The story of Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes has been told many times before, but no one is able to master it more engagingly than Rupert Christiansen, the veteran opera critic and self-confessed 'incurable balletomane'. He comes to his subject with a head stuffed full not just of pas de deux and grands jetés but also all the gossip and scandal that trailed in Diaghilev’s choppy wake ... In deft, elegant prose Christiansen takes us through the postwar period, showing us how Diaghilev’s revolutionary vision was carried forward by a corps of British-based star choreographers and dancers including Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan, Robert Helpmann, Ninette de Valois, Anton Dolin and Margot Fonteyn.
Amusing and assertive ... There was not an obvious need for such a book ... The author seems to have undergone the task for the sheer love of it, and his delight is infectious ... You may not be bonkers for ballet, as the author is, but Diaghilev’s Empire will help you comprehend its allure and — unprimly, with whimsy — the enterprising mogul who made people begin to take it seriously.
Mr. Christiansen, in a preface, admits to having done no original research. Yet his extensive notes and bibliography indicate that he has read just about everything on this subject, and has assimilated it all into an engrossing, amusingly opinionated and poignant narrative ... Mr. Christiansen takes enormous pleasure in describing Diaghilev’s first season in Paris ... Mr. Christiansen’s postscripts to the dissolution of Diaghilev’s grand enterprise—and his tracing of the company’s legacy, especially in England—are more informative than riveting.
... [a] fine new history ... immensely readable and exhaustively researched ... Most delightful of all are the vivid portraits Christiansen paints of the dramatis personae, starting with Diaghilev and his succession of temperamental Ballets Russes lovers, all of whose careers he promoted — as choreographer or dancer — until, inevitably, fractiously, he fell out with them ... Happily, though, he writes about his subject with such descriptive flair and affectionate animation that its very essence leaps off the page.
... where Christiansen’s book comes into its own is in its description of the radical and lasting changes that Diaghilev brought to bear on the art form – changes made all the more striking by some extended, insightful considerations of what came before and after the fact. Part biography, part history of ballet in the 20th century, the book looks at how the larger-than-life impresario was able to take what was at the end of the 19th century the ‘childish business’ of ballet and not only drag it, often through sheer force of will, into artistic maturity, but also establish it as ‘a crucial piece in the jigsaw of western culture’ ... Christiansen does not shy from the more challenging aspects of his life and legacy as viewed today ... While Christiansen, as he explains in his preface, may not have set out to ‘thrill scholars and experts’ with a radical reassessment of Diaghilev’s life, he ultimately achieves something else entirely. Diaghilev’s Empire is a riveting account of a visionary who, for all his many faults, truly did make himself indispensable. Written with sympathy and wit, the book is judiciously researched; but, more crucially, it draws on a lifetime of balletomania, giving readers the benefit of exceptional range. It is also a delicious read into the bargain.
... this is a full and thoughtful appreciation of a world populated by the likes of Nijinsky, Nijinska, Pavlova, Picasso, Matisse, and Stravinsky. Historical photographs and a generous bibliography make Christiansen’s vivid chronicle an essential selection for any performing arts collection and a captivating read for balletomanes.
Drawing extensively on published histories, biographies, and autobiographies, Christensen writes for the curious reader, with or without an extensive dance background, presenting a man with a brilliant eye for talent and a gift for discerning what an audience craved, sometimes before they realized they wanted it. Along with chronicling backstage drama and artistic triumphs beginning about 1909, the book puts Diaghilev’s complicated personal life on full view ... Christiansen’s accessible book is a fascinating cautionary tale for readers with an interest in ballet history and those who enjoy books about visionaries who weather great failures and great successes.
Sublime art leaps from great showmanship in this vibrant chronicle of early 20th-century ballet ... vividly sketched ... a stimulating recreation of a cultural watershed.
