In the years before World War I, Paris impressario Sergei Diaghilev commissioned three ballets from Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird in 1910, Petrushka in 1911, and The Rite of Spring in 1913. Dance would never be the same — and neither would Stravinsky, not yet quite thirty years old, who suddenly found himeslf a major figure in classsical music.
We’ll look at the Paris ballets over the next three weeks on Mozart’s Attic, and we’ll begin with The Firebird this Sunday with the other to follow.