Serge de Diaghileff's Ballet Russe (1916)

Illustrations by Léon Bakst

To the left, we show a copy of Serge de Diaghileff's Ballet Russe, as illustrated with designs from Léon Bakst and published by the Metropolitan Ballet Company Inc. (New York) in 1916.   This example retains the original decoratively embossed and gold-stamped card cover.               On the right, we show the decorated Title Page.

Serge de Diaghileff's Ballet Russe (1916) is a sumptuous souvenir published by the Metropolitan Ballet Company

for the 1916 tour of the Russian company. It is illustrated with many images by Bakst, including the glorious

embossed cover design and the delicate monotone on the title page, 14 costumes from various productions, a

set design from Schéhérazade, and a charcoal illustration depicting Diaghileff himself. In addition, there are

numerous photographs of performers in costume and some interesting examples of vintage advertisements.

The Foreword - providing a most flattering introduction to the tour - follows.

Artistic unity and harmonious cooperation are the keynotes of the Russian Ballet.

It is important to remember that the supreme technical excellence of individual

dancers is the least remarkable element contributing to the sensational success of

M Diaghileff's organization. The art of his famous maître de ballet would lose

half its significant in a commonplace setting, or accompanied by banal music. On

the other hand, to appreciate properly the genius of a Stravinsky, we must be

assisted by the interpretations of the mimes and dancers. The maquettes of the

great decorators, Bakst, Roerich, Anisfeld and the rest, glow like Persian

miniatures on walls, and art connoisseurs are justified in prizing them highly.

But how much more thrilling their work becomes when magnified on an ample

stage! A perfect performance is essential to intensify the values and originality

of these various elements, and it would seem that the Diaghileff Company

alone can give such performances. America is fortunate in being offered a

dazzling repertoire in which every phase of their amazing versatility will be

given full scope.

Serge de Diaghileff's Ballet Russe (1916) also includes introductions to a number of ballets including: 'Le Pavillon

D'Armide'; 'L'Oiseau De Feu'; 'Les Sylphides and Papillons'; 'Le Spectre de la Rose'; 'Narcisse'; 'Schéhérazade';

'Sadko'; 'Thamar'; 'Le Carnaval of Schumann'; 'Prince Igor'; 'Petrouchka'; 'Snégourotchka'; 'Daphne et Chloe';

'L'Après-Midi d'un Faune'; 'Le Dieu Bleu'; and 'Cléopâtre'.

The tour itinerary was extensive, as outlined below.

The itinerary of Serge de Diaghileff's Ballet Russe, which makes its first American

tour this season after six years of consistent success in Europe, starts with two

weeks' engagement at the Century Theatre in New York. The tournée comprises

also performances at the following cities: Boston, Albany, Chicago, Detroit,

Milwaukee, St Paul, Minneapolis, Kansas City, St Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati,

Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia and Atlantic City. The Diaghileff

troupe spends it last four weeks in America at the Metropolitan Opera House,

New York, where it replaces opera during the month of April.

Our Greeting Cards and Reproduction Prints

We have prepared sets of 14 Greeting Cards displaying each of the Bakst's costume illustrations from Serge de Diaghileff's Ballet Russe (1916) and on the left, we show an example of how these Greeting Cards appear. Ordering one of those sets is as easy as selecting the "Add to Cart" feature below and following the prompts provided with our Shopping Cart secured through PayPal. Multiple purchases will be consolidated by that feature and shipping and handling costs to any destination in the world are accommodated by our flat-rate fee of US$20 for every US$200 worth of purchases.     Code: LB SDBR CS(14) Price: US$70.00

When presented on Greeting Cards, these images are prepared as tipped-in plates - in homage to the hand-crafted

approach typical of prestige illustrated publications produced in the early decades of the 20th Century.

Hand-finishing is used to replicate the visual appearance of a tipped-in plate and the images are presented on

Ivory card stock (in the case of colour illustrations) or White card stock (in the case of monotone illustrations)

with an accompanying envelope. We have left the cards blank so that you may write your own personal

message.

Should you wish to order a Reproduction Print or an individual Greeting Card from this suite of images, we

welcome your contact through ThePeople@SpiritoftheAges.com.

In the meantime, enjoy perusing the images from Serge de Diaghileff's Ballet Russe (1916).

The cover and title pages designs

Le Dieu Bleu The Blue God (Cover)	Unnamed monotone image

The costume illustrations

Schéhérazade The Blue Sultana	Schéhérazade Odalisque	Schéhérazade Adolescent	Schéhérazade Almée
Schéhérazade Eunuch	Le Dieu Bleu Pelerin	Narcisse Ephebe	Narcisse Bacchante
Peri The Peri	L'Après-Midi d'un Faune Faun	L'Après-Midi d'un Faune Nymph	Daphnis et Chloe Shepherd
Papillons Valse Noble	Papillons Lady

The set design

Schéhérazade Décors

Bakst's charcoal of Diaghileff

Serge de Diaghileff et sa Vielle Bonne

The featured performers

L'Oiseau de Feu Xenia Maklezova	Prince Igor Adolf Bolm	L'Oiseau de Feu Lubov Tchernichova and Léonide Massin	Cléopâtre Flore Revalles
Léonide Massin	Schérézade Flore Revalles and Adolf Bolm	Lubov Tchernichova	Enrico Cecchetti
Lydia Sokolova and Nicholas Kremneff

The vintage advertising

Hardman Pianos	The Columbia Grafonola	The American Tobacco Company