Sergei Diaghilev

Sergei Diaghilev grew up in the Russian provinces, the son of an officer, and studied law in Saint Petersburg. There he founded the art magazine “World of Art” with his cousin and lover Dmitry Filosofov. (His date of birth is given in the Gregorian calendar.)

From 1906 he brought Russian art to Paris, first exhibitions, then opera. In 1909 he founded the Ballets Russes, a company that revolutionised ballet. He brought together the best artists of his time: composers such as Igor Stravinsky, whose “Firebird”, “Petrushka” and “The Rite of Spring” he commissioned; painters such as Picasso and Matisse for sets; choreographers and dancers such as Michel Fokine and Vaslav Nijinsky. The premiere of “The Rite of Spring” in 1913 caused one of the most famous scandals in music history.

Diaghilev lived openly as a gay man in his circles. Nijinsky was his lover and star until Nijinsky’s marriage in 1913, after which Diaghilev dismissed him. Later the dancers Léonide Massine and Serge Lifar were his partners and protégés.

He died of diabetes in Venice in 1929, aged 57, and was buried on the cemetery island of San Michele. The Ballets Russes did not survive him.