The Rite of Spring composer, Stravinsky informed him that he had no intention of hearing his music being "murdered by that frightful butcher". Instead he arranged tickets for that particular evening's performance of Mozart's opera "The Marriage of Figaro", at Covent Garden. Under pressure from his friends, Stravinsky was persuaded to leave the opera after the first act. He arrived at the Albert Hall just as the performance of "The Rite" was ending; composer and conductor shared a warm embrace in front of the unaware, wildly cheering audience. Monteux's biographer John Canarina provides a different slant on this occasion, recording that by the end
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