#op. 2

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Costume designs and cloaks from the ballet Papillons

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Costume designs by Léon Bakst for the ballet Papillons with music by Robert Schumann

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LE CARNAVAL

Pantomime ballet in one act by Michel Fokine. Music by Robert Schumann, orchestrated by Nicholas Rimsky-Korsakov, Anatole Liadov, Nicholas Tcherepnine, and Alexander Glazounov. Choreography by Fokine. Décor and costumes by Léon Bakst. First performance by the Ballets Russes: Teater des Westens, Berlin, May 20, 1910. First performance in Paris: Théâtre National de l’Opéra, June 4, 1910.

Fokine had created Carnaval for a benefit given in St. Petersburg on February 20, 1910. In May of the same year, the ballet was included in the repertoire of the Ballets Russes. 

The first sketch for the Carnaval set which Bakst submitted to Diaghilev represented an immense terrace overlooking a garden, but for this particular ballet Diaghilev wanted to circumscribe the stage area at the Opéra, and he suggested to Bakst the idea of an interior. 

The success of Carnaval in Paris was due, in large part, to the brilliant execution of Fokine’s choreography by Karsavina and Nijinsky. 

...

Diaghilev told me about a funny incident that occurred during one performance of Le Carnaval. Enrico Cecchetti, who was miming the role of Pantalon, an elderly dandy of the Romantic period, mixed up the order of the program one evening and appeared onstage in Carnaval dressed in his costume for the Chief Eunuch in Schéhérazade. 

Boris Kochno, Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, trans. Adrienne Foulke (New York: Harper & Row, 1970), 38-41.

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Programme officiel des Ballets russes : Théâtre de l'Opéra, mai-juin 1914 : [représentations des 14, 17 et 19 mai 1914]

Monographie imprimée

Papillons : ballet en 1 acte Chorégraphie de Michel Fokine Paris : Théâtre national de l'Opéra 14-05-1914

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Moved out of my parents house to an apartment and brought only the essentials: clothing, toiletries, bedding, cooking supplies, and my urtext versions of papillons and carnaval

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Video by @peter_tishchenko on Instagram

Katherina Efimova as Estrella in the ballet Carnaval

October 26, 2024

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Papillons

Originally premiered at the Maryinsky Theater, St. Petersburg, in 1912, Papillons was revived for the Ballets Russes in 1914 when Fokine returned to the company for one year, following the dismissal of Nijinsky. 

The different sizes of these two pairs of designs indicate that they probably come from two separate productions. The smaller pair dates from the original pro­duc­tion in 1912. One of these (the blue dress) is identified as having been designed for Matilda Kschessinska. The other pair is not dated, but is presumed to be for a revival. (It has also been suggested that the larger designs could be later copies or even forgeries.)

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The performance opened with ‘Papillons’, which had as its setting discarded decor from ‘Sylphides’. This work made little impression on the critics who found the music in its orchestrated version poor, the choreography weak, and the costumes unimaginative (the ‘restored’ wings of the butterflies - on which what there was of drama depended - refused to stay in place, putting a jinx on the performance). It was seen as a pale shadow of ‘Carnaval’.

Richard Buckle, Nijinsky (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1971), 368.