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Guest Editor's Introduction: The Ballets Russes in North America

Guest Editor's Introduction: The Ballets Russes in North America MARY SIMONSON AND SAMUEL N. DORF Guest Editor ’s Introductio n: The Ballets Russes i n North America In January of 1916, amid a flurry of publicity, Serge Diaghilev’s famous Ballets Russes company arrived in the United States to begin the first of two back- to- back American tours sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera Company. “Never before,” the Metropolitan Opera Company’s prelimi - nary prospectus announced, “has such a diversity of ballet, mimo- drama, and ‘choreographic episode’ from such eminent hands been outspread on our stage. Never before have so many ballets moved to such music or been clothed in such settings and costumes. Never before have such performances wrought an equal magic, magnificence, and vitality of illusion. In them the new arts of the dance and many a new art of the theatre touch their present climax.” The Ballets Russes, American audi - ences were promised, would offer Americans a new art, a multimedia spectacle of dancing, music, color, and stage design: “something vital, spontaneous, and distinct, with a rare and poignant beauty, something which evoked within the beholders a spirit at once emotional and intel - lectual.” From January until April 1916, the troupe trekked across much http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Music University of Illinois Press

Guest Editor's Introduction: The Ballets Russes in North America

Simonson, Mary; Dorf, Samuel N.
American Music , Volume 39 (4) – May 4, 2022
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Publisher
University of Illinois Press
ISSN
1945-2349

Abstract

MARY SIMONSON AND SAMUEL N. DORF Guest Editor ’s Introductio n: The Ballets Russes i n North America In January of 1916, amid a flurry of publicity, Serge Diaghilev’s famous Ballets Russes company arrived in the United States to begin the first of two back- to- back American tours sponsored by the Metropolitan Opera Company. “Never before,” the Metropolitan Opera Company’s prelimi - nary prospectus announced, “has such a diversity of ballet, mimo- drama, and ‘choreographic episode’ from such eminent hands been outspread on our stage. Never before have so many ballets moved to such music or been clothed in such settings and costumes. Never before have such performances wrought an equal magic, magnificence, and vitality of illusion. In them the new arts of the dance and many a new art of the theatre touch their present climax.” The Ballets Russes, American audi - ences were promised, would offer Americans a new art, a multimedia spectacle of dancing, music, color, and stage design: “something vital, spontaneous, and distinct, with a rare and poignant beauty, something which evoked within the beholders a spirit at once emotional and intel - lectual.” From January until April 1916, the troupe trekked across much

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American Music – University of Illinois Press

Published: May 4, 2022

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