The 1912 season, again at the Chatelet saw the premiere of the very controversial ballet L’Apresmidi d’un Faune with music by Debussy. The only male dancer on stage was Nijinksy and this piece also saw him make his debut as choreographer. Because of the highly provocative nature of the onstage action rehearsals were cloaked in secrecy and Diaghilev’s established choreographer Fokine was kept totally in the dark. Public reaction was mixed with ballet aficionados very appreciative but press reaction was outraged by the sexual antics of the faun at the climax of the piece.

This 1993 Finland stamp depicts the stilted poses of three nymphs which were intended to suggest figures on a Greek frieze with the faun crouching back right.

1939 France issue featuring Claude DeBussy.

1986 Monaco issue featuring Diaghilev and the Ballets de Monte-Carlo.

However shocked the reactions of some of the audience were they were as nothing to what was to happen the following year when Stravinksy’s The Rite of Spring opened at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) owed much to Diaghilev for promoting his style of music which even today is regarded by some as harsh and grotesque: the 1913 premiere of his third ballet The Rite of Spring with designs by Nicholas Roerich caused uproar in the auditorium as audience members with opposing views of the radically innovative style of dance, stage presentation and the pulsating music came to blows. As the result the ballet had an extremely short run but brought the Ballet Russes great publicity.

The Company then sailed to begin a series of tours on the other side of The Atlantic where they remained during The Great War, but Diaghilev did not accompany them, having a pathological fear of travelling over water. This extended spell overseas was not without major problems as Nijinsky’s mental health began to deteriorate.

Diaghilev was unable to return to Russia after the 1917 revolution and was effectively exiled, pilloried by the new Communist authorities on account of exhibiting in Paris his extravagance, decadence and homosexuality.

However he was nothing if not resilient to all the personnel and financial challenges that running his company afforded him and he introduced some new choreographers notably Leonide Massine. However, as with Nijinsky this was a troubled relationship and in 1921 Diaghilev himself put on a sumptuous, loss making but long running production of Tchai kovsky’s Sleeping Beauty in London’s Alhambra Theatre, largely using the production notes of master choreographer Marius Petipa of the Russian Imperial Ballet.

The following year the impresario was engaged to take his company to Monte Carlo where for six months each year through in the 1920’s the Ballets Russes found a home. Further new choreographers were brought in including Nijinsky’s sister Bronislava who premiered Stravinsky’s Les Noces in 1923 in Paris and Les Biches with music by Poulenc the following year at Monte Carlo.

Another was a young Georgian Georgi Balanchivadze (1904-1983) who changed his name and who became highly influential in the USA as George Balanchine. He produced Stravinsky’s Apollo in Paris in 1928 and Prokofiev’s The Prodigal Son in 1929. However Diaghilev himself was unable to fill the role of prodigal son, forbidden to return to his own country because of his notoriety and he diedironically on water-in Venice later that year as his diabetes worsened.

Russia 1993 issue celebrates the great choreographer Marius Petipa and then clockwise his productions of Sleeping Beauty (music by Tchaikovsky), Raymonda (Glazunov) and Swan Lake (Tchaikovsky).

Monaco 1979 (above) showing an exterior view of Gamier’s Casino cum Opera House and Monaco 1966 (below) showing the glorious belle epoch style of its interior–a miniature replica of Gamier’s Paris Opera House.