BY KAREN BOSSICK
If you want a break from all the snow that has fallen on Sun Valley recently, you’ll find it at Upbeat with Alasdair.
Alasdair Neale, the Sun Valley Music Festival’s music director, will discuss Igor Stravinsky’s ballet “The Rite of Spring” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 4 at The Community Library.
“The Rite of Spring: 110 Years Old and Still Breaking the Rules” is free but those wishing to see it in person must RSVP at info@svmusicfestival.org or 208-622-5607. The program will also be broadcast on the Festival’s website and YouTube channel.
The ballet piece “The Rite of Spring” debuted in 1913 at the Champs-Elysees in Paris and promptly caused a riot as those who loved it and those who hated it argued so vehemently that the dancers couldn’t hear the orchestra.
The reason: Stravinsky’s music and Nijinsky’s choreography broken with tradition dramatically. So much so that the piece is often called the first example of modernism in music and one of the most influential works of the 20th century.
Stravinsky was a young, virtually unknown composer when he was recruited to create works for the Ballets Russes. He composed “Firebird” in 1910 and “Petrushka” in 1911. Then he based “The Rite of Spring” after pagan Russian rituals celebrating the advent of spring in which a young girl is chosen as a sacrificial victim and dances herself to death.
The piece was so controversial initially that it was not performed again until the 1920s.
Neale will present examples of what makes “The Rite of Spring” so groundbreaking. And he will describe not just the innovation but the beauty of “Rite of Spring,” which the Festival will present during its upcoming Summer Season in August.
Neale will field questions following the presentation.