Diaghilev

A Life

Sjeng Scheijen

• Publisher: Profile Books
• eBook ISBN:
  9781847652454
• Year: 2010

This magnificent new biography of the extraordinary impresario of the arts and creator of the Ballets Russes 100 years ago draws on important new research, notably from Russia.

'Scheijen masterfully recounts the phenomenal way in which Diaghilev contrived, under virtually impossible circumstances, to nurture a sequence of works ... he triumphs in making clear the degree to which, despite the cosmopolitanism of so much of the work, Russia was at the core of Diaghilev' Simon Callow, Guardian

'It's a fabulous, complicated, very sexy story and Sjeng Scheijen takes us through it with a steadying calm that fudges none of the outrage on or off stage' Duncan Fallowell, Daily Express

'Magnificent ... filled with extraordinary glamour' Rupert Christiansen, Daily Mail

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Translators' Note
• Introduction: Death in Venice
• 1 A Big Head, 1872–1880
• 2 The Fruits of Enlightenment, 1879–1890
• 3 Rise and Fall, 1890–1891
• 4 Student Years: A Visit to Tolstoy, 1891–1893
• 5 Student Years: Alexandre Benois, 1890–1894
• 6 'The Serge Diaguileff Museum': St Petersburg, Rome, Genoa, Paris, 1894–1896
• 7 Charlatan and Charmer, 1895–1898
• 8 'I'm full of big plans!', 1897–1898
• 9 The World of Art, 1898–1900
• 10 The Sylvia Debacle, 1900–1902
• 11 The Hour of Reckoning, 1902–1905
• 12 The 'Homosexual Clique', 1906–1907
• 13 Tsar Boris and Tsar Sergey, 1907–1908
• 14 The Rise of the Ballets Russes, 1908–1909
• 15 Bakst and the Art of Seduction, 1909–1910
• 16 Emergence of a Genius, 1910–1911
• 17 Petrushka, 1911–1912
• 18 Prelude to a Scandal, 1911–1912
• 19 A Year of Risky Experiments, 1912–1913
• 20 Time of Troubles, 1913–1914
• 21 'Let us be resolute and energetic', 1914–1915
• 22 A Parade of Revolutions, 1915–1917
• 23 A Letter from Nouvel, 1917–1919
• 24 To the Brink of Catastrophe, 1919–1922
• 25 A Lifeline from Monte Carlo, 1922–1924
• 26 The Soviet Union Strikes Back, 1924–1927
• 27 The Final Curtain, 1928–1929
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Illustration Credits
• Author's Acknowledgements