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Article: The Ballets Russes Revolution: Diaghilev brought fire and controversy to ballet, but what remains of his legacy?(Ballets Russes)
- Article from:
- Dance Magazine
- Article date:
- February 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Dance Magazine, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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You had to be here. You and almost every art-loving Parisian with money to spend absolutely had to be sitting in the miraculously renovated Theatre du Chatelet on May 19, 1909, for the opening night of Serge Diaghilev's Les Ballets Russes. You'd attended concerts of Russian music that this visionary impresario had presented in Paris in 1907, and been thrilled in 1908 by the great Russian bass Fyodor Chaliapin in Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov at the Paris Opera--another step in Diaghilev's mission to acquaint western Europe with Russian culture. Now he's brought Russian ballet to your city.
The theater is packed. Composers, ...