The Rite of Spring Léon Vallas opined that Stravinsky had written music 30 years ahead of its time, suitable to be heard in 1940. Coincidentally, it was in that year that Walt Disney released "Fantasia", an animated feature film using music from "The Rite" and other classical compositions, conducted by Stokowski. The "Rite" segment of the film depicted the Earth's prehistory, with the creation of life, leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs as the finale. Among those impressed by the film was Gunther Schuller, later a composer, conductor and jazz scholar. The "Rite of Spring" sequence, he says, overwhelmed him and determined his
The Forbidden Rite The Forbidden Rite The Forbidden Rite is a 1962 Australian TV play. It is a filmed ballet - the first ballet written in Australia exclusively for TV. On a Mediterranean island, a tourist party inspects the ruins of a shrine built to the goddess of love. "The Forbidden Rite" was composed by Robert Hughes, a music writer and arranger for the Victorian Symphony Orchestra. It is the first work commissioned for the Alfred Hill Memorial Award. The ballet was choreographed by Rex Reid. The "Sydney Morning Herald" called "The Forbidden Rite" "a triple success for composer Robert Hughes, producer William