Books

By Wilma Salisbury

Diaghilev's biography enormous and unfocused

DIAGHILEV, by Richard Buckle; Atheneum, 616 pp., $22.50, 300

THE WORLD OF DIAGHILEV, by John Percival; Harmony, 144 pp., $10 cloth, $5.95 paper.

Sergei Diaghilev died in Venice 50 years ago. In memory of the great Russian impresario, the Metropolitan Museum of Art mounted a superb exhibition of costumes and designs from his Ballets Russes. Rudolf Nureyev and the Joffrey Ballet revived some of the company's most important commissioned repertoire. Herbert Ross is making a movie about the relationship between Diaghilev and Nijinsky, and Richard Buckle has completed his long-awaited biography.

A full-length biography of Diaghilev has not been published for nearly 40 years. Since then, much about his early years has emerged. Today, too, his homosexuality can be dealt with more openly.

Buckle, London dance critic and biographer of Nijinsky, has done an enormous amount of research.

Buckle traces the Diaghilev family fortune back to a 19th-century vodka distillery that served the czar. He sketches the comfortable childhood of the well-born Sergei, in which homosexual tendencies surfaced early.

Diaghilev's career began with his magazine, The World of Art, which he founded with his cousin, Dima Filosofov, and artists Alexander Benois and Leon Bakst. Through the short-lived journal and important exhibitions relating to it, Diaghilev exposed his countrymen to new aesthetic ideas and awak-

ened them to their own rich heritage.

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His career as an “amateur impresario" caught fire in 1907 when he introduced to Paris his colorful production of Moussorgsky's "Boris Godunov," starring Feodor Chaliapin. The Ballets Russes grew almost incidentally out of his opera productions: Dancers were needed for the opera ballets, so Diaghilev formed a company.

The company's deep influence is still felt. Convinced that "repetition is death," Diaghilev set out to create something innovative and astonishing. This genius at bringing together and nurturing the talents of brilliant artists discovered the choreographic potential of Nijinsky and Massine, commissioned scores from Stravinsky, Ravel and Prokofiev and ordered decors from Picasso, Miro, Matisse and Braque.

Imperial in manner, "Czar Sergei" told Picasso how to paint and Prokofiev how to compose. He dictated to Debussy. He addressed Stravinsky as "you awful pig.” He tore apart costumes designed by Laurencin in order to show more leg. When the company needed money, he cut up a stage curtain painted by Picasso and sold it. He played Iwith the mentalities of his friends, said conductor Ernest Anşermet, “as an organist with the stops of his instrument."

Yet, the autocratic Russian had his silky side, too. Although he never won support from the Czar and never presented the Ballets Russes in Russia, he knew how to seduce rich European patrons, charm the press and soothe the American censors. He was extravagant

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Diaghilev, sketched by Jean Cocteau. with other people's money and nearly always in debt.

Buckle follows Diaghilev's comings and goings in an almost diary form. He assumes the reader knows the artists of the Ballets Russes (For this reason, John Percival's The World of Diaghilev is a useful supplement. Clearly written and concise, this unpretentious book introduces the impresario and his associates with biographical background and an excellent choice of illustrations.) Buckle quotes many anecdotes,

throws in gossipy tidbits and presents an overwhelming number of details, including street addresses, hotel room numbers and guest lists at parties.

Unfortunately, he makes no attempt to place Diaghilev and his achievements within the social, political or cultural context of his time. He mentions World War I only as it inconvenienced the ballet. He refers to the October-Revolution only as it affected Diaghilev's relationship with Soviet artists.

Buckle is concerned chiefly with his subject's homosexual liaisons, from his first loves (Dima Filosofov, Nijinsky and Massine) to his last (dancers Anton Dolin and Serge Lifar).

He dwells on Diaghilev's everpresent financial problems, his incredible backstage machinations and daily dealings with his fascinating, temperamental friends.

He captures wonderful moments: the mad Nijinsky's reunion with the company, the young Balanchine turning out splendid new ballets with remarkable speed, the ailing Diaghilev continuing to hold court despite the ravages of diabetes, the legendary ballerinas Karsavina, Sokolova, Danilova, Markova dancing their hearts out for him.

Wilma Salisbury is The PD's dance

critic.