[Ballets Russes]
Original 1916 Tour Program
Rare original prospectus program from the 1916 - 1917 US tour of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. The present program includes photographs of some of the principle dancers, including Nijinsky, as well as a magnificent two-page lithograph of Leon Bakst's set for "L'Apres-Midi d'un Faune." This particular program is from one of the two shows held at the Lyric Theater in Baltimore, Fri-Sat, November 17 & 18, 1916.22 pp. 9 x 6 inches. Wrappers slightly soiled, else fine.
"For the first US tour, earlier in 1916, Diaghilev had succeeded in having Nijinsky released from his internment for mental health problems, and though he arrived on that tour later than the rest of the company, he was an enormous sensation on the tour. "When that first American season was over, Otto Kahn, the chairman of the Metropolitan Opera board, engaged the Ballets Russes for a second New York season, to be followed by a cross-country tour (1916-1917), and he unwisely decided that the company should be directed during this period by Nijinsky, not Diaghilev. What followed was probably the most chaotic and demoralized tour the Ballet Russes ever undertook. A four-month journey, stopping in fifty-two cities, with over a hundred dancers and musicians: it was a huge administrative assignment, and Nijinsky had no administrative skills....After this dreadful tour, on which the Metropolitan Opera lost a quarter of a million dollars, Nijinsky performed with the Ballets Russes for a few months more, in Spain and South America, in 1917." (Joan Acocella, "Secrets of Nijinsky." NY Rev. of Books, Vol. 46, 1999). (5695)
Program, unsigned Dance