Tag Archives: Ballets Russes

“Les Fâcheux” & les Ballets Russes

19 Thursday Dec 2019

Posted by in Comédie-Ballet, Molière

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Les Fâcheux, stage scenery by Georges Braque, a Ballets Russes production, 1924

Georges Braque & Les Ballets Russes

In 1924, Molière’s Les Fâcheux was made into a ballet by Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes. The image shows the stage scenery created by Georges Braque. On 17 December 2019, I inserted two images attributed to Georges Braque. The music to the ballet was composed by Georges Auric (15 February 1899 – 23 July 1983), a French composer. 

Georges Braque (13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) is associated with Fauvism. Braque is also associated with Cubism, as is Pablo Picasso, the movement’s co-founder. Picasso was employed by Sergei Diaghilev, which is an element I wish to underscore. Diaghilev attracted and promoted many talents, including Jean Cocteau. Les Ballets Russes was Russian, yet a Tout-Paris ballet company. Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes also transformed Molière’s The Doctor in Spite of Himself (Le Médecin malgré lui) into a ballet. It was an opera by Charles Gounod. Érik Satie was asked to compose recitatives.

For a list of Ballets Russes répertoire and related information, see Ballets Russes dancers (wiki2.org).

There is so much to tell about Molière and particularly Les Fâcheux. In fact, I still have Les Fâcheux in mind. We see two pirouettes.

  1. La Rivière and friends, thugs, turn against Damis and try to kill him.
  2. Éraste, un soldat before he was un courtisan, saves Damis, who is the blocking-character, but whom gratitude changes. He enables the marriage he would not allow, which is a complete reversal and comedy, farce in particular. It is comic irony.

The image below shows Éraste, and his companion would be Orchise.

17734_Braque_Les_Facheux_17x13in_l

Braque, Diaghilev

La Fontaine: Nature

La Fontaine and Molière probably met at approximately this point in history. La Fontaine was a protégé of Nicolas Fouquet. In a letter, une épître, to Maucroix, La Fontaine praised Molière. Les Fâcheux, “par sa manière,” had pleased him.[2]

C’est un ouvrage de Molière :
Cet écrivain, par sa manière,
Charme à present toute la Cour
De la façon dont son nom court,
Il doit être par delà Rome.
Je suis ravi car c’est mon homme.
Te souvient-il bien qu’autrefois,
Nous avons conclu d’une voix
Qu’il allait ramener en France
Le bon goût et l’art de Térence?
Plaute n’est plus qu’un plat bouffon,
Et jamais il ne fit si bon
Se trouver à la comédie;
Car je ne pense pas qu’on y rie
De maint trait jadis admiré
Et bon in illo tempore
Nous avons changé de méthode :
Jodelet n’est plus à la mode,
Et maintenant il ne faut pas
Quitter la nature d’un pas.

[It is a work by Molière, this writer whose manner now charms the Court. The way his name is running, he must be beyond Rome, I’m delighted because he’s my man. Do you remember how, in older days, we agreed that he would bring back to France the good taste and the art of Terence? Plautus is now no more than a flat buffoon, and never has it been so good to see comedies. For I do not think that one laughs at features admired in the past and which were good in illo tempore (then). We’ve changed methods. Jodelet[1] is no longer in, and we cannot leave nature by even a step.]  (The translation is mine. It is not polished, but it is Molière theory.)

Molière depicted his century as he saw it and heard it. That is “nature” Molière’s in his century.

Sources and Resources

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[1] Jodelet played Jodelet in the Précieuses ridicules. His face was enfariné, or covered with flour. Molière played Mascarille.
[2] See Maurice Rat, ed. Œuvres complètes de Molière (Pléiade, 1956), p. 861.

Love to everyone 💕

Les Fâcheux by les Ballets Russes, to music by Georges Auric.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/georges-auric-les-facheux-la-pastorale-mw0002044588

© Micheline Bourbeau-Walker
19 December 2019
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Marie: the Words to a Love Song

29 Monday Jun 2015

Posted by in Art, Literature

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Marie-Laurencin-DancerWithR

Dancer with Rose by Marie Laurencin (Photo credit: www.scene4.com)

I have translated “Marie,” mostly literally, a poem by Guillaume Apollinaire (26 August 1880 – 9 November 1918) set to music by singer-songwriter Léo Ferré. Marie is Marie Laurencin (31 October 1883 – 8 June 1956), an “avant-garde” artist and advocate of Cubism, but not a follower of the movement. However, she was a moderniste. Marie’s paintings are relatively easy to identify. Her style is quite unique.

Marie Laurencin was acquainted with a large number of artists, literary figures, and persons associated with Sergei Diaghilev‘s Ballets Russes, one of whom was a young Pablo Picasso. She also attended the salons of wealthy United States expatriates who made Paris their base and helped propel to fame and sometimes to wealth artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Georges Braque.

Wealthy American Gertrude Stein and her companion, Alice B. Toklas, had a salon at 27, rue de Fleurus. Other American expatriates and salonnières were Claribel and Etta Cone. Marie Laurencin knew famed lesbian writer Natalie Clifford Barney who had a salon at 20, rue Jacob and died in Paris. Many American mécènes (patrons) left their Paris quarters when World War II broke out, dooming Jews, homosexuals and those who were “different.”

Celebrated artist Marie Laurencin was very different. Marie was married to German Baron Otto von Waëtjen from 1814 until 1820, but she was romantically involved with revered and now legendary poet Guillaume Apollinaire, born Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki. Apollinaire was wounded during World War I and died two years later. He was a victim of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918, a flu akin to the Swine flu of 1976, but as merciless as the plague.

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Marie

1) Vous y dansiez petite fille
Y danserez-vous mère-grand
C’est la maclotte qui sautille (maclotte is a old dance)
Toutes les cloches sonneront
Quand donc reviendrez-vous Marie

This is where you danced as a little girl/ Will you dance there as a grandmother/
This is maclotte (an old dance) hopping about/ All the bells will ring/
So when will you come back Marie

2) Les masques sont silencieux
Et la musique est si lointaine
Qu’elle semble venir des cieux
Oui je veux vous aimer mais vous aimer à peine
Et mon mal est délicieux

The masks are silent/ And the music so distant/
That it seems descended from heaven/ Yes, I want to love you, but love you barely/
And my disease is delicious

3) Les brebis s’en vont dans la neige (s’en aller = to go away) 
Flocons de laine et ceux d’argent
Des soldats passent et que n’ai-je
Un cœur à moi ce cœur changeant
Changeant et puis encor que sais-je

Sheep wade away in the snow/ Wool flakes and those of silver/
Soldiers pass by and would that I had/ A heart of my own, this changing heart/
Changing and then also what do I know

4) Sais-je où s’en iront tes cheveux
Crépus comme mer qui moutonne (from mouton: lamb)
Sais-je où s’en iront tes cheveux
Et tes mains feuilles de l’automne
Que jonchent aussi nos aveux

Do I know where your hair will go/ Frizzy like the foaming sea/
 Do I know where your hair will go/ And your hands the leaves of autumn/
Also strewn with our avowals

5) Je passais au bord de la Seine
Un livre ancien sous le bras
Le fleuve est pareil à ma peine
Il s’écoule et ne tarit pas
Quand donc finira la semaine (return to [1])

I was walking along the Seine/ An old book under my arm/
The river is like my sorrow/ It flows and does not end/
So when will the week be done (return to [1])

Short comments and Notes

  • In the fourth stanza, I used the word “foaming” to translate moutonner (from sheep, un mouton). (4)
  • In the third stanza, I made the sheep “wade away” in the snow. In the French song, they are simply going away: s’en aller). (3)
  • The imagery used by Apollinaire includes the sheep’s fur and hair: animal, human.
  • The imagery also includes the masques (2), as in a masquerade ball and the commedia dell’arte.   
  • In fact, Marie Laurencin’s “Dancer,” shown above, is dressed like Harlequin, a masque and a stock character in the commedia dell’arte.
  • The word snow (neige) takes us to François Villon‘s “neige d’antan” (Ballade du temps jadis) (3) and to Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s “Where are the snows of yesteryear?”
  • However, the first character Apollinaire introduces is a little girl, petite fille, who will be mère-grand (as mère-grand in The Little Red Riding Hood). (Time passes.) 
  • In Marie Laurencin’s painting, the dancer carries a rose. Roses die, so let us seize the day. The poem therefore contains a carpe diem (Pierre de Ronsard‘s Hélène): “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may.” (petite fille/mère grand)
  • We have colours, that of the sheep and of the snow: white, but also silver or grey (grey hair).
  • We hear bells. (1)
  • There is an allusion to soldiers. Apollinaire had been a soldier.
  • In the fifth stanza, the poet introduces himself: “Je”. He is walking by the Seine which flows unendingly. (5)
  • Marie is an anagram of aimer: to love.

Conclusion

This is a rich poem one wishes to explore further, but…

I thank you for your kind words. They’ve helped. My university and the insurance company played with my life and it has been extremely painful. So I am pleased I have my WordPress colleagues and send all of you my love.

With my kindest regards. ♥ 

Léo Ferré sings “Marie,” by Guillaume Apollinaire,

Fille au chapeau bleu et noir, vers 1950

Fille au chapeau bleu et noir, vers 1950

© Micheline Walker
28 June 2015
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Picasso in Paris

09 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by in Art, Commedia dell'arte, France, Love, Myths

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Olga, 1923

Olga, 1923

(All images may be enlarged by clicking on them.)

Picasso[i] had several relationships, but he was a husband to Russian ballerina Olga Kokhlova (17 June 1891 – 11 February 1955). He met Olga during the production of the Ballets Russes‘ Parade (1917). In the early years of the twentieth century, there was no better creative milieu in Paris than Sergei Diaghilev‘s (1872 –1929) Ballets Russes. The Russian impresario recruited the most talented individuals of his days and, among them, Pablo Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973). When he was employed by Sergei Diaghilev, Picasso was mixing with le tout Paris, or the cream of Parisian society.

The Legend Begins

Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes

Érik Satie (composer)
Jean Cocteau (writer)
Ernest Ansermet (conductor)
Manuel de Falla (composer)
Léonide Massine (choreographer)
Igor Stravinsky (composer)
Léon Bakst (costume and set designer)
Alexandre Benois (costume and set designer)
Marius Petipa (choreographer)
Michel Fokine (choreographer)
Vaslav Nijinsky (ballet dancer and choreographer)
Pablo Picasso (set and costume designer)
 

Parade (1917) 

For instance, the production of the ballet Parade (1917) brought together composer Érik Satie (17 May 1866 – 1 July 1925), legendary writer and future filmmaker Jean Cocteau (5 July 1889 –11 October 1963) and choreographer Léonide Massine (9 August 1896 – 15 March 1979).

Érik Satie (17 May 1866 – 1 July 1925) was one of the main composers of his era. Beginning in 1888, Satie composed the Gymnopédies.[ii] Jean Cocteau is the author of the 1929 novel Les Enfants terribles, which he would transform into a film in 1950.[iii] Finally, when it premièred at Paris’ Théâtre du Châtelet, on 18 May 1917, Parade was conducted by Ernest Ansermet (11 November 1883 – 20 February 1969) who founded l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (1918).

Shown below is Parade‘s curtain, Picasso’s largest work. It features the nimble Harlequin, a recurring figure in Picasso’s artwork,  portrayed here in the artist’s first work as costume and set designer. Parade’s curtain also features mythology’s winged horse Pegasus. Later in Picasso’s career, mythology, the Minotaur in particular, would be a significant motif.

 (Please click on the images to enlarge them.)

The Legend Continues…

The Three-Cornered Hat (1919)

In 1919, Ernest Ansermet would conduct Manuel de Falla‘s (23 November 1876 – 14 November 1946) El Sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered Hat or Le Tricorne), a Ballets Russes production choreographed by Léonide Massine with costumes and set designed by Pablo Picasso. The Three-Cornered Hat premièred in London at the Alhambra Theatre, on 22 July 1919.

Pulchinella (1920)

Pulcinella (Polichinelle) is a zanni from la commedia dell’arte. Igor Stravinsky composed the music. The ballet was choreographed by Léonide Massine, who also wrote the ballet’s libretto (the text), and Pablo Picasso designed the costumes and the set. Pulchinella was first performed on 15 May 1920 under the baton of Ernest Ansermet at the Paris Opera (Palais Garnier).

The Ballets Russes would also employ costume and set designers Léon Bakst and Alexandre Benois (both Russian) and choreographers Marius Petipa and Michel Fokine. However, the Ballets Russes had no greater star than Polish ballet dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky (12 March 1889/1890 [Kiev]– 8 April 1950).

Gesamtkunstwerk 

Diaghilev was at times a little too punctilious, but his contribution to what composer Richard Wagner called Gesamtkunstwerk (total art) is exemplary. The Ballets Russes defined an entire era of the twentieth century and Pablo Picasso’s work with the company gave enormous impetus to his career.

Allow me to quote the UK Guardian (Luke Jennings; 10 May 2010), on the Ballets Russes:

This was more than just a dance company; it was a creative movement which, from its inception, drew to itself the greatest musical, theatrical and artistic talents of the day.

Gertrude Stein
27, rue de Fleurus

American writer Gertrude Stein lived here with her brother Leo and then with Alice B. Toklas. She received numerous artists and writers from 1903 to 1938.

Americans in Paris: Gertrude Stein

On 4 April 2013, I posted an article entitled Henri Matisse: an Eclectic Modernist. It refers to Picasso’s acquaintance with Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, members of Stein’s family, and the Cone sisters. The next two paragraphs are therefore somewhat repetitive. Yet, it should be mentioned that Picasso’s most fervent aficionados and promoters were Americans in Paris. He owes much of his  relatively early success to Leo Stein and his sister Gertrude Stein (3 February 1874 – 27 July 1946). In fact, we could start a whole new series entitled: Americans in Paris. These Americans were wealthy and became patrons to the Impressionists and all that was avant-gardiste in Paris: Fauvism, Cubism, Surrealism, etc.

Gertrude Stein was a salonnière. Few addresses are as famous as 27, rue de Fleurus, Paris 6. An invitation to 27, rue de Fleurus, Stein’s home and that of her lover, Alice B. Toklas, was almost as much a privilege in twentieth-century Paris as entrée to Madame Geoffrin‘s Parisian salon had been in the eighteenth century.

Madame Stein is the Gertrude Stein of “a rose is a rose is a rose” who entitled her 1933 autobiography The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. As for Alice B. Toklas, Stein’s lover, she is the author of the Alice B. Toklas Cookbook of the famous hashish cookies. Born in 1877, Alice died in poverty, the victim of greed, on 7 March 1967, aged 89. (See Henri Matisse: an Eclectic Modernist.)

Olga Kokhlova

Olga Kokhlova was a socialite and therefore facilitated Picasso’s introduction to Paris’ world of music, design, choreography, dance, and literature. The two married on 18 May 1917 and, three years after Parade, on 4 February 1921, Olga gave birth to Picasso’s first son, Paulo, depicted above as Harlequin and Pierrot (Pedrolino), Commedia dell’arte figures.

Picasso’s marriage to Olga (17 June 1891 – on 11 February 1955) was not a happy union. It seems the two were not suited for one another. In 1927, Picasso entered into a relationship with another woman. Olga left in 1935 and, as is well known, Picasso refused to divorce her because he would have had to give her half of his belongings, including his paintings. That was not acceptable to him. (See Olga Khokhlova, Wikipedia.)

Harlequin, always…

But let us return to Harlequin. In 1906, Picasso depicted him as dead (see below). At that point, reports of Harlequin’s death were premature. Picasso continued to depict Harlequin and other characters from the Commedia dell’arte, which makes him heir to Jean-Antoine Watteau (baptised 10 October 1684 – 18 July 1721).

However, Picasso’s settings of Commedia dell’arte figures are less ethereal than Watteau’s bucolic fêtes galantes. Yet both artists drew part of their subject matter from Italian comedy and from ballet, without portraying disorderly buffoons. Picasso was also influenced by seventeenth-century Spanish artists Diego Velásquez – “Las Meninas” – and El Greco.

In short, despite a failed marriage, Paris was kind to Picasso who remembered Harlequin and other characters from the Commedia dell’arte.

I apologize for not posting more often. The problem is a long and disabling episode of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Kind regards to all of you. ♥

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Sources and Resources

http://www.biography.com/people/pablo-picasso-9440021

_________________________

[i] “Pablo Picasso”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2014. Web. 07 Jul. 2014
<http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/459275/Pablo-Picasso-myth>.

[ii] Érik Satie was one of “les Six,” probably named “les Six” after the Russian “les Cinq.” The “Six” are Emmanuel Chabrier, Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, Maurice Ravel, Érik Satie, and Richard Strauss.

[iii] Among other films and various works, we owe Jean Cocteau his 1946 Beauty and the Beast, but he is better known for his 1929 novel and 1950 film Les Enfants terribles.

Manuel de Falla (23 November 1876 – 14 November 1946)
El Sombrero de tres picos
Joven Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid (Sergio Alapont, director)
 
© Micheline Walker
8 July 2014
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Picasso’s Harlequin

03 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by in Art, Comedy, Commedia dell'arte

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Harlequin with his hands crossed (Jacinto Salvado), 1923

Harlequin with his hands crossed (Jacinto Salvado), 1923

Portraits

“Harlequin with his hands crossed,” featured above, could well be Picasso’s finest Harlequin. He is not wearing his lozenges. In fact, the colours have bled. Nor is there a mask, except a reminder. Harlequin’s brow is floured.

In the Harlequin featured to the left, no mask is suggested, but the lines are somewhat thicker, barely. The painting is also dated 1923. These two depictions of the Harlequin therefore follow the production of Stravinsky‘s Pulcinella, first performed in 1920. Both characters are zanni, or servants, but Harlequin is the smarter zanno. Picasso’s depictions of Harlequin do not show a theatrical Harlequin. Picasso’s Harlequins are off-stage and the artist’s depictions are portraits of distinguished individuals. It is difficult to associate these Picasso Harlequins with British very comical Harlequinades.

Harlequin as motif: A Family Harlequin

Harlequin is a significant motif in Picasso’s work where he is sometimes pictured with his family. He is also an element of Picasso’s “Mother and Child” motif. In other depictions of Harlequin, a male adult may accompany a child. Picasso also portrayed Harlequin on his death bed.

Technique

Picasso was versatile where his techniques are concerned: oil, gouache, watercolours, india ink. Each technique conveys a meaning to the artwork.

Zanni

The Commedia dell’arte zanni are very smart. They may have a love interest. For instance Arlequin loves Columbine who is also Pedrolino’s love interest. But their main function is to help the innamorati overcome obstacles to their marriage. This requires not only physical agility, but a cunning mind. Zanni have to devise stratagems.

Costume

Picasso’s Harlequins dress a little differently from earlier Harlequins. They often wear a collapsed ruff, mixing Pierrot and Harlequin characteristics. This cross-dressing adds piquancy to Picasso’s art. At times, Arlecchino can only be distinguished by his fallen ruff and slender figure.

A World View

In short, a world view is expressed in Picasso’s Harlequins. His Harlequins are consistent with one another. Picasso’s Harlequins do not cry. But they are very human, not marionettes. And they have a family.

Conclusion

I am offering a very small sampling of Picasso’s Harlequins, but they are true representatives of Picasso’s Harlequins. By clicking on the titles of the various artwork, you will be provided with technical details.

Folklore

Stravinsky’s ballet Petrushka (Ballets Russes; 1910-11) shows a somewhat clownish Harlequin-like figure, but it is not Harlequin. Beginning in the early nineteenth century, writers, artists, composers found inspiration in their country’s folklore, which very often was shared by other nations and cultures.

Ballets Russes

Igor Stravinsky and Pablo Picasso were both commissioned to create ballets for Sergei Diaghilev using their respective talents. Picasso drew a number of costumes and designed sets. Both worked on the production of Pulcinella (Polichinelle; Ballets Russes, 1920). It was a Golden Age.

As for Picasso, he found much of his inspiration in the commedia dell’arte and in particular, in the Harlequin.

This is a humble offering.

My kindest regards to all of you.

Jorge Donn (25 February 1947 – 30 November 1992)

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© Micheline Walker
3 July 2014 
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Sharing & the News, 16 September 2012

16 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by in Sharing

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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
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Les Ballets Russes & the News

12 Thursday Jul 2012

Posted by in Art, Dance

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Clotilde & Alexandre Sakharoff, by George Barbier (1882-1932) Russian dancers, 1921 poster.

I wish I could have found a video featuring Clotilde and Alexandre Sakharov.  But we have done very well.  YouTube provided us with a performance of the grand Pas de deux, from Marius Petipa‘s Don Quixote (music by Ludwig Minkus), executed by Natalia Osipova & Ivan Vasiliev, now stars of the St Petersburg’s Mikhaylovsky Theatre and a married couple.

Barbier’s coloring is impressive.  Note, for instance, how he has used color to separate the bodies of his two dancers.

Artwork

Musée de l’affiche, Paris (Photo credit: Alfredo Dagli Orti / The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY (with permission from Art Resource, NY).

For more information on the Ballets Russes, in Paris, please click on Sergei Diaghilev, Ballets Russes and Vaslav Nijinsky.  The Ballets Russes toured between 1909 and 1929, and Paris loved them.

—ooo—

English
The Montreal Gazette: http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html
The National Post: http://www.nationalpost.com/index.html
The Globe and Mail: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/
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: 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
12 July 2012
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