The group were joined by their love of the arts and their frustration with how critics wrote about art at the time. There were two main types of criticism: a patriotic, traditionally academic genre versus a more revolutionary type of critic, who called for all art to be socially relevant. The Nevsky Pickwickians saw both of these approaches as limiting and instead drew attention to largely overlooked areas of art, such as Russian icons, church frescoes, Romantic painters of the previous centuries, and Western art such as the Pre-Raphaelites in England.
It was this renewal of the Russian past, teamed with new discoveries in Western art, which informed Diaghilev's ever-evolving tastes during the s. From the moment the journal was published, critics on both the political left and right sought to discredit its ideas.
The traditionalist art critic Vladimir Stasov described the works featured in the journal, including those by Edgar Degas , Claude Monet , and Bakst, as "the work of a three-year-old child holding a pencil for the first time".
From the other side, the critic Viktor Burenin, writing in the revolutionary newspaper New Times , attacked Diaghilev personally: "the pretensions of a Mr. Diaghilev who edits this journal are not only astounding but also extraordinarily stupid". The negative criticism did not stop Diaghilev and the World of Art movement. He continued to publish critical art pieces, and in organized an exhibition in St Petersburg showcasing the type of art the group championed.
Diaghilev was responsible for the production of the Theaters' annual showcase in , a role which fully immersed him in the theatrical world for the first time. He chose his friend Alexandre Benois to work with on the design, but their ideas shocked the Theater. Refusing to change his artistic vision, Diaghilev was fired by Volkonsky shortly after. After this incident, Diaghilev returned to organizing art exhibitions and in , he staged an exhibition of Russian painting at the Tauride Palace in St Petersburg.
To prepare for this, Diaghilev travelled throughout Russia collecting Russian artists of the past and present and in doing so collated a huge number of works by fine art painters of the 19 th century who had been largely ignored or forgotten. The next year, he expanded his ambitions and took an exhibition of Russian art, from icons to modernist works, to the Petit Palais in Paris, and subsequently toured the exhibition to Berlin and Venice.
Encouraged by the warm reception he had received for Russian art in Paris, Diaghilev returned to his love of music.
In he staged five concerts of Russian music in Paris, with appearances by his former mentor Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. Bolstered by the success of his productions in Paris, Diaghilev founded the Ballets Russes in He appointed Mikhail Fokine as chief choreographer, who, despite his traditional training at the Imperial Ballet School in St Petersburg, was an avant-gardist who sought to blend ballet with modern dance.
The young Vaslav Nijinsky, who was also Imperial Ballet School trained, was cast as the company's prime male dancer. Diaghilev and Nijinsky later became embroiled in a tumultuous love affair, and Diaghilev continued to be involved in developing Nijinsky's career with the company. Both he and Daighilev shared the aim of creating a total work of art a concept known as Gesamtkunstwerk through the seamless combination of performance, music and set, and costume design.
Given the enthusiasm for Russian art and music shown by French audiences, Bakst and Diaghilev added an unapologetically Russian style to the Ballets Russes' productions. The designs were visually stimulating, bringing in the color and exoticism of the Russian east combined with the Art Nouveau fashions of the West.
This dynamic and innovative approach resulted in an opening night sensation. The French writer Jean Cocteau said the performances "shook France".
The Ballets Russes quickly became in demand across Europe and Diaghilev established them as a year-round touring operation in The success enjoyed during this period was seen by Diaghilev and Bakst as a long-awaited justification of the World of Art group's ideas of the s.
As the driving force behind the company, Diaghilev became inextricably linked with it. In he brought a production of "Boris Godunov" to Paris, with the famous singer, Feodor Chaliapin. In he brought to Paris a season of opera and ballet and, with the best dancers from the Maryinsky, he scored a great success.
Repeat visits in the following years resulted in the formation of the Ballets Russes in as an independent private company, which he directed until his death in Although Diaghilev reformed European ballet. His company was often on the verge of bankruptcy. He never returned to Russia after the revolution. In fact, Diaghilev's Ballets Russes never performed in Russia. With his infallible flair, and his immaculate taste he anticipated what the audiences wanted. Thanks to him ballet regained its artistic integrity.
Prior to an independent ballet company was almost unheard of. From that beginning in Paris there developed the opera and ballet career that was to make the name of Diaghilev a shining light in the Western world. In Paris was receptive to new ideas. The impact was ecstatic and resulted in an invitation to bring a troupe of Russian dancers to Paris. The result made history. On October 19, , the Ballets Russes presented five ballets, four of them choreographed by Fokine, who had already broken with the classical style and dared to invent dance movement appropriate to the ballet's subject.
The ladies were not forever dainty, and the male dancers revealed an unprecedented energy and virtuosity. Fokine later wrote about opening night: " … the audience rushed and actually tore off the orchestra rail in the Chatelet Theatre.
The success was absolutely unbelievable. Something akin to a miracle happened every night—the stage and audience trembled in a unison of emotion. In the ballet company returned to Paris, again on leave from the Maryinsky. But in Diaghilev decided he would set up a full-time, permanent company. With Baskt and Benois again as colleagues, he established the first privately supported company of people willing to give up pension, honors, and benefits to join Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.
The company was already famous. It was soon to be augmented by other brilliant talents, men and women from countries other than Russia, attracted to collaborate in daring new ventures. In the years between and Diaghilev's death in the company toured over and over again throughout Europe, South America, the United States. A religion which conferred power on its priesthood, and demanded loyalty and self-sacrifice from its servants. Diaghilev's physical relationships with his dancers, which to outsiders might have appeared scandalous, were thus given a metaphysical sense of purpose.
Essentially a study of gay tyranny, the film shows how a Diaghilev-like figure named Lermontov Anton Walbrook, himself openly gay forces the ballerina Victoria Page Moira Shearer to choose between love and art, thus destroying her. In fact, Diaghilev treated his ballerinas more or less benevolently.
In , when Nijinsky's sister Bronislava married another dancer, Diaghilev gave her an expensive sapphire ring, although he didn't fail to inform her that it was to "wed her to her art". He gave similar rings to Nijinsky and Massine, and in their case the message was clear: they were to remain faithful to him and to ballet.
But then art, for the exiled Diaghilev, was a homeland. He had lost his religion early in life, he feared death, and he longed for the transcendent. Of all the wonders that the world had to offer, only art promised immortality.
Diaghilev died as he had lived, on credit. His last days were spent in Venice, and after his death, friends had to pay his hotel bill. He left behind him, however, a heritage so rich that we are only now beginning to get its measure. As Prokoviev presciently observed, Diaghilev is "a giant, undoubtedly the only one whose dimensions increase the more he recedes into the distance". Sergei Diaghilev: first lord of the dance. Sergei Diaghilev set early 20th-century Paris ablaze with his Ballets Russes — and his impact on the world of dance can still be felt today.
Sergei Diaghilev: "Of all the wonders that the world had to offer, only art promised immortality.
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