Musical continuity akin to cinematic editing and its impact on large-scale form have also been fundamentally affected by Stravinsky's innovations. 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. The work is notable for its use of atonality and for its innovative rhythm and orchestration. [54] Le Sacre followed. "[134], The "Ritual of Abduction" which follows is described by Hill as "the most terrifying of musical hunts". [85] This heralded a number of significant post-war European productions. [94] The New York Times critic declared the performance "a triumph 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". 10.8: The Return of Nationalism. "The Rite of Spring" Score Reduction and Analysis NMK Music 1.06K subscribers Subscribe 11K views 3 years ago Here is a score reduction and analysis of "The Rite of Spring". [86] Bausch's version had also been danced by two ballet companies, the Paris Opera Ballet and English National Ballet. Its savage violence confronted head-on the aesthetics of impressionism then at the apogee of Parisian musical fashion just as the razor-sharp editing between phrases subverted the smooth, seamless flow of the Germanic symphonic tradition with pitiless efficacy. The people break into a passionate dance, sanctifying and becoming one with the earth. Schoenberg devised a new way to organize sound called the "twelve-tone" method. In 1948 Boosey & Hawkes issued a corrected version of the 1929 score (B&H 16333), although Stravinsky's substantial 1943 amendment of the "Sacrificial Dance" was not incorporated into the new version and remained unperformed, to the composer's disappointment. Also, include your personal feedback on the selection. She serves on the music faculty of Metropolitan State University of Denver and gives pre-performance talks for Opera Colorado and the Colorado Symphony Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. [17] When the designs were complete, Stravinsky expressed delight and declared them "a real miracle". The huge wind and brass sections steal the foreground from the habitually warmer sonority of the strings, and the percussion section dominates over everything. The piece was commissioned by the noted impresario of the Ballets Russes, Serge Diaghilev, who earlier had produced the young composers The Firebird (1910) and Petrushka (1911). [61] In 1916, in a letter not published until 2013, Van Vechten admitted he had actually attended the second night, among other changes of fact. 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". [26] He enjoyed the Paris season, and accompanied Diaghilev to the Bayreuth Festival to attend a performance of Parsifal. The centenary of the ballets premiere prompted other ballet companies, notably the Mariinsky in St. Petersburg, to also revive the work in its original form. Analyzes how the right of spring opened a new lane for western music to explore outside of traditional and metric regular use. Igor Stravinsky and conductor Pierre Monteux, 88, who conducted the premiere of "The Rite of Spring," celebrate after a performance of the work in London on May 29, 1963, 50 years to the day after . Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire is associated with the twentieth-century arts movement known as _____. [155], In 1929 Stravinsky and Monteux vied with each other to conduct the first orchestral gramophone recording of The Rite. [129], Brass and percussion predominate as the "Ritual of the Rival Tribes" begins. "Painting in the Key of Color: The Art of Nicholas Roerich", "Covent Garden and Salisbury Playhouse, review", "Pina Bausch, German choreographer and dancer, dies", "Pina Bausch, German Choreographer, Dies at 68". This desire to infuse art music with folk elements did not end with the turn of the century, though 20th century nationalists made . Write the term that best matches the definition given below. [17], In July 1911 Stravinsky visited Talashkino, near Smolensk, where Roerich was staying with the Princess Maria Tenisheva, a noted patron of the arts and a sponsor of Diaghilev's magazine World of Art. [30], Stravinsky acknowledged that the work's opening bassoon melody was derived from an anthology of Lithuanian folk songs,[31] but maintained that this was his only borrowing from such sources;[32] if other elements sounded like aboriginal folk music, he said, it was due to "some unconscious 'folk' memory". [153][154] The Pleyela version of The Rite of Spring was issued in 1921; the British pianolist Rex Lawson first recorded the work in this form in 1990. The Rite of Spring can be described as all of the following EXCEPT neo classical The Rite of Spring can be performed as a concert work. STRAVINSKY: The Rite of Spring by Michael Clive Instrumentation: 5 flutes (2 doubling on piccolo), 5 oboes (2 doubling on English horn), 5 clarinets, 5 bassoons; 8 horns, 5trumpets, 3 trombones, 2 tubas; strings; percussion. [116][138] Taruskin writes that "one of the marks of The Rite's unique status is the number of books that have been devoted to itcertainly a greater number than have been devoted to any other ballet, possibly to any other individual musical composition"[139] According to Kelly the 1913 premiere might be considered "the most important single moment in the history of 20th-century music", and its repercussions continue to reverberate in the 21st century. For most of his life Igor Stravinsky was the most famous composer in the world, but he did not come to fame early. [116], In 1963, 50 years after the premiere, Monteux (then aged 88) agreed to conduct a commemorative performance at London's Royal Albert Hall. [157] In conversations with Robert Craft, Stravinsky reviewed several recordings of The Rite made in the 1960s. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. [137] Woodwind and muted trumpets are prominent throughout the Introduction, which ends with a number of rising cadences on strings and flutes. Introduction. Around forty of the worst offenders were ejectedpossibly with the intervention of the police, although this is uncorroborated. Not the subtle interplay of periodic symmetries typical of the classical era, nor the curvaceous, subjective flexibility in the flow of time that romanticism relished. [49], After the first part of the ballet received two full orchestral rehearsals in March, Monteux and the company departed to perform in Monte Carlo. [56] 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". You would have also come across nationalist influences in your readings on Tchaikovsky and Brahms. true The ideals of which movement describes the music of The Rite of Spring? [146] Ross cites the music of Copland's ballet Billy the Kid as coming directly from the "Spring Rounds" section of The Rite. Written on the eve of the first world war and the Russian revolution, the pieceis the emblem of an era of great scientific, artistic and intellectual ferment. It was the ugly earthbound lurching and stomping devised by Vaslav Nijinsky. Photograph: The Guardian, TheRite of Spring reimagined, 100 years on, Rite that caused riots: celebrating 100 years of The Rite of Spring, TheRite of Spring: 'The work of a madman', TheRite of Spring at Sadler's Wells: 'It takes you to so many places', 100years of the Rite of Spring - in pictures, TheRest is Noise festival: Stravinsky and The Rite of Spring - video preview. [86], 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. Question 2: The Rite of Spring premiere is described by Stravinsky as a chaotic event with disturbances, jeers, and even physical altercations. In his analysis of The Rite, Pieter van den Toorn writes that the work lacks a specific plot or narrative, and should be considered as a succession of choreographed episodes. He could neither read it nor play any instrument". After a mixed critical reception for its original run and a short London tour, the ballet was not performed again until the 1920s, when a version choreographed by Lonide Massine replaced Nijinsky's original, which saw only eight performances. Calvocoressi failed to observe any direct hostility to the composerunlike, he said, the premiere of Debussy's Pellas et Mlisande in 1902. They thrill me less, and move me more. with the soloist. [2] Massine's was the forerunner of many innovative productions directed by the world's leading choreographers, gaining the work worldwide acceptance. Updates? Roerich had a reputation as an artist and mystic, and had provided the stage designs for Diaghilev's 1909 production of the Polovtsian Dances. [142], Among 20th-century composers most influenced by The Rite is Stravinsky's near contemporary, Edgard Varse, who had attended the 1913 premiere. [96] Hodson's version has since been performed by the Kirov Ballet, at the Mariinsky Theatre in 2003 and later that year at Covent Garden. unified by a single idea: the mystery and great surge of the creative power of Spring". The alien harmonies and jagged rhythms of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring signalled the birth of modern music in 1913. It caused a sensation when it was first performed in Paris in 1913, with many viewers finding the work to be discordant and disturbing. false [80], 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. [38], Stravinsky's relationship with his other main collaborator, Nijinsky, was more complicated. [160] In 1926, as part of his preparation for that year's performance with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, Stravinsky rewrote the "Evocation of the Ancestors" section and made substantial changes to the "Sacrificial Dance". 390018 to 390021. "The man has found reasons for every note and that the clarinet line in page 3 is the inverted counterpoint of the horn in page 19. Collepals.com Plagiarism Free Papers Are you looking for custom essay writing service or even dissertation writing services? Here, over several days, Stravinsky and Roerich finalised the structure of the ballet. An old woman enters and begins to foretell the future. In his analysis of The Rite, Pieter van den Toorn writes that the work lacks a specific plot or narrative . Diaghilev had decided that [160] A less musical motive for the revisions and corrected editions was copyright law. Inparticular, the introductions to both parts betray a much more generous sense of lyricism, enveloped in a palpable sense of mystery. This, in a way, is cubist music where musical materials slice into one another, interact and superimpose with the most brutal edges, thus challenging the musical perspective andlogic that had dominated European ears for centuries. [135] It concludes in a series of flute trills that usher in the "Spring Rounds", in which a slow and laborious theme gradually rises to a dissonant fortissimo, a "ghastly caricature" of the episode's main tune. [39][40] It is apparent from contemporary correspondence that, at least initially, Stravinsky viewed Nijinsky's talents as a choreographer with approval; a letter he sent to Findeyzen praises the dancer's "passionate zeal and complete self-effacement". The Rite of Spring may not be as shocking today as it was at that scandalous . 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. [22] During the remaining months of winter he worked on the full orchestral score, which he signed and dated as "completed in Clarens, March 8, 1913". From start to finish TheRite of Springexalts in a new and explosive sense of musical movement. Synopsis and Structure. But not all in TheRite of Springis frenzied or aggressive. A powerful first element of the traditional Coronation Rite. Today, it is considered to be a milestone in the history of ballet. This 1987 performance by the Joffrey Ballet attempted to recreate the original appearance of Rite of Spring, including the costumes and choreography. Relive The Rite of Spring's riotous premiere, and examine the qualities that made it the most influential musical work of the 20th century. We explored nationalism in music in the 19th Century in the music of Anton Dvorak. But I love the Byzantinesplendourof his Symphony of Psalms, the austere radiance of theMassor the kaleidoscopic stylistic play ofAgon products of the 1930s, 40s and 50s just as much as this epoch-making evocation of the archaic rituals of Russian spring. [79] 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". Such superimpositions amount to a musical collage, creating a form of highly organised chaos. The abrupt ending displeased several critics, one of whom wrote that the music "suddenly falls over on its side". [9] The Firebird was premiered on 25 June 1910, with Tamara Karsavina in the main role, and was a great public success. [162][163], In 2000, Kalmus Music Publishers brought out an edition where former Philadelphia Orchestra librarian Clint Nieweg made over 21,000 corrections to the score and parts. [48] The orchestra, drawn mainly from the Concerts Colonne in Paris, comprised 99 players, much larger than normally employed at the theatre, and had difficulty fitting into the orchestra pit. [1] Although designed as a work for the stage, with specific passages accompanying characters and action, the music achieved equal if not greater recognition as a concert piece and is widely considered to be one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century. Stravinsky's Rite of Spring introduced new concepts in music, dance, and story. [41], The premiere was followed by five further performances of Le Sacre du printemps at the Thtre des Champs-lyses, the last on 13 June. He thought Herbert von Karajan's 1963 recording with the Berlin Philharmonic, was good, but "the performance is too polished, a pet savage rather than a real one". Many have called the first-night reaction a "riot" or "near-riot", though this wording did not come about until reviews of later performances in 1924, over a decade later. The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps) is a ballet in two parts. But the way two different rhythmic 'orders' interfere with each other to produced apparent chaos is a typically Stravinskyan notion. It was written for the 1913 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes company; the original choreography was by Vaslav Nijinsky with stage designs and costumes by Nicholas Roerich. [119], Commentators have often described The Rite's music in vivid terms; Paul Rosenfeld, in 1920, wrote of it "pound[ing] with the rhythm of engines, whirls and spirals like screws and fly-wheels, grinds and shrieks like laboring metal". This page was last edited on 6 March 2023, at 22:56. Regarded as among the first modernist works, the music influenced many of the 20th-century's leading composers and is one of the most recorded works in the classical repertoire. Stravinsky made two more recordings, in 1940 and 1960. In many early editions of the score, the closing section of this episode, in which the Sage blesses the earth, is separated into its own piece, either called "Embrasse de la terre" (The Kiss of the Earth), or "Le sage" (The Sage). [3] In 1901 Stravinsky began to study law at Saint Petersburg University while taking private lessons in harmony and counterpoint. [30][160], In 1922 Ansermet, who was preparing to perform the work in Berlin, sent to Stravinsky a list of errors he had found in the published score. [4][5], In 1909 Feu d'artifice was performed at a concert in Saint Petersburg. 2. [22] He also prepared a two-hand piano version, subsequently lost,[24] which he may have used to demonstrate the work to Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes conductor Pierre Monteux in April 1912. The Rite of Spring, original French Le Sacre du printemps: tableaux de la Russie paenne en deux parties, English in full The Rite of Spring: Pictures from Pagan Russia in Two Parts, ballet by Russian modernist composer Igor Stravinsky that premiered at the Thtre des Champs-Elyses in Paris on May 29, 1913. [81] In 1920, when Diaghilev decided to revive The Rite, he found that no one now remembered the choreography. The original said the 1913 Manchester Guardian review was of The Rite of Spring. . Stravinsky merely recalled a celebratory dinner with Diaghilev and Nijinsky, at which the impresario expressed his entire satisfaction with the outcome. In 1934 Neville Cardus mused: "Maybe tomorrow Stravinsky will share the fate of Strauss and Debusssy, and be called old-fashioned by the latest young 'bloods' while the rest of us in our advancing senility cry out 'O for the good old tunes of 'Le Sacre'.". [86], In 1975 modern dance choreographer Pina Bausch, who transformed the Ballett der Wuppertaler Bhnen 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. primitivism The orchestra that Stravinsky used in The Rite of Spring was remarkably small. [86] The Royal Ballet's 1962 production, choreographed by Kenneth MacMillan and designed by Sidney Nolan, was first performed on 3 May and was a critical triumph. The score calls for a large orchestra consisting of the following instruments:[126], Despite the large orchestra, much of the score is written chamber-fashion, with individual instruments and small groups having distinct roles. [56] However, the critic of L'cho 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. true. The Rite of Spring is above all a rhythmic work. troubled clown. 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. [61] 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. The Augurs of Spring for instance represent a pounding pagan dance. In tandem with this linear simplicity, the work's gigantic crunching harmonies move at the pace of glaciers, this slow harmonic movement paradoxically magnifying the overall sense of energy and drive. It did not, however, incorporate all of Ansermet's amendments and, confusingly, bore the date and RV code of the 1921 edition, making the new edition hard to identify. [18][21], Stravinsky's sketchbooks show that after returning to his home at Ustilug in Ukraine in September 1911, he worked on two movements, the "Augurs of Spring" and the "Spring Rounds". These edifices of sound though disturbingly dissonant for an audience in 1913 are chosen with impeccable refinement, and they underpin the score's complete arc with a structural surety on an almost Beethovenian level. The 'Rite of Spring' Stravinsky finished in 1913, just on the eve of the First World War. [164][bettersourceneeded], Audio playback is not supported in your browser. But Stravinsky was like his great contemporary Picasso a restless, protean genius, incapable of treading water. [7] In 1907 he began his theatrical career by presenting five concerts in Paris; in the following year he introduced Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov. The Rite of Spring (1913) by Igor Stravinsky is a historically significant ballet and orchestral work written for the Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballet Russes company. [97][98] In its 201213 season the Joffrey Ballet gave centennial performances at numerous venues, including the University of Texas on 56 March 2013, the University of Massachusetts on 14 March 2013, and with the Cleveland Orchestra on 1718 August 2013. Johnson describes the production as "a product of state atheism Soviet propaganda at its best". 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. [50] At one pointa climactic brass fortissimothe orchestra broke into nervous laughter at the sound, causing Stravinsky to intervene angrily. [69] Of later reports that the veteran composer Camille Saint-Sans had stormed out of the premiere, Stravinsky observed that this was impossible; Saint-Sans did not attend. Alert to all influences, Stravinsky receives and dominates them, only to reaffirm more and more his own personality. [65], 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". [147] For Olivier Messiaen The Rite was of special significance; he constantly analysed and expounded on the work, which gave him an enduring model for rhythmic drive and assembly of material. During this period Stravinsky made the acquaintance of Nijinsky who, although not dancing in the ballet, was a keen observer of its development. The firm also issued an unmodified reprint of the 1913 piano reduction in 1952 (B&H 17271) and a revised piano version, incorporating the 1929 revisions, in 1967. Chord progressions and melodic fragments serve rhythm, which is raised to the position of king. [137], Part II has a greater cohesion than its predecessor. (2013), pp. The musicians accompanying the bassoon are required to play colla parte, i.e. Some of the score's most electrifying moments come when opposed rhythmical strands are piled on top of one another. [44] By the beginning of 1913, when Nijinsky was badly behind schedule, Stravinsky was warned by Diaghilev that "unless you come here immediately the Sacre will not take place". [6] Like Stravinsky, Diaghilev had initially studied law, but had gravitated via journalism into the theatrical world. 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,[73][74] described the choreography as ridiculous and the music cacophonous"the work of a madman. [33] However, Morton has identified several more melodies in Part I as having their origins in the Lithuanian collection. Monteux's first reaction to The Rite, after hearing Stravinsky play a piano version, was to leave the room and find a quiet corner. As such, neoclassicism was a reaction against the unrestrained emotionalism . As well as the autograph score, they have published the manuscript piano four-hands score. History fortunately does not necessarily move in straight lines, and, specifically, the Rite's atavistic primitivism was rarely emulated by major creative figures as the 20th century evolved or, indeed, by its composer himself. This is written as a more disciplined ritual than the extravagant dance that ended Part I, though it contains some wild moments, with the large percussion section of the orchestra given full voice. The Rite of Spring Melbourne Symphony Orchestra 19.5K subscribers 131 10K views 2 years ago We will #KeepTheMusicGoing Igor Stravinsky's Rite of Spring has survived one of the most tumultuous. . [107], On 18 February 1914 The Rite received its first concert performance (the music without the ballet), in Saint Petersburg under Serge Koussevitzky. Except as indicated by a specific citation, the synopsis information is taken from Stravinsky's February 1914 note to Koussevitsky. [131] White suggests that this bitonal combination, which Stravinsky considered the focal point of the entire work, was devised on the piano, since the constituent chords are comfortable fits for the hands on a keyboard. In the 1980s, Nijinsky's original choreography, long believed lost, was reconstructed by the Joffrey Ballet in Los Angeles. [21] The academic and critic Jan Smaczny, echoing Bernstein, calls it one of the 20th century's most influential compositions, providing "endless stimulation for performers and listeners". This was the expansion ofpolyrhythm, one of modern music's most essential innovations, way beyond anything conceived before. [64] 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". "[59] Marie Rambert, who was working as an assistant to Nijinsky, recalled later that it was soon impossible to hear the music on the stage. [70][n 7] 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 Pushkin. [140] The Rite segment of the film depicted the Earth's prehistory, with the creation of life, leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs as the finale. In 1909, still in Paris, he launched the Ballets Russes, initially with Borodin's Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor and Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade. The Rite of Spring is a ballet composed by Igor Stravinsky. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The Rite of Spring caused a scandal at its premiere in 1913 but is now widely regarded as one of the most influential musical works of the 20th century, a seminal work of modernism that boldly . He is a living proof that authentic genius does not, indeed cannot, evade external influence but always absorbs and masters it. [6], In a note to the conductor Serge Koussevitzky in February 1914, Stravinsky described Le Sacre du printemps as "a musical-choreographic work, [representing] pagan Russia unified by a single idea: the mystery and great surge of the creative power of Spring". The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric 2nd Edition ISBN: 9780312676506 Lawrence Scanlon, Renee H. Shea, Robin Dissin Aufses 661 solutions Technical Writing for Success 3rd Edition ISBN: 9781111786786 Darlene Smith-Worthington, Sue Jefferson 468 solutions Technical Writing for Success [118] 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". Initial performances even Stravinsky's own of this immensely complex score were often on the edge of collapse, but the piece is now part of the international orchestral repertoire and the greatest risk it faces today, paradoxically, is routine renditions which make a work which should shock seem safe and easy. Stravinsky was uncomplimentary when recording his first impressions of the dancer, observing that he seemed immature and gauche for his age (he was 21). [67] Emile Raudin, of Les Marges, who had barely heard the music, wrote: "Couldn't we ask M. Astruc to set aside one performance for well-intentioned spectators? [85] 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. [62], 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 "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". Nijinsky had abandoned the graceful gestures and acrobatic leaps of traditional ballet. The Rite of Spring is divided into two parts: In the mid-20th century, Stravinsky revised the orchestration for concert performance, and that version of the score remains the version that is most commonly performed. Le Sacre du printemps was the third such major project, after the acclaimed Firebird (1910) and Petrushka (1911). Just request for our write my paper [] [72] 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". Rehearsals resumed when they returned; the unusually large number of rehearsalsseventeen solely orchestral and five with the dancerswere fit into the fortnight before the opening, after Stravinsky's arrival in Paris on 13 May.