Diaghilev briefly. Diaghilev Sergey Pavlovich

Diaghilev Sergey Pavlovich (1872-1929), theatrical figure, art critic, propagandist of Russian art abroad.

Was born in Novgorod province March 19 (31), 1872, in a noble family, major general of the tsarist army. As a child, he took piano and composition lessons, studied singing with the famous Italian baritone A. Cotogni. Graduated from St. Petersburg University (Faculty of Law), at the same time studied in the composition class of N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. At university with friends Alexandre Benois and Lev Bakst organized an informal circle where issues of art were discussed.

Diaghilev - publisher (1899-1904). In the late 1890s, he became one of the founders of the artistic association "World of Art" and the editor (together with A.N. Benois) of the magazine of the same name (1898/99-1904), where he published latest works foreign writers and artists, gave reports on exhibitions, new trends in theater and music, fine arts. And he himself wrote articles and reviews about performances, exhibitions, books. In parallel with the journal, he published books on the history of Russian art: an album of lithographs by Russian artists (1900), I. Levitan (1901), the first volume of Russian painting in the 18th century, dedicated to the works of D. Levitsky (1903), was awarded the Uvarov Prize by the Academy of Sciences. In 1899-1901 he was the editor of the "Yearbook of the Imperial Theaters", which he turned from a state official bulletin into an interesting art magazine.

Diaghilev - organizer of exhibitions (1899-1906). Since 1899, he organized exhibitions of paintings by artists of the "World of Art" circle in Europe. Arranged an exhibition of Russian historical portraits in the Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg (1905), in 1906 organized an exhibition in Paris dedicated to Russian painting and sculpture over two centuries, including works of icon painting.

Diaghilev - theatrical figure and entrepreneur (1899-1929). In 1899 he directed the stage Mariinsky Theater staging of the ballet L. Delibes Sylvia, which ended in failure. Trying to update the scenography of the ballet, in 1901 he was fired for undermining academic traditions.

From 1907 he organized annual performances by Russian musicians, the so-called. "Russian Seasons Abroad": the first was the season of "Historical Russian Concerts", in which N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, S.V. Rakhmaninov, A.K. Glazunov, F.I. Chaliapin performed together with the artists and the choir Bolshoi Theater, conducted by Arthur Nikisch, an unsurpassed interpreter of Tchaikovsky. These concerts started world fame Chaliapin. Unheard of success prompted Diaghilev to prepare another season - the Russian opera. Created a committee chaired by A.S. Taneyev, and in 1908 presented masterpieces of Russian music in Paris: the opera Boris Godunov with the participation of F.I. Chaliapin in the scenery of A.Ya. , Night before Christmas, Snow Maiden, Sadko and Tsar Saltan by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov.

In St. Petersburg, he began preparations for the third ballet season. The preparation committee included choreographer M.M. Fokin, artists A.N. Benois, L.S. Bakst, V.A. Serov, ballet critic V.Ya. Svetlov, official of the Imperial Court V.F. Ballet State Councilor, General N.M. Bezobrazov. The Committee worked under the patronage of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, President Russian Academy Arts. The repertoire of ballets by M.M. Fokin (Scheherazade by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, Cleopatra by A.S. Arensky, Pavilion of Armida by N.N. Cherepnin, scenes of Polovtsian dances from A.P. Borodin’s opera Prince Igor) was approved. With the help of M.F. Kshesinskaya, he received a subsidy. A troupe was created from young people who were interested in the choreography of M.M. Fokina (A.P. Pavlova, T.P. Karsavina), A.R. Bolm, A.M. Monakhov, V.F. .Koralli, E.V. Geltser, M.M. Mordkin). But a quarrel with the powerful Kshesinskaya and the death of Vladimir Alexandrovich complicated the preparation. It was necessary to have great organizational skills in order to revive the season, he found new patrons, French patrons Misia Sert, Countess de Gruffille, and others. The Opera and Ballet Season of 1909 nevertheless took place and lasted two months.

The Russian ballet charmed everyone with the originality of the choreography, the high level of performing skills, the dance of the corps de ballet, the brilliant painting of the scenery, and spectacular costumes. Each performance was an amazingly beautiful and perfect unified artistic whole.

Diaghilev's discovery was Nijinsky, Pavlova and Karsavin, who immediately received offers from the world's leading theaters, gained huge success. Since 1909, Diaghilev's seasons became annual and were called "Russian Seasons Abroad" (until 1913 they were purely ballet, with the departure of Fokine, Nijinsky, Pavlova they again became opera and ballet). Mussorgsky's operas Boris Godunov, Khovanshchina, Pskovityanka and others were staged. Rimsky-Korsakov's The Golden Cockerel (1914), which included ballet scenes directed by M. Fokin, was an example of a successful combination of opera and ballet. Since 1910, the troupe has acquired an international character, the well-known dancers Patrick Kay (Anton Dolin), Alice Marks (Alicia Markova), Idris Stannus (Ninet de Valois), Marie Rambert and others are joining it.

In 1911 he formed his own troupe, which received the name "Russian Ballet of Sergei Diaghilev" in 1913, which toured in London, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Barcelona, Lausanne, Berlin, cities of America. After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the entreprise transferred to New York, in 1917 the troupe broke up, because. most stayed in the US.

Diaghilev returns to Europe and creates a new troupe that existed until 1929. Over the years of work, the troupe staged more than 20 ballets, including 8 ballets by Stravinsky, opening his music to the Western public, contributed to the revival of ballet in Europe, where it existed on the stage of music halls , and America, where there was no classical ballet. The innovative design of ballet and opera performances performed by A.N. Benois, L.S. Bakst, A.Ya. Golovin, N.K. Roerich, N.S. Goncharova and other artists had a huge impact on further development world scenography. The success of the Russian Ballet was maintained at an enviable level for many years. The director of the troupe S. L. Grigoriev wrote: “It is difficult to conquer Paris. Maintaining influence for twenty seasons is a feat."

Introduction

1. Music of the Russian Seasons

3. Ballet music

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

S.P. Diaghilev was born on March 19, 1872 in Perm in the Novgorod province into a well-born noble family. His father was a major general in the tsarist army, he was fond of singing. As a child, at the insistence of his adoptive mother (his own mother died in childbirth), Diaghilev learned to play the piano.

In 1906 Diaghilev left for France. There he organized annual performances of Russian artists abroad, which contributed to the popularization of Russian art, which later went down in history under the name "Russian Seasons". First, these were exhibitions of Russian art, then "Historical Russian Concerts" in the premises of the Parisian theater "Grand Opera" and performances with music by Russian composers. A real sensation was Mussorgsky's opera Khovanshchina and Boris Godunov with F. Chaliapin in the role of Tsar Boris. "Russian Seasons" existed in Paris and London until 1914.

In 1909 Grand Duke Vladimir commissioned Diaghilev to found the Russian Ballet in Paris. Diaghilev collected creative team of the greatest artists of the early 20th century, and in 1911-13. on the basis of the Russian Seasons, he created the Diaghilev Russian Ballet troupe, in which the choreographers M. Fokin and L. Myasin worked; composers K. Debussy, M. Ravel and I. Stravinsky; artists L. Bakst, A. Benois, P. Picasso, A. Matisse; dancers of the Russian Ballet from the Mariinsky and Bolshoi Theaters A. Pavlova, V. Nizhinsky, M. Kshesinskaya, T. Karsavina.

S.P. Diaghilev was prominent figure Russian art, propagandist and organizer of tours of Russian art abroad. He was neither a dancer, nor a choreographer, nor a playwright, nor an artist, and yet his name is known to millions of ballet lovers in Russia and Europe. Diaghilev opened Russian ballet to Europe, he demonstrated that while in the European capitals ballet fell into decay and perished, in St. Petersburg it strengthened and became a very significant art.

From 1907 to 1922 S. P. Diaghilev organized 70 performances from Russian classics to contemporary authors. At least 50 performances were musical novelties. He was "eternally followed by eight carriages of scenery and three thousand costumes." "Russian Ballet" toured Europe, the USA, always meeting with a storm of applause.

At his grave, which is located next to the grave of I. Stravinsky on the island-cemetery of Saint-Michel, admirers still gather, who leave red roses and worn-out ballet shoes there, paying tribute to the memory of this man, whose ideas played such an important role in the creation modern dance.

1. Music of “Russian Seasons”

The merits of Diaghilev in the field of Russian and world musical culture are generally recognized. In the monographs devoted to the "Russian Seasons" in Paris, they are mentioned in passing and casually, as something taken for granted. The main attention, as a rule, is given to ballet or theatrical and decorative painting. Meanwhile, the musical side of the performances of Diaghilev's entreprise deserves special coverage, since Diaghilev's special gift as an inspirer manifested itself in the realm of music itself no less than in the field of choreography or artistic design.

Diaghilev's influence on the musical side of the "Russian Seasons" manifested itself in different forms in accordance with the different facets of his talent. He had an amazing ability to identify and initiate those elements in the work of composers that pointed to a certain artistic perspective, to new paths, testified to art that - regardless of the date of its birth - lives and develops in today's context of culture. That is why Diaghilev singled out Mussorgsky from the Russian classics, and Stravinsky from among the modern composers.

2. opera performances S.P. Diaghilev

For his debut, Diaghilev chose two operas - "Boris Godunov" by Mussorgsky and "Sadko" by Rimsky-Korsakov. Both met the requirement of a bright national identity and, in addition, were combined according to the principle of genre contrast: a historical-psychological drama and an epic opera. However, difficulties immediately arose with “Sadko” and things did not work out. Only Boris Godunov remained in the tour program.

For Diaghilev, this was the first experience of training musical performance, and here his role went far beyond the "commander". Of course, he still carried out the organizational management of the entire enterprise: he attracted the best singing forces of the Mariinsky Stage, headed by F. Chaliapin, engaged the entire choir of the Moscow Bolshoi Theater together with choirmaster U. Avranek, invited famous director A. Sanin, who successfully staged crowd scenes V drama theaters, took care of an excellent conductor - F. Blumenfeld, ordered the design of the performance by a group of excellent artists, including Golovin, Yaremich, Benois. But that was all half the battle. The main thing was that Diaghilev offered this huge group of performers his own vision, his own concept of a musical performance.

The first thing he started with was a careful study of the author's clavier "Boris" (edition 1874) and comparing it with the published edition of Rimsky-Korsakov, and his rearrangement of scenes. The permutations touched upon the scene of Boris with the chimes, the scene near Kromy, which was omitted in the St. Petersburg production. Both were included in the Parisian performance and since then have been fixed in many productions of "Boris" both in Russia and in the West. Having restored the scene near Kromy, which in the author's version crowned the opera, Diaghilev made the final scene of Boris's death, foreseeing its strong theatrical effect thanks to Chaliapin's performance. Benois claimed that the death scene was "the best final chord" of the opera, giving a convincing conclusion to the psychological drama of Tsar Boris.

The premiere of the opera on May 20, 1908 was a huge success. She was called a masterpiece and found her analogy only in the creations of Shakespeare. “Boris Godunov”, as the newspaper “Liberte” wrote the day after the premiere, “has the same (like Shakespeare’s. - I.V.) intensity of the depiction of the past, comprehensive universalism, realism, richness, depth, exciting ruthlessness of feelings, picturesque and the same unity of the tragic and the comic, the same higher humanity.” Russian artists proved themselves worthy of this music. Chaliapin shocked with the tragic power and amazing realism of the game in the scene of death, and especially in the scene with the chimes.

The success of "Boris" inspired Diaghilev and paved the way for the organization of the annual "Russian Seasons" in Paris. In the 1909 season, Diaghilev intended to show a kind of anthology of Russian opera classics: Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila, Serov's Judith, Borodin's Prince Igor, Rimsky-Korsakov's The Maid of Pskov, renamed Ivan the Terrible, and again Boris Godunov".

Suddenly, plans changed. Friends and associates of Diaghilev persuaded him to present to the French, in addition to operas, also a new Russian ballet. Four one-act ballets were added to these operas. The grandiose plan, however, turned out to be beyond their means: by the highest command, Diaghilev was denied a subsidy. I had to greatly reduce the operatic repertoire. Only The Maid of Pskov was staged in its entirety, with Chaliapin as the Terrible. The premiere was a success with the public. Each of the other operas included in the repertoire was represented by one act.

In the subsequent 1910–1912. the opera disappeared altogether from the repertoire of the Russian Seasons.

The 1913 season, which began at the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris and continued at London's Drury Lane, included three operas. In Paris, the newly staged "Boris" and "Khovanshchina" were shown. In London, "Pskovityanka" was added to them. “Boris” was accepted with the same enthusiasm, but the main attention was riveted to “Khovanshchina”. Among the musicians, she caused fierce controversy, in the center of which was the figure of Diaghilev. Diaghilev's creative initiative this time went far enough: he proposed not only his own concept of the performance, but, in essence, his own version of its musical text.

The idea of "Khovanshchina" came to Diaghilev as early as 1909. In the winter of the same year, returning to St. Petersburg, Diaghilev, consulting the published score as edited by Rimsky-Korsakov, was convinced that almost not a single page of the original manuscript remained without numerous significant corrections and changes made by Rimsky-Korsakov. At the same time, a daring plan was born - to restore the banknotes made by Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as the original text of those episodes he had saved, which had undergone the most significant editorial corrections, and to order a new instrumentation.

In 1912, Diaghilev commissioned Stravinsky to re-orchestrate the opera and compose the final chorus. Ravel soon joined Stravinsky. It was decided that Stravinsky would instrument Shaklovity's arias (“The Streltsy's Nest Sleeps”) and write the final chorus, while Ravel would take care of the rest. In autumn, Diaghilev ordered decoration young artist F. Fedorovsky, and at the beginning of 1913 agreed with the rest of the participants in the production - director A. Sanin, choirmaster D. Pokhitonov, conductor E. Cooper and, of course, with Chaliapin - the performer of the part of Dosifei.

Press reports of the upcoming production provoked angry protests from admirers of Rimsky-Korsakov. The son of the composer A.N. Rimsky-Korsakov called Diaghilev's venture "an act of vandalism", an outrageous disrespect for the memory of Rimsky-Korsakov and his selfless work. Ravel was forced to answer him with an open letter, in which he assured that the desire to acquaint the public with Mussorgsky's original text does not detract from the importance of Rimsky-Korsakov, for whom he, Stravinsky and Diaghilev have the most sincere love and respect.

Complications also arose with Chaliapin. The latter set as a condition of his participation the preservation of the entire part of Dositheus in Rimsky-Korsakov's version. He also refused Diaghilev's proposal to include Shaklovity's aria in the part of Dositheus, which Diaghilev considered more appropriate in the mouth of Dositheus than the "arch-rogue", as Mussorgsky himself characterized Shaklovity. As a result, Shaklovity's aria was stopped. Diaghilev had to make concessions.

Thus, the new version of the opera turned out to be a very compromise: it was based on orchestral score Rimsky-Korsakov with handwritten inserts of episodes instrumented by Ravel and a handwritten score of the final chorus written by Stravinsky.

The main conquests of Diaghilev's opera entreprise in the pre-war period were "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina".

In "Russian Seasons" 1908-1914. he managed to “exalt in the West” the most unconventional aspects of Mussorgsky's brilliant operas, and, above all, their choral dramaturgy.

3. Ballet music

If the opera performances of the “Russian Seasons” pursued the goal of opening the eyes of Europe to the inimitable originality and intrinsic value of Russian classical opera, presenting it as an integral part of world musical culture, showing that in addition to Wagner’s “Tristan” there are also “Boris” and “Khovanshchina”, then the ballet performances claimed something more. According to Diaghilev's plan, they were supposed to show the world a new musical theater, which was not yet known either in Russia or in Europe.

After the "Russian Season" in 1910, Diaghilev tried to define the "essence and secret" of the new ballet performance. “We wanted to find an art through which all the complexity of life, all feelings and passions would be expressed, apart from words and concepts, not rationally, but spontaneously, visually, indisputably,” said Diaghilev. “The secret of our ballet lies in rhythm,” Bakst echoed him. – We found it possible to convey not feelings and passions, as drama does, and not form, as painting does, but the very rhythm of feelings and forms. Our dances, and scenery, and costumes - all this is so captivating, because it reflects the most elusive and intimate - the rhythm of life. For some reason, neither Diaghilev nor Bakst mention music in this interview, but isn't the direct expression of the "elusive and intimate rhythm of life" the true vocation of music, and hence its special new function in the composition of a ballet performance?

The first to understand this were the representatives of the “free dance”: Loy Fuller, Maud Allan and, above all, Isadora Duncan. The latter rejected the ballet music of the 19th century. Her dance-plastic improvisations were based on the music of Bach, Gluck, Beethoven, Chopin, not intended for dance, but possessing a richness and variety of rhythmic content, not constrained by the genre-metrical formulas of classical ballet.

Rejection of the traditional "dance" in the name of the genre and compositional diversity of classical and modern instrumental music was one of the main points of Fokine's ballet reform. Subsequently, Diaghilev claimed that the ideas for updating the ballet performance, including ballet music, belonged to him, and Fokine only managed to successfully put them into practice. Of course, Fokine indignantly denied such allegations. The world-famous "Dying Swan" to the music of Saint-Saens and "Chopinian", which laid the foundation for one of the leading trends ballet theater of the twentieth century, were created by him before he met Diaghilev, and even in joint work Fokin remained a fairly independent artist. But it is unfair to deny Diaghilev (as Fokine does) the renewing influence on the musical side of ballet performances.

From the very beginning, Diaghilev insisted that the music of the ballets in his company meet the highest artistic standards. For the sake of this, as in the case of operas, he allows himself "editor's correction" of the musical text. The extent of his involvement varied. In "Chopiniana", for example, which he immediately renamed "Sylphides", he was not satisfied with the instrumentation of Chopin's pieces, made by M. Keller. The re-orchestration was commissioned by several composers, including the names of A. Lyadov, A. Glazunov, I. Stravinsky.

With the score of A. Arensky's ballet "Egyptian Nights", which Diaghilev found weak, he acted much more decisively. Proposing to give the ballet the features of a choreographic drama (tragic ending), making central figure Cleopatra. Diaghilev made sure that the most “shocking” moments of the stage action were supported by high-quality music appropriate in mood and dance in genre. Cleopatra's spectacular entrance was accompanied by music from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera-ballet Mlada (The Vision of Cleopatra). The pas de deux of the Slave and the Slave Arsinoe from Cleopatra's retinue, staged by Fokine especially for Nijinsky and Karsavina, was performed to the sounds of the Turkish Dance from Act IV of Glinka's Ruslan. For the culminating mass dance - bacchanalia - Glazunov's "autumn" bacchanalia from his ballet "The Seasons" was used, and the touching mourning by the girl Taor (Anna Pavlova) of her fiance killed by Cleopatra took place to the sounds of "Persian Dances" ("Khovanshchina"), performed by "dull bliss” and longing.

In each particular case, these insert episodes served as a decorative amplifier for spectacular effects. In this sense, Diaghilev, despite the just reproaches of unacceptable musical eclecticism, achieved what he wanted. Moreover, if Benois’s immediate impression is to be believed, Diaghilev succeeded so deftly in introducing alien episodes into the musical fabric of Arensky’s score, so skillfully fitting them together, that there were almost no seams in the music of the “recomposed” ballet and even a certain compositional integrity was achieved.

More successfully, the same function of “decorative accompaniment” to the dance was performed by the music of Rimsky-Korsakov in the ballet “Scheherazade”. Diaghilev used the 2nd and 4th movements of the symphonic suite of the same name, omitting the 3rd movement as less interesting for dance interpretation, the 1st movement was performed before a closed curtain as an overture. The performance provoked violent protests from Rimsky-Korsakov's widow and children. I resented the very fact of using music, which had nothing to do with the ballet action, and most importantly, the bloody plot imposed on it.

The successes of the first ballet season did not obscure the need to create original ballet scores. The Diaghilev entreprise needed its own composers like air. The first person Diaghilev chose was Ravel. Diaghilev commissioned him the music for a planned "ancient" ballet based on the Hellenistic novel Daphnis and Chloe. Benois, who did not expect from the author of "Spanish Rhapsody" and piano pieces nothing but a “graceful” little thing, wondered why Diaghilev did not turn to Debussy, the author “ afternoon rest faun." But, apparently, something in Ravel's music suggested to Diaghilev the possibilities of its plastic interpretations. Intuition did not deceive Diaghilev. The score of Daphnis and Chloe, with its strikingly organic combination of archaic monumentality in musical themes and the nature of orchestral dynamics (cult images) with the refinement of sound lines in the depiction of the main characters of the shepherd's novel, turned out to be the deepest and, in its way, the only example of a symphonic comprehension of the ancient theme in performances of "Russian Seasons".

Diaghilev's greatest achievement in the musical field of the Russian Seasons was the "discovery of Stravinsky". In preparing the program for the 1910 season, Diaghilev set out to include the original Russian ballet in it. The libretto of the fairy-tale ballet based on Russian folklore already existed, future ballet called "Firebird". The choice of Lyadov as a composer suggested itself. Diaghilev rightly named the author of the symphonic paintings "Kikimora", "Baba Yaga", "Magic Lake" and numerous adaptations of Russian folk songs“our first, most interesting and most knowledgeable musical talent". But Lyadov hesitated to start work, and it became clear that he would not be in time for the deadline. For a moment the thought of Glazunov flashed through Diaghilev's mind. For a short time N. Cherepnin was engaged in The Firebird, but the matter ended with the composition of the symphonic picture The Enchanted Kingdom, and the composer himself, according to Benois, "suddenly lost interest in the ballet." It was then that Diaghilev, not without a hint from B. Asafiev, began to look closely at the young, then still unknown composer Igor Stravinsky.

In the winter of 1909, Diaghilev heard in one of the concerts of A. Siloti his “Fantastic Scherzo” for a large symphony orchestra. From the work emanated freshness and novelty: the originality of rhythms, the brilliance and play of timbre colors, in general, the stamp of a strong creative individuality, which marked the orchestral writing of this work, interested Diaghilev. Intuition told him that in the bowels of this play lies the image of the future ballet. Later, having attended a performance of the symphonic miniature Fireworks with Fokine, Diaghilev only strengthened his initial impression.

Intuition did not deceive Diaghilev. What he heard in the orchestral coloring of the "Fantastic Scherzo" found its continuation and development in the sound images of the Kashcheev kingdom and, above all, in the image of a wonderful bird. “Flight and Dance of the Firebird” are examples of a completely new musical solution for the traditional and solo variation of the ballerina. The musical fabric of these episodes, devoid of a distinct melodic relief, was born from a seemingly spontaneous interweaving of textured harmonic lines, from the self-movement of orchestral timbres. Only the sharp rhythmic motifs of the cellos implicitly regulated and directed the flickering and trembling of the sound element, imparting to it the shade of a bizarre dance. Sense of gesture, plastics human body, the ability to subordinate music to a specific stage task was already reflected in the first ballet, as, undoubtedly, the strong side of Stravinsky's musical and theatrical talent. Spectators of the performance at the Grand Opera saw in The Firebird "a miracle of the most delightful balance between movements, sounds and forms." It is amazing to what extent the young composer immediately managed to feel and perceive the spirit and character of Diaghilev's ideas. "Firebird" was a kind of music encyclopedia foundations and achievements of Russian classics, a masterful embodiment of Diaghilev's anthological principle within the framework of one work. Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Lyadov, Glazunov were reflected in the sound structure of the ballet, but in the original dissimilarity of creative individualities, Stravinsky managed to catch general properties a single Russian style, to convey the overall feeling of an entire musical era.

"Russian Seasons" radically updated the genre of ballet music, opening up opportunities for composers to create new forms of program symphony. Symphonic suite, symphonic picture, symphonic poem - that's genre varieties ballet scores. Many composers of the early twentieth century. began to compose ballets specifically for the Diaghilev entreprise. Stravinsky was followed by S. Prokofiev, whose ballet creativity was also inspired by Diaghilev. N. Cherepnin was also a regular participant in the Seasons as a conductor and composer (he wrote the ballets Narcissus and The Red Mask for Diaghilev). The representative of the “hostile camp” of the Rimsky-Korsakovs, M. Steinberg, also wished to do something for the Russian Seasons, turning his play from the Metamorphoses cycle into the Midas ballet.

By 1914, Diaghilev's strategic plan for the conquest of Europe was completed. The victory was won not by the “quartermaster”, but by the “generalissimo”, as A. Benois jokingly called his friend.

Describing the pre-war season, Lunacharsky wrote from Paris: “Russian music has become a completely definite concept, including the characteristics of freshness, originality and, above all, tremendous instrumental skill.”

Such was the result of the musical conquests of the “Russian Seasons” of 1908-1914, at the origins of which were Diaghilev's brilliant intuition and his rare gift as an inspirer.

Conclusion

For Sergei Diaghilev, the passion for the history of Russian art, although it did not become a matter of his whole life, coincided with a very important period for him - with the first decade of the twentieth century. The merits of Diaghilev in the field of the history of Russian art are truly enormous. Created by him portrait exhibition was an event of world-historical significance, for it revealed many artists and sculptors, hitherto unknown. From the "Dyagilev" exhibition begins new era learning Russian and European art 18th and first half of the 19th century.

For the first time, 2226 exhibits were brought together - picturesque portraits and sculptural busts, which made up a whole gallery of outstanding people of Russia, for more than a century and a half. If the organizers of the exhibition in 1902 limited it to 1700 - 1750, then contemporary artists were also presented at the Diaghilev exhibition. During the exhibition, 45,000 people visited.

The merit of S. Diaghilev is that he was the first to take abroad an exhibition of Russian icons, painting Russia XVIII century, the music of Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov. Western Europe was shocked by what they saw. The art of C. Debussy and M. Ravel grew up on the music of Russian composers.

The great Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev went down in history not only as the man who first presented Russian art enlightened Europe, organizing the Russian Seasons in Paris, which thundered all over the world. And not only as a “ballet magician”, who for decades has nurtured the Russian Ballet troupe that has traveled all over the world. Diaghilev knew how to find and discover talents, knew how to cultivate them, and always unmistakably fell into the pulse of the times, anticipating and realizing what in a moment would become a new word in art.

Bibliography

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Rapatskaya L.A. / Art of the Silver Age. - M .: Education: "Vlados", 1996.-16p.

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There are many PR tools that influence the consciousness and beliefs of a mass audience. Russian technologists often copy Western models and follow established patterns, not always taking into account national characteristics. Representatives of show business, who perfectly mastered the laws of the profession, have always easily found a use for themselves in Public Reltions. Having studied the laws of the genre of organizing public actions, showmen in PR ...

DIAGILEV SERGEY PAVLOVICH

Diaghilev, Sergei Pavlovich - writer and public figure. Born in 1872. He graduated from the course at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, as well as the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the singing class. Consisted as an official special assignments under the director of the Imperial Theaters and in 1899 - 1900 - the editor of the Yearbook of the Imperial Theaters. Traveling in Western Europe, Diaghilev became interested in new trends in art and decided to create a magazine dedicated to them in his homeland. In the autumn of 1898, he began publishing the magazine "World of Art", and in January 1899 he organized the first in St. Petersburg international exhibition paintings of a new direction. Editing the magazine "World of Art" for six years, Diaghilev united in it all the most significant writers and artists of the new direction: on the one hand, his collaborators were D. Merezhkovsky, K. Balmont, V. Bryusov, N. Minsky, V. Solovyov, O. Sologub, Z. Gippius, Prince A. Urusov; on the other - I. Levitan, V. Serov, M. Vrubel, A. Benois, L. Bakst, K. Somov, M. Nesterov, K. Korovin, Prince P. Trubetskoy. The magazine introduced the Russian public to the latest foreign writers and artists, published articles by Ruskin, Muther, Furtwängler, Maeterlinck, Huysmans, Grieg, partly written especially for the World of Art; gave reports on new exhibitions, on new trends in theater and music. Entire departments were dedicated to the artists of Western Europe; the magazine introduced the works of A. Becklin, G. Thomas, Puvis de Chavannes, E. Manet, Degas, C. Monet, J. Segantini, F. Goya, A. Beardsley, Whistler, J. Millet, Corot and others; a lot of space was given to Finnish and Polish artists. The magazine systematically introduced its readers to the great, but thoroughly forgotten Russian artists, to the monuments of antiquity in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other cities; separate issues were dedicated to famous artists of the late 18th and early 19th centuries: D. Levitsky, V. Borovikovsky, A. Ivanov, A. Venetsianov, K. Bryullov, O. Kiprensky, V. Tropinin; photographs from ancient stone and wooden architecture were placed; great place assigned to galleries, public and private: for the first time many paintings and art objects from the collections of Prince Yusupov, Prince. Tenisheva; in recent years, more space has been given to old St. Petersburg, to the study of its architecture, its monuments (many photographs from the Engineers' Castle, the Admiralty, etc.). In parallel with the magazine, Diaghilev published separate books on the history of Russian art: "Album of lithographs of Russian artists" (1900), "I. Levitan" (1901), the first volume of "Russian Painting in the 18th Century", dedicated to the works of D. Levitsky (1903) , was awarded the Uvarov Prize by the Academy of Sciences. Beginning in 1899, Diaghilev arranged a number of exhibitions of paintings by artists adjoining his journal (exhibition "World of Art"). Having become interested in the old Russian masters and planning the publication of a number of volumes of "Russian Painting of the 18th Century", Diaghilev undertook the organization of a huge exhibition of Russian historical portraits, carried out in 1905 in the halls of the Tauride Palace. For this exhibition, Diaghilev collected several thousand portraits of Russian painters depicting various historical persons, from the era of Peter the Great to recent years. With particular completeness it was possible to get acquainted with the great masters of the Catherine's era, entire halls were devoted to Borovikovsky, Levitsky and Rokotov; there were also departments dedicated to foreign artists who worked in Russia in that era: Roslin, Lampi, A. Kaufman, Vigée Lebrun, and others. In 1906, Diaghilev arranged a Russian art exhibition, having collected more than 700 works of Russian artists; starting with the famous contemporaries of Peter the Great, Nikitin and Matveev, he showed the Parisian public Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Rokotov, Alekseev, Vorobyov, Shchedrins, Shubin, Kiprensky, Tropinin, Bryullov, Ge, Repin and many of the best participants in the World of Art exhibitions. The best art connoisseurs in Paris wrote a lot about the exhibition; she introduced the foreign public to hitherto unknown masters, both old and modern. In the spring of 1907, Diaghilev arranged a series of concerts in Paris dedicated to Russian music, from Glinka to Scriabin. IN next years Diaghilev staged at the Grand Opera, and then at the Chatelet Theater, a number of Russian operas: Boris Godunov and Khovanshchina by Mussorgsky, The Maid of Pskov, etc., and a number of ballets: Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov, Cleopatra by Arensky, " Petrushka" by Stravinsky, "The Pavilion of Armida" by Cherepkin, etc. For these performances, the scenery was painted by the best contemporary artists, and outstanding artists performed as performers. Being the editor of the World of Art, Diaghilev wrote a lot in the magazine of articles and reviews about the theater, art, exhibitions, books. In addition to a separate monograph on D. Levitsky, we will mention his articles: "Difficult Questions", "On the Staging of Tristan and Isolde", "Illustration for Pushkin", "Art Critics", "On Russian Museums", "Exhibitions in Germany", "Exhibitions historical portraits", "Portrait Shibanov". S. R-va.

Brief biographical encyclopedia. 2012

2. Opera performances by S.P. Diaghilev

For Diaghilev, this was the first experience of preparing a musical performance, and here his role went far beyond the "commander". Of course, he still carried out the organizational management of the entire enterprise: he attracted the best singing forces of the Mariinsky Stage, headed by F. Chaliapin, engaged the entire choir of the Moscow Bolshoi Theater together with the choirmaster U. Avranek, invited the famous director A. Sanin, who successfully staged crowd scenes in drama theaters, took care of an excellent conductor - F. Blumenfeld, ordered the design of the performance by a group of excellent artists, including Golovin, Yaremich, Benois. But that was all half the battle. The main thing was that Diaghilev offered this huge group of performers his own vision, his own concept of a musical performance.

The first thing he started with was a careful study of the author's clavier "Boris" (edition 1874) and comparing it with the published edition of Rimsky-Korsakov, and his rearrangement of scenes. The rearrangements touched upon the scene of Boris with the chimes, the scene near Kromy, which was omitted in the St. Petersburg production. Both were included in the Paris performance and since then have been fixed in many productions of Boris both in Russia and in the West. Having restored the scene near Kromy, which in the author's version crowned the opera, Diaghilev made the final scene of Boris's death, foreseeing its strong theatrical effect thanks to Chaliapin's performance. Benois claimed that the death scene was "the best final chord" of the opera, giving a convincing conclusion to the psychological drama of Tsar Boris.

In the subsequent 1910–1912. the opera disappeared altogether from the repertoire of the Russian Seasons.

In 1912, Diaghilev commissioned Stravinsky to re-orchestrate the opera and compose the final chorus. Ravel soon joined Stravinsky. It was decided that Stravinsky would instrument Shaklovity's arias (“The Streltsy's Nest Sleeps”) and write the final chorus, while Ravel would take care of the rest. In the autumn, Diaghilev ordered the design to the young artist F. Fedorovsky, and in early 1913 he agreed with the rest of the participants in the production - director A. Sanin, choirmaster D. Pokhitonov, conductor E. Cooper and, of course, with Chaliapin - the performer of the part of Dosifei.

Press reports of the upcoming production provoked angry protests from admirers of Rimsky-Korsakov. The composer's son A.N. Rimsky-Korsakov called Diaghilev's undertaking "an act of vandalism", an outrageous disrespect for the memory of Rimsky-Korsakov and his selfless work. Ravel was forced to answer him with an open letter, in which he assured that the desire to acquaint the public with Mussorgsky's original text does not detract from the importance of Rimsky-Korsakov, for whom he, Stravinsky and Diaghilev have the most sincere love and respect.

Thus, the new version of the opera turned out to be a very compromise: it was based on the orchestral score of Rimsky-Korsakov with handwritten inserts of episodes instrumented by Ravel, and the handwritten score of the final chorus written by Stravinsky.

The main conquests of Diaghilev's opera entreprise in the pre-war period were "Boris Godunov" and "Khovanshchina".

In "Russian Seasons" 1908-1914. he managed to “exalt in the West” the most unconventional aspects of Mussorgsky's brilliant operas, and, above all, their choral dramaturgy.

3. Ballet music

The rejection of traditional "dance" in the name of the genre and compositional diversity of classical and modern instrumental music was one of the main points of Fokine's ballet reform. Subsequently, Diaghilev claimed that the ideas for updating the ballet performance, including ballet music, belonged to him, and Fokine only managed to successfully put them into practice. Of course, Fokine indignantly denied such allegations. The world-famous "The Dying Swan" to the music of Saint-Saens and "Chopinian", which marked the beginning of one of the leading trends in the ballet theater of the twentieth century, was created by him before he met Diaghilev, and in joint work Fokine remained a fairly independent artist. But it is unfair to deny Diaghilev (as Fokine does) the renewing influence on the musical side of ballet performances.

With the score of A. Arensky's ballet "Egyptian Nights", which Diaghilev found weak, he acted much more decisively. Proposing to give the ballet the features of a choreographic drama (tragic finale), making the central figure of Cleopatra. Diaghilev made sure that the most “shocking” moments of the stage action were supported by high-quality music appropriate in mood and dance in genre. Cleopatra's spectacular entrance was accompanied by music from Rimsky-Korsakov's opera-ballet Mlada (The Vision of Cleopatra). The pas de deux of the Slave and the Slave Arsinoe from Cleopatra's retinue, staged by Fokine especially for Nijinsky and Karsavina, was performed to the sounds of the Turkish Dance from Act IV of Glinka's Ruslan. For the culminating mass dance - bacchanalia - Glazunov's "autumn" bacchanalia from his ballet "The Seasons" was used, and the touching mourning by the girl Taor (Anna Pavlova) of her fiance killed by Cleopatra took place to the sounds of "Persian Dances" ("Khovanshchina"), performed by "dull bliss” and longing.

In each particular case, these interstitial episodes served as a decorative amplifier for spectacular effects. In this sense, Diaghilev, despite the just reproaches of unacceptable musical eclecticism, achieved what he wanted. Moreover, if Benois’s immediate impression is to be believed, Diaghilev succeeded so deftly in introducing alien episodes into the musical fabric of Arensky’s score, so skillfully fitting them together, that there were almost no seams in the music of the “recomposed” ballet and even a certain compositional integrity was achieved.

The successes of the first ballet season did not obscure the need to create original ballet scores. The Diaghilev entreprise needed its own composers like air. The first person Diaghilev chose was Ravel. Diaghilev commissioned him the music for a planned "ancient" ballet based on the Hellenistic novel Daphnis and Chloe. Benois, who did not expect anything other than a “graceful” thing from the author of the Spanish Rhapsody and piano pieces, wondered why Diaghilev did not turn to Debussy, the author of The Afternoon of a Faun. But, apparently, something in Ravel's music suggested to Diaghilev the possibilities of its plastic interpretations. Intuition did not deceive Diaghilev. The score of Daphnis and Chloe, with its strikingly organic combination of archaic monumentality in musical themes and the nature of orchestral dynamics (cult images) with the refinement of sound lines in the depiction of the main characters of the shepherd's novel, turned out to be the deepest and, in its way, the only example of a symphonic comprehension of the ancient theme in performances of "Russian Seasons".

Diaghilev's greatest achievement in the musical field of the Russian Seasons was the "discovery of Stravinsky". In preparing the program for the 1910 season, Diaghilev set out to include the original Russian ballet in it. The libretto of a fabulous ballet based on Russian folklore already existed, the future ballet was called The Firebird. The choice of Lyadov as a composer suggested itself. Diaghilev rightly called the author of the symphonic paintings "Kikimora", "Baba Yaga", "Magic Lake" and numerous arrangements of Russian folk songs "our first, most interesting and most knowledgeable musical talent." But Lyadov hesitated to start work, and it became clear that he would not be in time for the deadline. For a moment the thought of Glazunov flashed through Diaghilev's mind. For a short time N. Cherepnin was engaged in The Firebird, but the matter ended with the composition of the symphonic picture The Enchanted Kingdom, and the composer himself, according to Benois, "suddenly lost interest in the ballet." It was then that Diaghilev, not without a hint from B. Asafiev, began to look closely at the young, then still unknown composer Igor Stravinsky.

in winter of the year, I heard Diaghilev in his concerts Azil and his “Fantastic Scherzo” for a large symphony orchestra from the work exuded freshness and weariness, the originality of rhythms, the brilliance of the play of timbre colors, in general, the printing of a strong creative individuality, which was noted, the orchestral writing of this composition interested Diaghilev's intuition suggested to him that in the depths of this play the appearance of the future ballet is seen

Diaghilev's intuition did not deceive him. What he heard in the estral coloring of the "Fantastic scherzo" found its continuation and development in the sound images of the King of the Kingdom and, above all, the image of the wonderful bird "Flight of the Firebird's Dance" - examples of a completely new musical solution of the traditional and solo variations of the ballerina. The musical fabric of these episodes is devoid of distinct melodic the relief was born out of a seemingly spontaneous interlacing of textured harmonic lines from the self-movement of orchestral timbres. Undoubtedly the strong side of Stravinsky's musical theatrical talent. The audience of the performance, having seen the “Grandopera” after seeing the “Firebird” “wonderful amazing balance between movements, sounds and forms”, it is amazing to what extent the young composer immediately managed to feel and perceive the spirits of the character of Diaghilev's ideas. Russian classics masterfully embodying the mantological principle of Diaghilev into the frame of a master piece Rimsky KorsakovTchaikovsky Borodin Mussorgsky Lyadov Glazunov was reflected in the sound structure of ballet dancers of the original dissimilarity of creative individualities Stravinsky managed to capture the general properties of a single Russian style to convey the overall feeling of an entire musical era

“Russian Seasons” radically updated the genre of ballet music, opening up for composers the possibility of creating new forms of programmatic symphonism. Symphonic suite, symphonic painting, symphonic poem—here are the genre varieties of ballet scores. also inspired by Diaghilev, a regular participant of the “Seasons” as a conductor, a composer, he wrote the ballets “Narcissus” and “Red Mask” for Diaghilev.

By 1914 an ode to Diaghilev's strategic plan for the conquest of Europe was completed. The victory was won not by the “quartermaster”, but by the “generalissimo”, as A. Benois jokingly called his friend.

Such was the result of the musical conquests of the “Russian Seasons” of 1908-1914, at the origins of which were Diaghilev's brilliant intuition and his rare gift as an inspirer.

Conclusion

For Sergei Diaghilev, the fascination with the history of Russian art, although it did not become a matter of all his life, was very important for him during the first decade of the twentieth century, Diaghilev's merits in the field of the history of Russian art are truly enormous. "Dyagilev" exhibition begins a new era of the study of Russian and European art of the XVIII and the first half of the XIX century

For the first time, they were collected together with exhibits of pictorial portraits and sculptural busts that made up a whole gallery of prominent people of Russia for more than a century and a half. If the organizers of the exhibition year limited it to tone of the Diaghilev exhibition were presented and contemporary artists during the time of the action, the exhibition was visited by Human

The merit of Diaghilev is that he was the first to take abroad an exhibition of Russian icons, painting of Russia in the 18th century, music of Mussorgsky Rimsky Korsakov

The great Russian impresario Sergei Diaghilev went down in history not only as the person who for the first time introduced Russian art to enlightened Europe organized the “Russian Seasons in Paris” that thundered all over the world, and not only as a “ballet magician” of decades who nurtured the Russian ballet troupe that had traveled all over the world lvpulse of time anticipating and realizing that in a moment will become a new word in art

Bibliography

1. Rapatskaya LA Art of the "Silver Age" - Education "Vlados" - with

2. FedorovskyVSergey Diaghilev or Backstage history of Russian ballet−M–S–

3. Nestiev, IV Diaghilev and musical theater of the 20th century − MS–

4. Pozharskaya MN Russian seasons in Paris − Ms

5. SD Diaghileviral artISZilbersteinVASamkov-M-T

Rapatskaya L.A. / Art of the Silver Age. - M .: Education: "Vlados", 1996.-16p.

Pozharskaya M.N. / Russian Seasons in Paris. - M., 1998. - 35s.

Nestiev I.V. / Diaghilev and musical theater of the twentieth century. - M., 1994. - P. 5 - 15.

S. Diaghilev and Russian art / I.S. Zilberstein, V.A. Samkov. - M., 1982. - T. 1-2

Rapatskaya L.A. / Art of the Silver Age. - M .: Education: "Vlados", 1996. - 32p.

Fedorovsky V. / Sergei Diaghilev or behind the scenes history of Russian ballet. - M., 2003. - S. 3 - 18.

S. Diaghilev and Russian art / I.S. Zilberstein, V.A. Samkov. - M., 1982. - T. 1-2

St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts
(SPb GUKI)

Faculty of Cultural Studies. Group 137-d

Subject "History of SKD"

ABSTRACT
on the topic of:

S. P. Diaghilev and his "Russian Seasons"

2005

Introduction

From 1907 to 1922, S. P. Diaghilev organized 70 performances from Russian classics to contemporary authors. At least 50 performances were musical novelties. He was "eternally followed by eight carriages of scenery and three thousand costumes." "Russian Ballet" toured Europe, the USA, always meeting with a storm of applause.

The most famous performances that delighted the audience in Europe and America for almost two decades were: "Pavilion of Armida" (N. Cherepanin, A. Benois, M. Fokin); The Firebird (I. Stravinsky, A. Golovin, L. Bakst, M. Fokin); "Narcissus and Echo" (N. Cherepanin, L. Bakst, V. Nijinsky); "The Rite of Spring" (I. Stravinsky, N. Roerich, V. Nijinsky); "Petrushka" (I. Stravinsky, A. Benois, M. Fokin); "Midas" (M. Steinberg, L. Bakst, M. Dobuzhinsky); "Jester" (S. Prokofiev, M. Lermontov, T. Slavinsky) and others.

The connection of S. P. Diaghilev with the period of the Silver Age

The turn of the XIX-XX is marked as the "silver age". To replace the mood of stability common in the 80s. some kind of psychological tension comes, the expectation of a “great upheaval” (L. N. Tolstoy).

The understanding of the "boundary" of time was widespread in public consciousness- both among politicians and among the artistic intelligentsia.

“The time was amazing,” recalled Z. N. Gippius. - Something in Russia was breaking down, something was left behind, something ... was striving forward ... where to? Nobody knew this, but even then, at the turn of the century, it was felt in the air. Oh, not everyone. But very many, very many.”

The scope of a realistic vision of life is expanding, there is a search for ways of self-expression of the individual in literature and art. characteristic features arts become a synthesis, a mediated reflection of life in contrast to critical realism XIX century, with its inherent concrete reflection of reality.

A feature of that time was the development of various associations of cultural figures (ie circles: there were about 40 of them in the capitals, about 30 in the provinces). The idea of the synthesis of arts, widespread in the artistic consciousness, contributed to this, uniting representatives of different areas of art in search of new forms of artistic activity.

The "extremeness" of character, inner make-up and, as a result, the fate of Diaghilev is in many ways akin to the era in which he lived and worked. Twenty-two years of energetic and rich activity in the field of Russian culture have left a deep furrow.

In 1905, at the opening of the “historical and artistic exhibition of Russian portraits” in the Taurida Palace in St. Petersburg, Diaghilev prophetically declared: “We are witnesses of the greatest historical moment of results and ends in the name of a new unknown culture which arises by us, but also sweeps us away. And therefore, without fear and disbelief, I raise a glass to the ruined walls of beautiful palaces! Just as for the new testaments of a new aesthetics ”(S.P. Diaghilev. At the hour of the results ... // Scales, 1905, No. 4. P. 46–47).

In the arranged exhibition, he combined old portraits of the 19th century and new ones. Comparing the "old" portraits with the "new" ones, the author of an article in the magazine "Spectator" wrote: "...what a difference in the attitude of old and new masters to their models. The old people believed in the uniform and were sincerely inspired by it... Every portrait is a masterpiece and reverence. All these dignitaries, ministers, figures, their wives and daughters - all this breathes the power of the landownership and uniforms. Not the new artists of the time closest to us. The uniform is the same .... But there is no inspiring reverence for the uniform. There is a face in uniform, ordinary, weak, human face"(Sternin G.Yu. The artistic life of Russia in the 1890–1910s. M., 1988. P. 198). This is no longer a "caesar" and not a "hero". A sad human face is a harbinger of unpredictable drastic changes.

About S. P. Diaghilev. His characterization by contemporaries

S. P. Diaghilev can be called an administrator, entrepreneur, organizer of exhibitions and all kinds of art actions - all these definitions suit him, but the main thing in him is his service to Russian culture. S. P. Diaghilev brought together everything that without him could take place on its own or already existed on its own - creativity different artists, artists, musicians, Russia and the West, past and present, and only thanks to him all this was linked and conformed to each other, acquiring a new value in unity.

“Diaghilev combined in himself diverse tastes, very often contradictory, asserting artistic perception, eclecticism.<…>Reverent for the masters of the “great century” and the Rococo century, he was also delighted with Russian wild animals, like Malyutin, E. Polyakova, Yakunchikov ..., he was touched by Levitan’s landscapes and Repin’s skill, and when he had seen enough of the Parisian “constructive” innovations, then closest to Picasso, Derain, Léger<…>Few have been given such an ability to feel beauty ... ”- from the memoirs of contemporaries.

He was richly gifted musically, sensitive to beauty in all its manifestations, well versed in music, vocals, painting, from childhood he showed himself to be a great lover of the theater, opera, ballet; later became a skillful and enterprising organizer, a tireless worker who knew how to make people realize their ideas. Of course, he "used" them, taking from his comrades-in-arms what he needed them, but at the same time he made talents blossom, enchanted and attracted their hearts. It is also true that, with ruthlessness equal to charm, he knew how to exploit people and part with them.

Diaghilev's broad sense of beauty attracted extraordinary people, individuals and individualists to him. And he knew how to communicate with them. Diaghilev had the ability to make the object or person on which he drew his attention especially shine. He knew how to show things from their the best side. He knew how to bring out the best qualities of people and things.

He was a born organizer, a leader with dictatorial tendencies and knew his own worth. He did not tolerate anyone who could compete with him, and nothing that could stand in his way. Possessing a complex and contradictory nature, he knew how to maneuver among the intrigues, envy, slander and gossip that abound in the artistic environment.

“His intuition, his sensitivity and his phenomenal memory allowed him to memorize innumerable masterpieces (paintings) and never forget them again.
He had an exceptional visual memory and an iconographic flair that surprised us all,” recalled Igor Grabar, his classmate at the university. “Swift, categorical in his judgments, he, of course, was mistaken, but he was mistaken much less often than others, and by no means more irreparably.”

“He was a genius, the greatest organizer, seeker and discoverer of talents, endowed with the soul of an artist and the manners of a noble nobleman, the only comprehensively developed person whom I could compare with Leonardo da Vinci" - such an assessment was awarded to S. P. Diaghilev from V. F Nijinsky (T. 1. - p. 449).

His activities and "Russian Seasons"

S.P. Diaghilev received a good musical education. Even in the student circle of A. N. Benois, he gained fame as an admirer and connoisseur of music. D. V. Filosov recalled: “His interests were then mainly musical. Tchaikovsky and Borodin were his favorites. For days on end he sat at the piano, singing Igor's arias. He sang without any particular schooling, but with a natural skill.” His musical mentors were called either A. K. Ledov, or N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. In any case, he was well trained not to be an "outsider" in the composing environment; he felt special musical composition, he himself had a composer's gift, as evidenced by the surviving manuscripts of his youthful compositions, he possessed musical and theoretical knowledge.

In 1896 he graduated from the law faculty of St. Petersburg University (for some time he studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov). He was engaged in painting, theater, the history of artistic styles. In 1897 he arranged his first exhibition at the St. Petersburg Academy, dedicated to the works of English and German watercolors. In the autumn of the same year, he arranged an exhibition of Scandinavian artists. Having acquired a stable reputation as a connoisseur of the arts and a diploma in law, he received the position of assistant director of the Imperial Theaters.

In 1898 was one of the founders of the association "World of Art", in 1899-1904 - together with A. Benois was the editor of the magazine of the same name. His activities to promote Russian art - painting, classical music, operas - S.P. Diaghilev began in 1906. In 1906-1907. organized exhibitions of Russian artists in Paris, Berlin, Monte Carlo, Venice, among which were Benois, Dobuzhinsky, Larionov, Roerich, Vrubel and others.

Exhibitions of Russian fine arts were a revelation for the West, which did not suspect the existence of such a high artistic culture.

Supported by circles of the Russian artistic intelligentsia (World of Art, music. Belyaevsky circle, etc.) in 1907, Diaghilev organized the annual performances of Russian opera and ballet dancers "Russian Seasons", which began in Paris with historical concerts.

In that year, he organized 5 symphony concerts in Paris ("Historical Russian Concerts"), introducing Western Europe to the musical treasures of Russia, presenting Russian music from Glinka to Scriabin: S. V. Rachmaninov, A. K. Glazunov, F. I. Chaliapin, Rimsky-Korsakov, and others.

Russian musical and theatrical art began its victorious march across Europe on May 6, 1908; Rimsky-Korsakov, Judith by A. Serov, Prince Igor by A. Borodin. The part of B. Godunov was performed by F. I. Chaliapin. The audience was captivated by the unique timbre of Chaliapin's voice, his game, full of tragedy and restrained strength.

The troupe selected by Diaghilev for foreign tours included A. Pavlova, V Nizhinsky, M. Mordkin, T. Karsavina, later O. Spesivtseva, S. Lifar, J. Balanchine, M. Fokin. Choreographer and artistic director M. Fokin was appointed. The performances were designed by artists: A. Benois, L. Bakst, A. Golovin, N. Roerich, and in later years M. V. Dobudzhinsky, M.F. Larionov, P. Picasso, A. Derain, M. Utrillo, J. Braque.

For the first time, the "World of Art" ballet was presented not in Paris, but in St. Petersburg, at the Mariinsky Theater. These were ballets to the music of N. Tcherepnin "Animated Tapestry" and "Pavilion of Armida" (artist A. N. Benois, choreographer M. M. Fokin). But there is no prophet in his own country. The new has collided with the age-old omnipotent Russian bureaucracy. Illiterate hostile editions flashed in the press. In an atmosphere of frank persecution, artists, artists, could not work. And then the happy idea of “ballet export” was born. The ballet was taken abroad for the first time in 1909. May 19, 1909 in Paris, at the Chatelet Theater, performances by M. Fokin were shown: " Polovtsian dances"from the op. A. Borodin, "Pavilion of Armida" to the music. Tcherepnin, "La Sylphides" to the music. F. Chopin, suite - divertissement "Celebration" to the music. M. I. Glinka, P. I. Tchaikovsky, A. Glazunov, M.P. Mussorgsky.

"Revelation", "revolution", and the beginning new era in the ballet, the Parisian chroniclers and critics called the Russian "surprise".

Diaghilev, as an entrepreneur, counted on the preparedness of the Parisians for the perception of the new art, but not only. He foresaw an interest in the primordially Russian national essence of those works that he was going to "open" to Paris. He said: “The entire post-Petrine Russian culture is cosmopolitan in appearance, and one must be a subtle and sensitive judge in order to note in it the precious elements of originality; you have to be a foreigner to understand Russian in Russian; they feel much deeper where “we” begin, that is, they see what is most dear to them, and to which we are positively blind” (, T. 2. - p. 325).

For each performance, M. Fokin selected special means of expression. The costumes and scenery corresponded to the style of the era during which the action took place. Classical dance took on a certain color depending on the unfolding events. Fokin sought to ensure that the pantomime was dancing, and the dance was mimic expressive. The dance in his productions carried a specific semantic load. Fokine did a lot to update the Russian ballet, but he never abandoned classical dance, believing that only on its basis can a real artist-choreographer, artist-dancer-choreographer, artist-dancer be brought up.

T. P. Karsavina (1885-1978) was a consistent exponent of Fokine's ideas. In her performance, the "World of Art" especially appreciated the amazing ability to convey the beauty of the inner essence of the images of the past, whether it be the mournful nymph Echo ("Narcissus and Echo"), or Armida, descended from the tapestry ("Pavilion of Armida"). The theme of the alluring but elusive beautiful ideal was embodied by the ballerina in The Firebird, subordinating the development of this exotic image to the purely decorative, "painterly" ideas of the new synthetic ballet.

Fokine's ballets corresponded perfectly to the ideas and motives of the Silver Age culture. Most importantly, drawing something new from kindred muses, Fokine found equally new choreographic techniques that revealed the dance, advocating for its “naturalness”.

Since 1910, the Russian Seasons have been held without the participation of the opera.

Best performances in 1910 were "Scheherazade" on the muses N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov and the ballet-tale "The Firebird" to the music. I.F. Stravinsky.

In 1911 Diaghilev decided to create a permanent troupe, which was finally formed by 1913 and received the name "Russian Ballet" of Diaghilev, existed until 1929.

The 1911 season began with performances in Monte Carlo (continued in Paris, Rome, London). Fokine's ballets were staged: "Vision of the Rose" to the music. Weber, "Narcissus" on the music. Tcherepnin, "The Underwater Kingdom" to the muses from the opera "Sadko" by N. A. Rimsky - Korsakov, "Swan Lake" (abridged version with the participation of M. Kshesinskaya and V. Nijinsky).

Particular success was caused by the ballet "Petrushka" at the music. I. Stravinsky, and designed the ballet by A. Benois. A huge share of the success of this production belongs to the performer of the main part, the part of Petrushka, the brilliant Russian dancer Vatslav Nijinsky. This ballet became the pinnacle of Fokine's choreographer's work in the Diaghilev enterprise, it marked the beginning of the world recognition of I.F. Stravinsky, the role of Petrushka became one of best roles V. Nijinsky. His perfected technique, phenomenal jumps and flights entered the history of choreography. However, this brilliant artist was attracted not only by his technique, but above all by his amazing ability to convey inner world their heroes. Nijinsky-Petrushka in the memoirs of contemporaries appears either rushing about in impotent anger, or a helpless doll, frozen on her fingertips with stiff hands pressed to her chest in rough mittens ...

Diaghilev's artistic policy changed, his entreprise no longer had the goal of promoting Russian art abroad, but became an enterprise that was largely oriented towards the interests of the public, commercial goals.

With the outbreak of World War I, the performances of the Russian Ballet were temporarily interrupted.

Season from 1915-16. The troupe has toured Spain, Switzerland and the United States.

The troupe then staged the ballets The Rite of Spring, The Wedding, Apollo Musagete, Steel Lope, The Prodigal Son, Daphnis and Chloe, The Cat, and others.

After the death of S.P. Diaghilev's troupe broke up. In 1932 on the basis of the ballet troupes of the Monte-Carlo Opera and the Russian Opera in Paris, created after the death of S.P. Diaghilev, organized by de Basil "Valle rus de Monte Carlo".

Russian ballets have become an integral part of cultural life Europe 1900 - 1920, had a significant impact on all areas of art; perhaps never before has Russian art had such a large-scale and profound influence on European culture as during the years of the “Russian seasons”.

The works of Russian composers, the talent and skill of Russian performers, the scenery and costumes created by Russian artists - all this aroused the admiration of the foreign public, the musical and artistic community. In connection with the enormous success of the Russian season in Paris in 1909, A. Benois pointed out that the triumph in Paris was the whole of Russian culture, the whole feature of Russian art, its conviction, freshness and immediacy.

Afterword

The activities of the troupe "Russian Ballet" S.P. Diaghilev was an era in the history of the ballet theater, which unfolded against the backdrop of a general decline in choreographic art.

"Russian Ballet", in fact, remained almost the only bearer of a high performing culture and the custodian of the legacy of the past.

For two decades, being in the spotlight artistic life West, "Russian Ballet" served as an incentive for the revival of this art form.

The reformatory activity of the choreographers and artists of the Diaghilev troupe influenced the further development of world ballet. J. Balanchine in 1933 moved to America and became a classic of American ballet, Serge Lifar headed ballet troupe the Paris Opera.

Turning millions and having the support of such creditors as Emperor Nicholas 1, entrepreneurs Eliseevs, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, and others, the owner of the famous "Pushkin collection", he lived on credit and "died alone, in a hotel room, poor, as he always was ".

He is buried in the St. Michel cemetery, next to Stravinsky's grave, at the expense of French philanthropists.

Literature

S. Diaghilev and Russian art / I. S. Zilberstein, V. A. Samkov. - M., 1982. - T. 1-2;
Nestiev I. V. / Diaghilev and the musical theater of the XX century. − M., 1994;
Pozharskaya M. N. / Russian seasons in Paris. − M., 1988;
Rapatskaya L. A. / Art of the “Silver Age”. - M.: Enlightenment: “Vlados”, 1996;
Fedorovsky V. / Sergei Diaghilev or Backstage History of Russian Ballet. − M.: Zksmo, 2003.

Diaghilev briefly. Diaghilev Sergey Pavlovich

See also interpretations, synonyms, word meanings and what is SERGEY PAVLOVICH DIAGILEV in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:

2. Opera performances by S.P. Diaghilev

3. Ballet music