Le Sacre du Printemps
Friday 29 May, 2009
On this date, the 29 of May 1913, was the première of the ballet The Rite of Spring, commonly referred to by its original French title (above). The ballet was composed by Igor Stravinsky, original choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, all under impressario Serge Diaghilev.
The music is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest, most influential, and reproduced compositions in history. It is iconic for 20th century classical or avant garde European music, with innovative complex rhythmic structures, timbres, and use of dissonance. The scandal of a riot at its 1913 premier, caused by its innovative technique and content, made it one of the most internationally well known and controversial works in performance history.
(source Wikipedia)
Giacomo Puccini
Monday 22 December, 2008
Italian composer Giacomo Puccini was born on this date in 1858. One of the world’s most famous composers of opera, he is best known for his tragic love stories: La Bohème (1896), Tosca (1900) and Madama Butterfly (1904). Puccini was close to the end of his last opera, Turandot, when he succumbed to cancer in 1924. News of his death reached Rome during a performance of La Bohème. The performance was halted and the orchestra moved to playing Frédéric Chopin’s Funeral March.Turandot was completed by fellow composer, Franco Alfano, and was first played in 1926 at La Scala, with Arturo Toscaniniconducting.
(source: Answers.com)
Georges Seurat
Tuesday 2 December, 2008
Neoimpressionist painter Georges Seurat was born on this date in 1859. Leader of the movement that used pointillism to create richer colors, Seurat applied his interest in science to his art. He used a method that he referred to as “chromoluminarism,” dabbing short strokes of contrasting colors on the canvas so that, from a distance, they would appear as a fuller palette of colors.Seurat’s masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, took two years to complete. Today, it hangs in the Art Institute of Chicago.
