Word: diaghilev
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...under the patronage of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovitch, Diaghilev opened his first season of dance in Paris. The jaded city was ripe for an invasion of exotica. His company, to the frenzied rhythms of the Polovtsian dances from Borodin's Prince Igor, swept Paris like a Mongol invasion. Next came Scheherazade, with its orgy of writhing dancers, the extraordinary half human, half feline Golden Slave portrayed by Nijinsky, and the unexpected colors of Bakst. That was succeeded by the most famous opening-night brawl in history, when a glittering crowd booed Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Nijinsky...
...Diaghilev's private life was as notorious as his public spectacles. He was a celebrated figure in the Paris underworld; Nijinsky was one of his lovers. "It is almost impossible," said Stravinsky, "to describe the perversity of Diaghilev's entourage-a kind of homosexual Swiss Guard." He reminded one musician of a "decadent Roman emperor-possibly Genghis Khan or even a barbarous Scythian-and lastly, what he really was: a Russian grand seigneur...
...praise of himself, Diaghilev boomed: "Society will have to recognize that my experiments, which appear dangerous today, become indispensable tomorrow." He was right. He discovered Stravinsky at a concert in St. Petersburg and Picasso in a shabby studio in Montmartre. In Parade, first performed in 1917, he juxtaposed cubist costumes with the sharp-edged music of Satie and a Cocteau libretto...
...Diaghilev was more than a gilded talent scout. Wherever he found genius, he made it fashionable. Parisians flocked to see Parade, which coincided with the flowering of cubism. Romeo and Juliet, designed by Miro and Max Ernst, popularized surrealism. Apollon Musagete, the first successful collaboration of Stravinsky and Balanchine, marked the beginning of neoclassicism in music and dance. Diaghilev's own life was measured out in hotel bills and telegrams. He ranged ceaselessly from Europe to America in search of backers and triumphs. World War I and the Russian Revolution slowed his progress but never stopped...
Buckle, formerly the dance critic of the Sunday Times of London, might have speculated more about the period and the art and placed Diaghilev's achievement in perspective. But if analysis is missing, the man transcends his interpreter. For Diaghilev's life was his work, and that has continued. His followers have founded many of the world's leading dance companies, including London's Royal Ballet and the New York City Ballet. It is a suitable legacy for the impresario who. with one daring jeté after another, brought the East to the West...