Diaghilev Sergey Leonidovich. World of art. Sergei Diaghilev. Historical Russian concerts. Russian seasons. Diaghilev's Russian Ballet

Russian artistic and theatrical figure, entrepreneur, organizer of the Russian Seasons and the Diaghilev Russian Ballet troupe in Paris.

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

In 1890, the Diaghilevs moved to St. Petersburg. Sergei entered St. Petersburg University at the Faculty of Law. During his studies, he became friends with A. Benois and L. Bakst, with whom he organized a small art criticism circle. While studying at the university, he was a volunteer student in the singing class of the St. Petersburg Conservatory and took composition lessons.

In 1896, Diaghilev graduated from the university with a law degree.

After the crushing failure of his first production, Diaghilev abandoned his career as a composer, but decided to devote himself to art in a different capacity. In 1899, Diaghilev, together with A. Benois, founded the elite magazine “World of Art” and became its editor, and at the same time entered the service of an official in special assignments in the Directorate of Imperial Theaters (until 1901). A major exhibition of Russian art, which he organized in 1905 in St. Petersburg, further strengthened his reputation as an expert and connoisseur of the avant-garde.

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

In 1909 Grand Duke Vladimir instructed Diaghilev to found the Russian Ballet in Paris. Diaghilev collected creative team one of the greatest artists of the early 20th century, and in 1911-13. on the basis of “Russian Seasons” he created the Diaghilev Russian Ballet troupe, in which choreographers M. Fokin and L. Massine 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. Nijinsky, M. Kshesinskaya, T. Karsavina.

I. Stravinsky recalled Diaghilev: “He determined the theme, chose composers, artists, choreographers, and leading actors. He led the rehearsals. Each production reflected his personal complicity in its originality.”

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The Russian Ballet toured Europe, the United States and South America, achieving greater and greater success.

IN recent years life, despite the constant success of the productions, Diaghilev began to be burdened by ballet, but he felt responsible to the people with whom he worked and could not give up this business.

In 1929, Diaghilev suffered a stroke while on vacation in Venice, which gave way to a comatose state, and on August 19 of the same year, the great impresario passed away.

The Italian composer Casella testified in his memoirs: “He died alone, in a hotel room, poor, as he always was. He lived here on credit, unable to pay for a hotel.” After his death, there were no monetary savings left and he was buried at the expense of wealthy French patrons of art. At his grave, which is located next to the grave of I. Stravinsky on the island-cemetery of Saint-Michel, admirers still gather there, leaving red roses and worn-out ballet shoes there, paying tribute to the memory of this man, whose ideas played such a role important role in the creation of modern dance.

Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev is a Russian theater and artistic figure, writer, philanthropist, and the first ballet impresario of the 20th century.

Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev was born (19) March 31, 1872 in the Novgorod province, into a noble family of a career military man. In 1896 he graduated from the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, while simultaneously studying at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Rimsky-Korsakov. He was interested in painting, theater, and the history of artistic styles.

In 1898, Diaghilev, together with the artist A. Benois, created the “World of Art” association and became co-editor of the magazine of the same name, where he published newest works writers and artists, and he himself wrote articles and reviews about performances, exhibitions, and books. And soon he became the organizer of exhibitions of paintings by Russian artists abroad.

But the main work of Diaghilev’s life was the “Russian Seasons” of 1909-1929, where he assembled a creative team of the greatest artists of the early 20th century and made a huge contribution to the propaganda of Russian opera and ballet art abroad.

In the first season - “Historical Russian Concerts” - N. Rimsky-Korsakov, S. Rachmaninov, A. Glazunov, F. Chaliapin performed. Then there was the Russian Ballet in Paris, which charmed everyone high level performance skills and choreography, brilliant scenery and spectacular costumes.
In 1910, Sergei Diaghilev noted: “The revolution that we have made in ballet concerns, perhaps, least of all special area dances, and most of all decorations and costumes.” In fact, the Russian Seasons demonstrated a previously unprecedented synthesis of the three arts, where painting became the dominant one, and dance was considered as “a living manifestation of theatrical scenery.”

Diaghilev's performances radically changed the world of dance. It seems incredible that he managed to bring together such famous figures like I. Stravinsky, C. Debussy, M. Ravel, L. Bakst, P. Picasso, A. Benois, A. Matisse,
N. Goncharova, M. Fokin, L. Massine, A. Benois, V. Nijinsky, M. Kshesinskaya, Ida Rubinstein, K. Chanel, M. Larionov, J. Cocteau, A. Pavlova, F. Chaliapin, S. Lifar , J. Balanchine, V. Serov. T. Karsavina, N. Roerich...How incredibly difficult it was to organize a joint creative work artists belonging to such different fields of art.
The Russian Ballet toured Europe, the USA and South America, achieving increasing success.
Diaghilev knew how not only to recognize talent and assemble a magnificent troupe with an international cast, but also to train a choreographer. Thanks to the freshness of the choreographer's ideas, Diaghilev's ballet was in the center of attention of the ballet world.

Despite the enormous success of the Russian Ballet, Diaghilev experienced financial difficulties and resorted to the help of patrons. The ability to combine art with entrepreneurship was Diaghilev’s creative genius, his gift as an impresario. And flexibility financial policy became collateral successful work troupes for many years.

The performances of the Diaghilev Russian Ballet, which existed until 1929, were a triumph of Russian ballet art and contributed to the development and revival of ballet theaters in other countries. Over the years, the troupe has staged more than 20 ballets (domestic and foreign composers), which are still the decoration of the largest ballet stages in the world.

Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev died on August 19, 1929. The great impresario was buried next to Stravinsky’s grave in Venice on the island of Saint-Michel.

Valentin Gross. Tamara Karsavina and Vaclav Nezhinsky in the ballet "The Vision of a Rose"

Sergei Petrovich Diaghilev (1872-1929) is a very special Russian European, a European to all Europeans. He did for Russia’s entry into Europe, into the world cultural space, if not more, then as much as Peter the Great. With the understandable difference, of course, that the transformer placed Russia among the top European powers as a political force, and Diaghilev made domestic cultural power a global property.

Recently, in 2005, the full text of the book about Diaghilev by Sergei Lifar was finally published in Russia - last prime minister and choreographer (“choreographer,” as he says) of Diaghilev’s ballet, pet and cultural heir of the great master of culture. Sergei (“Serge”) Lifar – chief choreographer for thirty years Parisian Grand Opera, even before Nureyev, is the most important figure of ballet in the West. His book is the first thing you need to read about Diaghilev. Everyone knows who Diaghilev is and for a long time, even in the Soviet Union they did not try to disavow this emigrant involuntarily - but that knowledge was, in general, dryly informative; From the pages of Lifar's book a living Diaghilev emerges. At the same time, the author, Sergei Mikhailovich Lifar, is a highly cultured person who knows what he writes about first hand.

Leo Bakst "Portrait of Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev with a nanny" 1906

The main truth about Diaghilev:

Sergei Petrovich loved to say that “Petrine” blood flowed in his veins, he loved to do everything “Petrine’s way” and loved it when they said that he looked like Peter the Great. What they had in common was both in scope and in ardent love for Russia. But Peter the Great produced his government reforms in Russia, transplanting Western European culture on Russian soil, - Diaghilev wanted to make reforms in world art by transporting Russian art to Western Europe.

Diaghilev began as a promoter of new art - the art of modernism; he introduced modernism to Russia as a new word in world artistic practice. The magazine “World of Art”, organized by him, published in 1898-1904, was dedicated to this matter. Of course, he was not the first: there was the magazine “Northern Herald”, in which Akim Volynsky conducted similar artistic propaganda and in which Chekhov began to publish his already mature works, there was Moscow symbolism led by Valery Bryusov and the magazine “Scales” created by him. . But Diaghilev, starting to do something, did it on an epic scale - and brought it to the end. He was an organizer by nature, and a brilliant organizer at that; what is now, from the practice of cinema, called a producer. Diaghilev is a producer on a global scale with a scope and scope of cultural themes that has never been seen before, or even since. If not in literature, then in painting and music, Diaghilev is the organizer and leader of the Russian artistic modernism. He created an era.

And responding to those who argued that Diaghilev and other “World of Art” artists were eradicating the classical tradition for the sake of passing fashion, Diaghilev wrote:

Anyone who reproaches us for our blind passion for novelty and non-recognition of history does not have the slightest idea about us. I say and repeat that we were brought up on Giotto, Shakespeare and Bach, that these are the very first and greatest gods of our mythology.

The task of Diaghilev’s life was to introduce Russia and Russian national art into the world classical pantheon:

The only possible nationalism is an unconscious nationalism of blood. And this treasure is rare and valuable. The nature itself must be folk, must involuntarily, perhaps against the will, forever reflect the brilliance of indigenous nationality. You must bear the nationality within yourself, be, so to speak, its ancestral descendant, with the ancient, pure blood of the nation. Then it has a price, and an immeasurable price.

The phrase “Russian nationalism”, and even next to “blood”, is so discredited today that it does not hurt to give these words of Diaghilev a further explication - from the same text. He writes about Levitan, who “managed to teach us what we did not know how to appreciate and did not see Russian nature with Russian eyes... We only have to get out of the suffocating fumes of dusty cities for a minute and come at least a little closer to nature in order to remember with gratitude the great lessons of the artist Russian land."

Diaghilev’s second grandiose deed in chronological order is his collection of Russian treasures. historical painting, especially the 18th century. In general, one might say, he opened this period in Russian painting; he himself wrote a book about Levitsky. And this task was no longer narrowly artistic, but broadly cultural and historical: to collect images of Russia as they are recorded in works of art - and not only Russian. It was something equal to the work of Karamzin with his History of the Russian State, about which Pushkin said: Karamzin is Columbus, who discovered Russia. So Diaghilev restored and collected her alive plastic image during the most glorious period of its existence - from the eighteenth century onwards. These priceless treasures became covered with dust and disappeared into countless decaying noble estates. He managed to convince the owners to cede these treasures to the state, the nation - in order to at least preserve them during the turbulent time of agrarian unrest in 1905. And he succeeded - in February 1906 this grandiose exhibition opened, at which 6,000 paintings were presented in the huge halls of the Tauride - Potemkin - Palace. We can say that this was the last parade great Russia before she disappeared into the storms new era. Fate decreed ironically: it was in the Tauride Palace that the First State Duma- the then brainchild of revolutionary days. Diaghilev's paintings returned to their original places - and, basically, perished: both in the ongoing peasant riots of the first revolution, and finally - in the second revolution. What is now in museums is a small part compared to what Diaghilev collected then.

It was difficult not only to collect, but also to preserve Russian culture in Russia itself. And Diaghilev leaves for Europe - first, again with art exhibitions, and then with the organization of the now legendary Russian Seasons in Paris. Here it is - what is it - Russia! — the greatest triumphs awaited. Diaghilev opened Russian music to Europe: Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin and, especially, Mussorgsky became the generative seed of a new European music. Diaghilev showed Europe Chaliapin in Boris Godunov - and, finally, he showed her the Russian Ballet with the newly discovered geniuses: Nijinsky and the composer Stravinsky; Anna Pavlova rocketed to world fame also after these performances with Diaghilev.

The rest is history. Diaghilev's ballet troupe found itself cut off from Russia with the outbreak of the First World War. Subsequent Russian events were by no means favorable to the return. But Diaghilev followed with great interest the first steps of the new art already in Soviet Russia, when artistic freedom had not yet been suppressed by the ideological dogma of the regime. A monument to these sentiments is the ballet “Steel Jump” to the music of Prokofiev and the plot of Leskov’s “The Flea”. The Moscow artist Yakulov and Ilya Erenburg, who worked with others on the libretto, took part in this production. This project was not particularly successful, but Diaghilev, in a broader turn, nevertheless outlined new paths for ballet - towards its approach to the constructive style of the era. As Lifar writes, plastic began to prevail over dance.

What can I say, Diaghilev really returned ballet to the West, which had almost disappeared there. But he left Russia even more - the memory of himself as a person capable of not only learning from Europe, but also teaching it. In this sense, Diaghilev is as unique a Russian as Leo Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.

Boris Paramonov

Valentin Serov "Portrait of Sergei Diaghilev" 1904

Leo Bakst - "Costume design for the ballet "Carnival" to the music of Schumann

Tamara Karsavina as Columbine. Ballet "Carnival", 1910

Leo Bakst - "Costume design for the ballet "Carnival" to the music of Schumann

Leo Bakst "Costume design for N. N. Cherepin's ballet "Narcissus" 1911

Leo Bakst. Costume design by Ida Rubinstein for the ballet "Salome" - Dance of the Seven Veils

Costume design for Ida Rubinstein

Poster for the play "Russian Seasons" with a sketch by Leo Bakst with Vaslav Nezhinsky

Scenery sketch Alexandra Benois to Igor Stravinsky's opera The Nightingale 1914

Vaslav Nijinsky as Petrushka, "Petrushka" 1911

Set design sketch by Nicholas Roerich for the ballet "The Rite of Spring"

Mikhail and Vera Fokina in the ballet Scheherazade 1914

"Mikhail and Vera Fokina in the ballet "Carnival"

Tamara Karsavina in the ballet "Women's Follies" 1920

Set design by Lev Bakst for the ballet "The Blue God" 1912

Vaslav Nijinsky as the Blue God

Rehearsal of the ballet "Le Noces" to the music of Stravinsky on the roof of the Monte Carlo Opera, 1923

"Portrait of Anna Pavlova", 1924

Ballet "Firebird" 1910

"Sketch for the ballet "Cleopatra"

Set design based on a sketch by Leo Bakst

Pablo Picasso "Costume design for the ballet "Cocked Hat", 1919

Pablo Picasso "Sketch of the set for the ballet "The Tricorne", 1919

Rudolf Nureyev

Special thanks to dizzy_do for the detailed reproductions and photos in the post

Sergei Diaghilev's "Russian Seasons" in Europe are one of the most famous theatrical events of the early twentieth century. To understand the reasons for the revival of Russian ballet at the beginning of the twentieth century and to understand the value of Sergei Diaghilev’s educational work in the world of art, it is necessary to familiarize yourself with the biography of the great entrepreneur, understand his personal motives, even if it is not customary to talk about them out loud.

A work of art is important not in itself, but only as an expression of the personality of the creator.

Sergei Diaghilev

Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev born into a noble family on March 19 (March 31), 1872 in Selishchi, Novgorod province. His mother died shortly after his birth, and Sergey was raised by his stepmother, an educated, intelligent woman. Due to duty military service father's family Diaghilevs lives either in St. Petersburg or in Perm. After graduating from the Perm gymnasium in 1890, the 18-year-old Sergei Diaghilev goes to St. Petersburg and enters the Faculty of Law, while studying music from N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov. In the house of his aunt Anna Filosofova, he finds himself a friend and peer - cousin Dima Filosofov, who becomes his lover for the next 10 years.

Dmitry Filosofov, work by L. Bakst

Lawyer from Diaghilev it didn’t work out, a few years after graduating from the university, he, together with Filosofov and his school friend A.N. Benoit creates the first art magazine in Russia, “World of Art,” which united around him such prominent artists as Vrubel, Serov, Levitan and others. In parallel with this Sergei Diaghilev and the company organize high-profile exhibitions: in 1897 - an exhibition of German watercolorists, later - an exhibition of Scandinavian artists, an exhibition of Russian and Finnish artists at the Stieglitz Museum (1898) and others.

Since 1899 potential Diaghilev manifests itself in the bureaucratic sphere. Prince Sergei Volkonsky appoints the Director of the Imperial Theaters Sergei Diaghilev official for special assignments and entrusts him with the editing of the “Yearbook of the Imperial Theaters”. Sergei Diaghilev not only turns it into an artistic publication, but also attracts Imperial Theaters A.M. Vasnetsova, A.N. Benoit, L.S. Baksta, A.V. Serova, K.A. Korovin and others. But this cooperation also does not continue due to disagreements Sergei Diaghilev with the authorities during the preparation of the ballet “Sylvia”. In addition, relations with Filosofov also came to naught due to the intervention of the poetess Zinaida Gippius, who tried in every possible way to lure Filosofov to live as one family with her and her husband Dmitry Merezhkovsky. These dramatic events ended with moving Sergei Diaghilev from St. Petersburg and the cessation of the existence of the World of Art magazine in 1904.

B. Kustodiev. Group portrait of members of the World of Art society

And if the breakup of a long-term relationship was a blow to Diaghilev, then it definitely benefited the popularization of Russian art in Europe. Since 1907, exactly that page in the biography of the great impresario has opened, thanks to which Sergei Diaghilev and became famous. Namely, the annual foreign concerts of Russian artists begin - "Russian Seasons". The first season was purely musical, N.A. took part in it. Rimsky-Korsakov, F.I. Shalyapin, A.K. Glazunov, S.V. Rachmaninov and others.

In 1908, Europe within "Russian Seasons" I saw a Russian opera: “Boris Godunov” by M.P. Mussorgsky, “Ruslan and Lyudmila” by M.I. Glinka and others. But these events also became unprofitable, despite the apparent success, which finally convinced Sergei Diaghilev follow the tastes of the public and show Europe ballet, which he openly disdained, as a meaningless and low-intellectual art form.

But it was in organizing the ballet “Seasons” that his extraordinary gift manifested itself. Sergei Diaghilev as a discoverer of talent. In 1908, he met the young dancer Vaslav Nijinsky and, inspired by love, became his patron and created greatest ballets especially for him. For foreign tours they were also invited famous artists: A.P. Pavlova, T.P. Karsavina, E.V. Geltser and M.M. Fokin. Through the choreographic efforts of the latter, under the direction Diaghilev The role of the male dancer on stage has changed dramatically. If earlier men played a secondary, auxiliary role as a “crutch” for ballerinas, performing support for them, now the protégé Sergei Diaghilev began to shine, they performed complex elements, creating bold productions based on the confrontation between masculine and feminine. Organized Sergei Diaghilev ballets were seen in Paris, London, Rome and even in the USA. The ballet "Seasons" ended in 1913, coinciding with the breakdown of relations Diaghilev and Nijinsky (again because of a woman).

Vaslav Nijinsky

With the outbreak of the First World War Sergei Diaghilev finally migrates to Europe. He appears new lover- young dancer Leonid Myasin, and it begins new stage work. Diaghilev is engaged in the development of the ballet troupe he created in 1911 “ Diaghilev's Russian Ballet", which existed until the death of the creator in 1929. For 20 years in enterprise Sergei Diaghilev famous artists worked, including Serge Lifar, and the performances were designed by L.S. Bakst, A.N. Benoit, N.K. Roerich, A.Ya. Golovin, M.F. Larionov, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and the music was written by Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel, Erik Satie, Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev.

Leonid Myasin

Died Sergei Diaghilev August 19, 1929 in Venice as a result of complications due to diabetes and furunculosis. He was buried on the island of San Michele.

Funeral Sergei Diaghilev in Venice

Death mask Sergei Diaghilev

grave Sergei Diaghilev on the island of San Michele

Many have heard that Sergei Diaghilev is somehow connected with ballet, but few people know that the Russian ballet he revived was nothing more than an expression of love for men. He admired them, he patronized them. Many contemporaries recall that the backstage atmosphere of Diaghilev’s ballets was openly homosexual. But it is precisely the homosexual side of personality Sergei Diaghilev was the most creative, radically changing the essence and attitude towards ballet, educating and giving the world greatest choreographers, dancers and other artists, turning the position of entrepreneur into an art.

Portrait Sergei Diaghilev brushes by Valentin Serov

Sergei Diaghilev is a man who managed to go beyond the academic conservatism of performing arts, writing the history of dance from scratch. Thanks to the innovations of the talented impresario, people to this day can not only see, but also feel ballet.

The future innovator of the art world was born in the Novgorod province on March 19, 1872, old style. Later, he and his family moved to St. Petersburg and then to Perm, where his father served.

The head of the family, Pavel Pavlovich Diaghilev, was an officer in a cavalry regiment. Sergei did not know his own mother, since she died several months after giving birth. Was involved in raising the boy new wife father - Elena. The stepmother doted on her stepson and gave him all of herself.

After graduating from the Perm gymnasium in 1890, Diaghilev entered the law faculty of St. Petersburg University. At the same time, the young man studied music at the conservatory with. Having graduated from the University of Law in 1896, the future eminent choreographer preferred the field of fine arts.

Ballet and patronage

In the late 1890s, Diaghilev and his friends created artistic association“World of Art”, which rejected academicism in all its manifestations. The guys persuaded famous philanthropists S.I. Mamontov and Princess M.K. Tenishev to finance their magazine.

Thanks to his rare organizational talent and ability to penetrate into the essence of the creative process, Sergei organized “world of art” exhibitions. In 1905, at the Tauride Palace in St. Petersburg, he organized a presentation of Russian portraiture, where he collected paintings from the capital and provinces.

Ballet performances were powerfully influenced by the work of modernist artists. Figures from the association “World of Art”, who gravitate toward symbolism, worked on the sets and costumes: avant-garde artist N. A. Goncharov, Spanish monumentalist H. Sert, Italian futurist D. Balla, cubist, French impressionist A. Matisse, neoclassicist L. Survage and many others.

Personalities such as A. Laurent were involved as decorators and costume designers in Diaghilev’s productions. As you know, form always influences content, as the audience observed in “Russian Seasons”.

The scenery, costumes and curtain were amazing artistic expression: the play of lines on floors delighted the audience of the performance. The music used in the productions was diverse: from world classics and R. Strauss to Russian composers N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov and A.K. Glazunov.

European performing arts, which was experiencing a crisis at the beginning of the 19th century, was refreshed by an unsurpassed synthesis various types art, from which modern ballet was subsequently born.

"Russian Seasons"

The history of the “Russian Seasons” began after the 1906 exhibition at the “Autumn Salon”. The event that had resounding success, inspired Diaghilev. The man did not want to stop and continued to introduce Russian art to the Parisian public.

In 1907, Sergei Pavlovich organized “Historical Russian Concerts”, the program of which included 5 symphonic performances. Unique bass, choir " Bolshoi Theater", the conducting skill of Arthur Nikisch and the delightful piano playing of Hoffmann instantly captivated the audience hungry for talent.

In the spring of 1908, Diaghilev introduced opera to Paris. However, "" gathered an incomplete hall, and the money raised barely covered the costs of organizing the event.

In 1909, an entrepreneur sensitive to the mood of the public brought 5 ballets to the future capital of fashion: “Pavilion of Armida”, “Cleopatra”, “Polovtsian Dances”, “La Sylphide” and “The Feast”. The core of the ballet troupe was made up of dancers from Moscow and St. Petersburg - V.F. Nizhinsky, A.P. Pavlova, I.L. Rubinstein, .

Over the 20 years of work of “Russian Seasons” traditional attitude society towards dance changed radically, and Russian art became extremely popular in Europe.

Personal life

People rightly noticed Diaghilev’s departure from “ general style" A different kind of blood was seething in him, different from many others. Even during his lifetime, legends were made about the love affairs of the philanthropist.

It is reliably known that Sergei Diaghilev had an unconventional sexual orientation, and, since personal life such a prominent person cannot remain in the shadows; everyone knew his lovers by sight.

Sergei Diaghilev's first amorous relationship was with his cousin Dmitry Filosofov. The versatile educated young man was always visible in the circle of students at St. Petersburg University. Passionate about art, the 18-year-old brothers became close during a joint trip to Italy, where they went in 1890.

The romance between Diaghilev and Filosofov lasted 10 years, until the “white devil” stood in their way. The woman was not afraid of society’s condemnation and boldly went against established moral norms - she wore men's clothing, preached free love(despite her marriage, she had a couple of affairs with men and women). Dmitry Filosofov also became a victim of the witchcraft spells of the Russian poetess.

The “struggle” between Gippius and Diaghilev continued for a couple of years. The final break between the brother-lovers came after a scandal in a fashionable St. Petersburg restaurant: Diaghilev found his friend in the company of Zinaida Gippius and attacked him with his fists.

After this incident, Filosofov finally broke up with Diaghilev and moved in with Gippius and her husband. The strange triple alliance lasted 15 years.

In 1908, Sergei met a man who not only became the most great love cultural figure, but also forever connected Diaghilev with the world of ballet.

The promising Russian dancer of Finnish origin Vaslav Nijinsky was at that time in the pay of Prince Pavel Lvov. For the aristocrat, the charming young man was a toy: he paid his bills, updated his wardrobe and “loaned” the guy to friends.

And if Nijinsky loved the high-ranking “tormentor,” then Lvov was openly burdened by the feelings of the annoying “puppet.” It is unknown how long the prose writer would have been looking for a reason to get rid of his bored lover if Diaghilev had not “turned up.”

Vaclav and Sergei were together for 5 years. During this time, Diaghilev gained fame as a world-famous entrepreneur, and Nijinsky became the “face” of the “Russian Ballet Seasons”.

In 1913, the dancer unexpectedly proposed to the Hungarian ballerina Romola Pulski, who had long been in love with him and joined the troupe solely to be closer to the object of her adoration. Having learned about his lover's wedding, the offended artist immediately fired Nijinsky.

Meeting with a 17-year-old student ballet school Leonid Myasin helped the choreographer forget the would-be gentleman. The prudent young man put up with the status of a “comfort boy” exactly until he became famous.

After seven years of close friendship in 1920, Massine, like Vaclav, connected his life with a woman. The dancer's wife was ballerina Vera Clark (pseudonym Savina). Having learned about the protégé’s decision, Diaghilev breaks off all ties with him.

Creative collaboration ex-lovers resumed three years before Sergei’s death, in 1925. After the death of the eminent choreographer, his student headed the Russian Ballet of Monte Carlo.

Death

On last stages life of a 19th century impresario “found himself” in collecting.

For a long time, Sergei Pavlovich, without a permanent shelter, wandered around the cities and countries of Europe. The obstinate spirit of the famous master of culture has found peace in Monaco. Here Sergei began collecting the most valuable works of art in his home: paintings, rare autographs, books and manuscripts.

In 1921, Sergei learned that he had diabetes. However, the no longer young man did not follow the doctor’s strict instructions and diet. This provoked the development of furunculosis. The result was infection and a sharp rise in temperature. Antibiotics had not yet been invented at that time, so the disease was extremely dangerous.

On August 7, 1929, the favorite of the male audience suffered from blood poisoning. The following days he did not get out of bed.

Sergei Diaghilev, whose biography is inextricably linked with the history of Russian ballet, died on August 19. At night his temperature rose to forty-one degrees, he lost consciousness and, without regaining consciousness, died at dawn.

The cemetery island of San Michele became the last refuge of the famous choreographer. Many great figures of art, science and sports are buried there: a poet and Nobel laureate, composer, psychiatrist Franco Basaglia, football player Helenio Herrera, writer and journalist Peter Weil. The cemetery is still open to the public to this day.

The life of Sergei Diaghilev, like many prominent figures, is filled with interesting facts:

• Diaghilev had a nose for talent, was a brilliant leader and a wonderful organizer, but he did not perform on stage himself.
• Olga Khokhlova, wife of Pablo Picasso, was a dancer in Sergei Diaghilev's Russian Ballet.

• In 1897, Diaghilev took the artist Alexandre Benois and his wife to the Grand Opera. There, Sergei’s friend’s tailcoat pants burst. The man sat motionless all evening and covered the hole that had formed in the most reprehensible place with a folding cylinder, and Diaghilev, as soon as he turned his gaze from the stage to Alexander, began to laugh at the top of his voice. Then his loud, sonorous laughter almost disrupted the concert.
• Sergei Pavlovich more than once jokingly said that he was a distant descendant (through the Rumyantsevs), and if there was no confirmation of this information, then family ties were not questioned. The great Russian composer was the uncle of the philanthropist.

• The exhibition of Russian-Finnish artists, organized by Diaghilev, took place in an atmosphere of scandalous misunderstanding. Then the works of Mikhail Nesterov and Philip Malyavin were presented to the public for the first time. In the eyes of sophisticated aesthetes, conceptually new painting looked extremely unsightly, and therefore, visitors demanded that the cashier return the money they paid for entry.
• In the spring of 2011, the ship called “Novikov-Priboy” was renamed “Sergei Diaghilev”.

• If you compare the girl depicted on the 1909 Russian Seasons poster with a photograph of Anna Pavlova, it becomes clear that she was the prototype from which the ballerina was drawn.
• Diaghilev did not hide his homosexual preferences. However, it is reliably known that in his life there was sexual contact with a woman. The choreographer's 18-year-old cousin gave the man a venereal disease as a keepsake of their relationship.

Sergei Diaghilev... this man was neither a dancer nor a choreographer - and yet his name is inextricably linked with Russian ballet in particular and Russian art in general.

Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev was born in the Novgorod province in 1872. His father, a nobleman, was an officer, but the family was no stranger to art: his paternal uncle Ivan Pavlovich was a philanthropist and founded a music group. In Perm, where the future entrepreneur spent his childhood, the Diaghilevs’ house was called “Perm Athens” - the intelligentsia gathered there to play music and perform plays.

After graduating from high school, 18-year-old S. Diaghilev went to St. Petersburg. He dreams of becoming a composer or singer and studies for some time at the conservatory, but at the same time graduates from the law faculty of the university. In the capital, he became friends with his cousin Dmitry Filosofov, met his friends -,.

In 1898 - two years after graduating from the university - S. Diaghilev and D. Filosofov decided to publish a magazine and attracted patrons of the arts to finance it - S. I. Mamontov and M. K. Tenisheva. The magazine, called World of Art, was published the following year. This magazine, printed on excellent paper in Elizabethan type, with excellent artistic reproductions, introduced readers to individual foreign and domestic artists, and entire periods in the history of art, subsequently articles about writers and composers were no longer published; in 1900, a literary department appeared. Simultaneously with the magazine, arose creative association"World of Art", main artistic principle which was the desire for symbolism, recognition of the priority of the aesthetic principle in art, designed to express the personality of the creator.

S. Diaghilev’s activities are not limited to publishing the magazine. In 1897, he organized an exhibition of German and English watercolor painters, in 1898 - an exhibition of Finnish and Russian artists, in 1905 - a historical and artistic exhibition of Russian portraits, and in 1906 - an exhibition of Russian art in Paris.

Since 1907, S. Diaghilev has been very seriously involved in representing Russian art abroad. The performances of Russian artists organized by him in Paris were called “Russian Seasons”. They began with “Historical Russian Concerts”, where they performed, followed by a season of Russian opera in 1908, which did not bring much income. The French public loved ballet very much. S. Diaghilev initially disdained this genre, arguing that “there is no content or meaning in it,” and its execution does not require “even small mental abilities" But it is impossible not to take into account the tastes of the public - and since 1909 he has been bringing ballet to Paris. Thus began the ballet “Russian Seasons”, which lasted until 1913.

S. Diaghilev had an amazing “sense for talent.” It was in his enterprise that such ballet “stars” as the Nijinskys “shine” for the first time. The entrepreneur looked at ballet as a synthesis of arts, designed to be a conductor of new ideas, hence the close attention to the design of performances. The costumes and scenery were created by A. Benois and L. Bakst, his colleagues in the World of Art, and later S. Diaghilev began to involve him in this best artists of that time - A. Matisse, P. Picasso.

S. Diaghilev’s collaboration with contemporary composers was no less important. Thanks to him, many new ballets appeared: “”, “”, “”, “” and “”, “”, “” and “Steel Leap”, “”, “The Legend of Joseph”. S. Diaghilev approached the musical side of ballet very seriously. For example, in "