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Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

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Tag Archives: Alexandre Benois

Sharing & the News, 16 September 2012

16 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Sharing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Alexandre Benois, Ballets Russes, Léon Bakst, Michel Fokine, Old Black Joe, Paul Robeson, Saint-George, Sergei Diaghilev, Stravinsky, United States

Alexandre Benois, by Leon Bakst

Ballet

I am forwarding the News mostly unadorned, except for the above painting of Alexandre Benois, by Ballets Russes artist Leon Bakst.  Ballet was born in Italy.  It moved to France.  Louis XIV, the Sun-King, was a dancer.  And it reached what may be its culmination in Russia:  the Kirov, in St Petersburg, and the Bolshoi, in Moscow.  However, Sergei Diaghilev‘s Ballets Russes, an itinerant company based in Paris, spread the love of ballet to several countries, the US, etc. and several artists contributed to its success: Leon Bakst, Alexandre Benois (set and costume designers).  Its most famous choreographers were Marius Petipa (French) and Michel Fokine (Russian) and it starred the legendary Vaslav Nijinsky among other superb dancers.  It provided composer Igor Stravinsky with several commissions.

Le Chevalier de Saint-George

Joseph Bo(u)logne, Chevalier de Saint-George

There is confusion concerning the spelling of Saint-George’s name.  It seems that here George does not require an ‘s’, which is how George is written in English.  However, Joseph’s name is often spelled the way the French spell Georges, with a final ‘s’.  Saint George was/is a location.  Originally, Saint-George(s)’s name was Joseph Bologne.

To my knowledge, the recording featured in a post entitled Comments & the News: 14 September 2012 is one of the finest interpretations of Saint-George’s Violin Concerto, Op. 5, No.2 (Largo).  It is performed by violinist Jean-Jacques Kantorow and the Orchestre de Chambre Bernard Thomas.

Interestingly, while browsing, I somehow entered the British Museum and saw the picture featured in Le Chevalier de Saint-George: the Black Mozart.  That picture is attributed to George IV himself.

President Barack Hussein Obama: posts I reblogged

I reblogged two posts.  The United States has lost four fine citizens under tragic circumstances, but retaliation does not seem advisable.  If at all possible, the US should never again wage war in the Near-East or the Middle-East, or elsewhere.  America and people all over the world mourn the loss of these four lives and the US will cooperate with officials in the Near-East to find their assassins.  Using diplomacy is the better approach.  Besides, can the US afford another war?  Despite its billionaires, the United States is currently rather poor.

Mr Romney and Mr Ryan may be thinking that President Obama lacks “resolve,” but I heard that word in September 2001.  Where did “resolve” get the United States?  More lives were lost and the cost of those wars remains to be paid.  The time has come for people in the Near-East or the Middle-East to stop burning the American flag.

And yes, President Obama is the President of the United States of America.  He has faced considerable obstructionism on the part of extremists in the Republican Party: Tea Party members.  He must now be allowed to help the citizens of his country.  Why should little me in Canada be looked after without paying atrocious amounts of money to see a doctor or buy medication?  I pay my taxes.

It has become abundantly clear that the Romney-Ryan team’s main objective is to be supported by a shrinking middle-class and the poor.  The very wealthy hide their money in offshore accounts and ship too many jobs abroad where products are manufactured at a lesser cost.  They (the very wealthy) are saving money, but you aren’t.  Arithmetic was never my best subject, but it would not surprise me to learn that the price you pay for products manufactured elsewhere is the price you would pay for products manufactured in the United States.  You save on products made elsewhere when there is a sale.

The Concept of Nationhood

Rich people who want tax cuts have yet to understand the concept of nationhood.  The US has not recovered from the financial difficulties created by a former administration, a Republican administration, and Republicans do not want to pay their fair share of taxes.  So who will pay the debt, a Republican administration?  Beware.  “Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.”  Why should Americans seek a new President when it has the best it can have?  The next face to grace Mount Rushmore should not be President Reagan‘s face, it should be Franklin Delano Roosevelt‘s, a gentleman who cared for the people.  President Obama is walking in his footsteps.

The News

English
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/
The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The Montreal Gazette: http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html
The National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/index.html
Le Monde diplomatique: http://mondediplo.com/ EN
 
CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/
CTV News: http://www.ctvnews.ca/
 
French
Le Monde: http://www.lemonde.fr/
Le Monde diplomatique: http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/
Le Devoir: http://www.ledevoir.com/
La Presse: http://www.lapresse.ca/ 
 
German
Die Welt: http://www.welt.de/
 
© Micheline Walker
September 16, 2012
WordPress
 
45.408358 -71.934658

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The Art of Alexandre Benois & the News

15 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Alexandre Benois, Bronze Horseman, Hermitage Museum, Paris, Peter Ustinov, Russia, Saint Petersburg, Sergei Diaghilev

 

Peter the Great Meditating the Idea of Building St. Petersburg at the Shore of the Baltic Sea, by Alexandre Benois

Photo credit: Alexandre Benois, Wikipedia 
 

Alexandre or Alexander Benois (3 May 1870, St. Petersburg – 9 February 1960, Paris)was born to a family of artists, architects and intellectuals.  His father, Nicholas Benois, born of French parents, was a prominent Russian architect as was his son Leon Benois (born 1856 in Peterhof – died 1928 in Leningrad [St. Petersburg]).  Leon Benois is the grandfather of Sir Peter Ustinov.  Alexandre’s other brother, Albert Nikolayevitch Benois (March 14, 1852 – May 16, 1936 [Fontenay-aux-Roses]) was a notorious painter.

Watercolour Artist: Versailles

As for Alexandre, he started out as a painter in the early years of the twentieth century.  He painted using watercolours mainly.  After visiting Versailles, he was inspired to produce a series of watercolours depicting the Last Promenade of Louis XIV, the Sun-King.  These were historical paintings as is the painting featured at the top of this post.

Alexandre’s Versailles paintings were exhibited and attracted the attention of Sergei Diaghilev and of Ballets Russes artist Leon Bakst.  The three men went on to found a journal, Mir iskusstva (World of Art) and promoted the Aesthetic Movement and Art Nouveau.  Benois was an intellectual.

Scenic Director & Illustrator

Alexandre had a successful career as an artist, but in the broader acceptation of this term.  In 1901, Benois was appointed scenic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, home to the Imperial Russian Ballet, but at that time he also worked for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes.  In 1905, he moved to Paris, though not permanently, and worked as a stage designer and decorator. 

During that period of his life, Benois also published several monographs on 19th-century Russian art and Tsarskoye Selo, the Royal Village.  In 1903, he illustrated and published illustrations to Pushkin‘s poem Bronze Horseman, written in 1833.  He therefore gained notoriority before the Revolution of 1917

The Revolution of 1917

After the Revolution of 1917, Benois was appointed curator of the Old Masters in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg (the former Leningrad).  However, he did not remain in Russia for very long.  In 1927, he moved to Paris permanently where he worked mainly as a set designer.

Several members of his family, beginning with his brothers Albert Nikolayevitch Benois, an artist, and Leon Benois, a Russian architect, became famous.  His son Nicola Alexandrivoch Benois (1901-1988) also rose to prominence.

The Gallery

 
 
1. Petrushka (ballet)
2. The Bronze Horseman (poem)
3. The Nightingale (opera & ballet)
4. Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (Molière)
5. Alexandre Benois, Leon Bakst, 1894
 
 
 
 
 
Tags  
1. Petrushka: ballet, folklore, Vaslav Nijinsky, Ballets Russes, 1910-11, Fokine (choreographer) music by Igor Stravinsky (revised in 1947), straw puppet comes to life)
2. The Bronze Horseman: narrative poem, Pushkin (1833), illustration, 1904
3. The Nightingale: opera, folklore, Igor Stravinsky, Stepan Mitussov (libretto, based on Hans Christan Andersen), 1914 (as opera), also a ballet (Ballets Russes)
4. Le Bourgois gentilhomme: play, Molière, watercolour, probably for the Turkish
cérémonie décor)
 
composer:  Igor Stravinsky (17 June  1882 – 6 April 1971)
music:  Petrushka
performer: Andrey Dubov (piano)  
 
 

The Late News

English
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/
The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The Montreal Gazette: http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html
The National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/index.html
Le Monde diplomatique: http://mondediplo.com/ EN
 
CBC News: http://www.cbc.ca/news/
CTV News: http://www.ctvnews.ca/
 
French
Le Monde: http://www.lemonde.fr/
Le Monde diplomatique: http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/
Le Devoir: http://www.ledevoir.com/
La Presse: http://www.lapresse.ca/
 
German
Die Welt: http://www.welt.de/
 
Micheline Walker©
September 15th, 2012
WordPress 
45.408358 -71.934658

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