In praise of Diaghilev

I wish I had been at the Châtelet Theatre in Paris on the evening of 18 May 1909 for the dress rehearsal of the new Saison Russe, organised by Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev, or ‘de’ Diaghilev as he liked to be called.

A great charmer and charismatic figure, he exploited the art of networking and good advertising long before PR was invented, and led his company with little or no money. He also managed to live his homosexuality in the open, adding, with his much talked about love affairs — the most famous one with Nijinsky — to the buzz surrounding his company. But was he a real genius, a great charlatan or simply a very lucky person? Indeed, he did not always get it right, as demonstrated by his aborted foray into Futurism, but he always remained afloat, till the day of his death in 1929, after which, deprived of its main raison d’être, his company disbanded.

His multifaceted, contradictory persona inspired a wealth of successors as well as fictional characters, such as the morbidly tyrannical Lermontov in the ballet movie classic The Red Shoes. Interestingly, although he is being celebrated worldwide with galas, exhibitions, conferences and symposia in the centenary of his company, only a handful of the most popular Ballets Russes titles seems to have stood the test of time. But I do not think the man who wanted to be constantly surprised would mind.

English National Ballet will celebrate 100 years of the Ballets Russes next week at Sadler’s Wells with two programmes of performances of some of the company’s great works.