Study for the set of the Stravinsky - Diaghilev ballet Fireworks

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• Author of the reproduced work: Balla Giacomo
• Caption: 164. Study for the set of the Stravinsky - Diaghilev ballet Fireworks (1916-17). Tempera on paper, 19 1/8 x 13 inches. Collection Balla, Rome. The ballet was performed on April 12th, 1917 at the Teatro Costanzi, the opera house of Rome. Balla, seeking to interpret the music in terms of color and form, constructed the set in cloth and transparent paper using beams of light to indicate the musical rhythms. A battery of lights, controlled by Balla stationed in the prompter´s box, produced 76 different combinations of lights. The light program ranged from flooding the theater with light to pluging it into total darkness. The performance lasted 4 minutes and 4 seconds, the exact duration of Stravinsky´s music. No dancers appeared on the stage, for the great innovation of the ballet was its abstract character. It was not well received by the Roman audiance as a whole, but the few who approved of Balla´s genius clamored for him to appear. He ran onto the stage in his Futurist suit, brandishing a purple straw hat in one hand and a square-cut walking stick in the other, and exclaming "Benone!! Benone! (Fine!! Fine!).
• Place: Roma
• Year of the work: 1916
• Image typology: painting
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