Diaghilev
A Life
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- $35.99
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- $35.99
Publisher Description
Featuring an eight-page gallery of full-color illustrations, here is a major new biography of Serge Diaghilev, founder and impresario of the Ballets Russes, who revolutionized ballet by bringing together composers such as Stravinsky and Prokofiev, dancers and choreographers such as Nijinsky and Karsavina, Fokine and Balanchine, and artists such as Picasso, Matisse, Bakst, and Goncharova.
An accomplished, flamboyant impresario of all the arts, Diaghilev became a legendary figure. Growing up in a minor noble family in remote Perm, he would become a central figure in the artistic worlds of Paris, London, Berlin, and Madrid during the golden age of modern art. He lived through bankruptcy, war, revolution, and exile. Furthermore he lived openly as a homosexual and his liaisons, most famously with Nijinsky, and his turbulent friendships with Stravinsky, Coco Chanel, Prokofiev, and Jean Cocteau gave his life an exceptionally dramatic quality. Scheijen's magnificent biography, based on extensive research in little known archives, especially in Russia, brings fully to life a complex and powerful personality with boundless creative energy.
A New York Times Editor's Choice
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Scheijen's words, Sergey Diaghilev (1872 1929), the brilliant impresario who created the Ballets Russes, both revolutionized and scandalized the worlds of art, ballet, and music by presenting "subversive art in a lavish setting." Beginning with exhibitions and publications in czarist Russia, he combined artistic vision with a genius for talent spotting and cajolery that enabled him to produce avant garde ballets from Fokine's Firdbird to Nijinsky's Rite of Spring; his last great choreographic discovery was Balanchine. Scheijen, a specialist in Russian art, intertwines excerpts from the diaries and correspondence of artists, patrons, and Diaghilev's family to convey the tumult of Diaghilev's personal and professional life. From homosexual entanglements with his artists to the financial difficulties that beset him throughout his career, the impresario relentlessly pursued his revolutionary artistic vision, often at the expense of others' feelings. The parade of great dancers, composers, and artists through Diaghilev's life give this book the sweep of a Russian novel with a fascinating, brilliant, and complex protagonist who, according to the author, lived a very public life, but kept his most intimate feelings hidden. 8 color and 64 b&w photos.
