 The Diaghilev Ballet, 1909 - 1929.
Author: Grigoriev, Serge Leonovich Published: 1954, 2009 The Diaghilev Ballet existed from 1909 to 1929; and from its beginning to its end Serge Grigoriev acted as régisseur - that is to say he was responsible for every aspect of the venture save its finance. In the early 1950s he began reading back among the 'logs' of the Ballet's many seasons, and decided that he would write what no one else could write - the story of Diaghilev's extraordinary enterprise as seen by one of its major participants. His book offers a chronology of the Ballet's history, beginning with the first preparations in St. Petersburg, through triumphs and setbacks in Paris, disaster in the United States, revolution in Portugal, to the last phase when, cut off from Russia, the Ballet found an official home in Monte Carlo. Almost without exception, the leading European practitioners of music and painting came to collaborate with Diaghilev. Add the names of the dancers, and virtually all the famous figures in the artistic world of the period find a place in Grigoriev's record. Of Diaghilev himself - the strange genius behind this fabulous adventure, the creative artist who could only create in collaboration with dancers, choreographers, and composers, a vivid portrait emerges. He underwent every kind of fortune, good and bad, deserved and undeserved, finally refusing to regard himself as a sick man, gambling with death and losing his stake. |
