At the Paris “Grand Opera,” at a ballet evening of the Russian dancer Ida Lvovna Rubinstein on November 22, 1928, Maurice Ravel’s famous “Bolero” was performed for the first time. This work, written by the French composer at Ida Rubinstein’s own request as musical accompaniment for one of the ballet numbers by her troupe presented that evening, immediately won the widest recognition. In this piece the composer tried to combine classical traditions with the rhythms of Spanish music. The concept of the work also belonged to Ida Lvovna. “Bolero” was performed together with Ravel’s “La Valse” on the premiere night. The choreography and staging concept belonged to the first woman choreographer, Bronislava Nijinska, the sister of Vaslav Nijinsky, and the sets were by Alexandre Benois. The performance was a great success. “Bolero,” like a number of Ravel’s works for musical theater, took on a fully independent life. Its triumphal march across the world’s concert stages began immediately after the theatrical premiere. The popularity of this composition truly knows no bounds. It entered the repertoire of the overwhelming majority of the world’s orchestras and conductors. Its melody became a “hit,” undergoing numerous arrangements in a wide variety of styles.
Umberto Nobile led an Italian expedition to the North Pole aboard the airship “Italia,” which took off from Kingsbay and began its flight across the Polar Basin. The airship’s crew consisted of sixteen people. Besides Nobile, the crew included fifteen Italians, the Czech physicist Běhounek, and the Swedish meteorologist Malmgren. Nobile was the ship’s commander. Before the expedition began, Pope Pius XI received Nobile and his companions at the Vatican. With a strong tailwind, on May 24, 1928, the airship “Italia” reached the North Pole. Descending to 100 meters, the members of the expedition dropped onto the ice three flags—Norwegian, American, and Italian—as well as a large oak cross given to them by Pope Pius XI. The crew spent 2.5 hours over the Pole, surveying the area from the air. Then they gained altitude again and continued on toward Alaska.
But Nobile’s further plans were not to be fulfilled. Over the Barents Sea on May 25 the airship crashed. Several rescue expeditions were organized to save Nobile—in Italy, Norway, the Soviet Union, and other countries. Amundsen, in an airplane with a French crew, took off from the Norwegian city of Tromsø on June 18, but his aircraft crashed in the Barents Sea. On June 23, the Swedish Air Force pilot Einar Lundborg managed to land on the ice floe where Nobile’s camp was located.
There was only one passenger seat on the airplane. Nobile insisted that the mechanic Cecioni, who had a broken leg, be evacuated first, but Lundborg refused to take anyone aboard except Nobile—probably following orders from his command. Nobile left the ice floe by airplane. The remaining surviving members of the expedition were rescued by the sailors of the Soviet icebreaker “Krasin.” The 5,300-kilometer airship flight from Kingsbay to Teller across the uncharted expanses of the Arctic Ocean became one of the most significant achievements in the history of aeronautics.