Serge Diaghilev was a Russian ballet impresario, the founder, producer and artistic director of Ballets Russes. In his late years he turned to book and manuscript collecting. He built up a collection of rare Russian printed books, manuscripts and scores.
Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes from which many famous dancers and choreographers would later arise. Born March 31, 1872 in Gruzino, Novgorod province, Russia, he studied law at St. Petersburg University and singing and composition at St. Petersburg Conservatory. In the late 1890s he joined a circle of writers and painters led by the Russian painters Léon Bakst and Alexandre Benois, then founded and edited the progressive art journal Mir Iskusstva (The World of Art, 1899-1904). In 1899 he became artistic adviser to the Imperial Theaters in Moscow and produced several operas and ballets. From 1904 to 1908 he organized a number of foreign exhibitions of Russian art. In 1906 he settled in Paris, France, where, for his 1908 production of the opera Boris Godunov by Mussorgsky, he brought the celebrated bass Feodor Chaliapin. In 1909, in collaboration with the Russian dancer and choreographer Mikhail Fokine and a group of Russian dancers that included Vaclav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, Mikhail Mordkin, Tamara Karsavina, and Adolph Bolm, Diaghilev established the Ballets Russes. Scenic designers for Ballets Russes, besides Bakst and Benois, included the French artists Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, and Maurice Utrillo, as well as the poet-designer Jean Cocteau (who also wrote ballet scenarios for Diaghilev) and Pablo Picasso. Diaghilev commissioned many musical scores from the Russian-born composer I. Stravinsky, including The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911), The Rite of Spring (1913), Les Noces (1923), and Apollon musagète (1928). He also commissioned Daphnis et Chloé (1912), by M. Ravel, The Three Cornered Hat (1919), by the M. de Falla, and works by D. Milhaud and E. Satie. Major choreographers of the 20th century who passed through his company were Russian-born George Balanchine, Léonide Massine, Bronislava Nijinska, and Sergei Lifar. S. DIaghilev died August 19, 1929 in Venice.
Born in 1905, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Serge Lifar was introduced to dance in 1920 by Bronislava Nijinska, under whom he began to study. Brought to France to join Sergey Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, Lifar studied with the eminent teacher Enrico Cecchetti and became premier danseur of the company. He created the title roles in a number of G. Balanchine's early ballets, including The Prodigal Son. After Diaghilev's death in 1929 Lifar joined the Paris Opera Ballet as premier danseur and ballet master. In 1932 he was awarded the title of professeur de danse and began reforms of the Opera's school to enable its dancers to perform the more modern ballets, particularly his own. From 1929 until 1959, excluding 1944-1946 seasons, apart from revivals of classical ballets, Lifar staged more than fifty works for the Opera. A noted experimenter, he produced his first ballet without music, Icare (1935), and published the same year the controversial Le Manifeste du choréographe. He developed the importance of the male dancer in his Prometheus (1929) and Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev, 1955). Lifar died in 1986.
Biographical Note
Sergei Pavlovich Dyagilev was born in the province of Novgorod on March 31, 1872. In 1890 he came to St. Petersburg as a law student and soon became a member of the circle of young musicians, painters, and writers assembled around Alexander Benois and Léon Bakst. In the same year of 1899 in which he co-founded the progressive art magazine “Mir Iskoustva” (“The World of Art”), Dyagilev was appointed artistic advisor of the Maryinsky Theatre, where he was in charge of the publication of the theatre annual and of the highly successful productions of “Sadko” and “Sylvia.” He resigned from his post in 1901, and after the magazine stopped appearing in 1904, he concentrated on organizing exhibitions of Russian art in St. Petersburg and Paris.
In 1908 Dyagilev brought a production of “Boris Godunov” to Paris with Chaliapin and was then invited to present a Paris season of Russian opera and ballet in 1909. With some of the best dancers from St. Petersburg and Moscow he scored a unique triumph in May and June 1909 in Paris. Repeat visits during the following years led to the gradual formation of his Ballets Russes, which became an independent private company when Vaslav Nijinsky resigned from the Maryinsky Theatre. He directed les Ballets Russes until his death on August 19, 1929, in Venice. His company, financed solely by the European aristocracy, was often on the verge of bankruptcy and never returned to Russia after the October Revolution (nor did it ever perform there).
Sergeˇi Pavlovich Dyagilev was born in the province of Novgorod on March 31, 1872. In 1890 he came to St. Petersburg as a law student and soon became a member of the circle of young musicians, painters, and writers assembled around Alexander Benois and Léon Bakst. In the same year of 1899 in which he co-founded the progressive art magazine “Mir Iskoustva” (“The World of Art”), Dyagilev was appointed artistic advisor of the Maryinsky Theatre, where he was in charge of the publication of the theatre annual and of the highly successful productions of “Sadko” and “Sylvia.” He resigned from his post in 1901, and after the magazine stopped appearing in 1904, he concentrated on organizing exhibitions of Russian art in St. Petersburg and Paris.
In 1908 Dyagilev brought a production of “Boris Godunov” to Paris with Chaliapin and was then invited to present a Paris season of Russian opera and ballet in 1909. With some of the best dancers from St. Petersburg and Moscow he scored a unique triumph in May and June 1909 in Paris. Repeat visits during the following years led to the gradual formation of his Ballets Russes, which became an independent private company when Vaslav Nijinsky resigned from the Maryinsky Theatre. He directed les Ballets Russes until his death on August 19, 1929, in Venice. His company, financed solely by the European aristocracy, was often on the verge of bankruptcy and never returned to Russia after the October Revolution (nor did it ever perform there).