Diaghilev and The Ballets Russes
Lecturer: Rosamund Bartlett
A hundred
years ago Diaghilev decided it was time to showcase Russian culture. He
began with art exhibitions, then operas, then ballet, using well
regarded artists as set designers. Russian ballet was at its prime with
Nijinsky and Pavlova amongst its greatest stars. In 1910 began his
famous collaboration with Stravinsky, the
enfant terrible of 20th
century music. After The
Firebird came
Petrushka, and then in 1913 the Parisian haute
monde was shocked to its
core by the epoch-making
The Rite of Spring, one of the key works which catapulted
Russian artists and musicians into the forefront of the European
avant-garde.
