The Rite of Spring been "incomparable: with the exception of a few places, everything was as I wanted it". The premiere was followed by five further performances of "The Rite" at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, the last on 13 June. Although these occasions were relatively peaceful, something of the mood of the first night remained; the composer Puccini, who attended the second performance on 2 June, described the choreography as ridiculous and the music cacophonous—"the work of a madman. The public hissed, laughed – and applauded". Stravinsky, confined to his bed by typhoid fever, did not join the company when it went to London
Picasso and the Ballets Russes said, ""Parade" is my best bottle of wine. I do not like to open it too often." Picasso's sets and costumes for the Ballets Russes are now considered symbols of "the progressive art of their time, and [they] have only become more celebrated and better appreciated over the past century." Nevertheless, according to his biographer, John Richardson, "Picasso's Cubist followers were horrified that their hero should desert them for the chic, elitist Ballets Russes." It was the onset of World War I that prompted him to leave Paris and live in Rome, where the Ballets Russes rehearsed. He also was