Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grimm and Mild. Our world is full of
Speaker 1: the unexplainable, and if history is an open book, all
Speaker 1: of these amazing tales right there on display, just waiting
Speaker 1: for us to explore. Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities.
Speaker 1: Some things aren't a hit right away. For example, when
Speaker 1: it first came out, The Wizard of Oz was a
Speaker 1: box office flop. It's a Wonderful Life wasn't a Christmas
Speaker 1: classic until twenty years after its premiere, And the same
Speaker 1: is true in the world of classical music today. Russian
Speaker 1: composer Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Right of Spring is considered
Speaker 1: a groundbreaking work. It's so famous it was chosen for
Speaker 1: the Disney film Fantasia. If your favorite sequence in that
Speaker 1: movie is the one with volcanoes exploding and dinosaurs fighting,
Speaker 1: then you're a Right of Spring fan. But the very
Speaker 1: first time people heard it, the music had a riotous reception. Literally,
Speaker 1: on May twenty ninth of nineteen thirteen, the well healed
Speaker 1: music lovers of Paris filed into the theater for what
Speaker 1: was supposed to be an exciting evening of new art.
Speaker 1: Igor Stravinsky had written a new ballet. You see, Stravinsky
Speaker 1: was on a hot streak. In nineteen ten, the young
Speaker 1: Russian composer had leapt onto the international scene with a
Speaker 1: ballet called The Firebird. In nineteen twelve, he wild ballet
Speaker 1: fans in Paris with another bonafide hit called Patrushka. And
Speaker 1: so that night in nineteen thirteen, the theater was buzzing
Speaker 1: not only about Stravinsky's new music, which was rumored to
Speaker 1: be unlike anything they had ever heard before, but about
Speaker 1: the dancing. You see, Stravinsky had partnered with vos Loov Nazinsky,
Speaker 1: a provocative choreographer with new modern ideas about what ballet
Speaker 1: could be. As the lights dimmed and the orchestra warmed up,
Speaker 1: the Parisians settled in for a night of culture. This time,
Speaker 1: Stravinsky was trying something new. He knew France viewed his
Speaker 1: native Russia as a backwards, primitive place. He also knew
Speaker 1: that he could capitalize on that, So he and Nazinsky
Speaker 1: had come up with a ballet set in pagan Russia,
Speaker 1: where peasants did folk dances and sacrificed virgins. To the gods.
Speaker 1: It would play right into Parisian stereotypes about Russia, which
Speaker 1: would send Stravinsky laughing all the way to the bank.
Speaker 1: What the audience didn't know was the chaos happening behind
Speaker 1: the scenes. The first sign that something was amiss was
Speaker 1: when Stravinsky played his new score for the head of
Speaker 1: the ballet company. After just a few measures, the man
Speaker 1: stopped Stravinsky to ask, will it last a very long time?
Speaker 1: This way? During the first run through, the musicians kept
Speaker 1: stopping to tell Stravinsky that they must have made a
Speaker 1: mistake in their score. He assured them that no, everything
Speaker 1: was written just as it was supposed to be. At
Speaker 1: this the musicians exchanged glances. Stravinsky the genius had gone stark,
Speaker 1: raving mad, and the audience seemed to share that opinion.
Speaker 1: From the very first notes of the performance, Right of
Speaker 1: Spring begins with a strange, strangled bassoon solo. Soon after that,
Speaker 1: the rest of the orchestra began playing a harsh, driving
Speaker 1: rhythm with no real melody. The beats felt irregular and
Speaker 1: off kilter, and at times different parts of the orchestra
Speaker 1: were playing in completely different keys. The effect was a
Speaker 1: jolting cacophony much different than the pretty melodies and sophisticated
Speaker 1: harmonies that the audience had been expecting, and the dancing
Speaker 1: didn't help. Nazinski's choreography subverted every expectation the audience had
Speaker 1: for a ballet. Instead of long lines and turned out feet,
Speaker 1: the dancers kept their elbows and knees at sharp angles.
Speaker 1: Rather than leaping across the stage, they hopped in place,
Speaker 1: and instead of tutuos and tights, they wore long, shapeless
Speaker 1: dresses and cloaks. The show barely started before the audience
Speaker 1: started yelling. First, the rich patrons in the boxes began
Speaker 1: booing the dancer, then the bohemians on the floor seats
Speaker 1: tried to shout them down, wanting to defend Stravinsky's modern art.
Speaker 1: Chaos quickly took over. The ballet company founder flicked the
Speaker 1: house lights off and on to calm the audience down
Speaker 1: and backstage, Nazinsky stamped out the rhythm of the music,
Speaker 1: since his dancers could no longer hear the orchestra over
Speaker 1: the roar of the crowd. By the time the curtain fell,
Speaker 1: multiple fights had broken out, Nearly forty people had been arrested,
Speaker 1: and at least two noblemen had agreed to a duel.
Speaker 1: Despite its initial reception, the Right of Spring is recognized
Speaker 1: today as a groundbreaking work. It revolutionized what people thought
Speaker 1: classical music could be, and its emphasis on rhythm over
Speaker 1: melody ended up influencing things like jazz, rock and modern music.
Speaker 1: Stravinsky didn't even have to wait long to see his
Speaker 1: work recognized. Less than a year after that riotous premiere,
Speaker 1: he staged the Rights again in Paris to rave reviews.
Speaker 1: The difference he cut the dancers, performing the work as
Speaker 1: a standalone music piece. As the last notes played, the
Speaker 1: crowd went wild, although thankfully this time not literally. If
Speaker 1: you are from pretty much any big city, but especially
Speaker 1: New York, you probably have heard legends about alligators in sewers.
Speaker 1: Locals will be quick to explain that the reptiles started
Speaker 1: off as baby pets that were flushed down toilets when
Speaker 1: they got too big. Don't worry, though, we can confirm
Speaker 1: it's just an urban legend unless you're in Florida, in
Speaker 1: which case all bets are off. As it turns out,
Speaker 1: myths about sewer dwelling creatures have been around for centuries,
Speaker 1: even if they've changed shape and location along the way.
Speaker 1: In Victorian England, for example, people told haunting tales of
Speaker 1: the Black Swine of Hampstead. According to legend, the monstrous
Speaker 1: feral swine survives on rats and the corpses of plague victims,
Speaker 1: leading it to develop a taste for human flesh. These
Speaker 1: kinds of folk tales can tell us a lot about
Speaker 1: the way that we view sewers. They're mysterious, subterranean spaces, dark, dangerous,
Speaker 1: and of course filthy, a place for discarded refuse and
Speaker 1: nightmarish monsters. But that's not the only way to look
Speaker 1: at them. And if we go back a bit further,
Speaker 1: we'll find the mother of all sewer myths is not
Speaker 1: a monster, but a goddess. Her name was Closina, which
Speaker 1: roughly translates to the purifier or the cleanser. At the start,
Speaker 1: she was most likely a minor Eutruscan goddess, the deity
Speaker 1: of a single brook or stream in swampy western Italy.
Speaker 1: When the early Romans arrived and took over the area,
Speaker 1: they dredged her stream and laid down stones, turning it
Speaker 1: into a drainage canal. This open ditch carried storm water
Speaker 1: to the nearby Tiber River, and it allowed Romans to
Speaker 1: transform an uninhabitable marsh into useful land. After that, the
Speaker 1: city of Rome began to grow asen As Canal was
Speaker 1: expanded and covered with roads. It eventually became the central
Speaker 1: runoff for the city's many latrines and public baths, which
Speaker 1: drew water from an expansive system of aqueducts. Everything had
Speaker 1: to flow through the main sewer, which was named the
Speaker 1: Kloaca Maxima, or Great Drain, in honor of Closina. In
Speaker 1: a sense, the river goddess had become a sewer goddess,
Speaker 1: arguably a humiliating turn of events, but before you laughed
Speaker 1: too much at her fate, this particular sewer deserves some respect.
Speaker 1: The Kloaca Maxima is a massive, interconnected waterway of vaulted tunnels,
Speaker 1: large enough for boats to pass through. Think more underground
Speaker 1: river than sewer. For centuries, it helped keep the city
Speaker 1: clean and free of waste, preventing disease and malaria from spreading.
Speaker 1: It was also remarkably sturdy, with standing floods, storms, and
Speaker 1: even fires. It was one of many architectural feats that
Speaker 1: allowed Rome to become such a powerful city and eventually
Speaker 1: an empire, and somewhere in that long journey, the Romans
Speaker 1: started to see cla as an aspect of the goddess Venus.
Speaker 1: Now this isn't uncommon with lesser deities, but in this
Speaker 1: case it is interesting because Venus isn't generally associated with
Speaker 1: water or rivers. She is, however, the goddess of beauty, desire,
Speaker 1: and fertility, not things typically associated with sewers. So why
Speaker 1: did Closina become connected with Venus, of all deities. Well,
Speaker 1: there's no way to know for sure, but one possible
Speaker 1: explanation is that Venus was the mother of the hero
Speaker 1: and Eneus, the legendary founder of Rome. By merging the
Speaker 1: two goddesses, the Romans symbolically embraced Closina as the mother
Speaker 1: of Rome itself. They also revealed just how much they
Speaker 1: valued their great sewer. So if you're ever in Rome,
Speaker 1: consider paying a visit to the Kloeca Maxima. Not only
Speaker 1: is it one of the world's earliest sewers, it's one
Speaker 1: of the oldest monuments in the Roman Forum, and incredibly,
Speaker 1: it's still operational today. Fortunately, it's no longer connected to
Speaker 1: any active sewers, so the odor is hopefully improved. You
Speaker 1: can also Visitas Shrine, or what's left of it. At least,
Speaker 1: it's just a circle of stones now about eight feet across,
Speaker 1: standing over the spot where two branches of the sewer meet,
Speaker 1: and who knows, if you stand there long enough, you
Speaker 1: might feel the purifier's presence. At the very least, it's
Speaker 1: a good reminder that cleanliness is always next to godliness.
Speaker 1: I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet
Speaker 1: of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn
Speaker 1: more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com.
Speaker 1: The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership
Speaker 1: with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show
Speaker 1: called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show,
Speaker 1: and you can learn all about it over at the
Speaker 1: Worldolore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.