Prokofiev's first major success breaking out of the composer-pianist mould was with his purely orchestral Scythian Suite, compiled from music originally composed for a ballet commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes ; Diaghilev commissioned three further ballets from Prokofiev – Chout, Le pas d ' acier and The Prodigal Son – which at the time of their original production were all highly successful.

Diaghilev was soon responsible for the production of the Annual of the Imperial Theaters in 1900, and promptly offered assignments to his close friends: Léon Bakst would design costumes for the French play Le Coeur de la Marquise, while Benois was given the opportunity to produce Sergei Taneyev's opera Cupid's Revenge.

Diaghilev staged Tchaikovsky's The Sleeping Beauty in London in 1921 ; it was a production of remarkable magnificence both in settings and costumes but, despite being well received by the public, it was a financial disaster for Diaghilev and Oswald Stoll, the theatre-owner who had backed it.

Other notable premieres were given in Prague in 1899, and in Paris in 1909, with a Sergei Diaghilev production featuring Feodor Chaliapin as Galitsky and Maria Kuznetsova as Yaroslavna.

Part of Nikolai Roerich's designs for Diaghilev ’ s 1913 production of Le Sacre du Printemps

One of Nikolai Roerich's designs for Diaghilev ’ s 1913 production of Le Sacre du Printemps

In 1921, Diaghilev staged a lavish production of The Sleeping Beauty in which Lopokova danced the Lilac Fairy and Princess Aurora.

However, its authorized premiere on that continent, by Diaghilev Ballets Russes, was at the Century Theater, New York City, 20 January 1916, with Lopokova ( who also featured in the unauthorized production five years earlier ).

His latest project is the orchestral full score of Satie's additional music for Gounod's opera Le médecin malgré lui ( commissioned by Diaghilev in 1923 ) from the surviving parts in the Library of Congress, Washington, and the vocal score used in Diaghilev's 1924 production ( supplied by Ornella Volta ).

Alexandre Benois wrote in 1910 that he had two years earlier suggested to Diaghilev the production of a Russian nationalist ballet, an idea all the more attractive given both the newly awakened French passion for Russian dance and also the ruinously expensive costs of staging opera.

In 1910, Carnaval was choreographed for a ballet for a production by Sergei Diaghilev, with orchestrations by Alexander Glazunov, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Anatoly Lyadov and Alexander Tcherepnin.

* 1921, London, Alhambra Theatre, as The Sleeping Princess, Diaghilev production, staged by Nikolay Sergeyev, scenes by Léon Bakst

It was produced by Diaghilev, with sets by Picasso, the libretto by Apollinaire and the music by Erik Satie.

Opponents of that interpretation point out that he did not attend the funeral ( he generally did not attend funerals ) and immediately left Paris with Diaghilev for a performance of Les noces ( The Wedding ) by the Ballets Russes at Monte Carlo.

Soon afterwards, he journeyed to London where he made contact with the impresario Sergei Diaghilev.

During 1928 – 29 Prokofiev composed what was to be the last ballet for Diaghilev, The Prodigal Son, which was staged on 21 May 1929 in Paris with Serge Lifar in the title role.

Portrait of Serge Diaghilev with His Nanny, by Léon Bakst ( 1906 ).

In 1900 – 1901 Volkonsky entrusted Diaghilev with the staging of Léo Delibes ' ballet Sylvia, a favorite of Benois.

Diaghilev also worked with dancer and ballet master Léonide Massine.

He first achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev and first performed in Paris by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes: The Firebird ( 1910 ), Petrushka ( 1911 ) and The Rite of Spring ( 1913 ).

Stravinsky's first period ( which excludes some of his early minor works ) began with Feu d ' artifice ( Fireworks ) and included the three ballets he composed for Diaghilev.

Ravel began work with impresario Sergei Diaghilev during 1909 for the ballet Daphnis et Chloé commissioned by Diaghilev with the lead danced by the famous ballet dancer and choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky.

Although loosely based on the Andersen story, it was also said to have been inspired by the real-life meeting of Sergei Diaghilev with the British ballerina Diana Gould.

In 1926, he collaborated with Max Ernst on designs for ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev.

It led Diaghilev to create his famous company the Ballets Russes with choreographer Michel Fokine and designer Léon Bakst.

Diaghilev with the help of King Alfonso XIII of Spain succeeded in getting him out for a North American tour in 1916.

The diary also contains bitter and conflicted thoughts regarding his relationship with Diaghilev.

The subject matter included his work, his sickness, and his relationships with Diaghilev as well as his wife.

* A verse of the song " Prospettiva Nevskj " from the album Patriots ( 1980 ) by Franco Battiato quotes Nijinsky, his peculiar dancing style, and hints to his relation with Diaghilev " poi guardavamo con le facce assenti la grazia innaturale di Nijinsky.

Having helped put her husband's principality on a sound financial footing, she would devote her energies to making Monaco one of Europe's great cultural centers with its opera, theater, and the ballet under the direction of the famed Russian impresario, Serge Diaghilev.

In 1924, he designed ballet sets and costumes for Sergei Diaghilev and the famous Ballets Russes.

In 1913 — the year of Edmund Husserl's Ideas, Niels Bohr's quantized atom, Ezra Pound's founding of imagism, the Armory Show in New York, and, in Saint Petersburg, the " first futurist opera ," Victory Over the Sun — another Russian composer Igor Stravinsky, working in Paris for Sergei Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, composed The Rite of Spring for a ballet, choreographed by Vaslav Nijinsky, that depicted human sacrifice.

* 1872 – Sergei Diaghilev, Russian ballet impresario, founder of the Ballets Russes ( d. 1929 )

Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev (;, Sergei Pavlovich Dyagilev, ; 19 August 1929 ), usually referred to outside of Russia as Serge, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, from which many famous dancers and choreographers would arise.

Diaghilev heard Stravinsky's early orchestral works Fireworks and Scherzo fantastique, and was impressed enough to ask Stravinsky to arrange some pieces by Chopin for the Ballets Russes.

Diaghilev dismissed Nijinsky summarily from the Ballets Russes after the dancer's marriage in 1913.

* « Centenary of Ballets Russians of Diaghilev »-two postage stamps of Monaco, created by Georgy Shishkin ( Gueorgui Chichkine )

It was reintroduced to western Europe on the eve of the First World War by a Russian company: the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev, who came to be influential around the world.

* French / Russian — Productions of the Ballets Russes, under the direction of Sergei Diaghilev:

In 2005 Ballet Ireland produced Diaghilev And The Red Shoes, a tribute to the ballet impresario who founded Ballets Russes, consisting of excerpts from works made famous by that seminal company.

However, no film exists of Nijinsky dancing ; Diaghilev never allowed the Ballets Russes to be filmed, because he felt that the quality of film at the time could never capture the artistry of his dancers, and that the reputation of the company would suffer if people saw it only in short jerky films.

She is widely regarded as one of the finest classical ballet dancers in history and was most noted as a principal artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and the Ballets Russes of Sergei Diaghilev.

In the first years of the Ballets Russes Pavlova worked briefly for Sergei Diaghilev.

Tailleferre wrote many of her most important works during the 1920s, including her 1st Piano Concerto, the Harp Concertino, the ballets Le marchand d ' oiseaux ( the most frequently performed ballet in the repertoire of the Ballets suédois during the 1920s ) and La nouvelle Cythère which was commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev for the ill-fated 1929 season of the famous Ballets Russes, and Sous les ramparts d ' Athènes in collaboration with Paul Claudel, as well as several pioneering film scores, including B ' anda, in which she used African themes.

In 1919, Bax was one of four British composers to be commissioned to write orchestral music to serve as interludes at Sergei Diaghilev ’ s Ballets Russes in London.

Stravinsky was a young, virtually unknown composer when Diaghilev recruited him to create works for the Ballets Russes.

After just over two years on active service he was released from military duties after Diaghilev prevailed on the French government to second Monteux to conduct the Ballets Russes on a North American tour.

The impresario Sergei Diaghilev, another Russian exile, asked Balanchine to join his newly formed Ballets Russes as a choreographer.