Contents List of examples Note on presentation Acknowledgements page x xi xiv xv 1 Introduction: Le Génie de la danse 1 2 Ballet at the Opéra and La Fête chez Thérèse 28 3 Nijinsky s Faune revisited 67 4 Metaphors of invasion: the Ballets Russes and the French press 115 5 Beyond and behind Le Coq d or 160 Select bibliography 215 Index 235
Examples 2.1 Hahn, La Fête chez Thérèse, Act One, scene 2, La Contredanse des grisettes. page 42 2.2 Hahn, La Fête chez Thérèse, Act One, scene 5, Pantomime. 45 2.3a Maréchal, Le Lac des aulnes, Act One, Largo assai. 54 2.3b Maréchal, Le Lac des aulnes, Act One, Largo maestoso. 55 2.4 Bruneau, Les Bacchantes, Act One, Pantomime. 56 2.5 Hahn, La Fête chez Thérèse, Act One, scene 3, La Chanson de Mimi Pinson. 60 3.1 Debussy, Prélude à l après-midi d un faune, bs1 4. 75 3.2 Debussy, Prélude à l après-midi d un faune, bs21 22. 77 3.3 Debussy, Prélude à l après-midi d un faune, bs30 34. 78 3.4 Debussy, Prélude à l après-midi d un faune, bs79 83. 81 3.5 Debussy, Prélude à l après-midi d un faune, bs86 88. 84 3.6 Debussy, Prélude à l après-midi d un faune, bs45 53. 85 3.7 Debussy, Prélude à l après-midi d un faune, bs54 73. 88 3.8 Debussy, Prélude à l après-midi d un faune, bs 106 10. 96 5.1 Massenet, Esclarmonde, Act Two, interlude. 191
Figures 1.1 Matisse, La Danse I (1909). Oil on canvas, 259.7 390.1 cm. Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller in honour of Alfred H. Barr, Jr, 1963, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo SCALA, Florence. 2011 Succession H. Matisse/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. page 2 1.2 Duncan (1908); photographer unknown. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. 8 1.3 The Winged Victory of Samothrace (c.190 BC). Marble, 3.28 m (height). Courtesy of the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and L Agence Photographique de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris. RMN/Gérard Blot. 9 1.4 Nijinsky as the Golden Slave, Schéhérazade (1910 11); photographer, L. Roosen. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. 10 2.1 Zambelli as Mimi Pinson, La Fête chez Thérèse (1910). Courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. 63 3.1 Nijinsky as faun, crouching (1912); photographer, Baron Adolf Foundations. 69 3.2 Nijinsky as faun, crossing arms with chief nymph (1912); photographer, Baron Adolf de Meyer. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. 70 3.3 Nijinsky as faun, with flute (1912); photographer, Baron Adolf Foundations. 76
xii 3.4 Nijinsky as faun, with chief nymph (1912); photographer, Baron Adolf Foundations. 87 3.5 Nijinsky as faun, veil in arms (1912); photographer, Baron Adolf Foundations. 94 3.6 Nijinsky as faun, final posture (1912); photographer, Baron Adolf Foundations. 95 3.7 Picasso, The Architect s Table (1912). Oil on canvas, mounted on oval panel, 72.6 59.7 cm. The William S. Paley Collection, 1971, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Photo SCALA, Florence. 2011 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. 99 3.8 Plaster cast of the upper body of a Salpêtrière patient (date unknown). By permission of the Musée de l Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris. F. Marin/APHP. 109 3.9 Nijinsky as faun, with bent right arm (1912); photographer, Baron Adolf de Meyer. Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. 110 3.10 Planche XVI (Hémi-léthargie et hémi-catalepsie), Iconographie photographique de la Salpêtrière, vol. III (1880). Courtesy of the Waring Historical Library, MUSC, Charleston, SC. 111 3.11 Brouillet, Une Leçon clinique à la Salpêtrière (1887). Photoprint courtesy of the National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, MD. 112 3.12 Nymph bending backwards (1912); photographer, Baron Adolf Foundations. 113 4.1 Comœdia illustré, front cover, special edition (1911). Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University, PN 2003.C65. 120 4.2 Bakst, Le Festin, costume design for l Oiseau d or (1909). Watercolour, pencil, paper and gold paint, 36.5 26 cm. Howard
xiii D. Rothschild Collection, Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Thr 414.4 (12). 141 4.3 Roerich, Le Sacre du printemps, costumes (1913). Theatre and Performance Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum. Photo Victoria and Albert Museum, London. 142 5.1 Anonymous, Le Coq d or (1914). Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Thr 449. 161 5.2 Goncharova, Le Coq d or, scene design for Act One (1914). Watercolour with graphite traces on off-white paper, 33 45.8 cm. Harvard Theatre Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Thr 414.4 (58). 2011 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. 167 5.3 Marey, chronophotograph of a man jumping (1882 3). Courtesy of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, EO-91- Boîte Fol B. 181 5.4 Manet, Olympia (1863). Oil on canvas, 130 190 cm. Courtesy of the Musée d Orsay, Paris, and L Agence Photographique de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris. 195 Front cover Bakst, faun from L Après-midi d un faune (1912). Print, dimensions unknown. By permission of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Back cover Bakst, bacchante from Narcisse (1911). Print, 25 19 cm. Courtesy of the Picture Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.