Ballets Russes

Sergei Diaghilev, the company's impresario (or "artistic director" in modern terms), was chiefly responsible for its success. He was uniquely prepared for the role; born into a wealthy Russian family of vodka distillers (though they went bankrupt when he was 18), he was accustomed to moving in the upper-class circles that provided the company's patrons and benefactors.

In 1890, he enrolled at the Faculty of Law, St. Petersburg, to prepare for a career in the civil service like many Russian young men of his class.[3] There he was introduced (through his cousin Dmitry Filosofov) to a student clique of artists and intellectuals calling themselves The Nevsky Pickwickians whose most influential member was Alexandre Benois; others included Léon Bakst, Walter Nouvel, and Konstantin Somov.[3] From childhood, Diaghilev had been passionately interested in music. However, his ambition to become a composer was dashed in 1894 when Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov told him he had no talent.[4]

In 1898, several members of The Pickwickians founded the journal Mir iskusstva (World of Art) under the editorship of Diaghilev.[5] As early as 1902, Mir iskusstva included reviews of concerts, operas, and ballets in Russia. The latter were chiefly written by Benois, who exerted considerable influence on Diaghilev's thinking.[6] Mir iskusstva also sponsored exhibitions of Russian art in St. Petersburg, culminating in Diaghilev's important 1905 show of Russian portraiture at the Tauride Palace.[7]

Ballet Russes by August Macke, 1912

Frustrated by the extreme conservatism of the Russian art world, Diaghilev organized the groundbreaking Exhibition of Russian Art at the Petit Palais in Paris in 1906, the first major showing of Russian art in the West. Its enormous success created a Parisian fascination with all things Russian. Diaghilev organized a 1907 season of Russian music at the Paris Opéra. In 1908, Diaghilev returned to the Paris Opéra with six performances of Modest Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov, starring basso Fyodor Chaliapin. This was Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's 1908 version (with additional cuts and re-arrangement of the scenes). The performances were a sensation, though the costs of producing grand opera were crippling.

In 1909, Diaghilev presented his first Paris "Saison Russe" devoted exclusively to ballet (although the company did not use the name "Ballets Russes" until the following year). Most of this original company were resident performers at the Imperial Ballet of Saint Petersburg, hired by Diaghilev to perform in Paris during the Imperial Ballet's summer holidays. The first season's repertory featured a variety of works chiefly choreographed by Michel Fokine, including Le Pavillon d'Armide, the Polovtsian Dances (from Prince Igor), Les Sylphides, and Cléopâtre. The season also included Le Festin, a pastiche set by several choreographers (including Fokine) to music by several Russian composers.

The principal productions are shown in the table below.

Year	Title	Image	Composer(s)	Choreographer(s)	Sets and costumes
1909	Le Pavillon d'Armide		Nikolai Tcherepnin	Michel Fokine	Alexandre Benois
	Prince Igor		Alexander Borodin	Michel Fokine	Nicholas Roerich
	Le Festin		Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (march from Le Coq d'Or used for processional entry)		Konstantin Korovin (sets and costumes) Léon Bakst (costumes) Alexandre Benois (costumes) Ivan Bilibin (costumes)
			Mikhail Glinka ("Lezginka" from Ruslan and Ludmilla)	Michel Fokine, Marius Petipa
			Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ("L'Oiseau d'Or" from The Sleeping Beauty)	Marius Petipa
			Alexander Glazunov ("Czardas" from Raymonda)	Alexander Gorsky
			Modest Mussorgsky ("Hopak" from The Fair at Sorochyntsi)	Michel Fokine
			Mikhail Glinka ("Mazurka" from A Life for the Tsar)	Nicolai Goltz, Felix Kchessinsky
			Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ("Trepak" from The Nutcracker)	Michel Fokine
			Alexander Glazunov ("Grand Pas Classique Hongrois" from Raymonda)	Marius Petipa
			Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky ("Finale" of the Second Symphony)	Michel Fokine
	Les Sylphides		Frédéric Chopin (orch. Glazunov, Igor Stravinsky, Alexander Taneyev)	Michel Fokine	Alexandre Benois
	Cléopâtre		Anton Arensky (additional music by Glazunov, Glinka, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Sergei Taneyev, Nikolai Tcherepnin)	Michel Fokine	Léon Bakst
1910	Carnaval		Robert Schumann (orch. Arensky, Glazunov, Anatol Liadov, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tcherepnin)	Michel Fokine	Léon Bakst
	Schéhérazade		Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov	Michel Fokine	Léon Bakst
	Giselle		Adolphe Adam	Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot, Marius Petipa (revival), Michel Fokine (revisions)	Alexandre Benois
	Les Orientales		Christian Sinding (Rondoletto giocoso, op.32/5) (orch. Igor Stravinsky for "Danse Siamoise") Edvard Grieg (Småtroll, op.71/3, from Lyric Pieces, Book X) (orch. Igor Stravinsky for "Variation")	Vaslav Nijinsky ("Danse Orientale" and "Variation") Michel Fokine	Konstantin Korovin (sets and costumes) Léon Bakst (costumes)
	L'Oiseau de feu		Igor Stravinsky	Michel Fokine	Alexander Golovine (sets and costumes) Léon Bakst (costumes)
1911	Le Spectre de la rose		Carl Maria von Weber	Michel Fokine	Léon Bakst
	Narcisse		Nikolai Tcherepnin	Michel Fokine	Léon Bakst
	Sadko		Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov	Mikhail Fokine	Boris Anisfeld
	Petrushka		Igor Stravinsky	Michel Fokine	Alexandre Benois
	Swan Lake		Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky	Marius Petipa, Lev Ivanov, Michel Fokine (revisions)	Konstantin Korovin (sets) Alexander Golovin (sets and costumes)
1912	L'après-midi d'un faune		Claude Debussy	Vaslav Nijinsky	Léon Bakst
	Daphnis et Chloé		Maurice Ravel	Michel Fokine	Léon Bakst
	Le Dieu bleu		Reynaldo Hahn	Michel Fokine	Léon Bakst
	Thamar		Mily Balakirev based on his symphonic Poem Tamara	Michel Fokine	Léon Bakst
1913	Jeux		Claude Debussy	Vaslav Nijinsky	Léon Bakst
	Le sacre du printemps		Igor Stravinsky	Vaslav Nijinsky	Nicholas Roerich
	Tragédie de Salomé		Florent Schmitt	Boris Romanov	Sergey Sudeykin
1914	Les Papillons		Robert Schumann (orch. Nikolai Tcherepnin)	Mikhail Fokine	Mstislav Doboujinsky
	La légende de Joseph		Richard Strauss	Michel Fokine	Léon Bakst
	Le coq d'or		Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov	Michel Fokine	Natalia Goncharova
	Le rossignol		Igor Stravinsky	Boris Romanov	Alexandre Benois
	Midas		Maximilian Steinberg	Michel Fokine	Mstislav Doboujinsky
1915	Soleil de Nuit		Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov	Léonide Massine	Mikhail Larionov
1916	Las Meniñas		Louis Aubert, Gabriel Fauré (Pavane), Maurice Ravel (Alborada del gracioso), Emmanuel Chabrier (Menuet pompeux)	Léonide Massine	Josep Maria Sert (costumes)
	Kikimora		Anatoly Liadov	Léonide Massine	Mikhail Larionov
	Till Eulenspiegel		Richard Strauss	Vaslav Nijinsky	Robert Edmond Jones
1917	Feu d'Artifice		Igor Stravinsky		Giacomo Balla
	Les Femmes de Bonne Humeur		Domenico Scarlatti (orch. Vincenzo Tommasini)	Léonide Massine	Léon Bakst
	Parade		Erik Satie	Léonide Massine	Pablo Picasso
1919	La Boutique fantasque		Gioachino Rossini (arr. Ottorino Respighi)	Léonide Massine	André Derain
	El sombrero de tres picos		Manuel de Falla	Léonide Massine	Pablo Picasso
	Les jardins d'Aranjuez (new version of Las Meninas)		Louis Aubert, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel, Emmanuel Chabrier	Léonide Massine	Josep Maria Sert (costumes)
1920	Le chant du rossignol		Igor Stravinsky	Léonide Massine	Henri Matisse
	Pulcinella		Igor Stravinsky	Léonide Massine	Pablo Picasso
	Ballet de l'astuce féminine or Cimarosiana		Domenico Cimarosa	Léonide Massine	Josep Maria Sert
	Le sacre du printemps (revival)		Igor Stravinsky	Léonide Massine	Nicholas Roerich
1921	Chout		Sergei Prokofiev	Léonide Massine	Mikhail Larionov
	Cuadro Flamenco		Traditional Andalusian music (arr. Manuel de Falla)		Pablo Picasso
	The Sleeping Beauty		Pyotr Tchaikovsky	Marius Petipa	Léon Bakst
1922	Le Mariage de la Belle au Bois Dormant		Pyotr Tchaikovsky	Marius Petipa	Alexandre Benois (sets and costumes) Natalia Goncharova (costumes)
	Mavra		Igor Stravinsky	Bronislava Nijinska	Léopold Survage
	Renard		Igor Stravinsky	Bronislava Nijinska	Mikhail Larionov
1923	Les noces		Igor Stravinsky	Bronislava Nijinska	Natalia Goncharova
1924	Les Tentations de la Bergère, ou l'Amour Vainqueur		Michel de Montéclair (arr. and orch. Henri Casadesus)	Bronislava Nijinska	Juan Gris
	Le Médecin malgré lui		Charles Gounod	Bronislava Nijinska	Alexandre Benois
	Les biches		Francis Poulenc	Bronislava Nijinska	Marie Laurencin
	Cimarosiana		Domenico Cimarosa (orch. Ottorino Respighi)	Léonide Massine, Bronislava Nijinska	José-María Sert
	Les Fâcheux		Georges Auric	Bronislava Nijinska	Georges Braque
	Le train bleu		Darius Milhaud	Bronislava Nijinska	Henri Laurens (sets) Gabrielle Chanel (costumes) Pablo Picasso (sets)
1925	Zephyr et Flore		Vladimir Dukelsky	Léonide Massine	Georges Braque
	Le chant du rossignol (revival)		Igor Stravinsky	George Balanchine	Henri Matisse
	Les matelots		Georges Auric	Léonide Massine	Pere Pruna
	Barabau		Vittorio Rieti	George Balanchine	Maurice Utrillo
1926	Roméo et Juliette		Constant Lambert	Bronislava Nijinska	Max Ernst (curtain) Joan Miró (sets and costumes)
	Pastorale		Georges Auric	George Balanchine	Pere Pruna
	Jack in the Box		Erik Satie (orch. Milhaud)	George Balanchine	André Derain
	The Triumph of Neptune		Lord Berners	George Balanchine	Pedro Pruna (costumes)
1927	La chatte		Henri Sauguet	George Balanchine	Naum Gabo
	Mercure		Erik Satie	Léonide Massine	Pablo Picasso
	Le pas d'acier		Sergei Prokofiev	Léonide Massine	Georgy Yakulov
1928	Ode		Nikolai Nabokov	Léonide Massine	Pavel Tchelitchev
	Apollon musagète (Apollo)		Igor Stravinsky	George Balanchine	André Bauschant (scene) Coco Chanel (costumes)
	The Gods Go A-Begging		George Frederic Handel	George Balanchine	Léon Bakst (sets) Juan Gris (costumes)
1929	Le Bal		Vittorio Rieti	George Balanchine	Giorgio de Chirico
	Renard (revival)		Igor Stravinsky	Serge Lifar	Mikhail Larionov
	Le fils prodigue		Sergei Prokofiev	George Balanchine	Georges Rouault

Dimitri Rostoff as Malatesta in Francesca da Rimini, Original Ballet Russe, 1940

When Sergei Diaghilev died of diabetes in Venice on 19 August 1929, the Ballets Russes was left with substantial debts. As the Great Depression began, its property was claimed by its creditors and the company of dancers dispersed.

In 1931, Colonel Wassily de Basil (a Russian émigré entrepreneur from Paris) and René Blum (ballet director at the Monte Carlo Opera) founded the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo, giving its first performances there in 1932.[8] Diaghilev alumni Léonide Massine and George Balanchine worked as choreographers with the company and Tamara Toumanova was a principal dancer.

Artistic differences led to a split between Blum and de Basil,[9] after which de Basil renamed his company initially "Ballets Russes de Colonel W. de Basil".[10] Blum retained the name "Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo", while de Basil created a new company. In 1938, he called it "The Covent Garden Russian Ballet"[10] and then renamed it the "Original Ballet Russe" in 1939.[10][11]

After World War II began, the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo left Europe and toured extensively in the United States and South America. As dancers retired and left the company, they often founded dance studios in the United States or South America or taught at other former company dancers' studios. With Balanchine's founding of the School of American Ballet, and later the New York City Ballet, many outstanding former Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo dancers went to New York to teach in his school. When they toured the United States, Cyd Charisse, the film actress and dancer, was taken into the cast.

The Original Ballet Russe toured mostly in Europe. Its alumni were influential in teaching classical Russian ballet technique in European schools.

The successor companies were the subject of the 2005 documentary film Ballets Russes.

The choreography of Michel Fokine was of paramount importance in the initial success of the Ballets Russes. Fokine had graduated from the Imperial Ballet School in Saint Petersburg in 1898, and eventually become First Soloist at the Mariinsky Theater. In 1907, Fokine choreographed his first work for the Imperial Russian Ballet, Le Pavillon d'Armide. In the same year, he created Chopiniana to piano music by the composer Frédéric Chopin as orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov. This was an early example of creating choreography to an existing score rather than to music specifically written for the ballet, a departure from the normal practice at the time.

Fokine established an international reputation with his works choreographed during the first four seasons (1909–1912) of the Ballets Russes. These included the Polovtsian Dances (from Prince Igor), Le Pavillon d'Armide (a revival of his 1907 production for the Imperial Russian Ballet), Les Sylphides (a reworking of his earlier Chopiniana), The Firebird, Le Spectre de la Rose, Petrushka, and Daphnis and Chloé . After a longstanding tumultuous relationship with Diaghilev, Fokine left the Ballets Russes at the end of the 1912 season.[19]

Vaslav Nijinsky in Scheherazade

Vaslav Nijinsky had attended the Imperial Ballet School, St. Petersburg since the age of eight. He graduated in 1907 and joined the Imperial Ballet where he immediately began to take starring roles. Diaghilev invited him to join the Ballets Russes for its first Paris season.

In 1912, Diaghilev gave Nijinsky his first opportunity as a choreographer, for his production of L'Après-midi d'un faune to Claude Debussy's symphonic poem Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. Featuring Nijinsky himself as the Faun, the ballet's frankly erotic nature caused a sensation. The following year, Nijinsky choreographed a new work by Debussy composed expressly for the Ballets Russes, Jeux. Indifferently received by the public, Jeux was eclipsed two weeks later by the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du printemps), also choreographed by Nijinsky.

Nijinsky eventually retired from dance and choreography, after he was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1919.

Léonide Massine was born in Moscow,[20] where he studied both acting and dancing at the Imperial School. On the verge of becoming an actor, Massine was invited by Sergei Diaghilev to join the Ballets Russes, as he was seeking a replacement for Vaslav Nijinsky. Diaghilev encouraged Massine's creativity and his entry into choreography.

Massine's most famous creations for the Ballets Russes were Parade, El sombrero de tres picos, and Pulcinella. In all three of these works, he collaborated with Pablo Picasso, who designed the sets and costumes.

Massine extended Fokine's choreographic innovations, especially those relating to narrative and character. His ballets incorporated both folk dance and demi-charactère dance, a style using classical technique to perform character dance. Massine created contrasts in his choreography, such as synchronized yet individual movement, or small-group dance patterns within the corps de ballet.

Bronislava Nijinska in Petrushka

Bronislava Nijinska was the younger sister of Vaslav Nijinsky. She trained at the Imperial Ballet School in St. Petersburg, joining the Imperial Ballet company in 1908. From 1909, she (like her brother) was a member of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.

In 1915, Nijinska and her husband fled to Kiev to escape World War I. There, she founded the École de movement, where she trained Ukrainian artists in modern dance. Her most prominent pupil was Serge Lifar (who later joined the Ballets Russes in 1923).

Following the Russian Revolution, Nijinska fled again to Poland, and then, in 1921, re-joined the Ballets Russes in Paris. In 1923, Diaghilev assigned her the choreography of Stravinsky's Les Noces. The result combines elements of her brother's choreography for The Rite of Spring with more traditional aspects of ballet, such as dancing en pointe. The following year, she choreographed three new works for the company: Les biches, Les Fâcheux, and Le train bleu.

Born Giorgi Melitonovitch Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, George Balanchine was trained at the Imperial School of Ballet. His education there was interrupted by the Russian Revolution of 1917. Balanchine graduated in 1921, after the school reopened. He subsequently studied music theory, composition, and advanced piano at the Petrograd Conservatory, graduating in 1923. During this time, he worked with the corps de ballet of the Mariinsky Theater. In 1924, Balanchine (and his first wife, ballerina Tamara Geva) fled to Paris while on tour of Germany with the Soviet State Dancers. He was invited by Sergei Diaghilev to join the Ballets Russes as a choreographer.[21]

Alexandre Benois had been the most influential member of The Nevsky Pickwickians and was one of the original founders (with Bakst and Diaghilev) of Mir iskusstva. His particular interest in ballet as an art form strongly influenced Diaghilev and was seminal in the formation of the Ballets Russes. Benois was also focused on historical accuracy and had an extensive knowledge of fashion history. In addition, Benois contributed scenic and costume designs to several of the company's earlier productions: Le Pavillon d'Armide, portions of Le Festin, and Giselle. Benois also participated with Igor Stravinsky and Michel Fokine in the creation of Petrushka, to which he contributed much of the scenario as well as the stage sets and costumes.

Léon Bakst was also an original member of both The Nevsky Pickwickians and Mir iskusstva. “He regarded the nude body as an aesthetic totality whose artistry had been forgotten under the weight of nineteenth century social and theatrical dress".”[23] He participated as designer in productions of the Ballets Russes from its beginning in 1909 until 1921, creating sets and costumes for Scheherazade, The Firebird, Les Orientales, Le Spectre de la rose, L'Après-midi d'une faune, and Daphnis et Chloé, among other productions.

In 1917, Pablo Picasso designed sets and costumes in the Cubist style for three Diaghilev ballets, all with choreography by Léonide Massine: Parade, El sombrero de tres picos, and Pulcinella.

Natalia Goncharova was born in 1881 near Tula, Russia. Her art was inspired by Russian folk art, Fauvism, and cubism. She began designing for the Ballets Russes in 1921.

Although the Ballets Russes firmly established the 20th-century tradition of fine art theatre design, the company was not unique in its employment of fine artists. For instance, Savva Mamontov's Private Opera Company had made a policy of employing fine artists, such as Konstantin Korovin and Golovin, who went on to work for the Ballets Russes.

Diaghilev hired the young Stravinsky at a time when he was virtually unknown to compose the music for The Firebird, after the composer Anatoly Lyadov proved unreliable, and this was instrumental in launching Stravinsky's career in Europe and the United States of America.

Stravinsky's early ballet scores were the subject of much discussion. The Firebird (1910) was seen as an astonishingly accomplished work for such a young artist (Debussy is said to have remarked drily: "Well, you've got to start somewhere!"). Many contemporary audiences found Petrushka (1911) to be almost unbearably dissonant and confused. The Rite of Spring (1913) nearly caused an audience riot. It stunned people because of its willful rhythms and aggressive dynamics. The audience's negative reaction to it is now regarded as a theatrical scandal as notorious as the failed runs of Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser at Paris in 1861 and Jean-Georges Noverre's Les Fêtes Chinoises in London on the eve of the Seven Years' War. However, Stravinsky's early ballet scores are now widely considered masterpieces of the genre.[25]