url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/dance/8546035/Covent-Garden-and-Salisbury-Playhouse-review.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/dance/8546035/Covent-Garden-and-Salisbury-Playhouse-review.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|work=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]|date= 30 May 2011|access-date= 18 August 2011}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Moscow first saw ''The Rite'' in 1965, in a version choreographed for the [[Bolshoi Ballet]] by [[Natalia Kasatkina]] and [[Vladimir Vasiliev (dancer)|Vladimir Vasiliev]]. This production was shown in [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]] four years later, at the [[Mikhailovsky Theatre|Maly Opera Theatre]],<ref name=Balletmag>{{cite magazine|first= Elena|last= Solominskaya|title= The Ballet Time|url= http://www.russianballet.ru/eng/archives/jan-feb03/covers2.htm|magazine= Ballet magazine|date= January–February 2003|access-date= 18 August 2012|archive-date= 25 June 2013|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130625225322/http://www.russianballet.ru/eng/archives/jan-feb03/covers2.htm|url-status= dead}}</ref> and introduced a storyline that provided the Chosen One with a lover who wreaks vengeance on the elders after the sacrifice. Johnson describes the production as "a product of state atheism&nbsp;... Soviet propaganda at its best".<ref name=J233 />

{{anchor|Pina Bausch}}
[[File:CPinaBausch MAE 339978-9.tif|thumb|upright=1.3|Tanztheater Wuppertal in [[Pina Bausch]]'s production]]
In 1975 modern dance choreographer [[Pina Bausch]], who transformed the Ballett der Wuppertaler Bühnen to [[Tanztheater Wuppertal]], caused a stir in the dance world with her stark depiction, played out on an earth-covered stage, in which the Chosen One is sacrificed to gratify the misogyny of the surrounding men.<ref name=Jennings/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/jun/30/pina-bausch-dies-dancer|title=Pina Bausch, German choreographer and dancer, dies|work=[[The Guardian]]|last=Wiegland|first=Chris|date=30 June 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last= Wakin|first= Daniel J.|title= Pina Bausch, German Choreographer, Dies at 68|url= https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/01/arts/dance/01bausch.html?_r=1|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date= 30 June 2009|access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref> At the end, according to ''[[The Guardian]]''{{'}}s [[Luke Jennings]], "the cast is sweat-streaked, filthy and audibly panting".<ref name=Jennings>{{cite news|last=Jennings|first=Luke|author-link=Luke Jennings|title=Obituary: Pina Bausch|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2009/jul/01/pina-bausch-obituary-dance|work=[[The Guardian]]|date=1 July 2009|access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref> Part of this dance appears in the film ''[[Pina (film)|Pina]]''.<ref name=J233 /> Bausch's version had also been danced by two ballet companies, the [[Paris Opera Ballet]] and [[English National Ballet]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://dancetabs.com/2016/01/paris-opera-ballet-polyphonia-alea-sands-le-sacre-du-printemps-paris/|title=Paris Opera Ballet – Polyphonia, Alea Sands, ''Le Sacre du printemps'' – Paris|work=DanceTabs|last=Parry|first=Jann|date=3 January 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/le-sacre-du-printemps-rite-spring-english-national-ballet-sadler-s-wells-review-a7655886.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/le-sacre-du-printemps-rite-spring-english-national-ballet-sadler-s-wells-review-a7655886.html |archive-date=18 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=''Le Sacre du printemps'', Sadler's Wells, London, review: This is the best staging of ''Le Sacre'' I know|work=[[The Independent]]|last=Anderson|first=Zo|date=29 March 2017}}</ref> In America, in 1980, [[Paul Taylor (choreographer)|Paul Taylor]] used Stravinsky's four-hand piano version of the score as the background for a scenario based on child murder and gangster film images.<ref name=J233 /> In February 1984 Martha Graham, in her 90th year, resumed her association with ''The Rite'' by choreographing a new production at [[New York State Theater]].<ref>Johnson, pp. 235–236</ref> ''[[The New York Times]]'' critic declared the performance "a triumph&nbsp;... totally elemental, as primal in expression of basic emotion as any tribal ceremony, as hauntingly staged in its deliberate bleakness as it is rich in implication".<ref>{{cite news|last=Kisselgoff|first=Anna|author-link=Anna Kisselgoff|title=The Dance: ''Rite'', by Martha Graham|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/02/29/arts/the-dance-rite-by-martha-graham.html|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=29 February 1984|access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref>

On 30 September 1987, the [[Joffrey Ballet]] performed in Los Angeles ''The Rite'' based on a reconstruction of Nijinsky's 1913 choreography, until then thought lost beyond recall. The performance resulted from years of research, primarily by Millicent Hodson, who pieced the choreography together from the original prompt books, contemporary sketches and photographs, and the recollections of Marie Rambert and other survivors.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Fink|first=Robert|title=''The Rite of Spring'' and the Forging of a Modern Style |journal= [[Journal of the American Musicological Society]]|volume=52|issue=2|date=Summer 1999|page=299|jstor=832000|doi=10.1525/jams.1999.52.2.03a00030}} {{subscription required}}</ref> Hodson's version has since been performed by the [[Mariinsky Ballet|Kirov Ballet]], at the [[Mariinsky Theatre]] in 2003 and later that year at Covent Garden.<ref>{{cite web |title= The Joffrey Ballet Resurrects The Rite of Spring|url= http://www.nea.gov/about/40th/joffrey.html|publisher=[[National Endowment for the Arts]]|access-date= 18 August 2012 |url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120915235314/http://www.nea.gov/about/40th/joffrey.html|archive-date= 15 September 2012|df= dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author-link=Maev Kennedy|last=Kennedy|first=Maev|title=Kirov revive Nijinsky's wonder|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/aug/05/arts.artsnews|work=[[The Guardian]] |date= 5 August 2003|access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref> In its 2012–13 season the Joffrey Ballet gave centennial performances at numerous venues, including the [[University of Texas]], the [[University of Massachusetts]], and with the [[Cleveland Orchestra]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://texasperformingarts.org/season/joffrey-ballet-rite-of-spring |title= The Joffrey Ballet: The Rite of Spring|publisher=[[University of Texas at Austin]]|access-date= |work = Texas Performing Arts|df= dmy-all|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130305095111/http://www.texasperformingarts.org/season/joffrey-ballet-rite-of-spring|archive-date= 5 March 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.masslive.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2013/03/joffrey_ballet_performing_rite.html|title= Joffrey Ballet to perform Rite of Spring and other works at UMass Fine Arts Center|publisher=[[University of Massachusetts]]|date= 10 March 2013|access-date= 24 May 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url= http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2013/08/cleveland_orchestra_joffrey_ba.html|title= Cleveland Orchestra, Joffrey Ballet striving for authenticity in upcoming ''Rite''|newspaper=[[The Plain Dealer]]|date= 11 August 2013|access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref>

The music publishers [[Boosey & Hawkes]] have estimated that since its premiere, the ballet has been the subject of at least 150 productions, many of which have become classics and have been performed worldwide.<ref name=BH /> Among the more radical interpretations is [[Glen Tetley]]'s 1974 version, in which the Chosen One is a young male.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Rite of Spring |url=http://www.pnb.org/AboutPNB/Repertory/TheRiteofSpring.aspx |publisher=[[Pacific Northwest Ballet]] |access-date=17 August 2012 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120319004727/http://www.pnb.org/AboutPNB/Repertory/TheRiteofSpring.aspx |archive-date=19 March 2012 }}</ref> More recently there have been solo dance versions devised by [[Molissa Fenley]]<ref>[[Anna Kisselgoff|Kisselgoff, Anna]]. "In 'State of Darkness', a Dancer's Rite of Passage", ''[[The New York Times]]'', 8 October 1988.</ref><ref>D'Aoust, Renée E. "Lowenberg at Pacific Northwest Ballet & School", The Dance Insider. July 2007.</ref> and [[Javier de Frutos]] and a punk rock interpretation from [[Michael Clark (dancer)|Michael Clark]].<ref name=BH>{{cite web|title=Stravinsky: towards The Rite of Spring's centenary |url=http://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Stravinsky-towards-The-Rite-of-Spring-s-centenary/12217|publisher=[[Boosey & Hawkes]]|date=March 2011 |access-date=17 August 2012 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026212747/http://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Stravinsky-towards-The-Rite-of-Spring-s-centenary/12217 |archive-date=26 October 2011 }}</ref> The 2004 film ''[[Rhythm Is It!]]'' documents a project by conductor [[Simon Rattle]] with the [[Berlin Philharmonic]] and choreographer [[Royston Maldoom]] to stage a performance of the ballet with a cast of 250 children recruited from Berlin's public schools, from 25 countries.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://german-documentaries.de/en_EN/films/rhythm-is-it.6817 | title=''Rhythm is it!''| website = german-documentaries.de | date = | access-date = 7 August 2020 }}</ref>  In ''Rites'' (2008), by [[The Australian Ballet]] in conjunction with [[Bangarra Dance Theatre]], Aboriginal perceptions of the elements of earth, air, fire and water are featured.<ref>{{cite web|title= Aboriginal ballet hits Paris stage | url = http://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-09-30/aboriginal-ballet-hits-paris-stage/527590|publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]|date= 3 October 2008|access-date= 17 August 2012}}</ref>

=== Concert performances ===
On 18 February 1914 ''The Rite'' received its first concert performance (the music without the ballet), in Saint Petersburg under [[Serge Koussevitzky]].<ref>Hill, p. 8</ref> On 5 April that year, Stravinsky experienced for himself the popular success of ''Le Sacre'' as a concert work, at the Casino de Paris. After the performance, again under Monteux, the composer was carried in triumph from the hall on the shoulders of his admirers.<ref name=Vdt6>Van den Toorn, p. 6</ref> ''The Rite'' had its first British concert performance on 7 June 1921, at the [[Queen's Hall]] in London under [[Eugene Aynsley Goossens|Eugene Goossens]]. Its American premiere occurred on 3 March 1922, when Stokowski included it in a Philadelphia Orchestra programme.<ref>Smith, p. 94</ref> Goossens was also responsible for introducing ''The Rite'' to Australia on 23 August 1946 at the Sydney Town Hall, as guest conductor of the [[Sydney Symphony Orchestra]].<ref>{{cite web|title= Australian Composition 1945–1959|url= http://www.australianmusiccentre.com.au/guides/1945-1959|first = Clinton |last=Green|publisher=[[Australian Music Centre]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |newspaper=[[The Sydney Morning Herald]] |title=Sydney To Hear 'Rite of Spring{{'-}} |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/29765069/996073 |date=22 August 1946 |page=5 |via=[[Trove]]}}</ref>

Stravinsky first conducted the work in 1926, in a concert given by the [[Concertgebouw Orchestra]] in Amsterdam;<ref name=VdT39 /><ref>Stravinsky 1962, p. 129</ref> two years later he brought it to the [[Salle Pleyel]] in Paris for two performances under his baton. Of these occasions he later wrote that "thanks to the experience I had gained with all kinds of orchestras&nbsp;... I had reached a point where I could obtain exactly what I wanted, as I wanted it".<ref>Stravinsky 1962, p. 137</ref> Commentators have broadly agreed that the work has had a greater impact in the concert hall than it has on the stage; many of Stravinsky's revisions to the music were made with the concert hall rather than the theatre in mind.<ref>{{cite web|last=Freed|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Freed|title=The Rite of Spring: About the work|url=https://www.kennedy-center.org/artist/composition/2841|publisher=[[The Kennedy Center]]|date=20 November 2004|access-date=16 December 2019}}</ref> The work has become a staple in the repertoires of all the leading orchestras, and has been cited by [[Leonard Bernstein]] as "the most important piece of music of the 20th century".<ref name=Bernstein>{{cite news|last=Willsher|first=Kim|title=Rite that caused riots: celebrating 100 years of ''The Rite of Spring''|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/may/27/rite-of-spring-100-years-stravinsky|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=27 May 2013|access-date=19 March 2021}}</ref>

In 1963, 50 years after the premiere, Monteux (then aged 88) agreed to conduct a commemorative performance at London's [[Royal Albert Hall]]. According to [[Isaiah Berlin]], a close friend of the composer, Stravinsky informed him that he had no intention of hearing his music being "murdered by that frightful butcher". Instead he arranged tickets for that particular evening's performance of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s opera ''[[The Marriage of Figaro]]'', at [[Royal Opera House|Covent Garden]]. Under pressure from his friends, Stravinsky was persuaded to leave the opera after the first act. He arrived at the Albert Hall just as the performance of ''The Rite'' was ending;{{refn|group=n|In a different account of the incident, the music historian [[Richard Morrison (music critic)|Richard Morrison]] writes that Stravinsky arrived at the end of the first part, rather than at the end of the piece.<ref>Morrison, pp. 137–138</ref>}} composer and conductor shared a warm embrace in front of the unaware, wildly cheering audience.<ref>Hill, p. 102</ref> Monteux's biographer John Canarina provides a different slant on this occasion, recording that by the end of the evening Stravinsky had asserted that "Monteux, almost alone among conductors, never cheapened ''Rite'' or looked for his own glory in it, and he continued to play it all his life with the greatest fidelity".<ref>Canarina, p. 301</ref>