Deutschland 2019

Am 7. Januar 7 fand die offizielle Zeremonie zur Eröffnung des internationalen Kulturprojekts „Russische Saisons“ in der Berliner Philharmonie statt. Von russischer Seite eröffnete das Projekt Olga Golodez, Vizeministerpräsidentin der Russischen Föderation Solisten der Operntruppe, des Chors und Sinfonieorchesters des Mariinski-Theaters unter der Leitung von Maestro Valery Gergiev führten die Oper "Jolanthe" von Pjotr Tschaikowski auf. Im Foyer der Berliner Philharmonie wurde die Ausstellung "Tschaikowski". Operngenie" über die Geschichte der Entstehung der Oper "Jolanthe" und anderer Werke des großen russischen Komponisten eröffnet. Die Besucher sahen einmalige Fotoportraits von Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowski, Handschriften, Einbände seiner ersten zu Lebzeiten herausgegebenen Werke.

THE JOURNEY OF A BRILLIANT IMPRESARIO

Sergei Diaghilev was born March 31, 1872, in the village of Selishchi, Novgorod Province, in the family of Pavel Diaghilev, a military officer, and hereditary nobleman. He initially grew up in St. Petersburg, then in Perm, where Diaghilev lived until he graduated from grammar school. The Diaghilevs arranged literary and musical evenings, and it was here that Sergei Diaghilev began to develop a real taste for the arts.

In 1890, he returned to St. Petersburg, where he simultaneously studied at the law faculty and the conservatory directed by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Yet Diaghilev was attracted neither by the law nor by a career as a musician. Instead, he took great interest in artistic life and proved to be a skillful organizer. He had arranged several exhibitions of contemporary artists in St. Petersburg. Their main goal was to show the new Russian art to the metropolitan audience. As a result, Diaghilev was often subjected to mockery by feuilletonists and angry reprimands by conservative critics.

His influence snowballed despite the criticism. The first issue of Mir Iskusstva (World of Art), a magazine under the editorship of Sergei Diaghilev and the artist Alexander Benois, was published in 1898 with the support of patrons Maria Tenisheva and Savva Mamontov. Famous writers and publicists such as Dmitry Filosofov, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Vasily Rozanov, Lev Shestov, and Zinaida Gippius were published in the literary and critical section of the periodical, while the creative association included Isaac Levitan, Lev Bakst, Valentin Serov, Ilya Repin, and other distinguished artists. Mir Iskusstva became the printed stronghold of the Symbolists and, through its articles on contemporary Russian cultural life and Western life, became the most important educational project in contemporary art.

THE SUCCESS OF THE FIRST “SAISON RUSSE”

The popularization of Russian art in the West was one of the main objectives for Sergei Diaghilev. Equally important was the incorporation of Russian art into the pan-European artistic movement. European perception of Russia’s cultural heritage was very vague at that time. Educated Europeans knew the names of Russian writers - Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Ivan Turgenev. Some had heard the music of Mikhail Glinka. Some had seen the paintings of Vasily Vereshchagin. Diaghilev set out to tear down this wall of ignorance.

He organized the “Two Centuries of the Russian art and Sculpture” exhibition in Paris in 1906, which opened on October 16 at the Grand Palais Exhibition Center, where Diaghilev occupied ten halls. The works of Russian art of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century and the latest movements, primarily the Symbolists and the Modernists, were selected for the exhibition.

Karl Bryullov, Dmitry Levitsky, and Alexei Venetsianov were among the featured old masters and Nikolai Roerich, Konstantin Korovin, Viktor Borisov-Musatov, Igor Grabar, Mikhail Vrubel, Isaak Levitan, Lev Bakst, Alexander Benois, Sergei Sudeikin, and Mikhail Larionov represented the new school.

Diaghilev’s initial success in Europe only encouraged him to turn his attention to music.. In 1907 he arranged a series of five “Concerts historiques Russes” which took place on the stage of the Paris Grand Opera. Diaghilev carefully selected the repertoire: masterpieces by Mikhail Glinka, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky, Alexander Borodin, and Alexander Scriabin were performed on stage. Convinced that Russian music was of great interest to Europeans, Diaghilev chose Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov for the third “Saison Russe” in 1908. The success of the Paris version of Boris Godunov only affirmed Diaghilev’s prestige as a director. Prince Igor’s part in “Concerts historiques Russes” made Fyodor Chaliapin famous.

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF RUSSIAN ART

The impresario had the idea of bringing the ballet abroad in 1907. By the end of 1908, contracts had been signed with leading ballet dancers from St. Petersburg and Moscow: Anna Pavlova, Tamara Karsavina, Mikhail Fokin, Waclav Nijinsky, Ida Rubinstein, Vera Karalli, and others. In addition to ballet, the fourth “Saison Russe” program included opera performances. Diaghilev invited Fyodor Chaliapin, Lidiya Lipkovskaya, Elizaveta Petrenko, and Dmitry Smirnov.

The ballets Le Pavillon d’Armide, Cleopatra, La Sylphide and “Polovtsian Dances” from the opera Prince Igor by Alexander Borodin were announced in the new repertoire of the “Ballet Russe”. It premiered on May 19, 1909. While most audiences and critics did not appreciate the innovative choreography of the ballets, everyone was delighted with the sets and costumes by Leo Bakst, Alexandre Benois, and Nikolai Roerich, as well as the dancers especially Anna Pavlova and Tamara Karsavina.

Since then, Diaghilev has focused entirely on the ballet company and significantly revamped the repertoire, including Scheherazade to music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and The Firebird ballet based on Russian folk tales in the program of the Ballets Russes. He asked Anatoly Lyadov to compose the music for the latter, but he failed, and the commission was passed to the young composer Igor Stravinsky. This was the beginning of his long and fruitful collaboration with Diaghilev.

ПThanks to the past success of the ballets, the impresario was able to bring the performances of the new season to the Grand Opera; the Fifth Ballets Russes premiered in May 1910. In 1911, Sergei Diaghilev secured Monte Carlo as the permanent venue for his Ballets Russes (“Russian Seasons”). The new Ballets Russes opened at the Teatro Monte Carlo in April of that year with the premiere of Mikhail Fokine’s ballet Le Spectre de la rose. Audiences were amazed by the jumps of Waclaw Nijinsky. Later, Diaghilev presented Petrushka to music by Stravinsky in Paris, which became the main hit of the season.

The impresario has begun to involve Western contemporary composers and artists more and more. For example, in the Ballets Russes 1917, he presented the ballet Parade to music by Érik Satie; the libretto was written by the playwright Jean Cocteau, and Pablo Picasso designed the sets. Later, the artists Joan Miro and Max Ernst made the Romeo and Juliet ballet sets.

The years 1918-1919 were notable for a successful tour to London - the company spent an entire year there. In the early 1920s, Diaghilev added new dancers – Serge Lifar and George Balanchine, invited by Bronislava Nijinska. After Diaghilev’s death, they became founders of national ballet schools: Balanchine for the American one and Lifar for the French one.

Lev Bakst

Lev Bakst is known as a great theater artist, and rightfully so. His ballet sets were called “a feast for the eyes” and “a symphony of color.” The costumes emphasized the plastique and grace of the actors through color, texture, and ornamentation. Sheherazade was one of the best decorative pieces by Leo Bakst. After seeing the sets, Alexandre Benois said that Bakst was the reason the Russian Seasons received worldwide recognition.

Igor Stravinsky

Igor Stravinsky was the main musical breakthrough of the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev invited the young composer to the enterprise after Anatoly Lyadov, a master of fairytale music, failed to complete his commission on time. After the resounding premiere of The Firebird, Igor Stravinsky composed music for 13 more ballets of the Ballets Russes.

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov taught Diaghilev music at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and, almost 20 years later, became one of the key composers of Diaghilev’s enterprise. The ballet Scheherazade to his music delighted Parisian audiences.

Mikhail Fokin

For the first three years of the Saisons Russes, Mikhail Fokin was the only choreographer of the entreprise. He was no rookie when he began working with Diaghilev: Fokine’s portfolio included bright solo roles in the ballets The Sleeping Beauty, Le Corsaire and The Awakening of Flora, and several productions for the Mariinsky Theater. His ballets Giselle, “The Firebird, The Blue God, Scheherazade and Petrushka, have made history.

Wáclav Nijinsk

Wáclav Nijinsky had been a permanent resident of the Diaghilev’s enterprise since the first season. Nijinsky was one of the stars of the first Paris “Saison Russe”. He was famous for his “levitating” leap, and the audience loved his plastique and artistry. His artistic vision was a revolution in ballet: he rejected traditional techniques. Not all of his avant-garde ballets were received with enthusiasm by unprepared audiences, but gradually the public recognized the choreographer’s talent.

Anna Pavlova

The audience often compared ethereal Anna Pavlova to a feather. Valentin Serov depicted her as Sylphide on the 1909 poster, and this poster became more famous than the entire ballet season. At a charity gala hosted by the Mariinsky Theater in 1907, the ballerina performed a piece staged exclusively for her. This piece went down in history as “The Dying Swan,” and Pavlova soon became an internationally acclaimed ballerina.

Tamara Karsavina

Tamara Karsavina had already been a soloist at the Mariinsky Theatre before the Ballets Russes, but she only performed minor parts in her first touring season with Diaghilev. Karsavina became full-fledged prima only when Anna Pavlova left the company. Her high “sharp” leap was reminiscent of the flight of a bird - Benoit even called her a “fiery phoenix.”