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Ballets Russes



 
 
The Ballets Russes (French for The Russian Ballets) was an itinerant ballet
Ballet

Ballet is a formalized type of performative dance, the origins of which date lay in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form....
 company which performed under the directorship of Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Diaghilev

Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev , also referred to as Serge, was a Russian people art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes from which many famous dancers and choreographers would later arise....
 between 1909 and 1929. Some of their places of residence included the Théâtre Mogador
Théâtre Mogador

Th??tre Mogador founded in 1913 and designed by Bertie Crewe, is a Parisian music hall theatre located in the 9th district. IIt seats 1,800 people on three tiers....
 and the Théâtre du Châtelet
Théâtre du Châtelet

The Th??tre du Ch?telet is a theatre and opera house in Paris, France. One of two theatres built on the site of a ch?telet, a small castle or fortress, it was designed by Gabriel Davioud at the request of Baron Haussmann between 1860 and 1862....
, though they worked in many countries, including England, the U.S.A., and Spain. Many of its dancers originated from the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg. Younger dancers were trained in Paris, within the community of exiles after the Russian Revolution of 1917.






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The Ballets Russes (French for The Russian Ballets) was an itinerant ballet
Ballet

Ballet is a formalized type of performative dance, the origins of which date lay in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century France courts, and which was further developed in England, Italy, and Russia as a concert dance form....
 company which performed under the directorship of Sergei Diaghilev
Sergei Diaghilev

Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev , also referred to as Serge, was a Russian people art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes from which many famous dancers and choreographers would later arise....
 between 1909 and 1929. Some of their places of residence included the Théâtre Mogador
Théâtre Mogador

Th??tre Mogador founded in 1913 and designed by Bertie Crewe, is a Parisian music hall theatre located in the 9th district. IIt seats 1,800 people on three tiers....
 and the Théâtre du Châtelet
Théâtre du Châtelet

The Th??tre du Ch?telet is a theatre and opera house in Paris, France. One of two theatres built on the site of a ch?telet, a small castle or fortress, it was designed by Gabriel Davioud at the request of Baron Haussmann between 1860 and 1862....
, though they worked in many countries, including England, the U.S.A., and Spain. Many of its dancers originated from the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg. Younger dancers were trained in Paris, within the community of exiles after the Russian Revolution of 1917. The company featured and premiered now-famous (and sometimes infamous) works by the great choreographers Marius Petipa
Marius Petipa

Marius Ivanovich Petipa was a ballet dancer, teacher, and choreographer. Marius Petipa is cited nearly unanimously by the most noted artists of the classical ballet to be the most influential balletmaster and choreographer that has ever lived ....
, Michel Fokine
Michel Fokine

Michel Fokine was a groundbreaking Russian choreography and dance.He was born in Saint Petersburg, as son of a prosperous, middle-class merchant and at the age of 9, he was accepted into the Saint Petersburg Vaganova Ballet Academy....
, Bronislava Nijinska
Bronislava Nijinska

File:Bronislava Nijinska.jpgBronislava Nijinska was a Russian dancer, choreographer, and teacher of Polish descent,Nijinska was born in Minsk, the third child of the Polish dancers Tomasz and Eleonora Bereda Nizynsky....
, Leonide Massine, Vaslav Nijinsky
Vaslav Nijinsky

Vaslav Nijinsky was a Russian ballet dancer and choreographer of Polish descent. Nijinsky was one of the most gifted male dancers in history, and he grew to be celebrated for his virtuosity and for the depth and intensity of his characterizations....
, and a young George Balanchine
George Balanchine

George Balanchine , born Giorgi Melitonis dze Balanchivadze in Saint Petersburg, Russia, to Georgians parents, was one of the 20th century's foremost choreographers, a pioneer of ballet in the United States, co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet: his work created modern ballet, based on his deep knowledge of classical for...
 at the start of his career.

It created a huge sensation around the world, altering the course of musical history, bringing many significant visual artists into the public eye, and completely reinvigorating the art of performative dance. The Ballets Russes was one of the most influential theatre companies of the twentieth century, in part because of its ground-breaking artistic collaboration among contemporary choreographers, composers, artists, and dancers. Its ballets have been variously intepreted as Classical, Neo-Classical, Romantic, Neo-Romantic, Avant-Garde, Expressionist, Abstract, and Orientalist. The influence of the Ballets Russes lasts to this day in one form or another.

After Diaghilev's early death in 1929, the dancers were scattered, and the company's property was claimed by creditors. Colonel Wassily de Basil and his associate René Blum
René Blum

Ren? Blum , choreographer, was the founder of the Op?ra de Monte-Carlo at Monte Carlo....
 revived the company under the name Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. George Balanchine and Leonide Massine worked with them as choreographers, and Tamara Toumanova
Tamara Toumanova

Tamara Toumanova was a ballerina and actor.She was born Tamara Tumanishvili to Georgian parents in Tyumen, Siberia, while her mother was fleeing Georgia in search of her husband....
 as a principal dancer. De Basil and Blum argued constantly, so Blum founded another company under the name Original Ballet Russe
Original Ballet Russe

The Original Ballet Russe was a ballet ballet company led by Wassily de Basil, which split from the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1938, after de Basil's disagreement with L?onide Massine and Ren? Blum ....
.

During World War II the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo toured extensively in the United States. When dancers retired and left the company, they often founded dance studios in the United States or South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
, or taught at other dancers' studios. With Balanchine's founding of the New York City Ballet
New York City Ballet

New York City Ballet is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein with musical director Leon Barzin and with founding choreographers Balanchine and Jerome Robbins....
, many former Ballet Russes de Monte Carlo dancers went to New York to teach.

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

The Serge Lifar
Serge Lifar

Serge Lifar was Ukrainian ballet dancer and choreographer of French origin, famous as one of the greatest male ballet dancers of the 20th century....
 collection of Ballets Russes costumes and other memorabilia is on display at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut.

The Company's Genesis

The Ballets Russes was an offshoot from the Russian World of Art
World of Art

World of Art is a long established series of art books from the publisher Thames & Hudson.Perhaps the most classic book in the series is A Concise History of Painting: From Giotto di Bondone to C?zanne by Michael Levey , originally published in 1962 ....
 movement. The World of Art, led by Alexander Benois, had mainly occupied itself with painting exhibitions and the publication of a culture magazine. Benois and his circle conceived the idea of bringing Russian nationalist opera to Paris in 1907. They were warmly received there, and plans were laid for another season the following year. In 1908, the group presented a mixture of opera and ballet in Paris, and enjoyed riotous success, particularly in the latter artform. They thereafter presented mainly ballets. By the time the group returned to Paris in 1909 for the first 'official' Ballets Russes shows, Diaghilev had firmly taken the reins from Benois, though the latter continued to work for Diaghilev for some years afterwards.

Dance


The Ballets Russes was noted for the high standard of its dancers, which contributed a great deal to its success in Paris, where dance technique had declined a great deal since the 1830s. Most of the company's dancers were resident at the Russian Imperial Theatres in the early years, and were merely taken on loan by Diaghilev to Paris during the Theatres' long summer holidays.

During the course of the company's life, the female dancers included Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina
Tamara Karsavina

Tamara Platonovna Karsavina was a famous Russian ballerina who was most noted as a Principal Artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and later the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev....
, Olga Spessivtseva, Mathilde Kschessinska
Mathilde Kschessinska

Mathilde Kschessinskaya , was the first Russian prima ballerina assoluta in the world. Today, she is probably best known for her love affair with the future Emperor Nicholas II....
, Ida Rubinstein
Ida Rubinstein

Ida Lvovna Rubinstein was a ballet dancer, patron and iconic Belle ?poque beauty....
, Bronislava Nijinska, Lydia Lopokova
Lydia Lopokova

Lydia Vasilyevna Lopokova, Baroness Keynes was a famous Russian ballerina dancer during the early 20th-century. She is known also as Lady Keynes, the wife of the economist, John Maynard Keynes....
, and Alicia Markova
Alicia Markova

Dame Alicia Markova, DBE, DMus, MusD, DUniv, was an England dancer, teacher, choreographer and director. She was the first United Kingdom dancer to become the Principal Ballerina of a ballet company, the first British dancer to be bestowed the title of Prima Ballerina Assoluta and is widley considered to be one of the greatest classical b...
, among many others.

The company was, however, more remarkable for raising the status of the male dancer, who had been largely ignored by choreographers and ballet audiences since the early nineteenth century. Among the male dancers were Michel Fokine, Serge Lifar, Léonide Massine, George Balanchine, Adolphe Bolm, and the legendary Vaslav Nijinsky who was, by far and away, the most popular and talented dancer in the company's history.

The three most significant choreographers of the company were (in chronological order) Fokine, Nijinsky, and Massine. Fokine caused the rebirth of classical dramatic dance (though his works often included Expressionist elements). Many regard his greatest work to be Petrushka
Petrushka

Petrouchka or Petrushka is a ballet with music by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.Petrushka is a story of a Russian traditional puppet, Petrushka, who is made of straw and with a bag of sawdust as his body, but who comes to life and develops emotions....
; others consider it to be Les Sylphides
Les Sylphides

Les Sylphides is a short, non-narrative Ballet Blanc. Its original choreography was by Mikhail Fokine, with music by Fr?d?ric Chopin orchestrated by Alexander Glazunov....
. Nijinsky is sometimes thought of as the father of Expressionist Dance
Expressionist dance

Expressionist dance is a European dance form related to the German Expressionism movement. Although considered as a part of the greater modern dance movement it is separate from Modern dance per se....
. His most influential works were the innovative L'Apres-midi d'un Faune and The Rite of Spring
The Rite of Spring

The Rite of Spring, commonly referred to by its original French language title, Le Sacre du Printemps is a ballet with music by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, original choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, and original set design and costumes by archaeologist and painter Nicholas Roerich, all under impresario Serge Diaghilev....
. Massine was a less inventive choreographer; his works are sometimes called Neo-Classical. His finest work was perhaps Le Tricorne.

Other choreographers of note included Serge Lifar and Nijinsky's sister, Bronislava, who created at least one masterpiece in the form of Les Noces
Les Noces

Les noces by Igor Stravinsky, is a dance cantata, or ballet with Singers....
. Balanchine choreographed Apollon musagète
Apollo (ballet)

Apollo is a ballet in two Tableau vivant composed between 1927 and 1928 by Igor Stravinsky. It was choreographed by balletmaster George Balanchine in 1928, the composer contributing the libretto....
 and Le fils prodigue
Prodigal Son (ballet)

Prodigal Son is a ballet made on Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes by George Balanchine, subsequently co-founder and balletmaster of New York City Ballet, to Sergei Prokofiev Le Fils Prodigue, op....
 for the company.

Music

Diaghilev secured the employment of many great music composers for his ballets. This served to distinguish his ballets from many nineteenth-century ballets, for which the music had usually been provided by less inspired composers such as Drigo, Minkus, and Pugni. The superior achievements of Peter Tchaikovsky and Leo Delibes
Léo Delibes

Cl?ment Philibert L?o Delibes was a French composer of ballets, French opera, and other works for the stage....
 had been very exceptional.

The most notable of Diaghilev's composers was Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian-born composer, considered by many to be the most influential composer of 20th century music. He was a quintessentially Cosmopolitanism Russian who was named by Time as one of the 100 most influential people of the century....
, who is now recognised as the premier ballet composer of the early twentieth century. Diaghilev had hired the young Stravinsky at a time when he was virtually unknown to compose the music for Firebird, after the composer Anatoly Liadov proved unreliable. Diaghilev was thus 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. Firebird
Firebird

Firebird and fire bird may refer to:...
 (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
Petrushka

Petrouchka or Petrushka is a ballet with music by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky.Petrushka is a story of a Russian traditional puppet, Petrushka, who is made of straw and with a bag of sawdust as his body, but who comes to life and develops emotions....
 (1911) to be almost unbearably dissonant and confused. "The Rite of Spring" caused a near-riot partly on account of its wilful rhythms and aggressive dynamics. The Rite of Spring had to be pulled after just a few performances. The audience's negative reaction to it is now regarded as a theatrical scandal as notorious as the failed runs of Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, Conducting, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas . Unlike most other great opera composers, Wagner wrote both the scenario and libretto for his works....
's Tannhauser at Paris in 1861 and Jean-Georges Noverre
Jean-Georges Noverre

Jean-Georges Noverre was a France dancer and balletmaster, and is considered to be the creator of ballet d'action a precursor of the narrative ballets of the 19th century....
's and David Garrick
David Garrick

David Garrick was an English actor, playwright, theatre manager and Theatrical producer who influenced nearly all aspects of theatrical practice throughout the 18th century and was a pupil and friend of Dr Samuel Johnson....
's Chinese Ballet at London on the eve of the Seven Years' War
Seven Years' War

The Seven Years' War lasted between 1756?1763 and involved all of the major European powers of the period. The war pitted Kingdom of Prussia and Kingdom of Great Britain and a coalition of smaller German states against an alliance consisting of Archduchy of Austria, Early Modern France, Russian Empire, Kingdom of Sweden, and Electorate of Sa...
. However, Stravinsky's early ballet scores are now widely considered masterpieces of the genre. Even his later ballet scores (such as Apollo), though lacking the verve of the early works, were still superior to most ballet music of the previous century.

Diaghilev commissioned many other original scores, as well as borrowing freely from the existing musical canon. His ballets variously included music by Debussy, Milhaud
Darius Milhaud

Darius Milhaud was a French composer and teacher. He was a member of Les Six - also known as the Groupe des Six - and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century....
, Poulenc
Francis Poulenc

Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a France composer and a member of the French group Les Six. He composed music in all major genres, including art song, chamber music, oratorio, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music....
, Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev

Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer who mastered numerous musical genres and came to be admired as one of the greatest composers of the 20th century....
, Ravel
Maurice Ravel

Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer and pianist of Impressionist music known especially for the subtlety, richness, and poignancy of his melodies, orchestral and instrumental Texture and effects....
, Satie
Erik Satie

Alfred ?ric Leslie Satie was a France composer and pianist. Starting with his first composition in 1884, he signed his name as Erik Satie....
, Respighi
Ottorino Respighi

Ottorino Respighi was an Italian composer, musicologist and Conducting. He is best known for his orchestral Roman trilogy: Fontane di Roma - "Fountains of Rome"; Pini di Roma - "Pines of Rome"; and Feste Romane - "Roman Festivals"....
, and Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
.

Art and Design

The company enjoyed contributions from many contemporary fine artists in the design of sets and costumes. These contributors included Benois himself, Bakst
Léon Bakst

L?on Samoilovitch Bakst was a Russian Painting and scene- and costume designer who revolutionized the arts he worked in. Born as Lev Rosenberg, he was also known as Leon Nikolayevich Bakst ....
, Braque
Georges Braque

Georges Braque was a major 20th century French Painting and sculpture who, along with Pablo Picasso, developed the art movement known as cubism....
, Gontcharova, Picasso
Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego Jos? Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Mar?a de los Remedios Cipriano de la Sant?sima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso was a Spanish people Painting, drawing, and Sculpture....
, Chanel
Coco Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist philosophy, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion....
, Matisse
Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was a France artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid, brilliant and original draftsmanship. As a drawing, printmaking, and Sculpture, but principally as a Painting, Matisse is one of the best-known artists of the 20th century....
, Derain
André Derain

Andr? Derain was a French painter and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse....
, Miró
Joan Miró

Joan Mir? i Ferr? was a Spain Catalonia painting, sculpture and Ceramics born in Barcelona.Earning international acclaim, his work has been interpreted as Surrealism, a sandbox for the subconscious mind, a re-creation of the childlike, and a manifestation of Catalan pride....
, de Chirico
Giorgio de Chirico

Giorgio de Chirico was an influential Surrealism and then Surrealist Greeks-Italian people Painting born in Volos, Greece, to a Genovese mother and a Sicilian father....
, Dalí
Salvador Dalí

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dal? i Dom?nech, 1st Marquis of P?bol was a Spain Catalonia surrealist painter born in Figueres.Dal? was a skilled Technical drawing, best known for the striking and bizarre images in his surrealism work....
, Bilibin
Ivan Bilibin

Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin was one of the most influential 20th-century illustrators and stage designers who took part in the Mir iskusstva and contributed to the Ballets Russes....
, Tchelitchev, Utrillo
Maurice Utrillo

Maurice Utrillo, born Maurice Valadon, was a France Painting who specialized in cityscapes. Born in the Montmartre quarter of Paris, France, Utrillo is one of the few famous Paintings of Montmartre who were born there....
, Nicholas Roerich
Nicholas Roerich

Nicholas Roerich, also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh , was a Russian Painting, philosopher and Theosophy. He was the father of Tibetologist George de Roerich and artist Svetoslav Roerich ....
, and Rouault.

Although the Ballets Russes firmly established the twentieth century tradition of fine art theatre design, the company was not unique in its employment of fine artists. For instance, Savva Mamontov
Savva Mamontov

Savva Ivanovich Mamontov was a famous Russian industrialist, merchant, entrepreneur, and patron of the arts....
's Private Opera Company had made a policy of employing fine artists such as Korovin
Korovin

Korovin , or Korovina , is a Russian last name, which is derived from the Russian word korova . It may refer to the following:People...
 and Golovin
Golovin

Golovin may refer to:*Golovin , people with the surname Golovin or Golovina*Golovin, Alaska, a US city...
, who went on to work for the Ballets Russes.

Principal productions

See also: Category of Ballets Russes productions
YearTitleComposerChoreographerSet and costume
1909Le Pavillon d'ArmideNikolai Tcherepnin
Nikolai Tcherepnin

Nikolai Nikolayevich Tcherepnin was a Russian composer, pianist, and conducting. He was born in Saint Petersburg and studied under Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory....
Michel FokineAlexandre Benois
Alexandre Benois

Alexandre Nikolayevich Benois , an influential artist, art critic, historian, preservationist, and founding member of Mir iskusstva. His influence on the modern ballet and stage design is considered seminal....
1909Prince Igor
Prince Igor

Prince Igor is an opera by Alexander Borodin, written in four acts with a prologue. The composer adapted the libretto from the East Slavic peoples epic The Tale of Igor's Campaign, which recounts the campaign of Russian prince Igor Svyatoslavich against the invading Polovtsian tribes in 1185....
Alexander Borodin
Alexander Borodin

Alexander Porfiryevich Borodin was a Russian composer of Georgian people-Russian people parentage who made his living as a notable chemistry. He was a member of the group of composers called The Five , who were dedicated to producing a specifically Russian kind of art music....
Michel FokineNicholas Roerich
Nicholas Roerich

Nicholas Roerich, also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh , was a Russian Painting, philosopher and Theosophy. He was the father of Tibetologist George de Roerich and artist Svetoslav Roerich ....
1909CléopatreAnton Arensky
Anton Arensky

Anton Stepanovich Arensky , was a Russian composer of Romantic music, a pianist and a professor of music....
Michel FokineLéon Bakst
Léon Bakst

L?on Samoilovitch Bakst was a Russian Painting and scene- and costume designer who revolutionized the arts he worked in. Born as Lev Rosenberg, he was also known as Leon Nikolayevich Bakst ....
1910The Firebird
The Firebird

The Firebird is a 1910 ballet by Igor Stravinsky and choreographed by Michel Fokine. The ballet is based on Russian folk tales of the Firebird that is both a blessing and a curse to its captor....
Igor StravinskyMichel FokineAlexandre Golovine, Léon Bakst
1910Schéhérazade
Scheherazade (Rimsky-Korsakov)

Scheherazade , opus number 35, is a symphonic suite composed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1888. Based on One Thousand and One Nights, this orchestral work combines two features common to Russian music and of Rimsky-Korsakov, in particular: dazzling, colorful orchestration and an interest in Orient, which figured greatly in the hist...
Rimsky-Korsakov
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov , also Nikolay, Nicolai, and Rimsky-Korsakoff, was a Russian composer, and a member of the group of composers known as "The Five." Noted particularly for a predilection for folk and fairy-tale subjects as well as his extraordinary skill in orchestration, his best known orchestral compositions...
Michel FokineLéon Bakst
1910Carnaval
Carnaval

Carnaval may refer to:*Carnaval , a piano suite by Robert Schumann*Carnival*Brazilian Carnival...
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann

Robert Schumann, sometimes given as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is one of the most famous Romantic music composers of the 19th century....
Michel FokineLéon Bakst
1911PetrushkaIgor StravinskyMichel FokineAlexandre Benois
1911Le Spectre de la Rose
Le Spectre de la Rose

Le Spectre de la Rose is a ballet of the Ballets Russes based on a poem by Th?ophile Gautier. The music, by Carl Maria von Weber, was taken from his short piece Invitation to the Dance....
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria von Weber

Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a Germans composer, conducting, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romanticism school....
Michel FokineLéon Bakst
1912L'après-midi d'un faune
Afternoon of a Faun (ballet)

The ballet L'apr?s-midi d'un faune was choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky for the Ballets Russes, and first performed in the Th??tre du Ch?telet in Paris on May 29, 1912....
Claude DebussyMichel Fokine, Vaslav NijinskyLéon Bakst, Odilon Redon
Odilon Redon

Bertrand-Jean Redon, better known as Odilon Redon was a Symbolist painters and printmaker, born in Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France....
1912Daphnis et Chloé
Daphnis et Chloé

Daphnis et Chlo? is a ballet with music by Maurice Ravel. Ravel described it as a "symphonie chor?ographique" . The scenario was adapted by Michel Fokine from an Daphnis and Chloe by the Greece writer Longus thought to date from around the 3rd century AD....
Maurice RavelMichel FokineLéon Bakst
1912Le Dieu BleuReynaldo Hahn
Reynaldo Hahn

Reynaldo Hahn was a naturalization France composer, conducting, music critic and diarist. Best known as a composer of songs, he wrote in the French classical tradition of the m?lodie....
Michel FokineLéon Bakst
1912Thamar
Thamar

Thamar Angelina Komnene, was born in the latter half of the 13th century. She was a member of the ruling house of the Despotate of Epirus and later Princess of Taranto as wife of Prince Philip I of Taranto....
Mily Balakirev
Mily Balakirev

Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev was a Russian pianist, Conducting and composer. He is known today primarily for his work promoting nationalism in Russian music....
Michel FokineLéon Bakst
1913Jeux
Jeux

Jeux is the last work for orchestra written by Claude Debussy. Described as a "po?me dans?" , it was originally intended to accompany a ballet, and was written for the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev to choreography by Nijinsky....
Claude DebussyVaslav NijinskyLéon Bakst
1913Le sacre du printempsIgor StravinskyVaslav NijinskyNicholas Roerich
1913Tragédie de SalomèFlorent Schmitt
Florent Schmitt

Florent Schmitt was a France composer. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1889, studying under Albert Lavignac, Theodore Dubois, Jules Massenet, Gustave Sandre, and Gabriel Faur?....
Boris RomanovSergey Sudeykin
1914La légende de JosephRichard StraussMichel FokineLéon Bakst
1914Le Coq d'OrRimsky-KorsakovMichel FokineNatalia Goncharova
Natalia Goncharova

Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova was a Russian avant-garde artist , Painting and costume designer. Her great-aunt was Natalia Pushkina, wife of the poet Alexander Pushkin....
1915Soleil de NuitRimsky-KorsakovLéonide MassineMikhail Larionov
Mikhail Larionov

Mikhail Fyodorovich Larionov was an avant-garde Russian painter....
1917Parade
Parade (ballet)

Parade is a ballet with music by Erik Satie and a one-act scenario by Jean Cocteau. The ballet was composed 1916-1917 for Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes....
Erik SatieLéonide MassinePablo Picasso
1919La Boutique fantasque
La Boutique fantasque

La Boutique fantasque or The Magic Toy Shop was a ballet conceived by L?onide Massine who wrote the choreography and the libretto....
Gioachino Rossini, Ottorino RespighiLéonide MassineAndré Derain
1919El Sombrero de Tres Picos
El Sombrero de Tres Picos

El Sombrero de Tres Picos is a ballet composed by Manuel de Falla, commissioned in its development by Sergei Diaghilev and performed in its completed form in 1919....
 (aka Le Tricorne)
Manuel de Falla
Manuel de Falla

Manuel de Falla y Matheu was a Spain composer of European classical music....
Léonide MassinePablo Picasso
1920Le chant du rossignolIgor StravinskyLéonide MassineHenri Matisse
Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was a France artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid, brilliant and original draftsmanship. As a drawing, printmaking, and Sculpture, but principally as a Painting, Matisse is one of the best-known artists of the 20th century....
1920Pulcinella
Pulcinella (ballet)

Pulcinella is a ballet by Igor Stravinsky based on an 18th-century play ? Pulcinella is a character originating from Commedia dell'arte. The ballet premiered in Paris on 15 May, 1920 under the baton of Ernest Ansermet....
Igor StravinskyLéonide MassinePablo Picasso
1921ChoutSergei ProkofievMikhail LarionovMikhail Larionov
1921Sleeping PrincessPyotr TchaikovskyMarius PetipaLéon Bakst
1922Renard
Renard (Stravinsky)

Renard, Histoire burlesque chant?e et jou?e is a one-act chamber opera-ballet by Igor Stravinsky, written in 1916. The Russian text by the composer was based on Russian folk tales from the collection by Alexander Afanasyev....
Igor StravinskyBronislava Nijinska
Bronislava Nijinska

File:Bronislava Nijinska.jpgBronislava Nijinska was a Russian dancer, choreographer, and teacher of Polish descent,Nijinska was born in Minsk, the third child of the Polish dancers Tomasz and Eleonora Bereda Nizynsky....
Mikhail Larionov
1923Les Noces
Les Noces

Les noces by Igor Stravinsky, is a dance cantata, or ballet with Singers....
Igor StravinskyBronislava NijinskaNatalia Goncharova
1924Les Biches
Les Biches

Les Biches is a ballet by Francis Poulenc, premiered by the Ballets Russes in 1924. The composer, who was at the time relatively unknown, was asked by Serge Diaghilev to write a piece based on Alexander Glazunov's Les Sylphides, written seventeen years earlier....
Francis PoulencBronislava NijinskaMarie Laurencin
Marie Laurencin

Marie Laurencin was a france painter and printmaker....
1924Les FâcheuxGeorges Auric
Georges Auric

Georges Auric was a French composer, born in Lod?ve, H?rault, Languedoc-Roussillon, France. He was a child prodigy and at age 15 he had his first compositions published....
Bronislava NijinskaGeorges Braque
1924Le train bleuDarius MilhaudBronislava NijinskaLaurens (scene), Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel

Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist philosophy, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion....
 (costumi), Pablo Picasso (fondali)
1925Les matelotsGeorges AuricLéonide MassinePruna
1926Jack in the BoxErik SatieGeorge BalanchineAndré Derain
1927La chatteHenri Sauguet
Henri Sauguet

Henri Sauguet , was a France composer. Born Henri-Pierre Poupart in Bordeaux, he adopted his mother's maiden name as his pseudonym.He started learning the piano when he was just five years old, being taught by his mother, Elisabeth, and also Marie Brodier....
George BalanchineNaum Gabo
Naum Gabo

Naum Gabo Order of the British Empire, born Naum Neemia Pevsner was a prominent Russian sculpture in the Constructivism movement and a pioneer of Kinetic Art....
1927MercureErik SatieLéonide MassinePablo Picasso
1927Pas d'acierSergei ProkofievLéonide MassineGeorge Jaculov
1928Apollon musagèteIgor StravinskyGeorge BalanchineBauschant (scene), Coco Chanel (costumi)
1929Le fils prodigueSergei ProkofievGeorge BalanchineGeorges Rouault
Georges Rouault

Georges Henri Rouault was a French Fauvism and Expressionism painter, and printmaker in lithography and etching.Childhood and education...


External links


  • (2005), documentary covering the history of the Ballets Russes, Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and Original Ballet Russe from the former's inception through the latter's end, featuring many interviews with surviving dancers of the company - IMDB listing