THE RUSSIAN
B A L L E T

Printed in England.

CONTENTS.

{1} 

INTRODUCTION.

THERE is no need to enlarge here upon the vogue which the Russian Ballet, or rather that company of dancers which has become familiar outside its own country under that title, has achieved in England, France, Germany, and America. Sufficient testimony to that is provided by the appearance of this book, which seeks to present a souvenir of the performances with which so many spectators have been delighted. It may be interesting, however, to sketch briefly the history of the ballet as a form of theatrical art, and suggest an explanation of the enthusiasm with which, after a long period of practical desuetude, at least in London, its revival by the Russians had been greeted.

The theatrical ballet is comparatively a modern institution, but its real origin is to be found in the customs of very early times. The antiquity of dancing as a means of expression is well known, of course, and concerted movements on the part of a number of dancers, which constitute the ballet in its simplest form, are recognised to have been a feature of religious ceremonial in the furthest historic eras. The evolutions of the Greek chorus occur at once to the mind, and there is evidence that among the Egyptians, Assyrians, and Phœnicians, the formal dance was a part of religious ritual. Representations occur, on early vases and other relics, of dancers revolving round a central person or object, standing for the sun, and it may reasonably be surmised that some such ceremonial occurred among the most primitive pagan peoples.{2}

Rites of this kind, indeed, form the theme of “Le Sacre du Printemps,” the most remarkable of the Russian dancers’ more recent performances, which may be regarded as a deliberate attempt at reversion to type. That provocative ballet is discussed elsewhere in the present volume, but it may be remarked in passing that M. Nijinsky, who is responsible for the “choreography” of it, has endeavoured to restore to that word something more of its original significance than its use in modern times, to describe the general planning and arrangement of a ballet, ordinarily confers.

Choreography or orchesography amongst the Egyptians and the Greeks was the art of committing a dance to writing just as a musical composition is registered and preserved by means of musical notation. M. Nijinsky considers that music and the dance being closely allied and parallel arts—the one the poetry of sound, the other the poetry of motion—a ballet should be as much the work of one creative mind as a piece of orchestral music. The principle he has embodied in “Le Sacre du Printemps” is that the dancers shall execute only those gestures and movements pre-ordained by the “choreographist,” and in the particular manner and sequence directed by the latter. The polyphony of orchestral music is to be paralleled by the polykinesis, if such a phrase may be coined, of the ballet.

Leaving this digression, one may ascribe the immediate parentage of the modern theatrical ballet to the Court Ballets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which in turn arose out of the mediæval mystery plays, pageants, and masques. Ballets were a favourite diversion of the French Court of the period, where they underwent a gradual refinement in style from the relative coarseness which at first distinguished them. The opera-ballet was the next stage of development; then, towards the end of the eighteenth century, singing was omitted, and the ballet attained a dignity of its own.{3}

The founder of what may be termed the dramatic ballet, which is the form the Russians have developed so magnificently, was Noverre, a great celebrity of his day, who took London as well as Paris for his field. After the fashion of his time, Noverre went to the classics for his themes, and very banal, it would seem, were his efforts to interpret them in terms of the ballet. But though his ambition as a maître de ballet outran his perceptions as an artist, at least he initiated and firmly established a new form of art which was capable of being brought subsequently to a high degree of perfection.

Vestris and Camargo were among the more familiar names associated with the ballet, both before and at Noverre’s period. These were the great dancers of the eighteenth century, to whom succeeded Pauline Duvernay, the celebrated Taglioni, Carlotta Grisi, Fanny Ellsler, Fanny Cerito, and others of the nineteenth century. It is barely thirty years since Taglioni died at the age of eighty, and it is possible there are still persons alive who remember her at the zenith of her career. Pauline Duvernay died even more recently (in 1894), but she preceded Taglioni on the stage, and as her retirement took place at the time of Queen Victoria’s accession, there can be few, if any, who are able to recall her performances.

It is difficult to form a clear impression of what the ballet was like in Taglioni’s day. One imagines, however, that it was less the ballet in which she appeared than the individual art, or at least skill, of the dancer herself, which attracted the spectator. At all events the ballet, after Taglioni, steadily declined, and one suspects that in her the tendency towards specialisation, which is everywhere inevitable in a highly civilised state, had reached its climax. The ballet had become a mere background, of no great significance or importance, to the dancer, and there being no one to maintain the{4} standard of virtuosity set by so skilled an executant, the result was inevitable. There have been other dancers since Taglioni, probably as fine and perhaps finer, but their distinction has been of a peculiarly personal and, of necessity, somewhat limited kind. The decay of the ballet as a vehicle of expression has bereft them of opportunities for the full display of their art; they have been in the situation of a singer who for lack of an operatic stage whereon to give vent to mature, full-blooded powers, would perforce have to be content with the comparatively limited opportunities of the platform.

For a long time before the Russian revival the ballet had been all but extinct in this country; it was scarcely better abroad, save in Russia itself, of course, where the existence of a State school of dancing since the end of the seventeenth century has produced a quite different state of affairs. It is to be noted that even now the art of Anna Pavlova has only been seen under restrictions of the kind just mentioned. Her perfect skill in technique has been abundantly demonstrated; to judge of her quality as an artist (though she has given more than one suggestive hint of it) it is necessary to see her in ballet—a privilege hitherto denied.

This lapse of the ballet into desuetude accounts very largely for the extraordinary success of the Russians, who burst dazzlingly upon the gaze of a listless public, and demonstrated that ballet, which had come to be synonymous with banality, could be made both a forceful and a beautiful vehicle of artistic expression. There had been forerunners of the “Russian invasion”—brief appearances of one or two of the most distinguished dancers in isolated performances at a London variety theatre; but it was not until the complete Russian Ballet, as organised by M. Serge de Diaghilev, made its bow, en grande{5} tenue, at the Covent Garden Opera House, that the London public awoke to recognition. The descriptive power of music it knew, “wordless plays” were not unfamiliar, pas seuls and pas de deux it had seen performed in countless number by accomplished dancers of every nationality and style. But the art of the ballet, which combines music, pantomime and the dance, was a revelation, and its enthusiasm was great.

In Russia the ballet has never been allowed, as elsewhere, to die of starvation and inanition. Apart from State encouragement of the dancer’s art, an outlet has been provided for the musician and the decorative painter and designer. The result is that a ballet, as understood in Russia, is no mere excuse for the exploitation of individual talents, but a work of art in itself, to the achievement of which the energies and abilities of all concerned are subordinated. Undoubtedly it is the unity of purpose, the wonderful ensemble, which the Russian ballets exhibit that catches the imagination of the spectator. It is significant that their best performances are those which are wholly, or at least in chief part, of native production, and deal with native or closely kindred subjects. Indeed, for their success in attaining coherence and unity the Russians have to thank, perhaps, their comparative isolation and remoteness from Western European civilisation. Their art is strong because native. Endorsement of this suggestion is to be found in the virility of the Russian operas of Moussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, which made as profound an impression on their first performance in London as did the Russian ballets before them. Beside such works of art as “Boris Godounov,” “La Khovantchina,” and “Ivan the Terrible,” the modern French and Italian operas seem pitifully patched and thin, sadly lacking in balance and proportion.{6}

Except for the framework on which it is constructed, the modern dramatic ballet, as evolved by the Russians, bears little resemblance to that in which Noverre delighted. The latter’s method, indeed, was fundamentally the opposite to that by which such a man as Michel Fokine proceeds. It was Noverre’s habit to lay impertinent hands on any theme, no matter how august, and twist it (regardless of mutilation) to his purpose—which was to exhibit his dancer’s skill. Not even the tragedy of Æschylus was safe if Clytæmnestra seemed to the complacent chevalier a rôle in which his latest pupil might agreeably air her graces. The Russian method is the converse; its aim is to interpret the theme by gestures and the dance, not forcibly adapt it to the irrelevant requirements of a dancer’s special repertoire. It would be ridiculous to suggest that this aim is always successfully achieved—there are occasions when it falls a long way short of accomplishment—but at least the principle is right, and under Fokine the Russian Ballet has brought dancing the nearest yet to a fine art.

That it should be their performance as a whole which has sealed the success of the Russians, is the more remarkable when the exceptional quality of the individual performers is considered. It is not merely that the standard of excellence, both in acting and miming, throughout the entire corps de ballet is so high: under ordinary circumstances (unfortunately) one would expect to see such performers as MM. Bolm, Cecchetti, Kotchetovsky, Mdmes. Karsavina, Federova, Astafieva, Piltz—to name but a few—each figuring as that abomination a “star”: probably supported by a company whose mediocrity would tend to mitigate rather than enhance the brilliance of the leading light. But the Russians know better than this, and though it may be difficult to imagine “L’Oiseau de{7} Feu” without Karsavina, “Cléopâtre” without Federova, “Prince Igor” without Bolm, it is of the dancer’s association with the ballet, not of the ballet as a background to the dancer, that one thinks. “The play’s the thing.”

There are two personalities, however, which the performances of the Russian Ballet have thrown forward with especial prominence. The first is, of course, M. Nijinsky, than whom it may be doubted whether any more accomplished dancer has ever appeared. He excited the more astonishment, perhaps, on his appearance in London, because the male dancer was hitherto unknown—at least in any other than a grotesque or comic capacity. (Nothing, by the way, could be more eloquent of the debasement of the ballet in this country than the custom of having the male parts taken by women.) But the perfection of Nijinsky’s technical skill, extraordinary as this is, provides but the lesser reason for his triumph. He is an artist as well as a wonderful dancer. He appeals not only to the eye but to the imagination. Conceivably there might be found another dancer with equal command of movement, and another mime with equal subtlety of pose and gesture: but one who can so weld into a single faculty of expression the twin arts of pantomime and the dance is surely far to seek. Consider his dancing, and he seems to be less a dancer (as the word is ordinarily understood) than a mime who adds movement to gesture: regard him as a mime, and he seems rather a dancer who is acting while he dances. Nijinsky, in brief, is the true dancer: dancing is his proper medium of expression, in the use of which he shows himself an artist of fine perception. To watch him as Harlequin in “Le Carnaval” or as the Spectre of the Rose (in which rôles it was the present writer’s memorable good fortune to see him for the first time) is to receive a revelation of what the dancer’s art can compass. Let it be added that in the{8} case of Nijinsky no more unfitting prominence is allowed to the dancer’s personality than in the case of his colleagues already named. One may shudder at the thought of “Le Spectre de la Rose” without Nijinsky as the Spectre, but it is the banality which a lesser artist might produce that is dreaded, not the loss of those wondrous leaps and bounds.

The second outstanding personality is that of M. Léon Bakst, to whose designs for scenery, costumes, and all that is summed up in the convenient word décor, many of the ballets in the Russian repertoire owe no small part of their success. The impression made by the scenic methods of Léon Bakst was a worthy parallel to that effected by the performance of the dancers—or perhaps one should say that the two were but inseparable parts of the same thing, since the services of Bakst to the Russian Ballet have been not less than the opportunities which the Ballet has furnished to Bakst. One scarcely thinks of the one without the other.

The vigour and impulse with which the Russian dancers showed that the ballet, as a means of artistic expression, could be endowed, Léon Bakst demonstrated could inspire the designing of scenery and costumes. Again one finds that a sense of unity and coherence has been the inspiration. Bakst’s broad method is the converse of the stage realist who seeks to counterfeit fact by a laborious building up of detail. He presents the essentials and little more, using colour rather than form to suggest the association of ideas which he wishes to produce. Compare the cool green setting of “Narcisse,” the violent riot of colour which forms a background to “Scheherazade,” the simplicity and dignity of the orange environment of “Cléopâtre,” with the fretful facsimiles of woodland grove, harem, and desert temple which a less original designer might have attempted. In his designs for costumes there is not less vigour and attack. While the conventional{9} “costumier” is drawing a fiddling fashion plate or draping a lay figure, Bakst is portraying not only the clothing which befits the temperament and character of the dramatis persona under consideration, but the very way in which that clothing would by such a one be worn or carried. Especially has he an eye for form and colour in movement—few of his designs for costumes show the wearers in repose—a fact which obviously gives his work a peculiar value for this particular purpose.

It will be readily appreciated how vital a bearing the designs of Léon Bakst have upon that ensemble which has been so strongly emphasised as the outstanding feature, and the fundamental secret, of the Russian Ballet’s success. But it should be remembered that Bakst’s creations as seen upon the stage fall short by a good deal of what they really are. It is inevitable, unfortunately, that this should be so. It is no easy task for the actual scene painter to reproduce upon a large scale the artist’s design with that absolute fidelity to colour and tone which alone can do it proper justice: and that the wearers of the costumes should be able to sustain without relapse their impersonations of the characters so vividly depicted in essentials by the artist’s brush and pencil is more than can reasonably be expected from even the most accomplished corps de ballet. How much the designs of Léon Bakst suffer in translation, only those who have seen the wonderful originals can realise.

The music of the ballets is mostly the work of Russian composers, and the fact that, as a general rule, it has been specially written preserves the unity of purpose. In a few cases the Russians have ventured to lay hands on music to which they have no legitimate claim, and though their sense of the fitting has saved them from banality or desecration, it is notable that these are{10} the occasions when they give the least complete satisfaction. Much may be forgiven for the beauty of the dancing, qua dancing, in “Les Sylphides,” but one doubts the propriety of the employment of Chopin’s music. As an “interpretation” of the latter, the dances are merely ridiculous, but in justice to the Russians it must be observed that they have never put them forward as such. The use made of Schumann’s “Carnaval” and Weber’s “Invitation à la Valse” is more legitimate—indeed the delicate romance of “Le Spectre de la Rose” confers almost a dignity upon the latter somewhat sentimental composition. More recently Debussy has been pressed into service, but the peculiar un-ballet-like nature of “L’Après-Midi d’un Faune” and “Jeux” makes comment in the present connection needless. The fact remains that the happiest results have been obtained from the co-operation of native composers like Nicolas Tcherepnin, Balakirev, and Igor Stravinsky. From the latter has come, in “L’Oiseau de Feu” and “Pétrouchka,” perhaps the most effective music in the whole repertoire of the Russian Ballet—a circumstance which makes it the more disappointing, at least to the simple-minded, that his third ballet, “Le Sacre du Printemps,” should be distinguished by such marked, not to say eccentric, characteristics.

It is regrettable to have to end these introductory words upon a note of disparagement. But the more recent performances of the Russian Ballet, while confirming the hold already established upon the public, have also indicated the way in which that hold may presently be lost. That abounding vitality with which the Russians have invested their work arises out of a devotion to, and enthusiasm for, their art. They have a zest which cannot fail of result. But a belief in the possibilities of an art must be balanced by a recognition of its limitations, or the result is chaos. It is needless to anticipate here the comments which are later made{11} upon some recent additions to the Russians’ repertoire. It is enough for the moment to remark a tendency in them to chafe at what presumably seem to enthusiastic spirits, confident in their own cleverness, unnecessary bonds and restrictions. But discipline is the very essence of Art. To abandon discipline is to run riot, achieving nothing and arriving nowhere.

{12} 

{13} 

{14} 

{15} 

“PÉTROUCHKA.”

Burlesque Scenes in Four Tableaux by Igor Stravinsky and Alexandre Benois.

Music by Igor Stravinsky.

Scenes and Dances by Michel Fokine.

Scenery and Costumes Designed by Alexandre Benois.

THE Puppet has always exercised upon the human mind a curious fascination. There is a lure in the antics of the animated doll so reminiscent of, yet so unlike, ourselves which most find irresistible. Punch and Judy with their attendant satellites furnish, of course, a classic case in point.

The reason is that the puppet show discharges all the functions of the ordinary theatre, with this advantage—that it gives its spectators the privilege of feeling as the gods upon Olympus. With amused and tolerant eye they watch the petty strife of puny creatures who, but for the lack of high divinity, would be life-like effigies of themselves. It may be that “the proper study of mankind is man,” but the occupation is pleasurable only when it can{16} be pursued with such detachment as, in the most complete form, the puppet show makes possible. The travesty of human passions which the mimic stage affords is near enough the truth to intrigue the fancy, while sufficiently remote from reality to leave equanimity undisturbed. No wonder all men show a kindly regard for the queer little figures that provide parodies of themselves which are shrewd, but not too apposite!

Pétrouchka, it is understood, is roughly the Russian counterpart of our familiar Punch, though he would seem to have really but little in common with the riotous Falstaffian character of the English hero. In the ballet named after him, however, Pétrouchka represents not so much certain human traits as himself, the essential puppet. In its trivial way the theme thus presented is a big one. A ballet woven round the puppet stage would have been in any case attractive. To take us behind the scenes and show the mingled comedy and tragedy of the puppet world was a true dramatic inspiration. In the result “Pétrouchka” is an achievement perhaps finer than even its authors had intended.

Not only in their miming, but in their scenery also, the Russians have a subtle art of suggesting local atmosphere. There is a bleak, grey quality about the background to the scene with which “Pétrouchka” opens that conveys an instant sense of Russian cold—a dull frigidity which not all the gay and vivid hues of the parti-coloured crowd thronging the stage can thaw, which, indeed, the latter merely enhance, as they in turn are intensified by contrast against so perfect a foil. One has a sense of opaque, leaden skies, of snow impending.

It is fair-time, the last few days of high revelry before the Lenten fast begins. Carnival is in full swing, and folk of every station are making merry amongst the booths and raree-shows that{17}

{18}

have been set up in the market-place. A spirit of careless jollity prevails, and as the mingled nature of the moving throng betrays, the licence of carnival time has broken down all barriers of ceremonious restraint. Coachmen, Cossacks, nurse girls and grisettes rub shoulders freely with ladies and their escorts, smart officers and sober burgesses.

Itinerant vendors offer their wares among the promenaders, and an eager rogue sets up, for tempting of the revellers’ purses, the clumsy peep-show which he carries on his back. The coins begin to roll in as the gaping sightseers gather round, but his harvest is interrupted by the greater attractions of a dancing girl, who begins upon a strip of carpet laid with care upon the ground a posturing dance, to the accompaniment of strains from a hurdy-gurdy turned by her male companion. She likewise is not allowed to hold the field undisputed, for a rival—also attended by a portable organ—establishes herself hard by. The pair vie with each other in elegant poses and slow rhythmic movements, while the thin strains of the opposing hurdy-gurdies dolefully assail the ear.

Some coachmen, challenging each other to feats of agility, break into a dance. The crowd stays to watch them, paying but little attention to the frequent appeals for patronage of an old man stationed on the top of a booth, who beseeches consideration of his astonishingly lengthy beard. More likely to attract the eye are the{19} pair of handsome gipsy girls who join him on his elevated platform. But it is not until the coachmen pause for breath in their vigorous saltations that the sirens overhead succeed in fastening their allurements upon a festive and inebriated merchant who has pushed his way, with uncertain gait, to the front.

The sudden beating of a tattoo by a couple of drummers, clad in gay livery, summons the crowd to a long booth standing in the background, of which the curtains have hitherto remained drawn. The people press forward with such eager curiosity that the drummers have some ado to keep them at a sufficient distance; but the apparition of a strange, antique head, which is suddenly thrust through an opening in the curtains of the booth, arrests the attention of all.

The head looks quaintly right and left: then the curtains are parted, and the figure of its owner is revealed. It is no ordinary showman or cheap-jack who steps forward and salutes the ring of attentive spectators. The cabalistic signs upon the long robe in which his lean figure is swathed, his cap of curious shape, his flowing beard and yellow parchment skin—these are all attributes which belong rather to a wise magician of the East than to a peripatetic showman. The spectators are evidently interested; there is a something about this queer personage which fascinates and holds them. When, after courtly obeisances, he puts to his lips the flute that he holds in his hand, they press forward with undisguised curiosity.

With gestures odd and unexpected the strange old man pipes forth a tune upon his flute—a jerky little air to which he jerkily sways and twists his lank body. The gaping onlookers follow his antics with half-mesmerised gaze, and when presently he takes the flute from his lips and steps down to the front of the booth they are all agog to learn what sequel to this prelude the drawn curtains will reveal.{20}

When drawn at length the curtains are, an engaging spectacle greets the eye. Propped in a row upon slender rods are three life-size puppet figures. In the middle is the Dancer, most radiant of dolls, with the pinkest of waxen cheeks and the glassiest of stares, elegantly arrayed in a striped jacket and pantaloons. On one side of her is the Blackamoor, a fierce and swarthy fellow, resplendent in green and gold, with gorgeous turban on his head; on the other, poor Pétrouchka, a grotesque figure of fun tricked out in glaring and fantastic motley.

Such are the three puppets which the ancient showman presents to the enthralled spectators—and puppets only, mere things of tinsel and sawdust, they seem as the curtains are drawn aside. They hang limply upon their supports, not making even of lifelessness other than a puppet’s feeble travesty. There is occult power in the showman’s hand, however, and as he touches each in turn the figures are galvanised of a sudden into seeming life. With a quick spasmodic movement their limbs stiffen, their bodies are jerked upright upon the props, and a semblance of alertness is obtained. It is as though on the instant some hidden clockwork springs had been wound up tense and taut.

To a burst of lively music three pairs of legs start nimbly dancing. The bodies of the puppets, seemingly fastened to the supports so plainly visible, remain fixed and stationary. Heads and arms move jerkily and unfreely, but whatever the mechanical defects in other directions, at least the puppets’ legs are well and truly hung. They beat a merry tattoo in concert on the floor; they bend and straighten, kick, recoil and leap with such inspiriting and infectious gusto, that blithe and nimble feet are soon a-jigging in the crowd of admiring and applauding onlookers.

The giddy reel is at its height when, upon a mutual impulse, the puppets start from their supports, and tripping gaily from{21} their little platforms in the booth, come forward and continue the dance in the midst of the astonished spectators. The latter, much excited by a manœuvre so unexpected, gather hurriedly round. The drummers strive to keep a clear arena for the puppets, while the antique showman, sardonically aware of the sensation which his dolls are making, rubs covetous and expectant palms.

The dance develops into burlesque pantomime, Pétrouchka making a grotesque attack upon the Blackamoor with a stick which the showman thrusts into his stiffly jointed arms. Captivated by this new feature of an entertainment already novel, the laughing onlookers press more closely round, and the curtain falls upon the hilarious crowd delightedly applauding the conclusion of the pantomime and dance.

When the curtain, after a short interval, rises again a very different scene is disclosed. You are to understand that the queer old showman has some acquaintance with the black arts. It is probable that from the moment when he first peered through the curtains of his booth you have suspected as much; indeed, if you share but a tithe of the superstitious instinct of the holiday-makers in the fair, you will have been at once convinced of it, and the sudden transformation of the sawdust puppets into the semblance of living, sentient beings (albeit a trifle odd and constrained in their movements) will have aroused little emotion in your ignorant mind except a gaping wonder.

The old rascal is, in truth, something of a magician. But though he has the power to endow his puppets with a certain degree of humanity, there is a limit to his skill, and the poor objects of his mischievous arts are but partially humanised—a kind of apish mockery of human flesh and blood. At bottom they are puppets still.{22}

In worst case, because the most gifted with humanity, is the luckless Pétrouchka. More nearly does the texture of his rag approximate to flesh, the thin sawdust of his stuffing to red and pulsing blood. Vaguely there stir within him the passions and emotions of a man—blind feelings to which he strives mutely, ineffectually, to give expression. He has learned to suffer—and no more.

The black rectangular chamber which the newly rising curtain shows us is that portion of the squalid puppet-box which forms Pétrouchka’s home. Through the door that flies open the showman’s clumsy boot is seen, and the flimsy figure of the hapless doll, ridiculous in his pied and motley clothes, is impelled through the opening by a cruel kick.

For a time he lies in a huddled heap upon the floor, then woefully picks himself up, striving to collect his feeble wits. His pitiful frame is fired by yearnings which he does not comprehend. Aimless impulses stir him to spasmodic, inconclusive movements. He is the sport of he knows not what. In a sudden access of panic he darts to the door, seeking escape from his prison-like box to the life and gaiety of the outer world, from which he has been so rudely torn. There, but a moment ago, he was dancing, and if the applause was mingled with laughter at his ungainly antics, at least it was applause such as the ears of even a half-witted doll can greedily drink in.

But the door is shut. It lies flush, lacking handle or latch, with the wall, and Pétrouchka’s puppet hands, with fingers stiffly glued together and muffled in black babyish gloves, fumble at it in vain effort. Pathetically he totters the length of the walls, groping wildly with his futile arms for an outlet. At last he finds one—a portion of the wall collapses—but it is only a hole pasted over with paper, into which the rickety figure of Pétrouchka nearly{23} disappears. It is no real outlet, it leads nowhere, and dimly the poor puppet realises that even here his hopes and aspirations are baulked. He is a prisoner, close pent. Mournfully he bemoans his wretched lot, his bitter discontent not lightened by ignorance of what he truly wishes in its stead.

Lacking the initiative, the constructive power, which full intelligence alone can give, Pétrouchka can yet perceive his shortcomings. He passes himself in review, and finds satisfaction in{24} nothing. His motions, gestures—who could admire such awkward angularity, such jerky, jumpy movements? Thus he reflects dolefully, as he strives experimentally to move his limbs with easy grace and rhythm. As to his clothes, such gaudy, parti-coloured gear is fit only for buffoons and clownish oafs, not for one who possesses (in how limited degree, poor fellow! he does not realise) the finer instincts. His motley shames him, his involuntary gaucherie moves him to anger with himself. Nothing is right; and with a travesty of emotion which excites a smile while it moves to pity, Pétrouchka abandons himself to despair.

It is Pétrouchka’s crowning agony that he believes himself in love. The object of his adoration is the Dancer, the radiant creature who occupies (in striped pantaloons and the sauciest of caps) the middle compartment of the puppet-box. Beyond lies the Blackamoor, a feared and hated rival. How vie with the latter’s rich and handsome dress, his dashing, martial bearing? The Blackamoor carries a sabre, and though it is Pétrouchka’s exquisite privilege at periodic intervals to belabour his dusky rival with the stick he borrows from their mutual master, the attack (for all the feeble spite with which it is delivered) is but a mimic one—a mere comic interlude in the dance with which the trio are wont to entertain the grinning public. Of what avail in private such brief and sham ascendancy against the subtle, meretricious attractions of his competitor for the fair one’s favour!

Momentarily Pétrouchka’s gloom is lightened by the unexpected advent of the Dancer, come upon a visit to the apartment of her love-sick swain. At sight of her Pétrouchkas fears and doubts are dissipated on the instant. No deepening of the rosy patches on her cheeks encourages the extravagant demonstration of delight with which he greets her; nor does even a momentary softening relax the fixity of her stare. But Pétrouchka, poor fool! takes no

{25}

note of this. He has learnt no art of restraint, and in the sudden revulsion of feeling effected by the apparition of his beloved, he rushes from one extreme to the other. Forgetful now of that gaucherie he was deploring but a moment earlier, unconscious of the ridicule his foolish garb excites, the hapless creature is betrayed, by the ill-disciplined vehemence of his rudimentary emotions, into ludicrous and preposterous behaviour.

The Dancer stands affrighted at the ecstatic transports of her would-be lover. Not in this antic fashion had she expected to be wooed. Deficient in the graces and allurements of a suppliant, Pétrouchka lacks equally the masterful methods of the bolder kind of suitor.

He can but give an incomplete expression to the incomplete emotions with which his puppet’s breast is charged. The result is ludicrous, a mere fiasco. Where Pétrouchka thought to excite admiration he arouses only contempt; he repels where he hoped to attract. The object of his passion, startled at first, but soon disgusted, retires in dudgeon, and as the hapless lover throws himself forward in a despairing effort to detain her the door is slammed to in his face. The curtain, descending, hides his pitiful fumbling as he tries the door anew.

At the other end of the puppet-box, as we see when the curtain next rises, lives the Blackamoor. A more expensive puppet than Pétrouchka, despite less sensibility to the showman’s magic arts, the Blackamoor’s apartment has some pretensions to comfort. A wall-paper of violent hue and florid design (everyone who has played with a doll’s house will recognise it) serves as background to the oriental divan on which the Blackamoor reclines in luxurious ease.

Indolent and stupid, the rival of Pétrouchka is happier than he. Less responsive to the showman’s baneful influence, the swarthy doll{26} has been invested with but little more than the lowest of human appetites and instincts. No dim perceptions of romance are his; his brutish wits have not been sharpened, like Pétrouchka’s, to the point of suffering. Lolling in his gaudy chamber, he passes the time in idleness and folly.

We see him, as the curtain rises, intent upon some clownish trifling with a coconut. Prone upon his back, with legs in air, he shows a doltish pleasure in juggling his toy with hands and knees. Presently tiring of this, his vacuous mind casts round for fresh amusement. A happy thought strikes him, and flinging himself off the divan he rolls over and over across the floor, clutching the precious nut, till suddenly he finds himself, with idiot leer, in sitting posture.

He begins anew his juggling, but the silly game has lost its savour. He drops the coconut upon the floor and stupidly blames his clumsiness upon the toy. Angrily regarding it, he flies into a rage, and fetching his sabre, slashes furiously at the object of his wrath. Failing to hit it, he next finds fault with his weapon, and flings it pettishly into a corner. The coconut still lies at his feet, and a superstitious notion creeps into his turbid brain. Retiring a few paces, he prostrates himself before this fetish that has defied his wrath and violence.

He begins a series of elaborate obeisances designed at once to propitiate the ire which he supposes the inanimate coconut to nurse, and cover the stealthy approach which he nevertheless makes towards it. He grins facetiously as his silly antics gradually bring him nearer the object of his desires. With a final prostration he achieves his purpose, and sprawls delightedly over the nut, just as the Dancer, fresh from her rejection of Pétrouchka’s fervent but ill-proffered advances, enters the apartment.

Coquettishly in her hand the Dancer carries a toy trumpet, and with this to her lips, sounding a lively gallop, she foots it merrily{27} to and fro. The Blackamoor, who took but little notice of her entry, is distracted from his fervent occupation with the coconut. Beguiled by the inspiriting strains of the trumpet, he watches her movements with increasing interest, rolling his goggle eyes from side to side as she trips it up and down.

With sudden ardour the Blackamoor starts up, and flinging away his wretched plaything, seizes and embraces his fascinating visitor. The latter seems nothing loth, and gratified by this easy conquest the Blackamoor seats himself to receive the homage of a further dance. The lady, eager to make the most of opportunity, exerts herself in even livelier fashion than before, and finds occasion to{28} fall provocatively into her admirer’s arms. The Blackamoor is now entirely captivated, and when the Dancer begins, to a sugary, sentimental strain, a pas de fascination of which his sluggish wits at length realise himself to be the object, his fondness is grotesquely manifested. From the edge of his divan he fatuously ogles the fair one, and is thrown into transports of delight when she accepts a rapturous invitation to sit upon his knee.

The flirtation receives unwelcome interruption by the unexpected arrival of Pétrouchka. Fired by jealousy, and impelled by his infatuation for the Dancer, he has escaped at last and come to seek her in the hated rival’s domain. But the poor fellow is so ineffectual that he cannot make even a passably impressive entry. In his blundering haste he gets caught in the swinging door and hangs there, half in the room, half out, an object of derision to his inamorata and her dusky swain.

Even when he has struggled free of this embarrassment and confronts the guilty pair, Pétrouchka is pathetically at a loss. Tortured by vague fears, he has yielded to a vague impulse, only to find himself unable to deal with the situation he has so rashly sought.

Not so the Blackamoor, whose lower type of intelligence is beset by neither doubts nor fears. While the Dancer, with nice sense of propriety, goes off into a genteel swoon, he bounces angrily off the divan, and advances threateningly upon the intruder. Pétrouchka, half urged by passion, half intimidated by force, and wholly at a loss, takes refuge in a futile demonstration, which has not the least effect. Gloating, like a true bully, over the discomfiture of his rival, the Blackamoor hustles him to the door, and with a vicious kick sends him flying across the threshold. Boastfully jeering at his defeated enemy, he executes, as the curtain comes down, a loutish dance of triumph.{29}

Meanwhile the fair, to which the action of the ballet returns in the concluding scene, is still in progress. But evening is approaching, and the revels are beginning to take on a noisy, riotous turn. To swinging, pulsing music there is a dance of nursegirls and coachmen, which sets the feet of all who watch it sympathetically a-stamping. The advent of a performing bear, walking gingerly upright at the end of the chain which his owner holds, creates a small diversion; a more lively one is produced by the reappearance of the tipsy merchant, who scatters bank notes promiscuously among the crowd. The horseplay which has already begun receives a fillip from the inrush of a group of masqueraders (a devil with horns and tail among them) whose hideous disguises cause pretended alarm among the women and girls. Snow begins to fall, and under the play of flickering coloured lights, which spasmodically illumine the gathering dusk, the fun waxes fast and furious.

Of a sudden the crowd becomes aware of a great commotion inside the puppet booth. The curtains are drawn across the front,{30} but their violent agitation, now at this end, now at that, indicates that something untoward is happening within. The passers-by pause and look curiously at the booth. In a moment the curtain at one end is flung back and Pétrouchka dashes forth. Close on his heels the Blackamoor, brandishing his sabre, strides vindictively. The Dancer (agitated, but as pink and white of cheek, as glassy of stare, as ever) brings up the rear.

Fleeing in panic down the length of the booth, Pétrouchka vanishes behind the curtain at the other end. The Blackamoor and Dancer follow. A wild commotion of the curtain at its middle part suggests a fearful struggle within. A moment later the three puppets dash forth again, Pétrouchka still in front and seeking vainly to escape the uplifted sabre. In the middle of the market-place the Blackamoor overtakes his rival, and with a vicious blow fells him to the ground.

The spectators, up to this point too taken aback to interfere, crowd round in consternation. Hapless Pétrouchka lies huddled on the ground, and though they seek to succour him, no sound but a painful squeaking comes from him. He strives to rise, but cannot; ineffectual to the last, he can compass nothing more dramatic at his end than a few indeterminate jerky motions and a last pitiful squeak.

An alarm has been given, and at this juncture a policeman approaches with the ancient puppet-showman, an odder figure than ever, wrapped in a voluminous black coat with a tall hat upon his head. The crowd, bewildered by the strange events just witnessed, draws back and watches the showman with puzzled curiosity as he bends over the prostrate figure of Pétrouchka. Can it be they have been spectators of a tragedy?

The showman is in no wise disconcerted. Stooping, he takes hold of the bundle of gaily-coloured rags that lies so forlornly on{31} the street, and lifts it up. It dangles limp and lifeless from his upraised hand before the astonished eyes of all. A corpse? Nothing of the sort—a doll! Incredulous hands are stretched out to touch, but there is no need of that. The showman begs the company to see for themselves. The head is wooden; the body (as a thin powdery stream falling to the pavement testifies) is stuffed with sawdust!

The crowd disperses. Satisfied that the tragedy was no tragedy, they yet feel a distaste for the scene of an occurrence so disturbing, and drift away to another part of the fair. The showman is left alone.

With a shrug the old magician moves towards his booth, trailing behind him the draggled figure of his puppet. As he nears{32} the steps a shrill screech bursts upon his ears. He starts and looks fearfully about him, for he recognises the sound. Again the screech greets him, and looking up he espies, mopping and mowing above the cornice of the booth, the ghostly figure of Pétrouchka.

The trailing bundle of rags and sawdust drops from the sorcerer’s hands. Horror-struck, he turns and flees.

“Pétrouchka” is the joint work of MM. Igor Stravinsky and Alexandre Benois, of whom the former composed the music, while the latter designed the scenery and costumes. The restraint, the fine selective instinct, which Benois has shown in his manipulation of the wealth of material lying to his hand produces a most artistic result. The local colour is firmly, but without offending emphasis, insisted upon—that it is a Russian fair in which we find ourselves, there is no mistaking. Nor does he lack humour; nothing could be defter than the grotesque touches with which the rival puppets’ boxes are adorned, nothing more truly bizarre than the opera cloak and silk hat in which he garbs the fantastic showman for the dénouement.

In “Pétrouchka,” as in “L’Oiseau de Feu,” Stravinsky shows himself a master of the art of writing ballet music. Throughout the four scenes he displays not only a nice sense of dramatic fitness, but a shrewd appreciation of character. Whether his theme is the quasi-pathetic sufferings of Pétrouchka, the dollish coquetry of the Dancer, or the grotesque humours of the Blackamoor, he never fails to be expressive. In the treatment of such a subject as “Pétrouchka” (described by the authors as a series of “burlesque scenes”) his humorous perception is of large assistance. In the trumpet dance, for instance, by which the Blackamoor is first inveigled into the fair one’s toils, or in the slower pas de fascination by which the conquest of him is completed, Stravinsky’s sense of the ludicrous has turned two slender occasions to most{33} diverting account. Conceive a tender, sentimental passage between two grotesque dolls, and in these engaging little melodies you have the exact expression of the absurd situation. Even more ingenious, as a piece of clever orchestration, is a passage at the outset of the opening scene, where the composer succeeds not only in reproducing (with the merest note of burlesque) the peculiar sounds of an antique hurdy-gurdy, but weaves the opposition between two such competing instruments into a most entertaining and harmonious discord. As to the music which hurries the revels of the carnival upon their riotous course, it has the true note of full-blooded vigorous enjoyment—a rhythmic pulsing quality which belongs to the fresh and unsophisticated pleasure of simple folk not too much hampered by conventions.

“Pétrouchka,” however, would fall short of its ultimate effect but for the subtle art of its interpreters. Kotchetovsky, as the Blackamoor, wonderfully realises the undisciplined temper and coarse appetites which are all of humanity that this puppet has acquired; and the Dancer, whether played by Karsavina or Nijinska, pirouettes or tiptoes with the exactitude of mechanical action. But to the presentation of Pétrouchka Nijinsky brings more than mere cleverness. There is a touch of diablerie in his impersonation of the luckless puppet which most poignantly conveys the sense of atrophied humanity. It is not merely that from his jerky half-mechanical motions one can deduce the exact anatomy of the doll, a joint here, a loosely hung limb there; he puts the whole character upon a plane above the level of mere grotesquery. Pétrouchka in his hands acquires a significance which places him amongst the centaurs and other half-brute, half-human creatures of mythology. That the ballet is thereby endowed with a meaning, an inwardness, which it might not otherwise possess, must be accounted as a tribute to the dancer’s genius.

{34} 

{35} 

{36} 

{37} 

THAMAR.

Choreographic Drama by Léon Bakst

Music by Balakirev.

Scenes and Dances by Michel Fokine.

Scenery and Costumes Designed by Léon Bakst.

IN no ballet, perhaps, are the resources of the Russians so characteristically and comprehensively displayed as in “Thamar.” In certain other spectacles particular aspects of their art receive more emphasis, are more acutely perceived. But in this barbaric legend from the far Caucasus their powers are revealed at their ripest and fullest. There is a “body,” a full-blooded vigour in this swift, fierce drama, and its vivid enactment, which bespeaks maturity. The miming, the dancing, the very mise-en-scène draw fire from quickened pulses, albeit so subordinated to controlling restraint, that of no ballet is it less possible to resolve into component elements the spontaneous, arresting whole. The ensemble is perfect. And what “Thamar” lacks in preciosity is compensated by abounding vitality.{38}

It is possibly not mere fancy which suggests that in “Thamar” the Russians give peculiarly spontaneous vent to their artistic impulses. Western Europe has a proverb, which it would scarce be gallant to repeat here, anent the affinity between a Russian and a Tartar; and it would certainly seem as if to the presentment upon the stage of this old tale from the folk-lore of wild Georgia had gone a native appreciation—a relish—of all that it embodies, which must be wanting to the treatment of themes more conventional or exotic. Only in the wonderful exuberance of the crowded Moscow fair in “Pétrouchka” does one find again that subtle access of spontaneity and vitality which can derive from a national instinct alone.

For the story of “Thamar” it seems there is some warrant in history. At least tradition reports that the castle, now in ruins, which stands in the gorge of Dariol, had once a royal mistress, whose inhospitable custom it was to lure unsuspecting strangers into her toils, and presently cause them to be hurled to destruction from a secret door giving upon a precipitous face of the rocky crag on which the castle is perched. What measure of historical fact is foundation for the legend, who shall say? Certain it is that the tale has lost nothing by the telling, in the handing down from one generation to another; that the lurid colours in which Queen Thamar’s character has been painted have lost nothing—have gained, indeed—in intensity. Yet, if time has not mellowed their barbaric crudity, at least it has arranged them decoratively. Romance has been busy at her loom, from which at length has issued a legend so cunningly woven as needs only the gorgeous embroidery of the Russians’ art to reach an apotheosis.

The master hand of Léon Bakst has designed nothing more startling and impressive than the great chamber of the castle in which Queen Thamar holds perpetual court. By some wondrous trick of{39}

{40}

his art he has induced a sense of height that leads the eye upward far beyond the proscenium’s limit, and creates a loftiness that seems to dwarf the figures grouped about the floor. Even more remarkable is the form and colouring of the decorations. Crude is the word that first presents itself, but crudity ill suggests the ultimate harmony of this astounding tableau. Violence is rather the note—violence of colour, violence of form: meet setting for such deeds of violence as are soon to be enacted. And as with the chamber, so with the dress of its occupants—the splendid, violent trappings of æsthetic barbarism. Nothing is subdued; it is the very occasion, as the spectator thrills to feel, for passions to be loosed, unbridled and untamed.

Something of the same inspiration seems to have prompted Balakirev’s music, which not only hurries the swift drama to its impending climax, but seems charged with a sensuous violence of its own that enhances, to a point of fascination almost dreadful, the orgy of passionate intoxication on the stage.

Thamar is an exciting experience. In the first few bars of the short prelude which precedes the rising of the curtain the note of mystery, of eerie phantasy, is struck. The listener is transported from reality to the region of legendary lore. To such strains would one choose to read of witchcraft and of magic spells; at least, the music has that degree of kinship with those voices of the elements which raise the hair with unfelt breath, and send a shiver through the stoutest heart.

The curtains, lifting silently, disclose that striking tableau just referred to—a coup d’œil in a very special sense. Upon a divan at the back, sinuous, a panther in repose, lies Thamar. At one side, flooding the head of the couch with evening light, a huge casement gives outlook, over the river’s turbulent flood, upon the wild snow-covered slopes that surround the mountain fastness of the Queen.{41} In groups about the chamber are scattered Thamar’s women, some close in attendance upon their mistress, others reclining on low cushions, a few watching intently the distant prospect through the open window. Guarding the door, tall henchmen.

A steadfast immobility has transfixed all. So, statuesque, stood the guards and retinue of the Sleeping Beauty. This much the spectator is permitted, at the lifting of the curtain, to apprehend. The stillness is noted, lasting for just that brief but appreciable moment which invests it with significance, and makes dominant that note of phantasy, of unreality, which the opening strains of music sounded. The illusion achieved, the spell of stillness is broken. A woman, one of those whose watchful gaze has been directed through the window, stirs. It is the merest gesture, but a gesture eager, alert: and on the instant, though none other yet moves, the scene becomes instinct with life.

The woman looks again at the distant scene; then turns to another with a whispered word. At the movement heads are turned, figures that seemed indolent lose their sloth. Something is toward; the whispers are pregnant with meaning. Thamar alone, recumbent on her couch, gives no sign of life. One might suppose she slumbered, but for the cat-like swiftness with which, at a word from one of her attendants, she turns towards the window. Half raising herself, as a stalking leopard lifts shoulders and neck to watch its distant prey, she takes a wisp of gauze from her pillow and slowly waves it above her head. A stranger, errant among the lonely mountain sides, has espied the castle, and approaches. Even now he stands below the walls gazing at the fateful casement. Twice and again the seductive signal is repeated. Its purpose then appears to be achieved, for the scarf is dropped and Thamar, springing from the couch, turns to her expectant court.{42}

Orders are issued, but of these there scarce seems need, with such accustomed readiness do the Queen’s minions set about their tasks. Without ado the guards stationed at the doors prepare to sally forth, wrapping themselves in voluminous black cloaks. A subtle touch, those cloaks. They suggest the bleak, inhospitable wilderness without, emphasising the warmth and luxury of the brilliant scene within—an emphasis which is enhanced by the decorative value, considering the scene pictorially, of the black irregular masses which the shrouded high-capped figures present against the general riot of colour. When presently the stranger is led in, likewise cloaked and muffled, that contrast is again insisted upon. The stranger, it is instantly apparent, is travel-weary: one divines the curiosity and wonder with which he finds himself led into an atmosphere of ease and luxury which his tired senses, despite the bandage over his eyes, must gratefully apprehend.

Meanwhile, the Queen has been preparing for the advent of her guest. As the escort departs to bring him in, the women busy themselves with Thamar’s person. Deftly and swiftly she is robed, and ere the door opens to admit the doomed stranger, she is ready and awaiting her prey.

Wonderful mime that she is, I doubt whether Karsavina in any rôle excels her impersonation of the feline Thamar. Her every movement, under its sinuous grace, has that suggestion of stealth which fascinates while it affrights. From the moment that the guileless stranger is brought before her—for there is that in her attitude, as she awaits his coming, which proclaims him not guest, but victim—till the fierce climax, she never relaxes the tension under which his apprehension of her close-pent, volcanic energy places the spectator. It is as though one watched a panther sporting with some innocent creature that mistakes the play for mere kittenish frolic: as beautiful, as horrid, and as certain in its{43}

{44}

ending is Thamar’s way with her victim. The final pounce one awaits as inevitable: the interval is filled with the exquisite agony of suspense.

Embodiment of action in arrest is Queen Thamar as, for a brief moment, she regards the figure of the unsuspecting stranger. Then, loosing suddenly her restraint, she springs upon him, and reaching up a slender arm with eager fingers tears the bandage from his face. Fiercely she scans him: he is fair to see. So, too, is Thamar, and if in that swift interchange of searching looks the wild blood courses more hotly through the siren’s veins, be sure that passion scarce a whit less fiery kindles in the youth, so strangely and suddenly confronted by the glowing, sinister beauty of the Queen.

At a sign from Thamar attendants come forward to relieve the stranger of his travelling gear. Disengaging herself from his grasp, the Queen retires to a table at the side, on which stands a wine cup and flagon. From the background she watches avidly while her women are busy. The stranger’s cloak and high-crowned hat are removed, and he stands revealed—handsome, well-favoured, a very proper figure of a man. He gazes about him rapt in admiration and delight, but ere he can espy again the figure of the arch enchantress, a group of dancing girls advances and encircles him. The graceful measures which they tread distract his attention as he stands, pleased and diverted, in their midst.

The bevy of girls gives way to a more potent allurement. Thamar herself, darting forward, now begins a dance of fascination before the stranger’s eager eyes. With her first lithe movements she asserts her mastery over his enraptured senses. As the moth round the flame of the candle, he hovers on the outskirts of her mazy dance, the reviving blood within him gaining warmth as he feasts his quickening senses on her beauty and grace.

{45}

As Thamar continues to dance, so increasingly wavers the young man’s hold upon himself. She saps his power of restraint to the very verge; then on a sudden interrupts the dance, and runs to the table. Ere the stranger can collect himself she is before him, offering with regal courtesy a brimming wine cup. He hesitates to drink, but held by the fascination of her eye he suffers her to lead him, unresisting, to the couch. As they gain the steps of the divan a troupe of dancers enters. Musicians, with quaint stringed instruments, are already seated along the walls, and forthwith, a joyous revel is begun.

The lilt of the music, the throbbing rhythm of the dance, complete the spell which Thamar’s beauty has begun. With eyes intent only upon the face of his enchantress, the stranger puts the potion to his lips. As he sets the wine cup down, Thamar eludes the embrace he proffers and glides away. The youth pursues her through the whirling ranks of dancers, but at a sign from Thamar the women take him by the hand and lead him from the chamber. Reluctant to go, he yet submits to be escorted thus, since the purpose is but to attire him more fitly for the night-long revel.

Left alone amidst her court, Thamar draws inspiration for her approaching deeds of lust and violence from the savage frenzy of her followers. Her henchmen crowd around her, goading her willing spirit with the vigour of their dance. Rapidly the frenzy of that dance increases; the armed men draw their daggers, hurling them points downward to the floor in the midst of their whirling evolutions. Thamar, aloof, looks on with heaving breasts. As she watches her excitement grows, till at length with an imperious gesture she bids her attendants bring the stranger in once more. The women fly at her behest, and Thamar, with sudden resolution, masters her outward evidences of passion, and gains the divan just as the stranger, in rich gala attire, is ushered in.{46}

The dance of armed men has ceased, and the entering youth is greeted by a bevy of girls, each with a tabor in her hand, who dance before him, and presently lead him to the royal couch. The youth advances gladly; but Thamar, stealthily immobile, affects to ignore him. Spurred thus to ingratiate himself, the stranger essays a dance before the object of his passion. He is tall, he is shapely, he is active; his leaps and nimble movements display to advantage his virile elegance and grace. Thamar, watching him intently, is swept past all restraint and casts dissimulation aside. Swiftly she darts upon him, and joins him in the dance. The swaying measure which they foot in concert sets their pulses throbbing to the point beyond endurance. As the music swells in volume, the women are caught by the intoxication of the moment, and as the armed men in their turn join the dance, the stranger finds himself supporting the form of Thamar in their midst. The moment of ecstasy, of abandon, is reached. A pregnant pause—then Thamar has flung herself upon the stranger, fastened her lips upon his, and fleeing from the chamber, drawn him in pursuit.

The disappearance of the two protagonists is the signal for resumption of the revels. Violently and yet more violently throbs the music, wilder and yet wilder rages the furious dance. The casement which earlier admitted the sunset rays has long been closed, and one may believe the night to be far spent ere the revels have reached this pitch of bacchic frenzy. The orgy is at its height when the stranger, alone, re-enters the chamber. His breath is laboured, his gait unsteady, as he staggers under the heady influence of overmastering passion. At sight of him the dancers pause, eyeing him askance, curious but aloof. The wretched youth, at grips with his passion, pays no heed to them, but even as he yields and turns again towards the door, the object of his thirsting desire confronts him. The Queen takes him by the hand{47} and fawns upon him, savagely seductive. The youth is wax beneath her fierce caress, and though the watching eyes of all the court are upon him, he can but gaze, spell-bound, upon his Circe.

Thamar, not less than her victim, is in the clutch of over-whelming passion. The hour is at hand, and as the fateful moment approaches, she thrills with fearful expectancy. Bemused, the luckless stranger sees not the dagger which Thamar with stealthy motion of the hand withdraws from her girdle; neither does he note the yawning abyss, revealed through a panel in the wall a watchful guard has rolled noiselessly aside, towards which{48} his unheeding steps are being surely and relentlessly guided. There comes at last the climax. Even as the infatuated youth leans towards her, with a tigerish spring the Queen stabs him to the heart. He is already on the brink of the open precipice; and as he reels backward under the blow, a push from the minion at his elbow sends him hurling to the rushing torrent far below. Thamar with outstretched neck watches, in gloating ecstasy, the consummation of her fell design.

The panel in the wall slides back again. The guards resume their posts of duty. The courtiers, grouped about the chamber, relapse into immobility. The appointed doom is achieved. What was to be, is. Once more the sense of fantastic unreality asserts itself in the spectator’s mind. Mere ghouls, dread phantoms in human form, this dazzling throng of courtiers—not creatures of warm flesh and blood as in the midst of their simulated revelry he had almost deemed them. Thamar alone exhibits emotion. It is not remorse, however, which sets her shivering as with an ague, and turns her knees to water. Reaction must follow action, and the hideous spectre that treads so close upon the heels of indulgence has her in its grip. The hour has passed, the supreme moment has gone; and Thamar, like every true artist, is plunged in depths that are measurable only by the heights she has erstwhile scaled.

The court, regarding her attentive but impassive, is dismissed with a gesture, and the great chamber is cleared of all save Thamar and her women, by whom she is now unrobed. As the festal garments drop from her, the Queen’s exhaustion, physical and mental, seems to verge upon collapse. Slowly she gains the head of her couch, as the arras is drawn from before the window. Night has fled and the purple rays of the dawn pour into the room. The Queen steps into the midst of this luminous flood, drinking{49} deep of the morning glory. Her senses revive, she imbibes new vigour, the black shadows are lifted from her. As presently she lays herself upon the couch, her women sink to rest upon their cushions.

Thus from supreme climax the action of the ballet subsides gradually to statuesque immobility once more. Stillness broods over the quiet figures of Thamar and her women. Realisation comes suddenly to the spectator that the scene is now identical with that which the lifting curtain first disclosed. And at that moment of quick apprehension—a woman stirs! In a flash of inspiration the spectator’s eye, outrunning the action on the stage, foresees the inevitable happening. Is not the whole ghastly round yet fresh and vivid in his mind? The woman looks again, whispers to another. A third bends to the Queen’s ear, and as the curtain slowly descends the treacherous scarf is being once more lightly tossed into the air.

{50} 

{51} 

{52} 

{53} 

LE CARNAVAL.

Pantomime-Ballet by Michel Fokine.

Music by Robert Schumann,

Orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov, Liadov, Glazounov and Tcherepnin.

Scenery and Costumes Designed by Léon Bakst.

“LE CARNAVAL,” which has been built upon Schumann’s well-known music, is a ballet of the type which defies pedestrian description. If one may term “incident” so trifling an affair as, let us say, a butterfly’s flirtation with a flower, then “Le Carnaval” is full of incident. But it has no story, no dramatic development of a plot, to give a theme for narrative. The very characters bear relation to each other only as the personæ of a carnival.

The characters, indeed, are scarcely to be regarded as actual men and women. Harlequin, Columbine, Pierrot and the rest who flit across the scene, are no mere impersonations of those traditional figures of fancy by gay revellers at a bal masqué, but themselves—living embodiments of different phases of irresponsible humanity. The spectator is conscious of an atmosphere of unreality, a sense almost of illusion. On the wings of fancy he is transported far from the realm of adamantine fact, and in a region of pure sentiment sees materialised the whole idea of Carnival.

It is to the appearance of unreality, perhaps, that the ballet owes its peculiar appeal and charm. Elsewhere some explanation has been attempted of the fascination which the puppet exercises on the human mind, and similar comments apply in the present case. For though the figures of “Le Carnaval” are not, as in “Pétrouchka,” poor dolls aping humanity, in essence they are{54} puppets just as much—embodiments in miniature of various human traits at which we can afford to laugh without offended vanity. Watching “Le Carnaval,” indeed, we are verily in puppet-dom; so completely is a severance from matter-of-fact reality achieved.

This note of fantasy is maintained in chief by the exceeding deftness of the performers, and the sensitive lightness of their touch. But not a little is owed to the bold simplicity of Bakst’s décor. There is no scenery; merely an immense green curtain for background, and for furniture a couple of odd little striped{55} sofas. The bareness of the stage, the great height of the curtain behind, have the effect of dwarfing the figures of the dancers; the elimination of all superfluous detail produces a needed concentration of attention on their movements. There being no dramatic action to unfold, sentiment rather than passion—and that of the most artificial kind—being the matter for portrayal, gesture and the dance are here submitted to the severest test as means of expression. Artificiality demands, in representation, the most deft and polished art—of course, of a strictly conventional and academic kind. That formal perfection the Russians achieve in “Le Carnaval”—a perfection so absolute that formality is forgotten, eclipsed in its own apotheosis. So nicely do the performers exploit, while never transgressing, the conventions by which the ballet is conditioned, that for once artifice seems natural, and sentiment as real as passion.

The costumes devised by Bakst are of the Victorian period—crinolines and{56} peg-top trousers, of which the quaint prim style, so far removed from modern tendencies, exactly suits the dainty little puppets that flit magically across the stage. Pierrot, of course, appears as ever in voluminous white clothes, but Columbine and Harlequin, though instantly to be recognised, are dressed a little differently from the mode which the harlequinade, as it used commonly to be presented in this country, has stereotyped. But then, neither Columbine nor Harlequin in “Le Carnaval” are the stilted, meaningless creatures to which the base usage of the English so-called “pantomime” has degraded them. Their true characters are restored: they intrigue the eye as airy figments of irresponsible fancy—she the embodiment of freakish sentiment, he of freakish humour. Columbine is no longer a well-favoured wench attired in a scanty tu-tu, pirouetting with moderate skill upon her toes, but the incarnation of feminine mutability and charm: bespangled Harlequin has lost the silly wand with, which he was wont to slap about him indiscriminately, and has become Arlecchino, the spirit of unbridled mirth and mischief. The dance (in which general term one includes the supplementary art of pantomime) alone perhaps can express these conceptions of modern mythology, and the embodiment, the reality, which Karsavina and Nijinsky give to them is possible only through their perfection in that art. Than Nijinsky’s performance in “Le Carnaval,” no more complete exposition can be imagined of all that the dancer’s art comprises.

Three times have separate couples—fantastic, irresponsible figures—flitted lightly across the stage in arch retreat and gay pursuit, when the curtains at the back are parted and Pierrot’s white face protrudes. Dismally he glances left and right. No one is near, and with every motion of his dejected figure eloquent of suffering, he advances from his hiding-place. A few paces taken, he pauses, the victim not only of misery, but of indecision. Poor

{57}

Pierrot, “temperament “ personified, in everything it is all or nothing with him. Just now he finds himself deceived—and his abandonment to grief reaches the utmost limits of despair. He has no longer zest for anything in the world—and his vacillation is equally intense. Why should he go forward—or backward—to left or right? Why stand up—why sit down? Why do anything, be anything? So he stands there, the picture of indetermination, his baggy clothes hanging anyhow about him, his very limbs so loosely jointed that they seem to be without definite control.

{58}

Sprightly and agile, extremity of contrast to nerveless, flabby Pierrot, there enters Harlequin. Mischief, all spry and self-contained, is ignorant of pity, and Folly becomes an instant butt for mockery and ridicule. Poor witless Pierrot, defenceless against the shafts of raillery, takes a few wild steps in blundering flight. But even that impulse fails him and he collapses in an inert heap upon the floor. And as he lies there, a huddled heap of misery, there passes before his dismal gaze all the mirth and gaiety in which he cannot pluck up heart, for all his longing, to join. He sees the sentimental pairs go by in elegant procession, each swain intent upon his mistress, and never a look, demure or bold, from bright eyes in his direction: he is witness of the pleasant melancholy of lovelorn youth, seeking and in ecstasy finding the object of its tender passion. He is present unobserved at a declaration of love, and it is this which spurs him at length to a spasmodic effort. For as the amorous pair, the declaration made and enchantingly accepted, trip gaily from the scene, Pierrot, with sudden zeal for emulation, dashes madly after them.

It is but a fitful flash of energy, however, and hardly has another sentimental passage ended betwixt a gallant and his fair, when Pierrot, disconsolate, returns. But even as he slouches mournfully in, he encounters Papillon, whose fluttering butterfly grace fills him with instant rapture. Gloom is banished on the instant: the fickle Pierrot is in a transport of delight. Clumsily he pursues her, hat in hand, seeking like a loutish boy to capture her. But her fluttering steps elude him; she leads him here and there in a dizzy maze and is gone, out of reach, at the very moment when the foolish oaf flings his hat down and thinks to have imprisoned her. With grotesque excess of cunning he lifts the hat’s brim, an eager paw ready to pounce upon the pretty captive. But nothing is there! The idiotic leer fades from his face, his whole figure sags{59} as the momentary zest dies out, and plunged once more in the depths of despondency, he drifts aimlessly away.

The gay and sentimental revelry goes on. Columbine appears,{60} with Harlequin dancing attendance. Hardly have they come upon the scene when they encounter Pantalon—an odd little figure of fun with yellow coat, green gloves, and a preposterous stripe down the length of his trouser. Concealing her roguish escort behind her petticoat, Columbine makes an easy victim of the senile Pantalon, only to hold him up to ridicule when he plunges into fervent protestations. Heartlessly she mocks her unfortunate dupe as, whirled off his feet by the agile Harlequin, he is made to beat an ignominious retreat.

There follows not only an enchanting pas de deux by Columbine and Harlequin, but some delicious pantomime between the two.{61} Harlequin makes as if to lay his heart at Columbine’s feet (he verily seems to pluck it from his bosom and place it before her): she receives the tribute with becoming favour, and retiring to one of the sofas in the background, continues the flirtation. Whilst the pair are still seated, there trip on to the stage some score of couples, and amongst them Pierrot, once more animated, and again seeking vainly to capture Papillon. His new attempt is no more successful than his first, and in the dance to which all abandon themselves he alone is partnerless.

In some degree inspired out of his melancholy, however, Pierrot capers awkwardly amongst the rest, till Harlequin and Columbine spy a chance for further mischief. They join him in the dance, one on either side, and seizing an opportunity when Pantalon, as undeterred by his first rebuff as a moth whose wings are only singed, is hovering near, they throw the two into collision, deftly envelop them with Pierrot’s long sleeves, and secure the grotesque partnership with a hasty knot. As the curtain descends the two victims of their gay malice are seen stumbling in each other’s clutch amidst the mockery of the dancing throng.

{62} 

{63} 

{64} 

{65} 

CLÉOPÂTRE.

Choreographic Drama in One Act by Michel Fokine.

Music by Arensky, Taneiev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinka and Glazounov.

Scenes and Dances by Michel Fokine.

Scenery and Costumes Designed by Léon Bakst.

IT is the supreme merit of “Cléopâtre” that it is of an even and sustained excellence throughout. All concerned in its production and performance have surpassed themselves, but since each has risen equally to the occasion there are no outstanding features to distract the balance of the whole. The result is merely the elevation of the latter to a very high artistic level.

It will be agreed that few subjects more suggestive and inspiring could be found than Cleopatra. For colour, movement and dramatic intensity the legend of the Egyptian queen affords opportunities which have in no wise been allowed to slip. Léon Bakst has done nothing more largely fine than the spacious temple in the desert by the Nile, the deep tawny grandeur of which, broad and simple, provides a proper setting for the splendid, gem-like brilliance of Cleopatra’s train. Here is enacted, against a background of choric dances that have more than a conventional significance, one of those fierce passionate episodes which the Russians so vividly present.

Beyond the tall columns which enclose the sacred precinct we see the desert sand and the waters of the Nile. Hither, as the dusk of an Eastern night is enveloping the scene, comes Ta-hor, a young princess, in quest of her lover Amoûn, to whom she has been promised by the high priest of the temple. She is first at the tryst, but in a moment Amoûn comes leaping to meet her. The{66} bow he carries in his hand seems symbolic of his manly youth and virile strength. The lusty vigour of his agile bounds, the impetuous onrush of his approach to his beloved, are eloquent of his careless abandon to the joy of life and love.

But their tender intercourse is broken by the entry of the high priest, who announces to them the approach of Cleopatra and her train. The great queen is come to accomplish a vow made to the deity of the temple, and already is at hand. Soon the head of the royal procession appears, and to the music of lutes and pipes there files into the precinct a glittering retinue.

Attended by slaves and guarded by soldiers, a large object, having the appearance of a painted sarcophagus, is borne in shoulder high, and set down with ceremony and care upon the temple pavement.

The doors of this strange litter are thrown open, revealing within what seems to be a mummy tightly swathed in voluminous{67}

{68} wraps. Delicately and reverently the muffled figure is lifted forth, and stood endwise upon a pair of raised sandals, or pattens, which have been placed in readiness. The outline of a human figure is faintly perceived under the gauzy wrappings, which slave girls now begin gently to unwind. Twelve veils in all, each of rare colour and design, are thus removed, and as their filmy texture is wafted aside, the contours of a female figure become more plainly discernible.

At last a single blue veil only interposes its thin curtain. The hidden figure, statuesque till now, with a sweeping motion of the hand waves aside the gauzy cloud, and Cleopatra stands revealed in all her dire beauty, her queenly dignity and splendour.

Imperiously she stretches forth a hand. Her negro slave, watchful at her side as any dog, darts forward and stoops to receive the pressure of{69} her palm upon his head. Thus supported she moves slowly to the divan, which assiduous hands have placed in readiness at one side. As she declines upon the cushions, the great fans held above the couch begin rhythmically to oscillate. Slaves and attendants group themselves about her, eager to anticipate her lightest command.

Amoûn, unnoticed in the background, has been observant of all that has passed. Less so Ta-hor, to whose quick feminine intuition the coming of Cleopatra has been a presage of evil. During all that has passed, her eyes have been fastened upon her lover in anxious solicitude; she has noted with a pang of terror the sudden passion with which the dazzling revelation of the awful queen smote him. Vainly she tries to hold him as he now strides forward, and approaches the royal couch.

The angry snarl of her negro slave, who bares his teeth like any cur at the bold intruder, gives warning to the queen of the stranger’s presence. But she makes no sign of cognisance, and ere Amoûn can utter a word, or indeed collect his thoughts out of the stupor into which they have swooned, Ta-hor has seized him and is whispering passionately, insistently in his ear. For an instant the young man is recalled to himself, and suffers his betrothed to lead him away. With eyes that nought escapes, for all that they seem to stare fixedly into space, the sinister queen observes the lovers, and the yielding of Amoûn to Ta-hor’s urgent pleading. But she gives no sign except to bid the ceremonial rites begin.

Ta-hor herself must needs lead the dance which now takes place. Perforce she leaves her lover, and with what heart she can muster enters upon her task. Motionless, prone upon her couch, the glittering queen reposes, and from a distance the fated Amoûn feasts his eyes upon her beauty. An irresistible lure attracts him; ere he knows what he is doing he is pressing eagerly through the{70} maze of dancers towards his doom. His movement is quickly seen by Ta-hor. Again she intervenes, and once more, though this time with reluctance, Amoûn allows himself to be withdrawn. But for all Ta-hor’s devotion his destiny is plain.

The rites proceed, and Ta-hor, with aching heart, must resume her place amongst the dancers. Amoûn, feeding the fires of passion in the shadowy background, is forgotten as the dance goes on its way. Suddenly, on a strident note, an arrow quivers in the ground beside the queen’s divan. The dancers cease abruptly, soldiers dart forward, consternation and amazement seize the whole court. Cleopatra alone remains unmoved. Not a muscle of her body twitches, not a flicker of emotion is discernible in her face. She is inscrutable as fate, and as patient.{71}

In a moment the guards re-enter, bringing with them Amoûn, the tell-tale bow in his hand. He shows no fear, but rather eagerness, as they hale him before the queen, on whom he fixes his fascinated gaze. Already the arrow has been plucked out of the ground, and a message, writ on papyrus, found attached to it. As Cleopatra rises to confront the prisoner, her slave girl reads out the ardent profession of love. Unabashed, Amoûn awaits his answer or his doom.

With secret smile the queen surveys this latest victim of her fatal charms. But here Ta-hor, agonised witness of her lover’s self-destruction, flings herself passionately between them. Cleopatra, unmoved even to disdain, turns aside while Ta-hor strives to regain her hold upon Amoûn. This time her pleading is in vain. The die is cast; Amoûn, no longer master of his own will, has eyes and ears only for the siren to whom his whole being is{72} surrendered. Though Ta-hor clings about his feet, he but tramples her underfoot and presses for sentence from his more than queen.

From under the low brow, the basilisk eyes of Cleopatra fasten on their prey. Narrowly she scans her would-be lover, who meets her gaze frankly and undismayed. He is young, he is brave, he is fair to see. An eternal night of love, says the queen, shall be his, if he choose to take it. This night he shall share her couch; at dawn he must drink oblivion from a poisoned cup. Amoûn hears unflinchingly, unflinchingly accepts.

Slaves busy themselves with preparation of the royal couch. Ta-hor, in a last frenzy of despair, casts herself upon Amoûn. Love gives her strength, and by the sheer fury of her onslaught she bears her lover away from the dreadful presence of the queen. But Amoûn recovers himself, and with equal fury resists the efforts of Ta-hor to drag him from the temple. Against his male strength the utmost force of her weak arms is unavailing; he bursts from their clutch and dashes eagerly forward to where his implacable enchantress awaits him. Ta-hor, the last resource of her devotion spent, creeps forth, broken-hearted, to the desert.

Within the temple music and dance provide voluptuous accompaniment to Amoûn’s dedication—nay, immolation—of himself. The whirling forms of the dancers half conceal him as he yields to the seductive embraces of the queen. Released for the while from their attendance on her person, slave boy and slave girl of Cleopatra celebrate the amorous triumph of their mistress in a dance of wild abandon, which gives place to a bacchanale into which a band of Greek dancers, with attendant satyrs, fling themselves in an orgy of frenzied movement.

The riot of dance and music has risen to a climax, when the tall figure of the high priest approaches Cleopatra’s couch. In his hand he bears a cup, and his gaze is upturned to the stars now

{73}

paling before the coming dawn. The appointed hour is nigh. The queen rises, and as her lover, hanging on her every motion, gains his feet, he is confronted by this gaunt minister of fate, death in his outstretched hands. Memory with sudden shock sobers Amoûn’s intoxicated senses. He recalls his doom. For a single moment he hesitates, seeking a ray of hope in Cleopatra’s face. But the queen is adamant, a figure turned to stone. Resolutely the young man receives the cup from the high priest’s hand, but never taking his eyes from his mistress’ face. Resolutely he puts it to his lips, and with his gaze still fixed upon the queen, drains it to the lees.

A spasm contorts the victim’s body. He reels, staggers, and clutching horribly at the empty air, falls writhing at the queen’s feet. The poison is swift, potent; and though the agony seems long-drawn-out and dreadful,{74}

{75}

in a few moments only a lifeless corpse remains of what had been so full of vigorous, ardent life. Silently the train of musicians, dancers and the rest look on at this dire climax to the night’s fierce drama.

Motionless above the prostrate body stands Cleopatra, with arms upraised and outward bent palms. Her countenance, inscrutable as ever, betrays no sign of the ecstasy in which her strange being now exults; more eloquent is the tension to which her supple limbs are strung. Some moments thus she remains, then with a gesture summons her slaves, and leaning her weight upon them departs from the temple. Silently her retinue follows, none heeding the body of Amoûn save the high priest, who casts a black cloth over it as he passes.

Empty save for the dark object lying on the pavement, the sacred precinct glimmers in the growing light of dawn. A small figure appears at the back, enters, and looks eagerly around. It is Ta-hor come to seek traces of her lost betrothed. With hurried steps she advances, looking fearfully from side to side. The dark object arrests her eye; she runs forward and stoops above it. She seizes a corner of the cloth, but fears, for an agonising moment of suspense, to lift it. At last she drags it aside, and finds herself peering into the glazed eyes of her beloved. She casts herself down, chafing the limp hands, kissing the still warm lips. But her tender ministrations are in vain. The awful truth flashes blindingly upon her, and she falls, stricken, across the inert body.

{76} 

{77} 

{78} 

{79} 

LES SYLPHIDES.

Romantic Reverie by Michel Fokine.

Music by Chopin,

Orchestrated by Glazounov, Liadov, Taneiev, Sokolov and Stravinsky.

Scenery and Costumes Designed by Alexandre Benois.

IN some respects the most beautiful, “Les Sylphides” is certainly the most difficult of the ballets to describe. It defies description, in fact. To quote the simple words of the Russians themselves: “Amidst a scene of ruins, a series of classical dances takes place with no purpose but their musical and choreographic interest.” The statement is bald, but accurate. The writer might have expressed himself a little less drily, however; and it may be added here that the choreographic interest of these beautiful dances is of a quality which more than compensates the absence of the dramatic. For once the trite definition of dancing as the poetry of motion acquires a real significance. The music to which these episodes have been set is Chopin’s, and the result is worthy of the inspiration.

The stage setting in which “Les Sylphides” is most familiar is simple enough—a sylvan grove, moonlit, revealing dimly a few fragments of pillars, walls, as it might be, of some ruined temple. The dancers wear the formal garb of the ballet, which may seem not quite in place in so romantic an environment. But the whole affair is frankly artificial; the conventions of the moment accepted, the scene has a charm and fascination of its own which perhaps only a Degas could render. The later scenery which the Russians have employed, though similar in general character, lacks the{80} element of mystery which enhanced the value of the earlier setting as a background to the dances.

In all the troupe of dancers Nijinsky is the only man, and he is seen at first, an appropriate if somewhat effeminate figure with flowing locks and “æsthetic” attire, the centre of a bevy of female figures. The nocturne with which the sequence of musical passages begins is made the excuse for poses, and for the arrangement in harmonious groupings of the whole corps de ballet. It is the preface, as it were, a trifle stilted and formal, to an anthology of lyric verses.

{81}

The poetry begins with the valse executed by Karsavina, a glorious expression of abandonment to joy; no intricacy of mincing steps feebly pattering in the music’s wake, but a generous enlargement to the rhythmic influence abroad. More delicate and dainty, a thing of dactyls and trochees, one might say, is the following mazurka by Nijinska, flitting with the lightness of gossamer in and out the scattered groups of white-clad maidens.

A mazurka also is the pas seul upon which Nijinsky in his turn launches himself. Launch is an appropriate word, for there is something suggestive of abandonment to a tumult of waters in the movements of the dancer’s limbs. He seems to cast himself loose upon the music’s tide, which bears him buoyantly, tossed now here,{82} now there, until its ebb. He is the sport and plaything of the flood of melody; dancing not to it, but with it or by it—almost, indeed, on it.

The intoxication of Nijinsky’s solo is succeeded more sedately by new groupings and posings of the corps de ballet, which serve as foil to the graceful movements of Ludmila Schollar. In the valse which follows Karsavina and Nijinsky are seen, if not in a display of such virtuosity as their previous dances have occasioned, in a partnership of conjoint motion most exquisitely attuned to the inspiring and directing strains. The passage includes a brief pas seul by Karsavina, some charming poses, and a concluding duet which is, perhaps, the supreme perfection of the many perfect things the suite of dances has presented.{83}

The end must needs be hastened after such a climax, and the valse brillante performed by the entire troupe of dancers ends the spectacle fittingly upon a lively note. Karsavina, Nijinska, Schollar—all the principals in turn are thrown into relief against the rhythmically moving background of the white-robed Sylphides, among whom, embodiment of a poet’s dream, leaping, swaying, rocking with a vigour no less than a grace of body to the music’s impelling lilt, “papillone le jeune Nijinsky.{85}{84}”

{86} 

{87} 

SCHEHERAZADE.

Choreographic Drama by Léon Bakst and Michel Fokine.

Music by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Scenes and Dances by Michel Fokine.

Scenery and Costumes Designed by Léon Bakst.

SENSUOUSNESS is the note of “Scheherazade” throughout—a sensuousness that is next-of-kin to sensuality. It is an unbridled affair altogether, and for this very reason the ballet is among the most completely successful performances which the Russians have given. It contains nothing that strains the limitations of their art, its essential motive is simple, even crude, and the condition necessary to its vitality—that all concerned should let themselves go—has been faithfully observed. Human passions, if sufficiently elementary, being identical in all men, there is a sympathy between the methods by which the various authors of this ballet have treated its twin themes of lust and cruelty which produces an harmonious whole. The music of Rimsky-Korsakov, though not composed for the special purpose, has essential qualities which made easy, and amply justified, the task of adaptation. As an artistic exposition of violence “Scheherazade” is perhaps unique.

The ballet is of the same genre as “Thamar,” with which it has many points of similarity. The latter, however, has the advantage of an elusive charm derived from its legendary basis. One might expect that an excerpt from “The Arabian Nights” would also possess this magic, but “Scheherazade” lacks the inde{88}finable something which “Thamar” has. The distinction, arising out of a difference of treatment, is slight, though real—a mere matter of emphasis, of heaviness of touch. “Scheherazade” is the sheer, brute realism of fact, “Thamar” rather the vivid embodiment of fancy.

Scheherazade, it will be recalled, was the teller of the famous tales which for a thousand and one nights beguiled the moody Sultan Schariar. The action of the ballet which bears her name is derived from the incident which according to tradition led up to the Sultan’s savage determination to slay every morning a wife newly-wed overnight,—a practice only ended by the story-telling art of one of the intended victims. Scheherazade herself does not, therefore, figure in the ballet. The title of Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite has been borrowed.

Reclining upon a divan in the sybaritic apartments of his women, we see the Sultan Schariar taking his ease. His wife Zobéide is beside him, soliciting attention with caresses which he scarcely deigns to heed. The other women, of lesser estate than the Sultana, are grouped around, sedulous in the flattery of watchful eagerness to forestall their lord’s least wish. At the monarch’s other elbow sits Schah-Zeman, his brother, recipient in only lesser degree of similar ministrations.

But the Sultan Schariar is in gloomy mood; his brow is clouded, and the blandishments of Zobéide elicit no response. Distraction must be sought. Obedient to a summons, the chief eunuch presents himself, profuse of service, officious of advice. Fussily he hastens to execute the commands which he receives, and in response to his signals three odalisques make graceful entry. They dance before the court, now moving swiftly in a lively measure, now posing lithe bodies and entwining arms as only long training in the arts of seduction could teach.{89}

{90}

{91}

The women of the harem look on jealously, fearing a skill that threatens rivalry with their own. But the Sultan takes little notice of the dancing figures before him, and Zobéide, watchfully intent upon his face, notes with vague premonitory fears his gloom deepening into sullenness. From clouds so heavy lightning may presently flash. Ever and anon the Sultan mutters a secret word into his brother’s ear. They whisper like conspirators.

The dancing girls are presently dismissed, and Schariar rises to pace the floor in moody thought, while the women eye him anxiously askance. Schah-Zeman, too, not without some knowledge of the thoughts which occupy his brother’s mind, keeps watchful eye upon him, and is quick to answer the gesture which soon summons him. Increasing uneasiness runs through the harem, as the royal brothers confer apart, which rises to a climax as the chief eunuch is sent off upon an errand whose purport is not overheard.

But the tension is relieved when the Sultan, with an effort to lighten his brow, turns to Zobéide, and announces his intention of setting forth upon a hunting expedition. Such a plan inevitably implies an absence from the palace, and at the intimation sidelong glances of meaning are covertly exchanged amongst the women. But incipient smiles of anticipatory pleasure are suppressed, and under a mask of disappointment and regret, the harem makes as though to turn its master from his purpose. Is he not their sun? Must the light of his presence be so soon removed, and joy and happiness thereby eclipsed?

Zobéide alone refrains from this cajolery. Flinging herself upon the piled-up cushions, she broods darkly upon this whim her husband so suddenly proposes to indulge. Half hopeful that petulance may succeed where blandishments have failed, she ignores the glances which the Sultan casts towards her. Plainly{92} he is loth to go, but the poison which his brother has instilled works actively within him, and he makes no sign of condescension to her.

Armed retainers enter, attendants bring habiliments of the chase. With these the Sultan is invested by the deft fingers of the women, who make what use they can of such opportunity as this service offers to exercise their fascinations. Schah-Zeman is attended by the eunuchs, who buckle his armour upon him and hand him the long hunting spear. Thus equipped, the Sultan’s brother makes towards the door. Schariar follows him, but pauses to bestow a last curious glance at Zobéide. The latter makes no sign, and the Sultan, brushing aside the last fawning attentions of the women, strides moodily forth. As he passes out of the chamber, Zobéide, repenting of her petulance and simulated coldness, since they seem to have failed in their object, springs quickly from her cushions and hurries after him in a belated effort at detention.

Among the other women, however, no further sign of regret, real or simulated, is to be seen. On all sides faces are wreathed in smiles. Excitement seethes in the harem. The violence of suppression which the presence of their lord demands, on pain of dire and instant punishment, is the measure of the almost childish glee with which, that menace momentarily out of mind, the women fly to the illicit pleasures their appetite for intrigue, unduly nurtured, has devised. On the tiptoe of expectation they scamper one to another, but ever returning to the three doors which stand in the background, hiding one knows not what. Before these mysterious portals the women cluster in chattering groups, while two of their number are sent upon some urgent errand. Anon the latter return dragging with them, in hysterical mirth, the clumsy, grotesque person of the chief eunuch. In the bunch of metal which jingles at the latter’s side are the keys which alone will open{93}

{94}

{95}

the doors so eagerly besieged, and the women, swarming round him like busy flies, begin at once to pester him, with arch and fawning supplications, to turn them in the locks.

But the old janitor refuses. He pretends amazement—is horrified at the bare idea, and will none of it. The women press coaxingly upon him, lavishing endearments. But of what avail the whole battery of female charms against such as he? With knowing leer upon his unctuous, smooth face, he wags his head and still says them nay. But though he fancies himself immune from women’s wiles, he has reckoned without the full measure of feminine cunning. He has his vulnerable point; whatever else he lacks he has at least male vanity. Is he not chief of the eunuchs? are not the keys he loves to jingle a visible symbol of the power which he wields? Look you, he is a person of no small authority and importance.

With quiet change of tactics the women shift their attack to a different angle. In place of supplication they heap compliments upon him. They slaver him with blandishments, flattering him to the utmost of his bent. The fatuous old fool swallows their fulsome praises with avidity, his flabby cheeks puffed out with complacency and self-conceit. But then the women change their tune. Mockingly one hints that his vaunted power is but a sham; others are quick to press the suggestion home. Plainly it can be no real authority which he is feared to exercise. They challenge him with jeers to prove his power; they dare him to use the keys of which he is so proud.

The poor fool is not proof against this insidious assault. Lacking real respect, he clings fondly to its shadow; rather than sacrifice that his vanity will endure any risk. His fat face, but now wreathed in gratified smiles, grows glum and peevish as praise gives place to irony. He hesitates, and is lost. The women press their{96} advantage, and their victim yields. Determined at all costs to demonstrate his power, he thrusts a key into the first door and petulantly turns it.

The door swings open, and from the corridor behind emerges a band of negroes, supple swarthy minions clad in copper-ornamented robes. With stealthy tread they glide among the waiting women, and quickly each finds a consort, eager for her favourite’s embraces.

Futile the eunuch’s protestations that now he has done enough to vindicate his authority; impatiently the women who remain demand that having done so much he shall complete his work. Already repentant of the rash betrayal of his master’s trust, the wretched janitor would stay his hand, but the mischief is done, and bowing to the logic of his own folly, he unlocks the second door. Forth troops a second band of negroes, decked in ornaments of silver, to be received with not less complaisance than the others.

No longer assailed by the insistent beseechings of his charges, the janitor fearfully surveys the scene. Everywhere, dispersed throughout the chamber, amorous couples meet his eye. With sudden terror in the realisation of the frightful risk he has incurred, he turns to go. At least let him make sure that watch is set for his master’s return. But as he turns he is confronted by the imperious figure of Zobéide, who has been leaning, observant, during all that has passed, beside the third door—the door as yet unopened. Avidly she demands the unlocking of this last, with fierce insistent finger pointing her order.

Here is a pretty dilemma for the luckless janitor, a searching test of his vaunted power and authority. His servile instinct quails before the regal mien of Zobéide, her gesture of command and blazing eyes that brook neither prevarication nor delay. Like the slave that he truly is, he turns to do her behest; but even as he fumbles for the key the enormity of that to which he is accessory

{97}

strikes him with horror. The others—that is bad enough, and like to be paid for dearly if discovery—he trembles at the thought—should ensue. But the Sultana, his master’s wedded wife.... Panic seizes him, and with a frantic effort to assert the authority he has boasted, he refuses.

The fires of passion smouldering in the breast of Zobéide leap forth on the instant. A woman scorned or a woman denied—her fury is a thing few men, and least of all an emasculate poltroon, can face. A frightful paroxysm shakes the panting queen. Like a tigress baulked of her prey, she turns upon the grovelling creature who dares to thwart her thus, hardly restrained from flinging herself upon him. To a contest of wills so unequal one ending only is possible. The wretched eunuch cringes before this awful apparition of his royal mistress, all other terrors swamped by the urgency of present fear. The long crescendo of the music rises to a blaring climax as he flings wide the remaining door.

Palpitating with the vehemence of her expectant desires, Zobéide stands before the open portal, clutching her breasts, with eyes glued to the dim recesses beyond. There is a pause, which adds a new delicious torture to her thirsty cravings; then with agile bound, light-footed, there comes leaping towards her a young negro. Round his naked chest he wears a broad, gem-studded band of gold, that enhances the smooth and supple beauty of his dusky arms and neck. Great pearls are pendant from his ears, a golden turban is twisted round his head. His flowing pantaloons cover, but do not hide, despite voluminous folds, his perfect symmetry and grace.

Zobéide feasts her gloating eyes upon her favourite, holding herself back, as children with a box of sweets reserve the most coveted tit-bit to the last. But when he turns towards her she can contain herself no longer. She springs upon him, and clutching his head in both her hands, peers fiercely into his face. The slave,{98} with lascivious grin, submits unresistingly; though he is the queen’s paramour, he is not the less her slave, her chattel. It is she who is the lover, and the slave knows his place. The episode has no savour of romance.

Full length upon the divan Zobéide flings herself, the dusky favourite usurping the place of her rightful lord. The hour for revelry has come, for reckless abandon to the impulse of the moment. Enters a retinue of youths and girls bearing fruits and other dainties upon gorgeous salvers. They pair among themselves, they dance, they bring a riotous infection into the atmosphere of languorous dalliance. The negroes and their fond mistresses are moved to join them, the silver and the copper ornaments gleaming amidst the whirl of multi-coloured draperies, as the fever of the dance increases. Springing from the couch, Zobéide’s favourite precipitates himself into the moving throng. Before his wild élan the utmost efforts of the others pale; with one accord they pause to watch with ecstasy the frenzied leaping of the peerless dancer. From her cushions Zobéide, too, is watching, the fierceness of her momentary restraint giving place of a sudden to an equal fierceness of abandon as she darts upon the object of her desires, and submits herself with him to the music’s intoxicating rhythm.

At length exhausted, they decline once more upon the silken cushions. The slave, emboldened, ventures now upon solicitations. But he is wary in the liberties he takes, fearful lest he go too far ere he has rightly gauged the mood of his imperious mistress. Cunning tells him there is peril in presumption.

One may interrupt the narrative here, perhaps, to comment on the subtlety of Nijinsky’s impersonation of the negro favourite. This is not a rôle in which his distinction as a dancer is revealed to its fullest, but in no other ballet is his genius as a mime more strikingly exhibited. One expects from Nijinsky originality in all{99}

{100}

that he attempts, and his conception of Zobéide’s favourite does not disappoint. The part is not one which, upon a first consideration, would seem to demand a very subtle art, but the emphasis, already alluded to, which the actor lays upon the minion’s servile character is only to be conveyed by very delicate shades of suggestion. The essential servility is most convincingly realised, and if Nijinsky’s conception of the part contains (in some eyes) elements of offence, it is at least a logical outcome of the premises from which the ballet starts, and in performance brilliant beyond praise. In Nijinsky’s hands the negro is, indeed, lasciviousness personified. His ingratiating leer, the furtive roll of his eyes, his whole insinuating aspect as he plies his shameful ministrations, impress a vivid picture on the mind. His ready, even eager, submission to the domination of his mistress, his base delight in her favour, wears a horrid air; one feels that in his different way the creature is as little of a man as the poor beardless janitor. He is lust reft of its virtue, and repels, like lechery, even while he attracts.

But the music’s fevered pulse allows no long quiescence. Again the lithe figure, starting abruptly from Zobéide’s side, leaps madly into the dance—a point of focus to which all speedily converge, the centre of a giddy whirlpool into which the amorous pairs, swept from dalliance to their feet as by a surging wave, are irresistibly drawn. Intoxication grows to bacchic frenzy, as the urging music swells to an impending climax. The eye would reel before the blurr of brilliant moving figures but for that clue to the shifty mazy dance which the central figures of the libidinous Sultana and her paramour provide.

Suddenly into the chamber stalks the Sultan. The dancers stop in mid-career. For a moment they stand fascinated by the apparition of this grim figure of vengeance. The Sultan, too,{101} speechless and paralysed with rage, seems rooted to the spot. Then panic seizes the culprits; helter-skelter they flee in abject terror.

Schah-Zeman, cynically smiling to see enacted once again the scene which so lately desecrated his own household, is at his brother’s elbow. Armed men with naked scimitars have invaded the chamber, and with them are others whose dress proclaims them eunuchs of the palace, underlings of the hapless janitor who is now to reap his folly. Women, slaves, young men, are striving pitifully, in the last extremity of terror, to hide themselves behind curtains, in alcoves—anywhere that seems to offer any possibility of conceal{102}ment. Zobéide, alone of them all, scorns flight. She crouches apart, with heaving bosom, awaiting the anger of her lord. Her villainous paramour, like the slave that he is, has fled for safety.

With lowering glance the Sultan sweeps the scene, and signs furiously to the guards. At once the work of execution begins. Instant slaughter is the doom of all. The eunuchs seize their traitorous chief, and flinging his craven body to the floor, throttle him where he lies. To and fro dash the guards, dragging from vain hiding-places, beneath uplifted weapons, their helpless victims. The floor is strewn with corpses, and in very act of stumbling over such dreadful obstacles, some poor fugitives are caught by ruthless pursuers and put to the avenging sword. Silent, abashed before her husband’s stern gaze, Zobéide cowers amidst all the carnage. A violent tremor shakes her as the cowardly partner of her guilt, vainly seeking to escape his doom, is stabbed in mid-flight and expires convulsively at her feet; but without attempt at exculpation she continues to await her doom.

At length the bloody business is finished; or almost finished, for Zobéide remains. Her the eunuchs and the guards dare not touch without a further sign. Stealthily they advance to where she stands; scimitars are lifted, daggers poised. It needs only the Sultan’s signal for the fatal blow to be struck. But Schariar is torn by a conflict of emotions. Love for the cherished wife of his bosom urges pardon; jealousy, wounded pride, the outrage on his kingly dignity cry vengeance! To the dull minds of his attendants but one issue is possible—were it not for his restraining gesture the keen blades would fall at once.

Then Zobéide, snatching at a last hope, abases herself before her husband. She pleads, she implores, she summons all her wits, her arts, to help her in her dire necessity. Schariar is moved, and{103} as he gazes at the fair form of the woman he has loved so ardently the sternness of his look relaxes. He wavers.

But Zobéide has to reckon with an enemy more dangerous, more implacable than her husband’s wounded pride. Schah-Zeman, self-appointed guardian of his brother’s dignity and honour, observes the scene with undisguised hostility. To him, as to the eunuchs, there appears but one conclusion fit and proper. By no consent of his shall there be any other. Scanning his brother narrowly, he sees the advantage which Zobéide is momentarily gaining. Disgustedly he confronts his brother, and, as Schariar turns his head, with contemptuous foot rolls the dead negro’s carcase on its back. The dusky face leers grinningly upward.

Livid with rage, the Sultan casts his faithless consort from him, and motions impetuously to the armed men. A dozen hands are stretched to seize the victim, but before the threatening blades can fall, Zobéide swiftly turns upon her executioners. Imperiously she waves them back, and snatching a dagger from the nearest hand, plunges it into her side. The thrust is truly aimed, and sinking to the floor before her husband, with a last vain effort to clutch the hem of his robe, she expires at his feet.

Averting his eyes, the stricken Schariar staggers from the fatal spot. In silence, his foot upon the golden corselet of the slave, Schah-Zeman lets him go.

{104} 

{105} 

{106} 

{107} 

LE SPECTRE DE LA ROSE.

From a Poem by Théophile Gautier, Adapted by J. L. Vaudoyer.

Music by Weber, Orchestrated by Berlioz.

Scenes and Dances by Michel Fokine.

Scenery and Costumes Designed by Léon Bakst.

NOTHING is more eloquent of the Russians’ art than the distinction they are able to give to a theme which, less sensitively treated, would be merely commonplace, if not banal. In no ballet is this refining instinct more delicately employed than in “Le Spectre de la Rose,” which Nijinsky and Karsavina dance to the familiar strains of “L’ Invitation à la Valse.”

It might not be just to call Weber’s music commonplace; but sentimental it certainly is, and with such a “plot” (if an incident so slight can thus be termed) as the Russians, inspired by a dainty poem of Théophile Gautier, have devised for the music’s accompaniment, the faintest excess would have turned it sugary—and sickly. In the nice restraint which they display, the two artists vie with each other—Karsavina as a picture of youth and innocence, of unsophisticated sentiment: Nijinsky as a phantom, conveying the suggestion of being verily the mere figment of a dream, without recourse to that note of the bizarre by which one of less subtle perceptions might seek to insinuate a spectral character.{108}

To the restraint of the dancers is added that of Léon Bakst, whose setting for this sentimental idyll has that simplicity which the situation requires. It is a quaint, almost queer, little bedroom which is disclosed after the opening bars have been played by the orchestra—an apartment daintily decked, and arranged with a kind of prim formality as engaging as the crinoline and flounces of Victorian girlhood: a completely unsophisticated chamber, in short.

Long windows, open to the summer night, show a garden beyond, flooded with romantic moonshine, and at one of these stands a young girl, loth to break the reverie in which her thoughts are held. Her backward glance drinks in the beauty of the night, her pulses more than faintly stirred by the glamour of the dance so lately ended, her whole self thrilling to a potent magic but half understood.

Reluctantly she turns her head from the moonlit garden and passes from the window. She lifts her hands abstractedly to remove the wrap from her shoulders, and in so doing touches the rose that droops upon her bosom. Her fingers close upon it: she plucks it from her dress, presses it to her lips, and though its first fresh fragrance has gone, lingers tenderly over the faint aroma which remains. The crimson rose gives form and colour, deep colour, to the vague sentimental imaginings of the young girl’s mind. She clasps it tightly as she crosses the room, keeping her gaze upon it as she presently sinks into a chair. It is the heart and focus of her thoughts. But lassitude overcomes her, her eyelids droop, and the rose, slipping through her loosened fingers, falls from her lap to the floor.

Allegro Vivace.—A spectral form leaps swiftly into the pale moonbeams, and alights at the threshold of the open window. The visitant thus lightly appearing, like a leaf before the fitful eddy of a{109}

{110}

summer’s evening breeze, is seen to have the semblance of a comely youth, but strangely garbed in rose leaves of crimson-purple hue. It is, indeed, the spectre of the fallen rose, the embodiment of the young girl’s sentimental impulses and imaginings. An image more material would be too gross for maiden meditations so innocent and youthful: it needs must be fantastically that the gentle sleeper’s dream takes shape before our eyes.

It would be as vain to describe the movements of the phantom visitant, as to seek to convey the sound of language without regard for the meaning it expresses. Movements may have an intrinsic grace and beauty, as words that utter no meaning may possess a splendour of sound. But the dance is to movement what language is to words: it implies selection and co-ordination for the purpose of expressing something—in this case the very essence of the sentimental emotions which the vibrant music of the strings evokes. Never was the ecstasy of the valse so irresistibly expressed. Leaping, swaying, its whole being abandoned to the intoxicating rhythm, the dancing phantom seems to draw the very power which animates it from the music’s throbbing pulse.

Deep in her romantic dream the young girl slumbers passive in her chair, till presently the spectral visitant pauses by her side. It leans towards her, while its hands make gentle passes that subdue her utterly to the magic rhythm. Obedient to the spell she rises to her feet and, yielding herself to the tender guidance proffered, she joins her phantom partner in the dance.

It is a scene of exquisite beauty, this vision of a young girl’s innocent dream of love and joy. Abandoning herself to the allurement of the moment, she dances long and joyously until, at length exhausted, she sinks once more upon her cushions, with her fantastic ideal—climax of ecstasy—prostrate at her feet. She has but to stretch forth her hand.

{111}

{112}

But the throbbing rhythm has died away: the dream is nearing an end. Swiftly the phantom rises, and makes as if to go. Tenderly it stoops over the fair face of the sleeper, and imprints a single kiss upon her brow. The music draws to a close, the appointed hour inexorably approaches. Longingly the phantom lingers, till a fear assails one, lest it tarry too long. But at the last moment it turns, and with a swift run, a magic leap through the open window, vanishes—is gone at the very instant when the music ends.{113}

There is a brief pause. The sleeper stirs and wakes. She starts from the chair and casts a startled look towards the window through which her spectral visitant has fled. But no form, however shadowy, intercepts the moonbeams which lie athwart the garden. Dazed, she turns her eyes towards the floor. There lies the crumpled rose which dropped from her grasp as she fell asleep. At sight of it she recollects her thoughts: full memory of her dream so lately passed comes flooding into her mind. She picks the rose from the floor, and as she presses it to her lips, turns wonderingly to the open window and the still garden beyond.

{114} 

{115} 

{116} 

{117} 

NARCISSE.

Mythological Drama by Léon Bakst.

Music by N. Tcherepnin.

Dances by Michel Fokine.

Scenery and Costumes Designed by Léon Bakst.

WITHOUT reference to “Hélène de Sparte” and “Daphnis et Chlöe,” two ballets in their repertoire which the Russians seem chary of presenting in London, it would be unfair to say that the Greek view of life baffles them. But their performance of “Narcisse,” despite its many beauties, suggests no very confident or happy exploration into classic mythology. One fancies their temperament is too restless, too sensuous, to appreciate the cool, almost austere, repose of Greek ideas. “Nothing in excess” is hardly a motto to appeal to the creators of “Scheherazade,” “Cléopâtre” and “L’Oiseau de Feu.” As a result their treatment is too florid, and at times clumsy. It is not so much that they do not know when to stop, as that they fail to strike the right note in starting.

The scene is a sylvan glade containing a shrine of the goddess Pomona. There is a spring beside the shrine which feeds a glassy pool and gives that cool humidity to the air which Léon Bakst has well suggested by the luxuriance of the green vegetation all around. The glade is shrouded in mysterious twilight when the curtain rises, and the queer forms of sylvan imps are dimly seen, frolicking to the woodland music of a flute. The orchestral accompaniment{118} is charming, but it is unfortunate that the growing light should presently destroy illusion, and reveal what had seemed true elfin sprites as dancers clad in cloth overalls and wearing grotesque masks. One resents the needless clumsiness.

But there is a sound of approaching revelry and mirth. The woodland creatures hasten to their lairs, and a band of Bœotian peasants gaily troops on to the scene. Two and two, in merry pairs, young men and maidens enter. All are in holiday attire, come to do honour to the deities of woods and fields. They make procession round about the mossy dell, they dance, and offer supplications to the gods. These duties over, they disperse. Some fling themselves upon the ground to rest, others gather round the pool, and laughingly splash the water about. The joyous spirit of holiday animates them all.

There come others presently to the grove—a number of bacchantes who are celebrating the goddess of the shrine. For these the peasants form respectful audience while the due rites and ceremonies are observed. Libations are poured, dances are performed. First the leader of the bacchantes executes a solemn dance, which concludes with a prostration before the shrine. Her companions then join her, the bacchic frenzy begins to work, and a dance of wild energy ensues, which is not concluded until a climax of intoxication is reached and the dancers, from ecstasy or exhaustion, collapse.

While the bacchantes still lie prone a sound of distant singing is heard. The voices draw nearer, the listeners in the dell turn their heads expectantly. In another moment there enters running, gracefully eluding the efforts to stay him of two pursuing nymphs, a young shepherd. It is Narcissus—Narcissus the fair and cold: Narcissus of whose beauty all are enamoured, but whom no dart of the blind god has yet pierced.{119}

Careless of his charms, and of the tender woes which he inflicts, Narcissus is in merry mood. He dances joyously while not only the two pursuing nymphs, but every maiden present, hangs in adoration on his every movement. Narcissus has no eyes for them, no thought of anything but delight in his own fair limbs and the joy of movement. He is a young man exulting in his grace and strength, with not a sentiment to dull the keen edge of sheer enjoyment of the act of living.

But even while Narcissus is thus dancing in self-centred abstraction, a female form, raven-haired and wrapped in a purple robe, is seen advancing slowly across the bridge which spans the{120} background. It is Echo, mournful and lonely. Elusively she approaches, appearing now here, now there, before at length advancing into the midst of the youths and maidens. She prostrates herself imploringly before Narcissus. She too is enamoured of the lovely youth.

Narcissus pauses in his dance, and looks inquiringly at the pleading figure at his feet. For once his attention is distracted from himself. He stoops and raises the drooping Echo, gazing into her face. She returns look for look. The interest of Narcissus is aroused: he continues to forget himself, as Echo stimulates his curiosity. He takes pleasure in her, perhaps because in the ardent gaze which she fixes upon him he finds himself reflected.

But the watching nymphs are quickly roused to jealousy. Though Echo seeks to hold him, they tear Narcissus from his new-found pleasure. Derisively they declare that Echo’s love is but a mockery. Incapable of expressing any feeling of her own, she can but repeat the last words and gestures of those who choose to challenge her. Narcissus listens, astonished at so strange a tale. The nymphs, with jealous malice, urge him to test the truth of what they say. Nothing loth, Narcissus advances towards the sorrowful Echo. He dances a few gay steps, and pauses. Falteringly poor Echo repeats the last of them. Again Narcissus dances: again, on the instant that he pauses, the luckless nymph is constrained to imitate his final movements. Narcissus tries her with gestures—and unfailingly he sees, each time he pauses, his last motions repeated before his eyes.

It is true, then—this odd circumstance which the other nymphs related! Much amused, Narcissus breaks into a gleeful dance, and with all the heartless merriment of a wanton boy, indulges the whim of the moment. As he foots it round the hapless Echo he puts her, with unthinking cruelty, to every test

{121}

that his nimble wit can devise. In mute agony Echo responds to his pranks. Does he interrupt the dance to pause before her on tip-toes? She too, must raise herself into that attitude. Does he wave his arms around his head? She must copy the very gesture. So the cruel play goes on until at length Narcissus, wearying of the jest, merrily dances away in quest of some new sport. With him trip the eager nymphs. The peasant youths and maidens follow, and Echo is left to indulge her despair in solitude.

Unhappy Echo! Better to be dumb than condemned in this fashion to play the empty mime, a sport for idle moments. In gloomy abandonment to grief the hapless nymph unbraids her hair. The long black tresses fall about her shoulders, and thus, distraught in spirit, disordered in her looks, she flings herself in abasement before the shrine of the goddess. The mockery of her companions still rings in her ears, and in the first fury of a woman slighted she calls upon the deity to avenge her wounded pride. From the depths of her tortured soul she prays that Narcissus may learn something of the agony to which she is doomed, by giving his love where it can never be returned. The sacred grove darkens, the lightning flashes, and Echo, the bitterness with which her heart is overburdened thus discharged, goes mournfully forth.

The light returns, the cool recesses of the leafy glade invite retirement from the heat of afternoon. Narcissus, weary of his sportive play, returns alone to rest his tired limbs. He is thirsty, and the shining surface of the pool is grateful to his eye. He approaches, stretches his limbs in lassitude upon the sloping bank, and stoops to drink.

But his lips do not touch the water. He remains poised above the glassy surface, staring intently downwards. Out of the limpid depth he sees regarding him a fair and radiant face.{122} Narcissus had never thought that such beauty existed on earth. He cannot remove his eyes, he is entranced. He raises his head—the beautiful image retreats. He stoops—and it comes nearer. He stoops lower—he would kiss the vision. But at the very moment when his lips meet those others, a ripple breaks across the still surface of the pool, the image is distorted, almost vanishes.

The prayer of Echo has been answered. The doom of Narcissus has been pronounced, and he loves where his love can never be returned. He scrambles to his knees, he stands erect. Out of the again placid mirror of the pool his own image smiles upward at him. He makes passionate protestations of love: his image answers him gesture for gesture. He seeks to fascinate by his grace and beauty: grace and beauty not less than his fascinate him in turn. Yet the vision, to his dismay, remains remote. It will not come to him, and though when he seeks to approach, it draws near in welcome, the moment of union brings catastrophe.

While the infatuated youth is thus occupied, Echo returns. Her mood of bitterness has passed, and at sight of the object of her passion all her love wells up anew. Pleading once more, she runs towards him with outstretched hands. But Narcissus pays her no heed. He has eyes only for the watery depths below him, and Echo’s distracted appeal falls unregarded on deaf ears.

Willingly would Echo now recall her prayer to the goddess. But wishes are in vain, and vain her efforts to distract Narcissus from his fate. Once she succeeds in drawing him, reluctant, from the margin of the pool, but the youth seems scarce aware of her existence. Too evidently preoccupied to listen to her pleadings, he is back at the water’s edge, rapturously gazing, as soon as her hold upon him is released. Inexorably it is borne in on Echo that fate is too strong for her. Sorrowfully she turns and goes.{123}

{124}

Alone in the gathering gloom, Narcissus continues in rapt adoration of his own fair image. As presently appears, he is rooted, literally, to the spot. For as he stands there gazing he slowly sinks downward into the mossy soil, and in his place there rises a tall narcissus flower, whose pale petals glimmer luminously in the dusky twilight. From nooks and crannies the sylvan sprites creep silently forth, to pry with timid, curious eyes upon this strange apparition. Upon this ghostly scene, and the forlorn figure of Echo, passing sadly across the leafy bridge, the curtain gently descends.

One regrets to end this account of what is in many ways a charming ballet upon an adverse note. But a protest must be entered against the Brobdingnagian flower, so evidently a thing of paint and paste-board, which is thrust up from the trap-door cavity by which Narcissus makes his escape. The whole business is so monstrously crude and childish that one can scarcely credit its occurrence. In conception the conclusion of the ballet is admirable, but if trap-doors and cardboard flowers (popping up from the soil in full bloom and fresh with the property master’s paint) are the only means by which such an ending can be accomplished, it seems amazing that such ordinarily nice taste as the Russians display should tolerate these enormities. There is a sense of proportion lacking here, as at the opening of the ballet when a clumsy heaviness of hand, seeking to make the most of the elfin creatures of the wood, effectually reduces them to nothing. The poignant final passage between Echo and Narcissus, eloquently expressed by Karsavina and Nijinsky, is spoilt by this grotesque termination.

Happily these blunders are as rare as they are inexplicable. Only perhaps in “Le Dieu Bleu,” with its similar resort to the artifice of the trap-door, its matter-of-fact demons, and impossible{125} flight of aerial steps, is there a parallel to these which mar the beauties of “Narcisse.” Too close an attention to the cult of the body is perhaps the cause of this material, ultra-realistic touch.

“Narcisse” would be best appreciated if one could ignore its blemishes and enjoy its many excellences individually. The dresses of bacchantes, nymphs and peasants embody some of Bakst’s most splendid designs, but these are seen to better advantage in the artist’s original drawings than on the figures of the wearers in the ballet. (This is the case, of course, with all Bakst’s decorations—not excepting scenery, which necessarily loses much in execution from the original scheme—but is especially applicable to those of “Narcisse.”) The music of Tcherepnin has a charm and distinction which would lose nothing by an isolated hearing, while the joyous dancing of Nijinsky is independent of the environment in which it takes place. Possessed of many charming features, “Narcisse” yet lacks a something to make it, as a whole, convincing. The deficiency, one must suppose, is a lack of real sympathy with their subject on the part of the performers.

{126} 

{127} 

{128} 

{129} 

L’OISEAU DE FEU.

Ballet in Two Tableaux by Michel Fokine.

Music by Igor Stravinsky.

Scenery and Costumes designed by Golovine.

AN element of unreality is of advantage in the theme of a ballet. It not only excuses, but demands, the fantastic, for which the means of expression at disposal—pantomimic action, illustrative or suggestive music, for example—provide a suitable vehicle. It eases matters all round, and converts what are obstacles to the convincing treatment of a strictly realistic theme into positive aids.

It may be noted that this element of unreality, in varying qualities and degrees, is present in nearly all the themes which the Russians have chosen for presentation, and is most pronounced in those ballets which achieve the greatest artistic effect. Indeed, these dancers and mimes may be observed to introduce a suggestion of the fantastic, subconsciously if not deliberately, even where such is not necessarily required, seeming thereby to recognise tacitly the useful modification of the restrictions of their art which a{130} remoteness from literal fact effects. “Le Carnaval” would not be the exquisite thing it is but for the impersonal, fantastic character with which the gay, flitting figures of the bal masqué are so delicately endowed. Even when historical tradition is drawn upon, as in “Cléopâtre,” the episode is treated with an imaginative licence which removes it very nearly into the region of fancy.

The plot of “L’Oiseau de Feu” is based upon a folk tale. At least, if precisely such a story is not to be found in any known folklore, it is obvious whence its inventor has derived inspiration. To watch a performance of this ballet is to see one of Grimm’s Tales come to life before one’s eyes—an experience as agreeably thrilling in these later (but let us hope not entirely sophisticated) years, as was formerly a perusal of pages in that immortal book. In some respects, perhaps, it is an experience more thrilling, for the story of the Fire Bird has the advantage of being unfolded to the accompaniment of Stravinsky’s music—an enhancement of its dramatic value which it would be difficult to over-rate. Stravinsky’s orchestral methods, it may be remarked in passing, have a special interest of their own, but it is enough here to comment on the descriptive quality of his music for this ballet, which is great.

The fantastic note is sounded at the very outset by the overture. Strange mutterings and uncouth, unexpected harmonies attune the hearer to an atmosphere of mystery and enchantment; he is ripe, when at length the curtain rises, for adventure in the gloomy forest whose midnight depths are disclosed. For the moment the eye takes in but little detail of the darkened stage. Gradually an open space within the forest depths is perceived, at the back of which stand high gates, giving upon a flight of stone steps. Whither the steps lead, what lies beyond, is hidden by the gloomy shadows. No friendly lamp surmounts the gates to light{131} and welcome the belated traveller. If not the disused portals of some derelict demesne swallowed up by the encroaching forest, they must surely guard the secret lair of sorcerer or ogre. Dimly the wall in which the gates are set can be descried, but nothing else is visible save a low tree upon which a pale moonbeam falls slantingly.

Nought is stirring in the forest, but the midnight stillness is pregnant with mystery. Magic influences are abroad, there is a sense of something untoward about to happen. Suddenly a queer little motif, already heard in the overture, assails the ear; the music glows (if the image be allowed) like an ember fanned; and shedding a golden effulgence all around, the Fire Bird floats downward through the trees. The radiant object vanishes almost as soon as it is seen; but hardly has it gone when a stir among the trees attracts attention, and a young man is seen looking over a low wall that adjoins the mysterious gates. He peers eagerly in the direction taken by the Fire Bird, then vaults the wall and dashes impetuously in pursuit. Such wondrous quarry was never seen before by mortal hunter, and lured by its splendour Ivan Tsarevitch has ventured far from beaten tracks, heedless in his infatuated quest of the danger into which his careless steps have strayed.

But as he dashes across the clearing he is arrested by a faint gleam of something in the moonlight. Wonder fills him as he sees that the tree, which alone of all surrounding objects is illumined, bears golden fruit. He is about to satisfy his curiosity by a closer inspection, when again there is warning of the Fire Bird’s approach.

Quickly Ivan takes refuge beneath the clustered branches of the tree, and from this place of concealment spies upon the glittering apparition of the Bird of Fire. Unwitting of his near{132} proximity the latter disports itself gleefully in the open clearing. Twice it approaches the tree, as if to seize the golden fruit, and each time Ivan, for all his daring, is powerless to make the longed-for capture. The brilliant light which emanates from the radiant creature dazzles and perplexes him. But once more the Fire Bird nears the tree, and this time Ivan, with a sudden impulse, springs forward and boldly seizes the coveted quarry.

There follows a passage between captive and captor, which can scarcely be described as a dance, yet is something more than the mere acting of a scene. Desperately and repeatedly the Fire Bird strives to escape from the strong arms which imprison it; again and again the Prince, though hard put to it to retain the elusive creature in his grasp, frustrates these fluttering efforts. Though dancing, in the sense of rhythmic movement, is not the precise descriptive term for these expressive postures and motions, one needs it to convey the poetic sense of beauty which Karsavina here reveals. It is no easy thing to suggest the panic fears, the tremulous attempts at flight of a captured wild bird; yet by look, by pose, above all by gesture and the motion of quivering, restless arms and hands, the dancer subtly achieves that difficult effect.

Frantically the Fire Bird struggles to escape; determinedly, at each new effort, the strong arms renew their hold. Then the creature has resort to guile, luring its captor to look full upon its dazzling countenance. The ruse is nearly successful; half-blinded by his captive’s beauty the Prince’s grip relaxes, but he doggedly keeps his advantage and release is still denied.

A ransom only will suffice. With sudden gesture the Fire Bird plucks a gleaming feather from its body and holds it forth—a talisman against evil, and pledge of its owner’s aid in hour of need. The Prince, abashed, accepts it, and as he places it for{133}

{134}

safety in his girdle, the Fire Bird, rejoicing with agile dance in its regained freedom, vanishes into the recesses of the forest. As it flits away a momentary compunction pricks the young man. That such a wondrous quarry should elude him irks his hunter’s pride, and he snatches up his cross bow with intent to shoot. But even as he draws the string he calls to mind the compact made, and remembers that he is bound in honour to abstain from new aggression. With petulant gesture he lowers the weapon from his shoulder, and turns to go.

The darkness which has shrouded the forest depths is fading now. Through the no longer impenetrable gloom a sloping bank is seen, to which the steps behind the closed gates give access. Athwart this bank is now discernible a castle tower, and through the archway of this, even as the Prince, with astonished gaze, is wondering whither he should turn his steps, a young girl suddenly appears. She pauses silently for a moment, then slowly advances along the bank. Other maidens emerge behind her from the tower. Flesh and blood, and very fair to look upon, they seem, but in their long white gowns, so suddenly and strangely appearing, they have an almost spectral aspect, and the young man, caution prompting, hastily seeks a hiding-place from which he can watch unobserved.

One by one the maidens, in number twelve, gather upon the bank. The gates fly open at their approach, and with girlish glee they trip forth into the forest clearing. A moment later, hurrying to join her companions, yet another damsel appears, whose mien and richer attire seem to indicate a lofty rank. She hastens to the magic tree and gently shakes its bough. Down falls a shower of gleaming fruit, to the delight of the expectant maidens, who nimbly pursue, helter-skelter, the golden apples as they roll.

{135}

Sportively they dance and toss the apples to and fro, innocently enjoying their hour of liberty, and unaware that any stranger’s eye observes them. But Ivan, in his place of concealment, finds his curiosity irresistible. Bursting impetuously forth, he appears before the frolicsome, now startled, group. In dismay, the maidens drop their playthings and flee in apprehension before the bold intrusion. Ivan doffs his cap, and with a courtly salutation seeks to allay their fears. Observing an apple that has rolled to his feet, he picks it up, and with outstretched hand proffers it gently to the leader of the timid band. She takes it shyly, obviously not insensible to the grace and handsome bearing of the stranger; but upon Ivan seeking to improve this advantage by a nearer approach, all fly from him in fresh alarm. Again he does them reverence, endeavouring by his attitudes to reassure them, and presently has the gratification of seeing their confidence return.

The prince-errant discovers now his whereabouts, and the strange peril of his situation. He is before the castle, it seems, of Kostchei Live-for-Ever, an ogre of monstrous villainy, who loves to practise sorcery on such benighted travellers as may chance to ask his hospitality. Some he bewitches and keeps immured within his dreadful asylum: others he petrifies—as the stone figures looming in the background bear grimly silent testimony. His fair companions, Ivan learns further, are a luckless princess and her attendants, who have fallen under the ogre’s spell, and though escaping malformation at his evil hands, remain prisoners pent within his domain. A brief hour of release nightly is all their respite—and already the moment is at hand when they must retire into the enchanted castle.

Already between the gallant prince and the lovely Tsarevna tender looks have been exchanged, and there follows a charming love passage between the two. The chivalrous constraint of the{136} ardent youth, the shy modesty of the not less ardent maiden, and the climax of mutual surrender are romantically portrayed in expressive pantomime.

But the ecstasy to which the lovers, all intervening barriers broken down, at last commit themselves is quickly interrupted. Warning sounds are heard, and though for these the enraptured pair have at first no ears, the attendants of the Princess are driven by fear to call attention to them. Hurriedly the maidens pass through the magic gates, the beautiful Tsarevna lingering for a last embrace. With difficulty she tears herself from her lover’s imploring arms, and slips through the already moving gates, only in the nick of time. Impetuously Ivan darts forward, but the gates clang to in his face. Within, at the threshold of the dark tower, which is to swallow her up, he has a glimpse of the Princess’ last fluttering signal of farewell.{137}

It is light now. All around is plainly visible the fantastic foliage of the enchanted forest. The stone images of hapless predecessors, who perchance once found themselves in similar plight, are close at hand. Prudence dictates an instant flight from the horrid spot. But the young man is frantic. Warnings are forgotten, caution is ignored. With bold determination he seizes the iron gates, and shakes them violently. They yield to his wrench and fly suddenly open.{138}

On the instant there is a loud clanging of bells, discordant music peals through the air, and forth from the gloomy tower there rushes a terrifying crowd of extraordinary persons—terrifying alike for the suddenness of their appearance, the swift fierceness of their irruption, and the strangeness of their aspect. A horde of savage Indians, leaping wildly down the sloping bank, has pounced upon the wretched Ivan and borne him to the ground, even while he recoils before the staggering result of his temerity. Close upon their heels follow Turks and Chinamen, clowns and dancers—an odd medley of grotesque figures garbed in a glittering array of fantastic dresses. Some bear arms—lances, swords, shields and poniards; others are studded with flashing gems; all comport themselves in some freakish manner, which inspires horror even while it moves to mirth. Here is a comic pair who advance with a kind of jog-trot dance; there waddle a number of wretched creatures with bent, distorted legs. No monarch of bedlam was ever surrounded by so wild, incredible a court.

The effect of this sudden development is startling; in the space of a few brief moments the gloomy forest clearing, now brilliantly illumined, is filled with this astonishing rout. On the steps behind the gates, too, and upon the sloping bank to which they lead, the fantastic assembly is massed. At one side, guarded by his strange captors, and overwhelmed by the unexpected turn of events, the rash Prince regards the scene in stupefied amazement.

The riot of senseless movement which the crowd of figures has maintained continuously from the moment of entry ceases suddenly, and those lining the bank above the clearing suddenly prostrate themselves. In a moment all are grovelling flat, with faces turned abjectly to the ground. Their lord and master, Kostchei Live-for-Ever, approaches—an unclean, hairy monster, with claw-like avaricious fingers, embodiment of malice and all{139} evil. Queer hunchbacks, in motley garb and bearing wands of office, attend him.

The ogre’s restless eye lights upon Ivan, and the latter is dragged forward to confront him. Seeing no trace of pity in that evil countenance, the dismayed Prince makes an effort to fly. But the Indians and the bent-legged deformities fling themselves upon him and he is overcome before he can escape. A ray of hope sustains him as at this moment he sees the beautiful Tsarevna and{140} her maidens hurrying to the scene. Imploringly the girls intercede on behalf of Ivan, but the ogre thrusts them aside, determined to add one more to his tale of victims. He advances to where the Prince stands beside the group of melancholy stone images.

Vindictively the ogre makes passes in the air. The Prince, bracing himself to meet the attack, endeavours to resist the magic influence, and for the moment is successful. But he reels under the strain of effort, and when a second pass is made it is clear that he is within an ace of succumbing. At his final gasp, however, Ivan bethinks him of the feather bestowed upon him by the Fire Bird. He pulls it from his girdle and brandishes it in his enemy’s face.

The ogre staggers back before the flashing token, his discomfiture increasing at the apparition, in the same moment, of the Fire Bird, against whom he knows his black arts to be of no avail. Baffled, he totters to his hunchback retinue, while the Fire Bird usurps his power of domination. With rhythmic gesture it stirs the supine crowd to movement; and the movement it presently excites to a dance, the dance to a frenzy. Now here, now there, flitting to and fro the dazzling creature goads to fiercer efforts. Faster with every moment the pace increases, till the whole mad throng is swept into a wild whirl, which oscillates obedient to the Fire Bird’s waving arms. All at length collapse exhausted upon the ground, and yielding further to the Fire Bird’s mystic influence are presently sunk in slumber. Last to succumb is the thwarted ogre, but even he is forced to give way to the drowsiness which assails him.

Standing amongst the prostrate figures the Fire Bird points to the sleeping figure of Tsarevna, and with signs directs the wondering Ivan to remove her to a post of safety. The young man obeys, and gently props the inert body of the Princess against{141} the trunk of a convenient tree. Then, further following the directions of his protector, he steps into a hollow tree and fetches from it a casket. As he emerges with this in his hand the sleepers stir uneasily, and as he places it on the ground and lifts the lid their torpor swiftly leaves them. Excitedly they raise themselves, while the ogre, starting from slumber, dashes forward in an agony of fear.

From the casket Ivan draws forth a monstrous egg, which he holds aloft. The ogre’s terror is dire—for the egg contains his{142} soul, and he is Kostchei Live-for-Ever only so long as the egg remains unbroken. The strange object exercises an almost equal fascination upon the victims of the ogre’s malice. Every eye is fixed upon it. Ivan makes as if to drop it, and a shudder runs through all; when sportively he throws it lightly from hand to hand, there is pitiful consternation.

The ogre is in the last extremity of fright. Desperately he endeavours to seize the precious thing, but Ivan is too quick, and raising the egg above his head he dashes it to the ground. As it breaks in two Kostchei Live-for-Ever falls dead at his feet. There is a loud crash, and black darkness.

When presently the light returns, Ivan finds himself still in the forest clearing. But the Fire Bird has vanished; vanished, too, the ogre and his strange court. Wonderingly he gazes round. Close at hand, on the spot where previously was the group of stone effigies, a band of young men, handsomely attired, is waiting to greet him: opposite there is a bevy of maidens in whom he recognises the enchanted damsels of his late adventure. Gladly his eye lights, too, upon the beautiful Tsarevna, still wrapped in sleep in the place of safety to which he committed her. The strange scene which lingers so vividly in his mind was not, then, a mere dream.

But who are these gracious persons now advancing to pay him courtesies? Gratefully the young men explain that they are victims of the ogre’s sorcery now released by that monster’s overthrow—no other indeed than the stones come to life. The maidens give him the joyous tidings that in similar wise the spell which held them is also broken.

Even while these explanations are going forward, two servants descend from the castle and fling wide the gates. Forth there comes a gallant company of men and women, no longer full of{143} grotesque antics or clownishly bedizened, but clothed with dignity and in their proper minds. These, too, pay courtesies to their deliverer, who presently perceives that the Princess, awakened from her trance, has risen to her feet. He approaches and salutes her; then before the assembled company, she consenting, embraces her. Pages and attendants bring from the castle a flashing crown and sceptre, and as the Prince is being invested with these, the Fire Bird, its mission accomplished, soars upward in dazzling flight. The joyous climax is reached, and upon the proud figure of Ivan Tsarevitch, surrounded by a loyal court, the beautiful Tsarevna’s hand in his, the curtain falls to triumphant strains of music.

There is not the least doubt that they lived happily ever afterwards.

{144} 

{145} 

{146} 

{147} 

LE PAVILLON D’ARMIDE.

Pantomime-Ballet by Alexandre Benois.

Music by Nicolas Tcherepnin.

Scenes and Dances by Michel Fokine.

Scenery and Costumes Designed by Alexandre Benois.

ONE reason for the remarkable conquest which the Russian Ballet has made of London is that for the first time the present generation—at all events the stay-at-home portion of it—has been given an opportunity of learning what a ballet really is. For the last few decades, at least, the native ballet (if one can call it native) has been a poor, debased thing, clinging to the faded traditions of Taglioni’s day: sadly in need of a revival, but seeking new vigour from mistaken sources.

For a long time the ballet in London lingered moribund, feebly striving to escape death by a gradual metamorphosis into a “revue.” Frequent were the assertions of the wiseacres that neither ballet nor revue were things which could exist in the peculiar atmosphere of London, the real fact being that what was offered under either title was neither one thing nor the other, but a stupidly attempted compromise between the two. The advent of the Russians changed all that. The ballet proper was received with instant acclamation, the revue sprang into popular favour (even to the extent of being imported intact from Paris), and the bastard entertainment which had previously been fostered under the name of ballet was killed stone dead.

Yet this sudden change ought not to cause so very much surprise. That London can claim for practically its own, over a{148} long period, a dancer so accomplished, an artist so genuine, as Adeline Genée, is surely not without significance. If the latter was given poor opportunities for the exercise of her art, that was assuredly no fault of hers. Were impresarios as shrewd before an event as they invariably are after, they might have taken a hint from the never-failing support given to Genée in “Coppélia”—almost the only ballet worthy of the name which had been put upon the London stage for many years before the Russians arrived. It is fair to add, however, that even had the latent demand been recognised (as possibly was the case) the supply would have been a difficult thing to negotiate. The resources of the London maître de ballet are limited.

These reflections are prompted by a comparison of the best which London, a little while ago, could offer with “Le Pavillon d’Armide,” which approaches in its principal scene most nearly, of all the ballets in the Russian repertoire, to the formal, somewhat stiff and conventional pattern which was the vogue at the period when Taglioni, Duvernay, Carlotta Grisi, and Fanny Ellsler held the stage, and to the faint traditions of which the so-called ballet in London, of late years, faintly clung. Although “Le Pavillon d’Armide,” with its succession of individual dances, suffers by comparison with some of the more closely knit, more consistently dramatic ballets, it is yet immeasurably above the level to which London had become accustomed.

The Pavilion of Armida is an adjunct to the castle of a wicked magician—an elderly Marquis in outward seeming—whose hospitality is sought by an unsuspecting young man. The Vicomte de Beaugency (the period of the ballet is that of Louis XIV.) is on his way in a postchaise to visit his future bride, but is overtaken by a heavy storm and prevented, through stress of weather, from continuing his journey. He finds himself in the grounds of a{149} wayside mansion, at which he begs for shelter. He is courteously received by its owner, the sinister Marquis, who places at his disposal for the night the Pavilion of Armida.

This apartment takes its name from an ancestress of the host, as the latter explains to his guest. A feature of its decorations is the Gobelin tapestry, whereon the lovely Armida is depicted, surrounded by her court, and on this the young man gazes long, his curiosity and interest aroused. His host presently departs with polite wishes for a restful night, and the Vicomte composes himself to sleep.

It is the witching hour of midnight. Hardly has the young man closed his eyes when the figure of Cupid, on the clock which marks the hour, begins to fight with Saturn. The latter, vanquished, disappears—the signal for the Hours to troop forth and make a mischievous escape. Time, therefore, is in suspense and nought can challenge Cupid’s sway. The great tapestry comes to life, the figures move and breathe, and the Vicomte, starting from his slumber—or is he still only in a dream?—finds himself in the midst of the fair Armida’s glittering court.

All about him are fair women and brave men, splendidly attired. But despite the pomp and magnificence of the scene, its lovely mistress is distraught. Gallant knights attend her, but one who should be of the number is missing. Armida weeps, seemingly disconsolate, for the absent Rinaldo. The Vicomte, feasting his eyes upon her beauty, is smitten by her fatal enchantment. Forgetting all save the glamour of the moment, he presses forward and devotedly offers himself as candidate for the vacant place. Armida smiles upon him, grants the favour he desires, and leads him by the hand, a willing victim, to the dais whereon her aged sire is enthroned.

It is this scene—the animated court of Armida—which is sometimes performed as an isolated excerpt. Armida is seen at{150} first reclining on the dais, from which she descends to give expression to her mood of ennui. The appearance of the Vicomte puts her boredom to instant flight—at prospect of another victim she is quickly alert to exercise her age-old fascinations. The old seigneur, her pretended father, who is in reality none other than the wicked Marquis, joins the company, and the hapless Vicomte is led to a place upon the dais beside his enchantress. There enters a master of the ceremonies, with attendant heralds, and a fanfare of trumpets announces the beginning of the revels.

These revels provide an opportunity for a series of dances which exhibit the resources of the Ballet in this purely formal aspect of their art. At the outset of the scene, before the entry of the master of ceremonies, there is a long pas seul in which Karsavina displays something of that almost ceremonial grace which was the delight of amateurs of the dance of long generations ago. There comes, too, upon the scene Nijinsky, as Armida’s favourite slave—a rôle intended to afford him opportunities for dancing rather than miming—while as confidants of Armida the leading ladies of the company appear.

The composer of “Le Pavillon d’Armide” is Nicolas Tcherepnin, who has been much associated with the Ballet, and from whom, therefore, peculiarly appropriate music for the dance is to be expected. Charming in itself, it lacks nothing requisite to show the dancers at their best.

It would be wearisome to enumerate the several dances which this central scene of the ballet introduces. The more memorable are perhaps the valse noble, performed by the entire court, the nimble drollery of the seven jesters, and of course the wonderful efforts of Nijinsky, a superb exposition of the famous “ballon” style of dancing. Not the least delightful number is the valse duet between Nijinsky and Karsavina towards the ending of the scene.{151}

As the revels proceed, Armida leaves the dais to mingle in the throng of courtiers. The enraptured Vicomte follows at her elbow, and eagerly submits to be invested with the golden scarf which the fair one casts about him. Wearing this fateful badge, he suffers himself again to be led to the dais, this time to receive the blessing of the aged seigneur on the ardently sought betrothal. Nuptial garments are brought in by slaves, and as Armida herself knots the scarf upon his breast the young man swoons in ecstasy.

The brilliant picture fades. Silently the Hours steal back, and Cupid yields his sway to Saturn. The Vicomte de Beaugency awakes. Gone the glittering court of Armida, and in its place only the dull tapestry that hangs before his eyes. It is daylight—and with the memory of the night still burning hotly in his brain, the young man starts to his feet. A dream—could it have been a dream? He turns impetuously, expectantly, to the tapestry, but all is still. It was a dream! And yet, and yet——

As he strives to steady his reeling thoughts, his fingers touch some object at his breast. He glances down—it is Armida’s golden scarf! And even as he fingers the fateful knot, there enters the Marquis, urbane but sinister, come to inquire how his guest has passed the night. The Vicomte turns distractedly towards his host, and with a flash of intuition penetrates his disguise. An awful light breaks on him—he sways, staggers, and drops dead at the magician’s feet. And as he falls he clutches vainly at the golden knot which has sealed him yet one more of the witch Armida’s victims.

{152} 

{153} 

{154} 

{155} 

POLOVTSIAN DANCES FROM “PRINCE IGOR.”

Music by A. Borodin.

Dances by Michel Fokine.

Scenery and Costumes Designed by N. Roehrich.

THE Polovtsian Dances which recur so frequently in the Russian repertoire belong properly to an excerpt from the second act of Borodin’s opera “Prince Igor.” But the passage at full length requires the services of singers, and for this reason it is the usual custom to present the dances detached.

The long orchestral prelude sounds the necessary warlike and aggressive note, preparatory of the barbaric Tartar camp which is presently disclosed. The huts of the nomad tribe are seen grouped about an open space, round which men, women, boys and girls are lolling at their ease. The smoke of fires ascends into the evening air; a dusky haze envelops the distant steppe. This is the encampment of the Khan Kontchak, to whom, as prisoners of war, after an encounter with the Slavs, have fallen Prince Igor and his son Vladimir.

In the operatic excerpt which should precede the dances, a daughter of the Khan, the lovely Kontchakovna, is seen reclining amidst her companions, who beguile her with music. She herself sings her love for the captive Vladimir, whose presence she sighs for. The night watch is heard upon its rounds, and the love-sick maid’s companions retire. But Kontchakovna, tarrying, hears the voice of Vladimir, who emerges from his quarters and pours forth{156} a declaration of his passion for her. The lovers fly to each other’s arms, but are interrupted by the advent of the Khan, who has come to visit his prisoners.

Prince Igor is shown much deference by his captor, who presently suggests that he should purchase liberty at the price of an undertaking never again to take up arms against the Polovtzi. The Prince, scorning the offer, maintains an indignant silence, from which he refuses to be drawn. In the hope of distracting him the Khan summons the tribe and orders a dance to be begun.

It is at this point that the curtain rises, on occasions when only the dances are presented. The stage picture disclosed is effective in the extreme. The camp is crowded with figures, and the gorgeous colours of the Tartar dresses glow brilliantly in the warm{157}

{158}

light. When singers are available the chorus is massed round the arena cleared for the dancers, and the added numbers greatly enhance the general effect.

A long-drawn chant is the signal for the beginning of the dance, in which a troupe of slave girls, splendidly attired, first perform. They presently seat themselves, and are joined by a group of warriors. To these more are added, and at the head of the band their captain places himself.

A tall, stalwart figure, the captain shakes his bow aloft and leads his men in the dance with all the furious bravura with which, one fancies, he would lead them into battle. There is first an amorous passage—a simulated courtship (or at least abduction!) when the braves steal softly up behind the expectant damsels, seize them, and lift them shoulder high in their arms. Then the Tartar girls mingle with the warriors, and as the dance proceeds it grows more fierce and animated, spurred on by the exultant war song defiantly chanted by the chorus of onlookers.

The appetite for vehemence increases, and a knot of young men dash impetuously forward, slapping their thighs resoundingly as they hurl themselves about with all the skill and daring of a practised acrobat. After them the bowmen dart once more into the fray—for fray by this time it has almost become. Their captain leaps and bounds before them, tossing his bow high into the air, catching it as it falls in mid-career, making as if to loose an arrow from the twanging string. The chanted chorus swells in a triumphant crescendo. The warriors, in strenuous emulation of their leader, goad themselves to still fiercer transports, until with a succession of mad rushes, rank upon rank of prancing legs and brandished arms, this wild barbaric display is brought to its terminating climax.

{159}

{160}

{161}

The detailed movements of this tribal dance are of no great moment. What is of interest is the robust expression which they give to the virile impulses of an untamed race, not yet sapped by civilisation of its vigour. The movements, violent in themselves, are executed with a vehemence and energy significant in its savage spontaneity. One has a sense of latent joy in violence, of every shape and form, for violence’ own sake. Without the songs which should accompany them, the dances suffer some detraction. They represent the furthest extreme from formality to which the dance can go, and the tremendous exuberance which inspires them seems to demand an extra outlet. As one watches the violent gymnastics of Adolf Bolm, of Fedorowa and the rest, it seems astounding (and inappropriate) that they should indulge such boisterous vigour in silence. In fact, one wonders how they keep themselves from shouting! Not even Borodin’s fiercely martial music supplies the deficiency. If ever there was an occasion when dance and song should be one, this is it.

{162} 

{163} 

{164} 

{165} 

LE DIEU BLEU.

Hindu Legend in One Act by Jean Cocteau and de Madrazo.

Music by Reynaldo Hahn.

Scenes and Dances by Michel Fokine.

Scenery and Costumes Designed by Léon Bakst.

IT has been previously remarked, in comment on “Narcisse,” that for all their sense of fitness, the Russians sometimes exhibit a curious inability to recognise the limitations of the stage, and in considering “Le Dieu Bleu,” the charge must be repeated. They are at fault usually when they have to present the supernatural. The criticism applies not so much to their impersonations of supernatural characters—the sense of unreality is finely suggested by Nijinsky as the phantom rose, for example, while nothing could be better than the bizarre characterisation of the half-human puppets in “Petrouchka”—as to their representation of the supernatural circumstances by which such characters must generally be attended. It may seem ungenerous, perhaps, to carp at what are, after all, mere matters of detail, but lapses from an harmonious ensemble become glaring when judged by the high artistic standard which disciplines the greater number of the ballets.

One is tempted to think that here and there the Russians have essayed a task, not perhaps exceeding their powers of conception and intention, but beyond the capacity of their medium of{166} expression. “Le Dieu Bleu” is a fair example of such an attempted flight. It does not fail, but neither does it entirely succeed; and an explanation of the compromise may be found in the synopsis of the ballet printed in the programme. There is no need to quote this interesting passage of description; for the present purpose it is enough to remark that the first thing arising in the reader’s mind is a puzzled query: How are they going to do it? The answer is simply that they do not! The mingling of fabulous or mythical with the real or human is a dilemma upon the horns of which many a stage producer has found himself impaled, and the Russians do not escape the inevitable fate. Their realistic method of treatment consorts ill with the supernatural element in the action of the ballet; and if this is to be expected, and is deemed negligible for the sake of the individual beauties of the performance, it is nevertheless regrettable that, however faintly, a jarring note should be struck. There are features in this ballet which one could spare not less gladly than the miraculous flower in “Narcisse.”

Certainly “Le Dieu Bleu” has many beauties. It shows us, in a multiplicity of radiant dresses massed against a background of daring colour and design, a rich vein in the decorative art of Léon Bakst. It shows us Karsavina in a part that gives full play to the fierce and passionate quality in her miming. But chiefly it is an excuse for the preciosity of Nijinsky. There is something more than the mere accomplished dancer in that remarkable personality. Others there may be (though one doubts it) as graceful, as agile, as versed in all the nuances of the dancer’s art; but over and above his technical perfections Nijinsky possesses a selective intelligence. His is not a merely imitative instinct; he draws inspiration from sources of his own seeking, and that to which he gives bodily expression is the product of his own original genius working under the afflatus.{167}

{168}

In “Le Dieu Bleu,” of which the scene is laid in mythical India, Nijinsky has gone for inspiration to Hindu art, with the manifest intention of exhibiting by his impersonation of the title rôle, of embodying in himself, the essential principles which underlie the conventions of that ancient phase of artistic expression. The imaginative thought, the sympathetic understanding, which he has brought to his purpose must be judged by the result, of which the subtlety of conception and the precision of execution are beyond comment.

The action of the ballet takes place in a rock-girt shrine—a mosaic-patterned platform shut in by high cliffs of tawny orange hue, from excrescences of which, in lazy festoons, hang monstrous serpents. In the middle, at the back, is a pool in which the sacred lotus is supposed to float; a giant tortoise, with gaudily painted carapace, leans over its rim in act of drinking. Massive gates to the left bar the entrance to the shrine which a deep{169} fissure in the cliffs makes possible: a cleft through which the deep blue of the Indian sky is visible.

Round the sacred precinct is seated, immobile and patient, a throng of worshippers. There are shortly to be enacted over a young neophyte the rites of initiation into the priesthood, and with the opening bars of the music there enters a long procession of priests, attendants and others who are to take part in the ceremony. There are men bearing sacrificial fruits aloft in baskets, others bringing jugs and bowls and salvers for the lustral water, which is presently poured out by the high priest before the lotus pool. Then enters a bevy of girls whose sequence of postures, performed with deliberate care, constitute a ceremony of obeisance to the tutelary spirit of the place. The high priest in turn performs a rite of adoration, his tall figure the centre of a group of strangely posing girls. To these groups are added yet others—girls who lead forward kids for the sacrifice, more priests, and a great number of worshippers who crowd in through the opened gates and stand watchful upon the fringe of the glowing, many-coloured assemblage that is grouped about the lotus pool and awaits the high priest’s bidding.

The sacrificial fire is lit, the neophyte is conducted to his place. While the initiation rites proceed a dance is performed by three girls carrying on their arms peacocks, whose gorgeous trains of eyed feathers sweep gracefully from the shoulders of the swiftly moving bearers to the ground. They are followed by another group of girls, whose dancing and posturing ends with a general prostration of bodies as the neophyte, now robed in the garments of his new vocation, is paraded before the circle of approving onlookers.

As he thus submits himself to public scrutiny, the novice offers to all and sundry a bowl, to the contents of which those help{170} themselves who list. The young man walks with abstracted gaze, composing his mind to receive that ecstasy which befits the high solemnity of the occasion. All, save one, regard him with silent indifference. That one is a girl, whose suppressed excitement betrays her to a warning movement as the neophyte approaches. As he reaches the spot where she is seated she leans quickly forward and looks him eagerly in the face. Entreaty is expressed in every line of her figure.

The young man meets that passionate look, and halts abashed. Memories which he thought to have put behind him for ever surge rebelliously into his mind. He hesitates; but with an effort masters his emotion, and hastily returns to his appointed place before the high priest. The incident, occupying but a moment, has passed unnoticed by those around, and as the girl sinks back in an agony of frustrated hope, a number of half-demented devotees resume the rites with a wild dance of frenzied lamentation. As this orgy of self-intoxication swells to a climax, the sacrificial kids are made ready for slaughter. The final moment of dedication is at hand.

Once more the neophyte, led this time by the high priest in person, is paraded before the seated watchers: once more he is obliged to pass the girl who embodies all that life has held for him in the past, before ambition and the lust of sacerdotal power turned him from love and joy. She alone might have the key, perchance, to unlock the door he has so resolutely shut. She has the key, and with a courage born of desperate abandon to love and passion she dares to use it. She breaks from her place, and fiercely casts herself at her whilom lover’s feet. She grovels in abasement, she implores—then, snatching a hope from the indecision which she sees written on his face, she cajoles.

The priests, angry and scandalised at this sacrilegious irruption, seize her and carry her off. But she eludes them, and ere the{171}

{172}

neophyte has time to steel himself, she is again before him dancing with an allurement, a provocative abandon meant for him alone, which shakes his resolution to its depths. A second time the priests seize her; a second time with desperate cunning she evades their grasp and returns to her passionate attack. The young man is torn with fierce emotions; an unequal battle rages in him, love and life contending with his pride and sense of duty. And as he gazes on the beseeching figure before him, ambition, lust of power, and all his new resolves slip unregarded from him. Everything that life holds seems centred in the swaying figure of the girl before him, fount of all the hot-blooded memories which now sweep unresisted over him. With sudden determination he tears the priestly vestments from his shoulders, and with glad capitulation yields himself to the triumphant embrace of his mistress.

Together they dash for freedom. But their passage is barred, priests and fakirs wrench them apart, and the young man is carried off into durance. The crowd disperses silently, and the agonised girl finds herself confronted by the high priest and two of his attendants. A third brings manacles and these are fastened upon the prisoner’s wrists. Then, in obedience to the high priest’s directions, the door of a cavern in the side of one rocky cliff is unlocked, and the janitors depart. The girl is left alone, and in the dreadful silence which ensues she collapses in terror before the lotus pool.

The shrine is bathed in moonlight, when at length the prostrate girl rouses herself from the torpor of despair. Her wits returning, she seeks a way of escape. She tries the gates, but they are fastened close and withstand her frenzied shaking. Vainly she looks for other outlet: the high walls are insurmountable. But suddenly she espies the low doorway in the rock. She hesitates for a moment: it scarce looks to open on an avenue of escape.{173} But at least it offers a chance, and on a quick impulse she rolls the obstacle aside.

A black cavernous hole is revealed, into which the girl peers anxiously. For the moment nothing can be descried in the murky gloom, but even as she summons courage to venture within, a hideous affrighting apparition looms out of the darkness before her face. She shrinks back, startled: fear giving place to sheer nightmare horror as a foul and bestial monster crawls slowly forth from the noisome den. The creature is followed by others, which with dreadful deliberateness emerge from the lair their unsuspecting victim has thus incautiously opened. There are some that drag their black and scaly lengths laboriously, like obese lizards, along the pavement of the shrine, others with gross heads and grinning{174} masks that present a dreadful travesty of human beings in their red, ungainly forms, in the horrid leaps and bounds of squat and ugly legs by which they move.

The girl has fled in panic to the gates across the fissure in the rocks. She clings to them in an agony of fright. But leaping clumsily in pursuit, the crimson monsters seize her in their filthy paws, and bear her bodily away. She slips from their grasp and darts across the shrine, only to find herself surrounded by her captors’ crawling allies. The latter do not offer to seize her, but they eye her with a devilish intentness, and at every step she takes display a paralysing nimbleness, for all the seeming inertness of their flabby bodies, in intercepting her movements and keeping her surrounded by their watchful visages.

In a last paroxysm of fright the girl falls prostrate before the lotus pool. The monsters range themselves around, motionless, but vigilant and intent. But as their victim, bethinking herself of prayer, pours forth a passionate entreaty to the deities of the place, they stir uneasily and presently retire, writhing, a distance of some paces. A brilliant blue light irradiates the pool, the lotus flower that floats within it opens, and slowly there rise into view the god and goddess, tutelary spirits of the shrine. The goddess is enthroned; the god, with reedy pipe in hand, sits with legs and upraised arms bent angularly—a painted Hindu sculpture come to life.

Stepping from the lotus, the Blue God raises and supports the amazed and awe-struck girl. Then, as confidence returns, he gently seats her beside the pool, and before the uneasy monsters begins a solemn dance. Dance it must be called, though it is rather a series of postures—postures which, executed in the flesh, vivify for the onlooker all that he has ever seen in Hindu art purporting to represent the human figure. It becomes apparent{175} that there is a beauty in the harmonious adjustment of angles not previously realised, or even, perhaps, suspected.

One by one the monsters are subdued, despite a feeble effort at evasion, by the power of their intended victim’s divine protector. The goddess then, descending from her throne, shows by her dancing postures, while the god plays upon his pipe, that the{176} female form is not less capable than the male of angular beauty of form. The girl, now reassured, gazes entranced upon her deliverers, receiving with humble gratitude the blessing bestowed upon her by the goddess, as the latter presently resumes her throne.

Scarcely has the god also reseated himself, when the priests and worshippers re-enter the shrine, expectant of finding executed the prisoner’s hideous doom. Stupefied by the dazzling vision which greets them, all fall prostrate in humble obeisance, the girl{177} alone, assured of the divine favour, daring to remain standing. The goddess signifies the protection which she extends, and as the young man for whom the girl’s love has dared so much is brought in, she bids the two embrace without fear. With love and life restored to her, the girl finds outlet for her brimming happiness in a joyous dance, and gladly the reunited pair exchange their vows before the goddess’ throne.

Her mission ended, the goddess sinks slowly from view into the depths of the lotus pool. But the Blue God, ere she vanishes, steps into the midst of the awe-stricken throng. A fragment of the orange cliff rolls noiselessly aside and reveals a broad flight of golden steps reaching into the blue infinity of the heavens. With slow, deliberate steps the god ascends the mystic flight. Momentarily he pauses, and thus is seen, as the curtain descends, above the bowed forms of the prostrate multitude, playing upon his pipe.

{178} 

{179} 

{180} 

{181} 

PRÉLUDE À L’APRÈS-MIDI D’UN FAUNE.

Choreographic Tableau by Nijinsky.

Music by Claude Debussy.

Scenery and Costumes designed by Léon Bakst.

IN the preparation of his part in “Le Dieu Bleu,” Nijinsky sought inspiration, it was remarked, from ancient Hindu art. One fancies him, with appetite whetted by this excursion, eager to explore another field of antiquity, and turning naturally to early Greek, Roman and Etruscan art. His interest already engaged by the strangeness (to modern eyes) of the Hindu forms, his perceptions having already fastened on their angular conventions as food for the dancer’s creative or recreative art, one supposes him readily attracted by the equal peculiarity of such archaic forms as are revealed on Greek and Roman pottery. The transition is easy to understand, for a superficial resemblance is apparent, however great the essential dissimilarity.{182}

What prompted the student to ponder specially the figure of the faun or satyr it is quite impossible to guess. That he should do so, however, is scarcely surprising; for interpretation by the dance it is difficult to think of any conception of classical mythology more likely to appeal to an artist of Nijinsky’s temperament and talents. Type of what is animal in man, epitome of all his unsophisticated lusts and appetites, here is surely an ideal theme for the dancer’s art. Possibly Debussy’s music first suggested the faun; if not, the appropriate orchestral accompaniment—for Debussy would seem to be a composer with whose methods Nijinsky finds himself in close sympathy—was ready to hand; providing not only accompaniment but scenario and plot.

But this was not enough. In those antique urns and vases, with their oddly but vividly expressive figures, there was a potent fascination for the dancer, impelling him to translate into living movement their arrested grace. When that impulse hardened into a definite attempt, the result was “L’Après-Midi d’un Faune,” as presented on the stage, with the assistance of Nelidowa (his partner, as the Goddess, in “Le Dieu Bleu”) and other ladies of the Russian troupe, and the services of Léon Bakst as decorator—a performance which may be briefly described as an endeavour to bring to life an antique bas relief or ceramic painting.

Thus far, it is hardly necessary to confess, is pure surmise; let it be added that it is quite probably erroneous! But some such processes of thought, one imagines, must have attended the evolution of this curious “ballet.” It would be a mistake to take it too seriously, and discuss solemnly its daring transgression of all accepted canons. Too obviously it is a wholly individual affair—a freakish whim, if you like—on the part of its creator, though not the less interesting on that account.

In pursuance of the main idea, the movements of the dancers{183}—or perhaps one should say the impersonators, for of dancing, in the ordinary meaning of the word, there is none—take place all in one plane, their figures are seen in profile, and when they move they do so with sidelong action, so as to preserve the semblance of flatness. Except for the mound upon which the faun is discovered and to which he returns at the close of the episode, the scene consists merely of a backcloth designed by Bakst—a riot of colour which however effective in itself as a piece of pure decoration, is scarcely suited to the peculiar exigencies of the moment. More successful is the outward characterisation of the faun, for which the same designer is responsible. The creature’s lithe young body is mottled with large blotches, dark red in colour, that alternate in bizarre contrast with the fairness of the rest of his skin. A knitted, wrinkled brow, beneath small horns that are curled round the top of his head, suggests a dubious quality of mind—the perplexity of a brain that hovers indeterminately betwixt mere instinct and a reasoning intelligence. The suggestion of character thus subtly conveyed is wonderfully sustained by Nijinsky. By look, by poise{184} and carriage of his body, rather than by gesture (of which there is practically nought) he induces a perception of the vague stirrings of a brutish mind, groping vainly for a realisation of emotions dimly felt.

When the curtain rises the faun is discovered recumbent upon the top of a low eminence. The latter merely projects sufficiently in front of the backcloth to form a ledge, and does not detract from the flatness of the scene. One sees the creature sharply in profile, with head thrown back, playing idly on a long pipe. A bunch of grapes lies beside him, and between this and his woodland music he divides his attention. When he turns from one to the other his movements are quickly executed, so that a sharp profile is almost continuously presented to the spectator.

While the faun is thus engaged, there appears upon the scene below him three nymphs, advancing slowly with sideways gait, knees slightly bent, heads turned in profile, open palms upraised to shoulders. To them enters a fourth running swiftly, but in the same sidelong manner, and preserving the same stilted attitude as she moves. Another party of three is added, and the whole group of seven stand rigidly posed below, and a short distance from, the faun’s elevated retreat. They are garbed in flowing draperies, with hair dressed close and tightly bound with fillets, and as they stand stiffly, angularly posed, in an immobile row, they seem like figures detached from an antique bas relief and propped before the footlights.

The keen animal senses of the faun detect some strange presence near at hand, and peering from his coign of vantage he perceives the nymphs. Such beings are beyond his ken, but the sight of them awakens a vague interest. He yields to a subtle attraction, and descending from his perch approaches the intruders.{185}

The pantomime, if such it can be called, between the nymphs and faun is quite impossible to describe. Such gesture as is sparingly used is strictly conventionalised, and the faces of the performers remain blankly expressionless. Nothing is allowed to detract from the stiff formality of their aspect. For all that, the pantomime is curiously expressive. In his uncouth way, prompted by impulses only dimly comprehended, the faun seeks to woo the nymphs. They are startled and flee, but return almost as soon as they are gone, only to dart off again in sudden alarm. Curiosity alternates with shyness and fear. Only once are the quaint, indeed laughable, angular movements varied, when the faun, with quite electrifying effect, makes a single bound into the air.

Eventually discretion overcomes the valorous curiosity of the nymphs. The last, and most attracted, flees away. The faun is{186} left disconsolate and puzzled, his slow turbid brain striving to grasp the meaning and nature of the radiant creatures that so lately stirred his appetites. Nothing remains of them save a gauzy scarf, dropped in her flight by the last, at which he stares long and stupidly. At length he picks it up, and holding it wonderingly in his hands, slowly regains his rocky perch. A mysterious influence emanates from the scarf, and yielding himself to it, the faun sinks into voluptuous dreams.

“L’Après-Midi d’un Faune” has earned a great popular success, but it is chiefly a success of curiosity. It is novel, it is quaint, it is amusing; but whether it is properly artistic depends upon the interpretation put upon that word. The whole thing is brilliantly clever, a tour de force on the part of Nijinsky, and considered as such one has nothing for it but praise. But as an attempt to vivify plastic art it fails, for it deliberately adopts conventions and restrictions which are proper to the latter, but were never intended to govern the moving human form. Merely to endow with movement a creation of plastic art seems a futile and superfluous purpose, even if possible of achievement; really to vivify is the province of the dancer’s art, which in this “ballet” is crippled by false limitations.

It has been said that Nijinsky, by this recourse to primitive forms, sought to strip off modern conventions and obtain a more forceful mode of expression. But in that case it is not enough merely to copy; he should have adopted the principle, but the treatment founded upon it ought to have been his own. As it is, the true interest of the piece lies in the characterisation of the faun, and one regrets all the more the unnecessary restrictions with which Nijinsky has hampered himself, when reflecting what his genius as a dancer, given proper scope, might make of such a rôle. If he would but play one of Pan’s goat-footed progeny{187} legitimately “in the round,” one might anticipate a creation to supplement, and rank alongside, his wonderful harlequin in “Le Carnaval.”

{188} 

{189} 

{190} 

{191} 

JEUX.

Dance-Poem by Nijinsky.

Music by Claude Debussy.

Choreography by Nijinsky.

Scenery and Costumes Designed by Léon Bakst.

NIJINSKY’s curious production called “Jeux” comes next in order after “Le Dieu Bleu” and “L’Après-Midi d’un Faune.” In the first of the two latter the dancer was concerned only with his individual rôle; his conception of that was, no doubt, his own, but his part in the ballet as a whole was subject to the directing influence of Michel Fokine. In “L’Après-Midi d’un Faune” he was emancipated from control, and the entire performance was of his devising. Having explored the past, it was natural that he should turn his attention to the present, and in “Jeux” we have an avowed attempt to treat the modern aspect of (civilised) life in terms of the ballet. The result is curious, to say the least, and not very convincing.

A lot of ridiculous nonsense has been written about “Jeux.” It was first performed in Paris, and on the strength of descriptions received thence, it was labelled, long before its production in London, a “lawn tennis ballet.” As a fact, lawn tennis has nothing to do with it—nor any other particular sport or game{192} for that matter. It is true that Nijinsky carries a racquet of some kind in his hand, on his first entry, but it is speedily laid aside and is nothing but the merest stage “property.” As for the lost ball which is the casus belli, so to speak, it bears as much resemblance to a tennis ball as does a pumpkin to an apple.

If “Playtime” be accepted as the interpretation of “Jeux” (a translation which the Russians themselves have adopted), the ballet resolves itself into a representation of the juvenile frolics of three children. Certainly Nijinsky in his flannel shirt and trousers, Karsavina and Ludmila Schollar in their short white frocks, bare legs and little socks, look a trifle more adult than the costumes seem to warrant, but that is a circumstance which cannot very well be helped. Léon Bakst has done his best to dwarf them by his spacious garden, with its high gates and big flower plots, but inevitably the performers appear somewhat robust for their parts.

The ballet can only be called such for want of another term. There is no dancing proper; except for a few leaps and runs, the performers confine their movements to a series of postures, and a queer, stilted kind of pantomime. It has been stated that Nijinsky by this “choreography” intends to express the essential characteristics of the movements of modern athletes and players of games, but the entire absence of athletic virility or spontaneous grace and vigour effectively negatives the idea. Or at least, if this was the idea, it has signally failed of execution.

The “plot” of the piece is the slightest possible. Into this not very realistic garden, empty when the curtain rises, a large ball suddenly drops. A moment later the three children enter in pursuit, and in playful mood begin to look for it. Presently, forgetting the object of their search, they indulge in juvenile flirtation. Each of the girls in turn receives the boyish attentions of their companion, and all three are fast forgetting their{193}

{194}

surroundings when a second ball, dropping unexpectedly amongst them, recalls them to their senses and sends them scampering away.

This is not much on which to found a ballet. All that it gives scope for is the presentation of one little scene of no great purport, but the methods adopted to portray the idle moments of a group of children render merely eccentric what might be an engaging spectacle. The intention seems to be, if there is any definite intention at all, to reduce to their essential elements the characteristic movements of childhood. The gestures and poses of Nijinsky the present writer confesses to finding meaningless—at all events in no way suggestive of unsophisticated childhood. But with those of Karsavina and Ludmila Schollar there is a difference. There are occasions now and then—notably when the two girls “make it up” after a tiff prompted by jealousy over the favour of their boy companion—when there is a something about their poise of body which evokes quite startlingly, for all its stilted stiffness, a memory of childish movements sometime noted. There is nothing, it will be understood from what has already been said of the performers’ methods, of the unconscious grace of an eager, impulsive child. But imagine a rapid photographic “snapshot” of such an incident as the one just mentioned between two little girls—the instantaneous plate would show, in its arrest of movement, just such angularity and awkwardness, and also just such a poise, as Karsavina and Schollar display.

No doubt this is all very clever and ingenious, but it seems likewise to be a little futile. Even if essays of this sort come within the legitimate province of ballet, there is very little pleasure, and not a great deal of interest, to be obtained from so highly sophisticated a performance. I do not know whether the music of Debussy was written for the especial purpose of the ballet, or whether Nijinsky, as in “L’Après-Midi d’un Faune,{195}” devised the ballet to an existing composition; in any case the music seems as little appropriate to the theme as the methods of the performers. Debussy indeed is hardly a composer from whom one expects dance music, and his selection in connection with these attempted developments of the art of the ballet seems significant.

The legitimacy—or, to put it more definitely, the feasibility—of these new attempts is open to challenge. The methods adopted by the “dancers” in “L’Après-Midi d’un Faune” have already been described. In “Jeux” the principle seems to be to resolve movement into a succession of arrested poses, and make an arbitrary selection of the latter for presentment. This is as if one were asked to admire some of the individual pictures which in series make up the film of a kinematograph. Granted that it is{196} interesting and amusing to be shown how the film is constituted, it is nevertheless the animated whole which we really want to see.

But an analogy can only be drawn between the kinematograph and the dancer if the latter’s art is regarded as standing in the same relation to the painter’s or sculptor’s as the kinematograph to the ordinary camera. This indeed seems to be the idea upon which Nijinsky has founded “L’Après-Midi d’un Faune” and “Jeux.” It was submitted in the immediately preceding pages that “L’Après-Midi d’un Faune” was based upon a fundamental misconception of{197} the dancer’s art, and the same criticism is prompted by “Jeux.” Even if the premises be granted that to give movement to poses plastiques is a sufficient end, the dancer’s art, like any other, should conceal art; should build up, not take to pieces. The human figure may be reducible to geometrical forms, but the cubist painter would be better employed in proceeding from that principle, instead of to it.

“Jeux,” in brief, in intention, if not altogether in execution, is as clever as a parlour trick, and with a public which applauds cleverness above all things, it would be as popular as “L’Après-Midi d’un Faune,” if it were but equally obvious. But the cleverness is that of a monkey, and as misapplied.

{198} 

{199} 

{200} 

{201} 

LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS.

Pictures of Pagan Russia by Igor Stravinsky and Nicolas Roerich.

Music by Igor Stravinsky.

Choreography by Nijinsky.

Scenery and Costumes Designed by Nicolas Roerich.

WHEN three such remarkable talents as those of MM. Stravinsky, Roerich and Nijinsky form an alliance, something unusual may be confidently expected as the result. The most eager anticipations can hardly have been disappointed, on that score, by “Le Sacre du Printemps,” of which the music is by the first named, the décor by the second, and the choreography by the third.

One imagines the three collaborators—one had almost said conspirators—assembling in council. Perhaps they find themselves, in their several ways, prompted by a common impulse: perhaps they merely itch to apply their cleverness to something new. Whichever way it is, a happy notion strikes them. “Let’s be primitive!” They talk it over, make plans and agree. They will be primitive—starkly primitive. Stravinsky proceeds, with his practised sleight of hand in the manipulation of an orchestra, to invent music which shall defy all accepted canons, and thus presumably be eloquent of a time when “music,” in any conventional sense, was not; Roerich picks all the primary colours out of his paint-box and sets to work to devise a mise-en-scène so crude{202} that it must represent the furthest possible degree of unsophistication; while Nijinsky, fresh from his meditations on a primitive phase of art, hails with enthusiasm this new opportunity to apply the principles of expression by gesture and movement which he believes himself to have divined.

The result is a sort of “post-impressionism” on the stage. Expression, it has been said, not beauty, is the aim of the modern school of painters who, for convenience’ sake, have been dubbed “post-impressionists”; and this being also the avowed purpose of Nijinsky and his colleagues, the ballet might not unreasonably be expected to show some kinship with the products of that recent art “movement.” Certainly it is ugly—at the least, unpleasing to the normal modern eye: whether, by compensation, it is expressive, is obviously one of those matters of individual taste about which dispute is idle.

“Le Sacre du Printemps” consists of two tableaux, which are ostensibly representative of pagan Russia, but might equally serve as pictures of primitive civilisation anywhere—or nowhere! The theme is suitably simple. The season of spring is at hand, and mankind is occupied with worship of the two great forces apprehended by the primitive mind—the Earth and the Sun.

The first act shows the Adoration of the Earth. The joy of humankind in the advent of spring finds expression in the dance, and in the performance of due rites, in the ceremony of uniting the Sire of all the Sages to the newly fecund earth. What actually happens is that sundry groups of persons, attired in picturesque but by no means prehistoric garb, are discovered prostrating themselves in various peculiar poses amidst an expansive landscape which is very green, but not much else. One group, under the instruction of “an old woman of 300 years,” begins a ceremonial dance, which is to say that the younger members stamp{203} their feet and jerk their bodies about in an odd, rhythmic fashion, while the triple centenarian hops spasmodically amongst them. Other groups in turn spring up from their postures of obeisance and do the same, with variations. A number of young girls enter, and join the young men in the performance of the rites ordained. One is to understand that the strange antics which ensue are the primitive types of those folk dances and games which peasant children perform to this day in Russia: but it is doubtful whether even to a spectator familiar with modern rustic life in the remotest parts of that country, the connection would be apparent between the traditional games of feast days and the eccentric contortions of the performers on the stage. A feature of the games, the only one definitely recognisable (because the only one specified in the printed synopsis of the ballet) is a simulated abduction of some of the girls by a number of the young men, which is premonitory of the sacrifice to Iarilo, god of light—i.e., the Sun—depicted in the second act.

After the games have been in progress for some time there enters a procession of elders of this primitive tribe, escorting an old man with a long beard—the Sire of all the Sages, high priest and venerable interpreter of the omens. His entry is a signal for everyone present to be seized with a violent tremor, which sets each figure quivering like an agitated table jelly. With due form{204} and ceremony the ancient one pronounces a blessing on the Earth’s unfailing fruitfulness, accomplishing this act by spreadeagling himself, with the aid of assiduous helpers, face-downwards in the middle of the stage. If only the happy thought had occurred to M. Nijinsky to have the beard of the venerable one pulled forward the latter would have presented a very interesting travesty of a starfish.

The tremor which has so persistently agitated the tribe now ceases. All eyes are upturned towards the Sun, whose envious wrath, it is feared, may be excited by these attentions to the Earth, and to the renewed thudding of stamping feet the curtain comes down.

The second tableau shows the Sacrifice, by which the Sun’s jealousy is to be appeased. The scene is a lonely plateau, on which the “Sacred Stones” are set. There are also three grim-looking poles, on which are hung what seem to be votive offerings of hides and horns. It is night, and past the witching hour. The sun has vanished and ere he rise again the rite of propitiation must be performed. The young girls are discovered going through the mazy evolutions of a ceremonial dance, the object of which is the choice by hazard of the destined victim. (Such is the origin, the authors would presumably have us believe, of the “he” of the traditional games of childhood all the world over.)

Precisely how the lot falls is not very apparent, but presently one girl starts forward from the rest and seems, from the curious motionless attitude which she assumes, to fall into a cataleptic trance. Her companions gather round, and do her honour in a dance described, for no clear reason, as “heroic.” They presently depart, leaving her to her fate.

While the Chosen Victim still stands transfixed in a posture of extreme ugliness and (one imagines) excessive discomfort, the{205}

{206}

elders of the tribe make their appearance, come to evoke the spirits of their ancestors and perform the final rites of this mystic bridal dedication to the Sun. They achieve this by partially covering themselves with black bearskins, the limp forelegs of which, waggling at their elbows, give them the appearance of immense grotesque penguins as they strut solemnly round the object of their scrutiny. After this lengthy peripatetic inspection is concluded, they seat themselves in groups, and the Chosen Victim suddenly breaks into a dance—if dance can be called a series of agonised movements not less ugly and contorted than the immobile posture in which she has been for so long rigidly stationed.

It is quite impossible to describe this “dance,” which it is an uncomfortable experience to watch—not for any offence that it contains, but for a feeling of sympathy with the unfortunate dancer who has to indulge such misplaced agility. Suffice it to explain that it “expresses” the last ecstasy of the Victim—a transition from exaltation to frenzy, from frenzy to exhaustion. At the moment of expiry, the watching elders leap to their feet, and seizing the Victim in their hands, hold her rigid corpse at arms’ length above their heads.

It is thus, we are told, that sacrifice is made to Iarilo, the flaming, the superb. The ribald will be inclined to retort that it is to be hoped Iarilo likes it.

In fairness, it must be added that this account of the eccentric happenings on the stage is quite inadequate to convey any proper impression of these two tableaux—which are, in fact, quite indescribable by words. It would be a mistake to suppose that this extraordinary performance is as wearisome as its unintelligible character might lead one to infer. According to all ordinary standards the whole business is completely mad—the music is mad,{207} the dancers are mad. Yet it does not bore, and the interest which it excites must be something more than that of mere curiosity to endure through two whole acts. One suspects this to be merely a tribute to the unquestionable cleverness of the ballet, though the generous spectator may like to suppose a more solid reason.

When the present writer witnessed the first production of “Le Sacre du Printemps” in Paris, the printed synopsis of its action presented to the audience was of the briefest kind. The spectators were left to unravel its meaning for themselves—and they signally failed to rise to the occasion. Briefly, they hissed it. They would not listen to Stravinsky’s music: the choreography of Nijinsky moved them to unkind laughter. On the later production of the ballet in London, the management wisely distributed an amplified synopsis, detailing the incidents (so far as the ballet can be said to have any), and took the further precaution of prefacing the performance by a short lecture, in which a distinguished critic, of sympathetic leanings, endeavoured to expound the principles upon which the authors of the ballet had proceeded in its creation.

Thanks to this forethought, the ballet received in London the attentive hearing which was denied to it in Paris. It even received applause, though how far this was due to the amiability of London theatre-goers—less impulsive and more tolerant than the Parisian public—it would be rash to guess. Undoubtedly the ballet, as presented in London, was more easily followed than when seen in Paris. In part, perhaps, the certain degree of familiarity helped; in part, the stronger lighting of the stage during the second act of the London performance was of assistance. But, chiefly, the greater intelligibility arose out of the explanations, verbal and printed, with which the spectator was forearmed. Antics which had been meaningless became invested with the shadow, if not the substance of plausibility; it became apparent what they were{208} intended to mean, even if the meaning still seemed to fail of true expression.

But should such detailed explanations of purpose be necessary? Granting the abandonment of all ordinary, accepted conventions, ought a work of art, conceived upon whatsoever unfamiliar principles, to fail to grip the imagination? It may be noted that in the introductory lecture, the Japanese colour-print was cited as an example of a form of art scoffed at, when first seen in this country, because its conventions were unfamiliar and not understood. But one fancies that upon any mind not utterly philistine, no matter how unable to understand its peculiar conventions, the work of a Japanese master made a very definite impression. The Occidental mind had a sense of the Oriental achievement, even if it failed to comprehend precisely what had been achieved. If attempt is not to be confused with accomplishment, one fears that only a partisan enthusiast could have a similar regard for “Le Sacre du Printemps.”

It is difficult to discover unity of purpose. To mention a minor, but glaring inconsistency, the costumes designed by Roerich (though one is grateful for the vividly decorative groups which they produce) are scarcely consonant with his “primitive” scenery, and certainly not characteristic of ultra-primitive humanity. A people that had acquired such arts as the possession of this clothing postulates can scarcely be reckoned typical of “the Muscovy of dimmest antiquity,” and it is at least doubtful whether at their comparatively advanced stage of civilisation (accepting as historically accurate Nijinsky’s theory of primitive modes of expression) gesture and movement would be marked by such uncouth and awkward characteristics.

The fact would seem to be that the authors of this ballet have chosen to be a law unto themselves. No doubt it is possible under{209}

{210}

such conditions to devise many curious things, momentarily engaging—the workshops of Bedlam are full of them—but they can hardly hope to give the satisfaction, or enjoy the permanence, of art. A work of art is governed, at bottom, by the laws of Nature: it must have its roots somewhere in reality, and grow upward and outward. One fails to detect out of what “Le Sacre du Printemps” arises, or whither it leads. Its tendency, if it has any at all, is retrograde, and there is something almost pathetic in the spectacle of such highly-cultivated men as MM. Stravinsky, Roerich, and Nijinsky applying their brilliant talents to this inversion. It is surely a little ludicrous that the utmost resources of a modern orchestra, comprising over a hundred complex instruments, should be taxed by what is reported to be some of the most difficult music ever scored, in order to “express” the impulses and emotions of man in his most primitive state. A fitting parallel to Stravinsky’s efforts is provided by those of Nijinsky, laboriously instructing a highly-accomplished corps de ballet in mimicry of the awkward poses exhibited in sculpture of pre-classical days, when the sculptor was not so much expressive as struggling for expression. It may be true that under modern accepted conventions in art, expression has been stifled by undue attention to form, but this is hardly the way to demonstrate it. Curtailment is not the same thing as simplification.

“Le Sacre du Printemps” certainly exacts a good deal from the ordinary spectator. The latter finds himself at sea from the very beginning, and quickly realises that if there is any solid meaning at all to be arrived at, he can only reach it by jettisoning all previous standards and conventions. Even when he has succeeded, by the aid of a detailed synopsis, an introductory lecture, and a strongly developed faculty of assimilation, in acquainting himself with the authors’ premises, it is a matter of opinion whether{211} MM. Stravinsky, Roerich, and Nijinsky give him much in return for what he has abandoned.

If this astonishing ballet is to be taken seriously, one may compliment its authors on a very gallant attempt to embody a view of art which is arresting, if not convincing. If, on the other hand, it is merely a jeu d’esprit, they are to be congratulated on one of the most elaborate and cleverly sustained hoaxes ever perpetrated. There is possibly a third solution, that the authors have been imposed upon and mesmerised by their own sheer cleverness, and all too nimble dexterity of mind. In that case there must be laughter among the Muses.

{212} 

{213} 

{214} 

{215} 

LA TRAGÉDIE DE SALOME.

From a Poem by Robert Humieres.

Music by Florent Schmitt.

Dances by Boris Romanov.

Scenery and Costumes Designed by Serge Soudeikine.

SALOME furnishes the theme of yet another ballet in the Russians’ later style. Though Nijinsky has no connection with it the influence of his example is evident throughout. “La Tragédie de Salome” takes a place very fittingly in the same gallery as “L’Après-Midi d’un Faune,” “Jeux,” and “Le Sacre du Printemps.” That is to say, it has no story to unfold by means of music and the dance. Salome is not so much the theme, as a mere central figure of a stage picture to which motion is imparted. Nijinsky in “Le Sacre du Printemps” went to Gauguin and the post-impressionists for inspiration. Boris Romanov and Serge Soudeikine, who are responsible respectively for the choreography and the décor of “La Tragédie de Salome” have singled out Aubrey Beardsley for attention.

“Pure Beardsley” was the popular phrase with which the ballet was summed up on its first production. It is, of course, nothing of the sort—at least, if the phrase is to be strictly interpreted. If it were pure Beardsley the ballet would be a good deal better than it is. One has some difficulty in imagining Aubrey Beardsley staging a ballet, and probably, if such a thing had happened, the result would have been very different from that which the Russians have imagined. But even supposing that Beardsley had produced on the stage something resembling what{216} is shown us, it is perfectly certain there would have been a distinction which the present performance lacks. To put it shortly, “La Tragédie de Salome” is nothing but an aping of Beardsley, a reproduction (or shall one say, a travesty?) of certain superficial aspects of that artist’s designs, entirely uninspired by any sympathy with, or apparently even understanding of, the peculiar genius of which they were expressions.

It is unfortunate, perhaps, that the assimilative Russians, when they play the sedulous ape, do so with such polished ease and aplomb. Their cleverness amuses, even if it fails to impress. In sheer theatrical effect this ballet of Salome is quite dazzling. Its bizarre decoration, and the eccentricity of the action, capture the eye, as the music captures the ear, by sheer audacity of assault. It is only when a conclusion is reached that the whole appears to have been a profitless, if dazzling diversion.

Soudeikine’s act-drop is beyond my comprehension. So also is the scene upon which it rises—a platform enclosed by giant foliage of formal design. Much exuberance is suggested, but exuberance of what is not so clear. In the middle of the stage is a tall column, upon the top of which an object, presumably the Baptist’s head, is dimly seen. Behind stands a curious pyramidal staircase.

Eight negro slaves are discovered grouped about the column and its grim burden. Their woolly pates are white, white ostrich plumes are girt about their middles, and round their ankles are clasped what look suspiciously like white spats. The limelight streaming on their naked bodies imparts a greenish tinge to the brown flesh, and gives them quite as nasty an appearance as one supposes their designers intended.

To strident music which one feels sure must be expressive of hectic passion and horror, the green and white negroes posture{217}

{218}

and run about the stage. Their antics are engaging, and expressive of just whatever the spectator chooses to think. They are joined presently by four executioners who would do credit to any professional dreamer of nightmares. Like the negroes, these also have spats on their bare legs. They wear very little else, but carry large swords which obviously are meant for dark and bloody deeds. They are tall and lank, frightfully grim, and thoroughly sinister. And the business-like manner in which, having divested themselves of the awful weapons of their office, and completely eclipsed the efforts of the negroes in the game of Here-we-go-round-the-Baptist’s-head, they assume attitudes of terror-striking unexpectedness, indicates a praiseworthy determination to uphold the ghastliest traditions of their high calling.

The music now, with relentless importunacy, insists upon an impending climax. Negroes and executioners fall beautifully into place, a portion of the blackcloth drops swiftly, and Salome is seen standing on the top of the staircase-pedestal before a dim background of blue and mysterious starlit depth. She is shrouded in the voluminous folds of an immense cloak, and at first sight might be taken, as a witty observer remarked, for Mrs. Grundy come to put a stop to the proceedings.

Having got this climax over, the music is now breathing more easily, and Salome slowly comes down the staircase. It is seen that the robe with which she is covered has an immense train—black with glittering embroidery of gold. As she descends the steps the train drags magnificently behind her. One suffers an uncomfortable anxiety lest it should topple down before its time and sweep its hapless wearer off her feet. But MM. Soudeikine and Romanov have seen to this, and it is not until Salome has reached the stage, and is already advancing across it, that the enormous garment, with proper effect, comes flashingly tumbling after.{219}

Salome with her grotesque retinue circles in solemn procession round the central column, and the train makes the most of its opportunities. Then the negroes leap forward, fastenings are loosened, and as the robe falls into her attendants’ outstretched arms, Salome steps forward for the dance.

Regard Beardsley’s drawings as fashion plates, and the reader will arrive at a very fair idea of Karsavina’s appearance as Salome. Her costume is exiguous—even allowing for the lace-edged undergarment which appears round one thigh but not round the other. Her legs and arms are bare, but with a blood red heart and other devices stencilled on them. A high head-dress surmounts the tiny{220}

{221}

face of one of Beardsley’s women, with blue smudges for eyes and wee vermilion lips.

Of Karsavina’s dance, in the character of Salome, it is quite impossible to write with any detail. It is devised in the same pseudo-macabre spirit as the rest of the ballet, and is more remarkable as a feat of acrobatic agility and physical endurance than as an artistic performance. One is told that the dance is “at first frantic and insane; then more proud and sorrowful, more remote and ecstatic. It is the expression and avowal of her sensual torment and of her atonement through the very misery of her unassuageable desire.” Well, maybe it is all that: perhaps something more, perhaps a very great deal less. For myself, I should have been interested to learn at what point the insanity died down and pride and sorrow took its place. Of ecstasy I could find no real suggestion, though the counterfeit was plausible; and the only remoteness was when the dance unexpectedly ended and the curtain came down.

“La Tragédie de Salome” might serve, in company of those other productions with which it was classed at the outset of these notes, as an answer to the question, When is a ballet not a ballet? In all these latter performances which the Russians have staged, they appear not only to misconceive the functions of ballet, but to overlook its limitations. This is the more remarkable since in the earlier productions those limitations were plainly recognised, and the restraint which every art exacts scrupulously observed. There is now a lack of perspective, which one suspects to be the result of the dancer turned ballet-master. A journalist may write brilliantly, yet be quite incapable of editing a paper.

The sooner the controlling influence of Michel Fokine is restored to the Russian Ballet the better. Otherwise there seems imminent danger that so much fertility will merely run to seed.

{222} 

{223} 

{224} 

{225} 

LE LAC DES CYGNES.

Pantomime Ballet by M. Tchaikovsky.

Music by P. Tchaikovsky.

Dances and Scenes by M. Petipa.

Scenery and Costumes by C. Korovin and A. Golovin.

THE outstanding feature of “Le Lac des Cygnes” is undoubtedly the music of Tchaikovsky, which is worthy of something better. For this is a ballet which falls within the same category as “Le Pavillon d’Armide,” a survival of the formality of an earlier day. It has a story, and a good one; it is not, indeed, without dramatic passages; but mainly the ballet is a mere background for a number of isolated dances having little bearing on the real action. The “fairy tale” which forms its subject has been treated much as the classic tragedies, one imagines, were treated by Noverre towards the end of the eighteenth century. The dances are imposed upon it, rather than made the means of unfolding it. As a result “Le Lac des Cygnes,” regarded in its entirety, falls short of the level achieved in such a ballet as “L’Oiseau de Feu,” though in the matter of subject it has many points of familiarity with the latter. It lacks proportion: the drama is nugatory, and the spectator retains in memory rather a succession of dances, graceful, lively, and astonishing, than an impression of a coherent and progressive whole.

This is the more to be regretted since the music, when occasion serves, is splendidly dramatic. The occasions are only few, however, the real purpose of the story being to provide, as in “Le Pavillon d’Armide,” a court scene which can be made the{226} appropriate setting of a series of dances. Certainly the poses of Karsavina and the ladies of the corps de ballet in their guise as swans of the enchanted lake, in the opening scene, and the astounding performance of Nijinsky in the court episode, go far to compensate the loss of unity, but such dramatic moments as do occur make the mostly protracted action seem very nearly tedious. Incidentally the ballet presents Nijinsky in the kind of rôle more definitely associated with Adolf Bolm, and it is interesting to note the emphasis which it lays upon the essential difference between the two artists. Bolm is an actor who can dance when occasion demands; Nijinsky, a dancer who seems almost ill at ease when constrained to limit his movements to the actor’s pedestrian paces. One would prefer to see the part of the Prince taken by Bolm, and an excuse found (as in “Le Pavillon d’Armide”) for Nijinsky’s appearance, in his true function as dancer, in the court scene.

The lake to which the title of the ballet refers is an enchanted mere, beside which a number of swans dance nightly by the light of the moon, in the semblance of young girls. The birds are the victims of the evil sorcery of a wicked genie of the place, from whose clutches they are powerless to escape. The opening scene discloses the wooded margin of the lake, the shining surface of which stretches before the eye to a dim further shore. The swans are seen upon the water, and while the orchestral prelude is in progress, they pass slowly across the gap in the trees, through which the shimmering lake is visible. At their head, more stately than her fellows, and distinguished by the tiny crown upon her head, swims the Queen Swan.

The birds vanish. The ripples of their passage subside. Moonlight floods the still lake and its wooded bank. There enters a young man, armed for the chase, whose dress and mien proclaim him noble. Retainers follow him. They cast searching glances{227} around, and scan the placid surface of the lake. But whatever it is they seek eludes their vigilance. A second young man joins them—the Prince of the realm—who has been benighted in the course of a hunting expedition. He, too, looks eagerly about him, but is no more successful in his quest than the companion who preceded him. They take counsel together, and in the very midst of their conference are startled by a distant apparition. They peer anxiously into the heart of the wood which fringes the lake’s edge, and obedient to the Prince’s order, all retire stealthily into hiding. The Prince himself, cross-bow in hand, follows his men.

A moment later there enters a young maiden. She is fair to look upon, with a beauty that has a fatal quality of fascination. She is indeed the Queen Swan, wearing her temporary human guise, and only to be associated with her true form by the fillet of swan’s-down in her dark hair, and the snowy plumage with which her dress is adorned. This is the mysterious apparition which the Prince and his men have seen, lost, and now again discovered.

Lightly the fair creature flits across the glade, and as she nears the spot where he lies concealed, the Prince starts forth and confronts her. The Queen Swan would fly, but is held back. The Prince, already a willing victim to his captive’s beauty, would fain have the mystery of her appearance explained. Who is she? What does she here, and at this hour? Reluctant at first to confess her true nature, the Queen Swan yields to the passionate emotion which she, too, feels stirring within her, and relates a part, at least, of her strange history. She tells of the machinations of the evil genie by whose enchantment she and all her companions are bound, of their alternation between human guise and that of birds. The prince listens in horror, jumping too readily to the conclusion that his captive is a maiden doomed to periodic metamorphosis into the semblance of a swan, rather than a bird{228} permitted now and again to assume a human shape. At mention of the ogre by whose spells this strange tyranny is maintained, he fingers his weapons menacingly, eager for an opportunity to attempt deliverance.

Such a chance presents itself with startling suddenness. In the midst of her narration the Queen Swan clutches her captor’s arm, and points upward into the trees. Peering down upon them, from a branch overhead, is some strange object, only half visible amidst the foliage. The Prince seizes his cross-bow and makes as if to shoot. But ere he can be sure of his aim, the apparition moves stealthily, and is gone.

The young man lowers his weapon and turns to expostulate with his captive. Again the colloquy is interrupted, this time by the invasion of a grim, gaunt monster, which silently regards them from a mound upon which it has suddenly emerged. Again the Prince seizes his bow and strives to launch a bolt at the intruder. But he is powerless to release the trigger. The genie’s magic paralyses him. The monster recedes unharmed into the woody depths, and the Prince, perturbed by this discovery of unseen influences encompassing him, impetuously urges his captive from the scene.

Hardly has the Queen Swan fled when her companions enter—a score of maidens in similar attire, scarcely less fair than their leader. As is their nightly practice, they dance in the moonlit glade, but have scarce begun when the Prince’s friend, followed by the huntsmen and attendants, break in upon these mystic revels. The swan-maidens, frightened, fly to one another for mutual protection, while the intruders, scarce knowing what to make of such unexpected objects of the chase, finger their weapons hesitatingly. Some, indeed, are fitting bolts to the cross-bows, but the hasty return of the Prince, who bids them stay their hands, prevents the wanton{229} slaughter. Even as he gives his orders, two more swan-maidens join their frightened sisters, and with them comes the Queen Swan herself, who has sped the Prince from her side to avert the threatened disaster, and now comes herself to lead the petition for mercy which the hapless maidens pleadingly urge.

The Prince needs little persuasion to grant the boon, and the swan-maidens resume their dancing before the enraptured eyes of the Prince and his friend. In the midst of her companions the Queen Swan, unchallenged in the supremacy of her charms, completes the fascination she has already exercised upon the too susceptible Prince. With infatuated gaze he hangs upon her every movement, drinking in her beauty, the grace of her dancing, the elegance of her form. Every moment that she pauses, while her companions continue the movement of the dance, he woos her passionately, urging his suit with an eagerness that increases as the reluctance which she strives to maintain appears to give way.

The throbbing valse rhythm of the music hurries the young man’s hectic passion to a climax. Inspired by the ardour which the Prince’s impetuous wooing kindles in her, the Queen of the Swan-maidens surpasses herself in a dance which turns passion into ecstasy. She abandons herself to her lover’s arms.

But at this fateful moment the dreaded hour has struck. The swan-maidens are seized with nervous apprehension. They beckon their Queen, and as they see her recalled to her surroundings, hurry timidly away. The huntsmen watch them go, too much surprised by this sudden flight to attempt to intercept it. Not so the Prince. As the Queen Swan strives to release herself from his embrace, he seeks to detain her. Reluctant to go, yet fearful to stay, she persists in the effort to disengage herself. Ardently the Prince implores her to remain, but just as he would enforce the entreaty by strength she slips from his grasp and gains the bank{230} that leads into the wood. Her lover would dash forward and restrain her, but she motions him back, waves a tender farewell, and is gone from his sight.

Mystified, the Prince and his men peer wonderingly across the enchanted mere. And as they look there glides across their vision a number of snow-white swans, swimming in stately procession toward the further shore. In advance of the rest moves one, which bears upon its head, so delicately poised on the slender sinuous neck, a golden crown. Upon the agonised Prince and his astounded retinue, watching in silence this strange portent, the curtain swiftly falls.

One sees next an apartment in the royal palace, where festivities are in progress, to celebrate the coming nuptials of the Prince with the heiress of a neighbouring realm. To the gay music of a festal march, the royal guests are marshalled to their appointed places by a master of ceremonies; there are stately greetings, and a formal interchange of courtesies. The Prince enters presently, accompanied by the Queen-mother, whom he escorts to the seat of honour. His betrothed has then to be greeted and similarly handed to her place.

These ceremonies the Prince duly observes, but with a formality of manner which indicates that his attention is perfunctory. He seems moody and abstracted, and when presently he seats himself beside the Queen-mother, the dances which begin fail to arouse in him more than a listless interest.

The first of these dances—a valse performed by eight couples—is scarcely ended when there is a stir at one of the entrances to the hall. From the press of courtiers the master of ceremonies emerges, ushering forward a tall man of sinister aspect, richly but strangely attired, who leads by the hand a fair lady. The Prince rises to{231} welcome the strangers. Courtesies having been exchanged, the Prince raises his eyes—and finds himself looking into the face of the Swan-maiden to whom he lost his heart so lately. He cannot restrain a movement of surprise—the sudden embodiment of his very thoughts seems beyond credence. But the recognition, as he perceives, is mutual; the fair stranger, as she suffers her forbidding escort to draw her aside, displays not less agitation than he.

Deep in perplexity the Prince resumes his seat. The master of ceremonies signs for the festivities to proceed, but neither a dashing czardas, nor the brilliant mazurka which follows, can distract the Prince from the anxious meditation into which he is plunged. Only when the beautiful stranger is again led forward does he shake off his abstraction. Eagerly he offers attendance upon her while she performs a pas seul before the court.

Standing unobtrusively at one side, the evil genie (for the Queen Swan’s escort is, of course, none other) watches from beneath his disguise the consummation of his wicked plan. With every attention that opportunity allows him to offer to the stranger, the Prince’s newly-fanned passion burns more ardently. And as with him, so with the luckless Swan-maiden. The dance but serves to melt the last icicle of her discretion, and when the Prince, remembering suddenly their situation, conscious of the gaze of all the court, would leave her and regain the composure he has lost, she holds and allures him with a beseeching look and gesture that is beyond resistance. Only when the dance is ended, and the Swan-maiden, herself awakening momentarily from her all but trance, retires hastily from the apartment, does the Prince resume command of himself.

The eyes of the courtiers are turned upon him expectantly, for the Prince himself is an accomplished dancer, and the moment has arrived when he should entertain the company with his skill.{232} Fired by the ardour suppressed within him, he launches himself into a pas seul which astounds by its vigorous grace, measured agility, and brilliant daring of execution. At the very climax of his performance the beautiful stranger re-enters. Obedient to the Prince’s entreaty she dances once again; then joins him in the crowning intoxication of a pas de deux.

As the infatuated pair thus yield to each other’s embrace an uneasy stir runs through the watching ring of courtiers. The Queen-mother is perturbed, the Prince’s betrothed is wrath to be thus publicly slighted. The climax is reached when the lovers, oblivious of all, abandon themselves to an impassioned kiss. The Prince’s mother starts indignantly from her seat, and plucks him by the sleeve; at the same moment the Swan-maiden’s grim escort strides forward and snatches her from her lover’s embrace. In vain the Queen-mother urges her son to recollect the duty he owes to his estate, in vain his betrothed demands reparation for the affront she has suffered. The Prince has no thought save for the object of his passion, and is convulsed by overpowering emotion. Not less is the agony of the fair stranger, who struggles helplessly in the genie’s evil clutch. Consternation seizes the courtiers, which is increased as the lights are suddenly dimmed. In the confusion that ensues, the genie throws the now fainting figure of the Swan-maiden upon his shoulder, and carries her off. The Prince, seeing his beloved thus torn away, is nearly bereft of reason, but recovering himself with violent effort dashes madly through the press in hot pursuit.

The scene changes to the dim night-enshrouded margin of the lake. With furious haste the genie enters, dragging relentlessly behind him the drooping figure of the Swan-maiden. Piteously she sinks upon the bank, as the wicked tyrant urges her onward.{233} She turns a last entreating look backward, and at that very moment the flying figure of the Prince appears. He falls upon his knees before her and seeks to hold her with his hands. But the genie redoubles his force: the hapless Swan-maiden is wrenched from her lover’s grasp, and borne out of sight.

The despairing Prince bows his head in mute and helpless agony. And while he yet kneels there, a white swan glides serenely across the surface of the lake. The prince sees it, and a dreadful thought clutches his heart. As the swan nears him he looks again—and lo, about its head, so delicately poised on the slender sinuous neck, is a golden crown!

The young man staggers and falls dead. Smoothly the Queen Swan urges her placid way across the shining surface of the lake.

{234} 

{235} 

{236} 

{237} 

ANNA PAVLOVA.

Nothing can well be written about the Russian Ballet without some mention of Pavlova. For though that great dancer has not been associated with the troupe to whose performances the foregoing pages have been devoted, it is largely to her art that London owes the revived interest in ballet which paved the way for these later spectacles.

Much has been written in adulation of Pavlova. Comparisons and metaphors have been well-nigh exhausted in enthusiastic attempts to convey a full appreciation of her dancing, and the result has sometimes been ridiculous. This is almost inevitable, however, for if Pavlova’s praises are to be sung at all, it must be in a word or else redundantly. Art so nearly perfect as hers permits of no analysis, and stultifies all efforts at exposition.

So it happens that with Pavlova one can but state a bare opinion, and leave her art to speak for itself. Mere description is impossible, since her method is subjective rather than objective. London has had no opportunity of seeing her take part in a concerted ballet, at least of that dramatic type in which the art of the performers is subservient to the action in which they are involved; and the individual dances in which she is chiefly seen are to be regarded not so much as occasions for impersonation as opportunities and means of self-expression. As already has been said of Nijinsky, the art of Pavlova is something more than merely imitative; it is creative, her genius acting upon, shaping, and impressing with the stamp of her own individuality the material selected.{238}

There is a close analogy between her method and that of the composer of music. Saint-Saëns, for example, in “Le Cygne,” and Pavlova in the dance which she has devised for the accompaniment of that composition, have both taken the curved and undulating grace of the swan for motif. Adorning, amplifying, and elaborating this initial theme, the dancer has achieved a result which in its complex beauty, yet fundamental simplicity, is an exact parallel with the composer’s.

Doubtless a maître de ballet might have phrases at command which would convey, to the initiate at least, the bare sequence of poses and movements, as one musician could recount to another the main features of a composition. In neither case, however, would the hearer glean more than the merest rudiments; with the dance as with music, direct contact alone is of avail. Even a literary artist would encounter limitations as severe as those which beset the painter, who can show (witness John Lavery’s “Le Mort du Cygne”) but a single moment of a single phase in a thing of prolonged and continuous beauty.

In such a performance as this, Pavlova touches great heights. She is less happy when she indulges in some of those “interpretations” of music which of late years have become so fashionable. How, indeed, can the dancer’s art be expected to interpret music which was never written for the dance? It is as idle as the similar attempt so often made by the painter. One work of art may provide inspiration for another, but we cannot consider them simultaneously since they will not be in the same plane. To watch the dance, or rather series of poses, by which Pavlova “interprets,” let us say, Rubinstein’s “La Nuit,” is to delight the eye with an exhibition of rare grace. But only a very assimilative and accommodating mind will imagine that the composer’s intention has been made any clearer to him thereby—and probably it will

{239}

imagine quite erroneously. The critical mind receives no convincing impression of unity.

In the case of “Le Cygne,” Pavlova is not interpreting Saint Saëns. Musician and dancer have taken the same theme for treatment in their different ways, and the welding of their separate efforts is the legitimate art of the ballet. It may be said, perhaps, that this is the manner in which the so-called interpretations, to which objection has been made, have been evolved. But this is to ignore the distinction between so definite a theme as the graceful movements of a swan, known and accepted by all men, and such an abstraction as Night, of which the conception must be arbitrary, and for that reason probably different from the one upon which the musician, nominally interpreted, has proceeded.

Pavlova is at her best (inevitably) when limited to the true functions of her art. As with Nijinsky, the dance is her proper medium of expression, though perhaps not so wholly. In some of her performances she displays a facile power of extrinsic gesture suggestive of qualities as mime which whet the desire to see her in dramatic ballet. The distribution of her favours betwixt Pierrot and Harlequin, her jealous partners when she dances, as Columbine, in Drigo’s “Pas de Trois,” is inspired by coquetry as frivolous and mirthful as the airy gaiety which her nimble feet express. In “L’Automne Bacchanale” there is a passion and a fervour which owe something to the actress’ art as well as to the dancer’s. It may seem idle to attempt a discrimination between two things so nearly identical, but seeing the view so commonly held in this country of dancing—that it consists merely of the rhythmic movement of the limbs according to certain arbitrary rules, the greatest of dancers being no more than the exponent of a perfect technique—it is perhaps worth while to lay stress upon the part which temperament must play.{240}

Possibly “L’Automne Bacchanale” is not the best illustration to cite of the dancer’s conscious art; no one of the least susceptibility, it may be supposed, certainly not Pavlova, could fail to respond to Glazounov’s tempestuous music. Who has been spectator of that brilliant episode that did not feel his pulses quicken, and thrilling through his veins an echo, however faint, of the pæan of youth and love and joy? Pavlova at all events, if not her compatriots, has been able to recapture something of the old Greek ardour.

But Pavlova’s sheer grace can never fail of appreciation. It would be an egregious philistine who could find her, even in most conventional and academic vein, other than a delight to the eye. Her superb mastery of technique, if nothing else, must command his admiration. But it is her distinction that she delights not merely the eye, but the intelligence; behind all that she does is the artist’s instinct of selection and co-ordination. Other dancers one has seen who moved prettily, took graceful poses, displayed a nice appreciation of rhythm—yet showed themselves no more than elegant dabblers, failing to achieve the unity which proceeds alone from a true artistic impulse. Pavlova does nothing meaningless. Her least step is full of intention, and an intention made convincingly apparent. It may be the lightest, airiest conceit—a butterfly’s capricious hovering, for example, so daintily suggested in “Les Papillons,” or the roguish mirth she reads into the well-known pizzicato passage of the “Sylvia” ballet music—but her art can make where a touch less sensitive would mar.

But in such a case as this it is idle to attempt description, and comparisons are equally futile. One must be content with a single word of highest praise, and say that Pavlova, like every true artist, is unique.