• Aboriginals in North America
  • Beast Literature
  • Canadiana.1
  • Dances & Music
  • Europe
  • Fables and Fairy Tales
  • Fables by Jean de La Fontaine
  • Feasts & Liturgy
  • Great Books Online
  • La Princesse de Clèves
  • Middle East
  • Molière
  • Nominations
  • Posts on Love Celebrated
  • Posts on the United States
  • The Art and Music of Russia
  • The French Revolution & Napoleon Bonaparte
  • Voyageurs Posts
  • Canadiana.2

Micheline's Blog

~ Art, music, books, history & current events

Micheline's Blog

Tag Archives: Ballet Russes

Léon Bakst & Massenet’s “Thais”

22 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Ballet Russes, Diaghilev, Imperial Academy of Arts, Léon Bakst, Michel Fokine, Mir Iskusstva, Paris, Sergei Diaghilev

  
 
Photo Credit: The Red List 
Narcisse, 1911
Comoedia, 1914
Négress, Shéhérazade, 1923
Cléopâtre, 1909
Salomé in La Danse des Sept Voiles, 1908 
 
Music:
Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet (12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912): Méditation from Thaïs, an Opera based on a novel by Anatole France (16 April 1844 – 12 October 1924)
Librettist: Louis Gallet
Violinist: Michael Rabin 
 

Léon Samoilovitch Bakst (1866–1924)

Léon Bakst was a painter who became stage and costume designer for Sergei Diaghilev‘s Ballets Russes, a prominent private ballet company that was active during la Belle Époque (1890-1914), a golden age in France, and remained active until Diaghilev’s death, in 1929, the year the stock market was allowed to crash.

We have already met the cast, so to speak.  When Sergei Diaguilev produced Scheherazade (1910), his star dancer was Vaslav Nijinski, his choreographer, Michel Fokine (23 April 1880 – 22 August 1942) and his stage and costume designer Léon Bakst, whose art I am featuring today.

Biographical Notes

Léon Bakst was Russian and Jewish.  He was born in Grodno (currently Belarus) to a middle-class family and his real name was Lev (Leib) Samoilovich Rosenberg.  He studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts as a noncredit student, working part-time as a book illustrator.(Wikipedia)  Bakst was his mother’s maiden name.

The Mir Iskusstva art movement

Bakts’s association with Sergei Diaghilev dates back to the mid-1890s.  He was first a member of the circle of writers and artists formed by Sergei Diaghilev and Alexandre Benois, which later became the Mir Iskusstva art movement.

In 1899, Bakst co-founded with Sergei Diaghilev the influential periodical Mir Iskusstva, meaning “World of Art.”  It is at that moment that his graphics started to bring him fame.(Wikipedia)

He started showing his work in 1890 as a member of the Society of Watercolourists.  From 1893 to 1897 he studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, but returned to Saint Petersburg often.

During his visits to Saint Petersburg he taught in Zvantseva’s school, where one of his students was Marc Chagall (1908–1910) and, in 1914, one the eve of the Revolution, he was elected a member of the Imperial Academy of Arts.

After 1909, Bakst lived mainly outside Russia.  As a Jew, he had to live in the Pale of Settlement.  He broke with Diaghilev in 1922, traveled to America where he had a patron in art philanthropist  Alice Warder Garrett (1877–1952).  He worked as her personal interior decorator in her Baltimore residence, Evergreen (now a museum and a gallery).

Two years after parting with Diaghilev, he died in Paris of what seems a lung disease.

With Léon Bakst, we are not looking at landscapes and seascapes, but at human beings in full flight.  No backdrop encroaches on the dancer.

I hope you enjoy these few pictures.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 
© Micheline Walker
22 August 2012
WordPress
 
composer: Jules Massenet (12 May 1842 – 13 August 1912)
work: Méditation, Thaïs
violinist: Michael Rabin (2 May 1936 – 19 January 1972)
 
45.408358 -71.934658

Micheline's Blog

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Scheherazade, or the Power of Storytelling

31 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Music, Russian Music

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Alexander Borodin, Ballet Russes, Five, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, One Thousand and One Nights, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Saint Petersburg, Scheherazade

 
 
The Blue Sultana, by Léon Bakst
Photo credit:  Wikipedia
Video: George Barbier (1882-1932) &…
 

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov: One of “The Five”

Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (18 March 1844 – 21 June 1908) was one of the The Five composers: Mily Balakirev, the leader, César Cui, Modest Mussorgsky and Alexander Borodin  who wanted to create a specifically Russian music.

Therefore, Rimsky-Korsakov’s music is not altogether European music, but it is music to which a ballet could be choreographed, as is the case with so much of the music of Tchaikovsky (May 7, 1840 – November 6, 1893).  Composers were then setting music to ballets based on fairy tales and other tales.  Russia is the birthplace of an enormous number of tales and in the nineteenth century, both folklore and orientalism were fashionable. (See Orientalism and Japonism.)

Orientalism

The Arabian Nights reached Western and Eastern Europe in the eighteenth century.  They did not replace Charles Perrault‘s (12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703) Contes de ma mère l’Oye FR (Tales of Mother Goose) published in 1697, but enriched the répertoire of stories that could be set to music.  Orientalism was not knew to Europe, east and west.  The Orient helped shape the European imagination from the time of the Crusades, if not long before.  For instance, Italian-language countries had been exposed to the travel accounts and tales of Marco Polo (c. 1254 – January 9, 1324), written as Il Milione.

Sergei Diaghilev′s Ballets Russes

Among early twentieth–century ballet companies, none was more popular than Sergei Diaghilev‘s Ballets Russes and among the ballets he produced was Scheherazade (1910), set to the music of Rimsky-Korsakov.  The ballet was choreographed by Michel Fokine and performed in 1910.  Léon Bakst had designed the appropriate sets and costumes and the ballet starred Vaslav Nijinsky.

The narrative is a gem.  Scheherazade (Persian transliteration Šahrzâd) was a Persian Queen and the storyteller of the One Thousand and One Nights  (Scheherazade in Wikipedia).  Rimsky-Korsakov’s simply loved the story of Scheherazade.  It had an oriental flavour, a flavour the “Mighty Handful,” the Five, wished to impart to the music of Russia.  The music of Russia could not be altogether Western European.  Russia stretches all the way to the Far East.  Léo Bakst  produced sets and costumes that constituted a brilliant dépaysement, or change of scenery.

The Story of Scheherazade

As the story goes, King Shahryar, whose wife has been unfaithful to him, vows to marry a virgin every day and have her beheaded the next day.  When he meets Scheherazade, a thousand wives have already been beheaded.

So our clever Scheherazade collects an enormous number of stories.  In Sir Richard Burton‘s (19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) translation of The Nights we are also told that Scheherazade “had perused the works of the poets and knew them by heart; she had studied philosophy and the sciences, arts and accomplishments; and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred.” (quoted in Scheherazade, Wikipedia)

Scheherazade is therefore well prepared to entertain the King by telling him stories.  Much against the will of her father, she volunteers to spend one night with the King.  However, after the marriage is consumated, Scheherazade asks to be allowed to bid her sister Dinazade farewell.

Storytelling

Dinazade’s role is to ask her sister to tell the King a story.  The first night Scheherazade tells her story, but does not finish it in the hope that the King will want to hear the remainder the following night.  The second night, Scheherazade not only finishes her first story, but she begins to tell another story which, again, she does not finish so the King will keep her alive.  This goes on and on.  Never has such a tribute been paid to storytelling, the art of the raconteur.  That would be one of my conclusions.

In all, Scheherazade tells the King a thousand and one stories over a thousand nights and then says that she has no more stories to tell.  But all is well that ends well.  King Shahryar has fallen in love with his storyteller and during the thousand nights, he has also fathered three children.  In other words, he is no longer bitter and vindictive and makes Sheherazade his Queen.

So now we know how powerful good storytelling can be.  The effectiveness of the good raconteur has been confirmed.  Therefore, to be a successful writer, it may be useful to write a page-turner and, if at possible, give it rhythm and powerful imagery.  And it may go a good idea to tell it to music and, in the case of stories based on Scheherazade, burn incense: synesthesia, summoning every sense.

I must close leaving details behind, but we have nevertheless looked at riveting storytelling and the magic of the trivialized “song and dance.”  Ballet is not your ordinary “song and dance,” it is a great art form originating in Italy, France and Russia.  But that is another story.

 
 
 
© Micheline Walker
31 July 2012
WordPress
45.408358 -71.934658

Micheline's Blog

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

The Ballets Russes, Vaslav Nijinsky & George Barbier

27 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by michelinewalker in Art, Music

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Ballet Russes, Diaghilev, Enrico Cecchetti, Marius Petipa, Nijinsky, Paris, Sergei Diaghilev, Vaslav Nijinsky

 
 

The above picture, a pochoir by George Barbier, shows Mikhail Fokin‘s (23 April 1880 – 22 August 1942) choreography of Schéhérazade, danced to music by Mily Balakirev and Rimsky-Korsakoff, and starring Nijinsky.  On 12 July 2012, I published a post on Sergei Diaghilev‘s Ballets Russes, an immensely successful corps de ballet or ballet company, founded in 1909,  whose artistic director was Léon Bakst.

Among its stars, Vaslav Nijinsky was probably the finest.  Nijinsky had acquired skills few male ballet dancers had attained, such as dancing en pointe, on his toes.  However, Nijinsky’s career was very short.  It was interrupted by a mental illness, schizophrenia,  that manifested itself when he was at the height of his career, in 1916, approximately.  He died in London, in 1950.

Vaslav Nijinsky was born Wacław Niżyński, in 1889 or 1890 in Kiev, the Ukraine.  His parents were Polish and he was baptised in Warsaw.  In fact, he considered himself a Pole.  Yet, he was born and grew up in Imperial Russia (before the 1917 revolution) and therefore spoke Russian more fluently than Polish.  But the soul has its laws.  He was a Pole.

Nijinsky was trained at the Imperial Ballet School, where his teachers were Enrico Cecchetti, Nikolai Legat and Pavel Gerdt.  At the age of fourteen, he was selected by famed French choreographer’s Marius Petipa to dance the principal role in La Romance d’un Bouton de rose et d’un Papillon (music by Ricardo Drigo, June 30, 1846 – October 1, 1930.  The Russo–Japanese War made it impossible for the ballet to be performed.  However, during this period, Nijinsky played several solo roles and, in 1910, prima ballerina assoluta Mathilde Kschessinka selected him to dance in a revival of French choreographer Marius Petipa‘s Le Talisman, which brought Nijinsky to the fore.  He created a sensation in the role of the Wind God Vayou.

It is at this stage that Nikinsky met Sergei Diaghilev, an impressario who brought Russian art and ballet to the attention of little less than the whole world.  Diaghilev and Nijinsky had an affair, yet Nijinsky married Hungarian countess Romola de Pulszky  when the Ballets Russes were touring in Latin America.  On his return from Latin America, Diaghilev flew into a rage and fired Nijinsky.

Scandal in Paris

Nijinsky may well have been the most celebrated ballet dancer of his time, but after being dismissed by Diaghilev and working as choreographer and ballet dancer, he scandalized the normally broad-minded le tout Paris.  He did so by showing his character miming masturbation with the scarf of a nymph.  Explicit sexuality was a little much even for a Paris audience. Nijinsky had danced to Claude Debussy‘s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune.  Nijinsky also enjoyed wearing revealing costumes, which was and remains acceptable.

Music and Ballet 

Nijinsky and other choreographers danced to music and, in the case of Debussy, contemporary music.  Nijinsky also danced to the music of Igor Stravinsky (17 June 1882 – 6 April 1971).  In fact, impresario Sergei Diaghilev commissioned three works of music for his Ballets Russes: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913).  Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring changed music forever and so did, in ballet, Nijinsky’s use of angular movements.  He was a modernist, a visionary.

But, to return to music, it should be noted that much of Russian music is music for ballets (or opera).  Pyotr Illich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) wrote music for several ballets (The Nutcracker, Swan Lake), and so did Sergei Prokofiev, whose Romeo and Juliet is an almost unsurpassed composition for ballet.  Diaghilev also commissioned the Prodigal Son from Prokofiev, but died before he could make it into a ballet.  It was choreographed by George Balanchine.  Serge Lifar created the role and the ballet premièred on Tuesday, 21 May 1929, at the Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt, in Paris.

Back to Nijinsky: A tribute

As for Nijinsky, he was treated, unsuccessfully, by psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler.  He spent the rest of his life in and out of hospitals and asylums and, as mentioned above, died in London, in 1950.  His body was later moved to a Paris cemetery, in Montmartre.  He had one daughter, Kyra, who married Ukrainian conductor Igor Markevitch.  They had a son but the marriage did not last.  Nijinsky’s continued fame, despite an abruptly and tragically shortened career, constitutes an eloquent tribute as to his exceptional talent.

George Barbier

George Barbier (1882 – 1932), an immensely talented and prolific  illustrator, produced extraordinary pictures of Nijinsky.  These prompted me to write this post.  Barbier also illustrated books and worked as a fashion illustrator, which can be discussed in a later post.  The Tamara shown in the video is Tamara Karsavina (10 March 1885 – 26 May 1978).

RELATED ARTICLES

  • Les Ballets Russes & the News (12 July 2012)
  • Un peu, beaucoup, passionnément  (19 July 2012) 

Art featured in this post is by George Barbier (Photo credit: Google images).

 
  
 
© Micheline Walker
26 July 2012
WordPress

 

Micheline's Blog

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest

Like this:

Like Loading...

Europa

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,476 other followers

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Categories

Recent Posts

  • Language Laws in Quebec: Bill 96
  • From the Rurik Dynasty to the first Romanov
  • Uvalde: Analysis Paralysis
  • The Second Amendment to the American Constitution: a Misunderstanding
  • The Rurikid Princes & the Tsardom of Russia
  • The Decline of Kievan Rus’
  • Ilya Repin, Ivan IV and his son Ivan on 16 November 1581, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
  • Ukraine’s Varangian Princes, its Primary Chronicle, the Russkaya Pravda …
  • Bohdan Khmelnytsky, a Cossack Hetman
  • Ruthenia vs Ukraine

Archives

Calendar

June 2022
M T W T F S S
 12345
6789101112
13141516171819
20212223242526
27282930  
« May    

Social

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • WordPress.org

micheline.walker@videotron.ca

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker

Social

Social

  • View belaud44’s profile on Facebook
  • View Follow @mouchette_02’s profile on Twitter
  • View Micheline Walker’s profile on LinkedIn
  • View belaud44’s profile on YouTube
  • View Miicheline Walker’s profile on Google+
  • View michelinewalker’s profile on WordPress.org

Micheline Walker

Micheline Walker
Follow Micheline's Blog on WordPress.com

A WordPress.com Website.

  • Follow Following
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Join 2,476 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Micheline's Blog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: