It’s proclaimed to be the most notorious riot in music: the premiere of Le sacre du printemps by Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. The famous piece, rich with dissonance and many bar changes, tells the savage story of a primitive Slavic tribe celebrating the beginning of spring with earthly dances, ritual games and climaxing with a young girl, honoured as the chosen one, dancing herself to death in the "sacrificial dance”. With dancers dressed in sloppy farmer’s clothes stomping on the ground on a brute rhythm instead of elegantly dancing on fine harmonies, it contradicted all the rules of classical ballet. “I was guided by no system whatever in Le sacre du printemps”, Stravinsky would later say. Indeed, Le sacre du printemps was unconventional, to say the least, and consequently proved to be a catalyst for not only a change in the history of music, but also for some backlash from more traditional camps.
At the time of the premiere, Paris was a place full of unorthodox, revolutionary artists trying to break through the conventional art norms, and they, of course, could not miss this barbaric ballet. Among them were also some famous names like French composers Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy. But, since the ballet took place in the newly built Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in the chic seventh arrondissement, wealthy traditional Parisian aristocrats were interested as well. And so, two different social worlds were joined together: bohemians, with among them artists, underneath and traditional snobs above in the boxes.
When the first few bars of the piece were played, they were welcomed with derisive laughter. Stravinsky, who was present as well, fled the auditorium to watch the rest from the stage wings, disgusted, “Go to hell” he had said. Then the laughter transformed into an outrageous storm of words: shouts full of praise by bohemians mixed with backlash from wealthy traditionalists filled the air. But the true trouble began when these two diverse groups, having not much more than scorn for each other, started attacking the orchestra and one another. The details of what happened in that theater on the particular evening are a mystery, but eventually the uproar began to fade and the ballet was finished in reasonable silence. By that time, 40 people had already been arrested.
Le sacre du printemps, in particular the music by Stravinsky, went on to become one of the most famous and revolutionary pieces of its time and established itself, along with Stravinsky, as one of the all-time greats in the history of music. But apart from the artistic influence it turned out to have later on, the ballet about a savage, primitive ritual had already taught us an interesting and ironic lesson at its premiere: it showed us that the highly cultured aristocrats have just the same savageness in them as the unconventional bohemians they looked down upon. In the end, the piece meant to bring a primitive lifestyle to theaters might have succeeded a little too much.