The concept of “total work of art” is most often associated with composer Richard Wagner and his legacy, but he was far from the only artist across disciplines who accomplished it. Les Ballets Russes, an itinerant ballet company established in Paris that was active between 1909 and 1929 also fits the label. Two exhibitions, “Crafting the Ballets Russes: The Robert Owen Lehman Collection” at the Morgan Library in New York (through September 22) and “Women Artists of the Ballets Russes: Designing the Legacy” at the McNay Arts Center in San Antonio (October 10-Jan 12), showcase the depth of Les Ballets Russes’s multidisciplinary artistry as it extended beyond stage and choreography.
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The central figure in these stories is Sergei Diaghilev, a failed composer who decided to become an art collector and curator and was a co-founder of the journal Mir Iskusstva alongside visual artists Alexandre Benois and Léon Bakst (set and costume designers in the Ballets Russes). Upon relocating to Paris, Diaghilev curated exhibitions of Russian art but soon pivoted to curating Russian music programming. In founding the Ballets Russes, he cemented his reputation as a brilliant and innovative producer—one who did not confine ballet to stereotypical “ballet music” and “ballet theme.” In the company’s two short decades, Diaghilev referenced Slavic paganism and Middle Ages (Firebird, The Golden Cockerel, Rite of Spring, Les Noces) Classical antiquity (The Afternoon of a Faun, Apollo) and eventually, Romanticism (La Valse, The Sleeping Princess).
Few artifacts of the actual performances and choreographies remain, though up through the 1970s, you could see the repertoire of Les Ballets Russes in live performances. Additionally, the sets of........