Diaghileff's Russian Ballet, 1916

       Diaghileff's Russian Ballet
The Most Beautiful Production
of The Modern Theater
Arranged and Rendered by Troy and Margaret West Kinney
from Designs by Leon Bakst and Authentic Photographs

 

Stage decoration by Leon Bakst for the ballet, "Afternoon of a Faun" depicted above.

       "Serge De Diaghileff's Russian Ballet represents the perfect interplay of all the arts, as they are expressed in the ballet. Its coming to America this season, after six years of success in Europe, is the realization of great effort by the Metropolitan Opera Company directorate.
       The ballets, set in the scenery and clothed in the costumes designed for them by Leon Bakst, captivate by the truth and vitality of the miming, the grace of the dancing, the splendor of the background, and their matchless originality. Nijinsky, acclaimed as the greatest dancer, and Karavina, supreme in mimetic dancing, head the organization. Fifty-one principles in all comprise the troupe. Among them are Bolm, Ceccetti, Massin, Tchernichowa, Sokolova and others trained in the Imperial Ballet schools of Russia, and by Diaghileff. Ernest Ansermet, prominent among the younger musicians of Europe, is conductor of the symphony orchestra of seventy members. Leon Bakst himself is in America with the ballet. The music is the work of eminent composers. The vaporous fancies of Chopin, Dubussy, Schumann, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Balakiref, Strawinsky, Reynaldo Hahn, Tcherepnin, Borodin, Ravel, Tschaikovsky - all are represented.
       Beginning their season at the Century Theatre, in New York, on January seventeenth, in February and March the entire aggregation will visit the leading cities of the United States, and will close their American tour with a four weeks' season at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City."

These pictures of the principals of Serge de Diaghileff's Russian Ballet bring out the full splendor
 of the Bakst costumes and suggest the spectacular settings which serve these dancers as a
background. They convey, as well as can be conveyed by print, some idea of what London has
called "The Glory of the Russian Ballet," and what Parisians have looked forward to each spring
as their saison Russe. Short of actual flesh and blood, the striking pictures of these artists, who
appear in ballets as varied as the music which accompanies them, show most vividly why the
ballet has been universally termed "the greatest artistic sensation of the twentieth century."

 

The Illustrated Vignettes of Characters:

1. Equally supreme in portrayal of soul, Thamar Karsavina Interprets Schumann's "Papillonas" with indescribable charm.
2. In the mythological drama "Narcisse," by Bakst, Karsavina in the role of Bacchaste expresses all the joyous abandon of the ancient festival spirit.
3. Clad in colorful costumes by Leon Bakst, Karavina and Bolm, principal mimes, reflect the excitement of the legendary "Thamar."
4. To the music of the bold innovator, Strawinsky, Karavina and Nicolas Kremneff dance, in the tale of the jealous puppets, "Petrouchka."
5. Bolm, assumes roles that demand virility, quickness, force. He combines these qualities in his portrayal of the bowman in the Russian "Prince Igor."
6. The weird new scenery and costumes in "L'Oiseau de Feu,"  "The Firebird," were designed Leon Bakst; the music was written by Strawinsky. Karavina and Bolm, in this fantastic tale of sorcery, endow their parts with a superhuman character.
7. Exotic Orientalism is concentrated in this pose and costume of Karsavina in Bakst's masterpiece, "Scheherazade," the story of a sultans harem.
8. In this pantomime ballet Karsavina and Nijinsky, greatest dancer of his generation, dance together to the music of Schumann's "Carnaval."
9. Nijinsky as the specter and Karavina as the shy and pensive girl in "Le Spectre de la Rose" bring before us, most realistically, the immaterial.
   

More Related History:

• Ballets Russes
• Sergei Diaghilev

Diaghileff's or Diaghilev Russian Ballet 

performed by Gruber Ballet Opera, 2015