Preview
  • Diaghilev's Empire

  • How the Ballets Russes Enthralled the World
  • By: Rupert Christiansen
  • Narrated by: Rich Miller
  • Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (4 ratings)

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Diaghilev's Empire

By: Rupert Christiansen
Narrated by: Rich Miller
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Publisher's summary

Serge Diaghilev, the Russian impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, is often said to have invented modern ballet. An art critic and connoisseur, Diaghilev had no training in dance or choreography, but he had a dream of bringing Russian art, music, design, and expression to the West and a mission to drive a cultural and artistic revolution.

Bringing together such legendary talents as Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, this complex and visionary genius created a new form of ballet defined by artistic integrity, creative freedom, and an all-encompassing experience of art, movement, and music. The Ballets Russes's explosive color combinations, sensual and androgynous choreography, and experimental sound was called "barbaric" by the Parisian press, but its radical style usurped the entrenched mores of traditional ballet.

Diaghilev's Empire, the publication of which marks the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Diaghilev's birth, is an impeccably researched and daring reassessment of the phenomenon of the Ballets Russes and the Russian Revolution in twentieth-century art and culture. Rupert Christiansen, the dance critic for the Spectator, explores the fiery conflicts, outsize personalities, and extraordinary artistic innovations that make up this story of triumph and disaster.

©2022 Rupert Christiansen (P)2023 Tantor
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Great

Thanks for writing this book. I truly enjoyed it as a fan of Stravinsky. Great job!

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A three-star book about a five-star subject

I have been feverishly reading everything I can get my hands on concerning Diaghilev, Nijinsky, and the Ballets Russes. Richard Buckles' books made for informative, intriguing, engrossing reading. But my personal favorite is Tamara Karsavina's reminiscences ("Theatre Street"). So, I applaud Mr. Christiansen for writing, "If there is a beacon of honest goodness in (his) book, then it shines from her." And, again, I applaud Mr. Christiansen for including the humorous story about the puritanical police officer who wanted to have a word or two with Mr. "Dog Leaf." Very funny. In large part, however, Mr. Christiansen's book struck me as cold, clinical, condescending, and self-absorbed. A bit of a kill-joy when it comes to Nijinsky. Be that as it may, the narrator, Rich Miller, was superb!

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