The Nightingale (opera) completed his other two major ballets for Diaghilev, "Petrushka" and "The Rite of Spring". Because the time between the writing of the first and second acts extended over six years, stylistically the work reflects Stravinsky's significantly changed approach to composition, and this can clearly be detected when performances are given. Stravinsky subsequently turned aside from large productions to concentrate on chamber music and the piano. For the opera's premiere, the singers were in the pit and their roles were mimed and danced on stage. The "mise-en-scène" was by Alexandre Benois (who also designed the sets and costumes) and Alexandre Sanine,
The Rite of Spring that the work's opening bassoon melody was derived from an anthology of Lithuanian folk songs, but maintained that this was his only borrowing from such sources; if other elements sounded like aboriginal folk music, he said, it was due to "some unconscious 'folk' memory". However, Morton has identified several more melodies in Part I as having their origins in the Lithuanian collection. More recently Richard Taruskin has discovered in the score an adapted tune from one of Rimsky-Korsakov's "One Hundred Russian National Songs". Taruskin notes the paradox whereby "The Rite", generally acknowledged as the most revolutionary of the composer's early