Léonide Massine
Léonide Massine | |
---|---|
Леони́д Фёдорович Мя́син | |
Born | Leonid Fyodorovich Myasin 9 August 1896 |
Died | 15 March 1979 | (aged 82)
Occupation(s) | Dancer, choreographer |
Years active | 1915–1948 |
Spouse(s) |
Vera Savina (div. 1924)Eugenia Delarova (div. 1938)Tatiana Orlova (div. 1968)Hannelore Holtwick |
Children | 4 |
Awards | National Museum of Dance's Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame, 2002 |
Leonid Fyodorovich Myasin (Russian: Леони́д Фёдорович Мя́син), better known in the West by the French transliteration as Léonide Massine (9 August [O.S. 28 July] 1896 – 15 March 1979), was a Russian choreographer and ballet dancer. Massine created the world's first symphonic ballet, Les Présages, and many others in the same vein. Besides his "symphonic ballets," Massine choreographed many other popular works during his long career, some of which were serious and dramatic, and others lighthearted and romantic.[1] He created some of his most famous roles in his own comic works, among them the Can-Can Dancer in La Boutique fantasque (1919), the Hussar in Le Beau Danube (1924), and, perhaps best known of all, the Peruvian in Gaîté Parisienne (1938). Today his oeuvre is represented by his son Lorca Massine, who stages his works around the world.
Early life and education
Massine was born into a musical family on 9 August 1895 in
In 1904, Leonid successfully auditioned for the Moscow Imperial Theater School. At only eight years old, he began his formal dance training. The next year, the director of the Bolshoi Theater, Alexander Gorsky, was looking for a small boy to play the role of Chernomor in the ballet Ruslan and Ludmilla. Leonid was selected for the role. This performance and rehearsal period ignited his lifelong passion for acting. Leonid was selected for three more professional roles at the Bolshoi and Maly Theaters through the 1908–1909 season.
In 1909, Konstantin was killed during a hunting accident. Leonid never seemed to fully recover from the shock and devastation of this personal tragedy.
In August 1913, Massine graduated from the Moscow Imperial Theater School and almost immediately joined the Bolshoi Ballet. In December of the same year,
Ballets Russes
From 1915 to 1921 Massine was the principal choreographer of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes.
Following the departure of Vaslav Nijinsky, the company's first male star, Massine became the preeminent male star and took over Nijinsky's roles.[4] His first ballet, in 1915, called Le Soleil de Nuit, used Russian folklore elements. The ballet Parade premiered at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, on 18 May 1917. The ballet is based on a libretto by Jean Cocteau. Parade is about a group of circus performers trying to lure a reluctant audience into the tent before the show begins. The sets and costume designs were by Pablo Picasso, who designed large cubist structures for the dancers to wear. The score was composed by Erik Satie, who used sounds from an airplane's engine, pistol shots, and a ship's siren to accompany the music.[5] Le Tricorn, better known as The Three Cornered Hat, premiered at the Alhambra Theater in London, on 22 July 1919.
Col. de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo
When George Balanchine left de Basil's company in 1933, Massine replaced him as resident choreographer. Massine's ballets during this period were reminiscent of Fyodor Lopukhov's Tanzsymphonia, in that an emphasis on the music drove the choreography. He continued to use symphonic music by well-known composers.[7]
In 1932 he created
Massine & Blum's Ballet Russe de Monte-Carlo
Leaving Col. de Basil's company, in 1937 Massine and
The new
A month after premiering Gaîté Parisienne Massine produced Seventh Symphony, to Beethoven's score. It premiered on 5 May 1938 in Monte Carlo, with Alicia Markova, Nini Theilade, Frederic Franklin, and Igor Youskevitch as the principal dancers.
Massine left Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1943.
San Francisco Bay Area
In 1977 Massine moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to begin a series of choreographic workshops, as well as revive his work Le Beau Danube for the Marin Ballet. At the same time, Massine was working on plans for Parisina, which was to be performed by Natalia Makarova. However, Makarova began to suspect her part was originated on another dancer and pulled out of the project. Massine was appointed resident choreographer of the Marin Ballet. He began work on a new production of The Nutcracker, which was never seen outside the studio.[16]
Film work
Massine appeared in two feature-length films by the British directors
Personal life
In his youth, Massine was the protégé and lover of Diaghilev.[17] In later life he enjoyed numerous love affairs with beautiful women and had four wives. His first two wives, Vera Savina (née Vera Clark) and Eugenia Delarova, were both ballet dancers. With his third wife, Tatiana Orlova, he had two children, a son, Leonide Massine II (who later changed his name to "Lorca Massine"),[18] and a daughter, Tatiania. He and Orlova divorced in 1968. He subsequently married Hannelore Holtwick, with whom he had two sons, Peter and Theodor, and made his home in Borken, West Germany, where he died on 15 March 1979.[19]
In 1968 Massine published his autobiography, entitled My Life in Ballet.
Awards
Massine was inducted into the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame in 2002.
Major works
- 1915: Soleil de Nuit (Midnight Sun, to the music of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, set and costumes by Mikhail Larionov)
- 1916: Las Meninas (music by Gabriel Fauré)
- 1917: The Good-Humoured Ladies (music by Domenico Scarlatti, arr. Vincenzo Tommasini)
- 1917: Parade (music by Erik Satie)
- 1919: Gioacchino Rossini, arr. Ottorino Respighi)
- 1919: The Three-Cornered Hat (music by Manuel de Falla)
- 1920: Pulcinella (music by Igor Stravinsky)
- 1924: Roger Desormière)
- 1928: Ode (music by Nicolas Nabokov, scenario by Boris Kochno, design by Pavel Tchelitchew)
- 1930: Le Sacre du printemps (music by Igor Stravinsky)
- 1933: Les Présages (to the music of Symphony No. 5 by Pyotr Tchaikovsky)
- 1933: Choreartium (to the music of Symphony No. 4 by Johannes Brahms)
- 1936: Symphonie fantastique (to the music of Symphonie fantastique by Hector Berlioz)
- 1938: Gaîté Parisienne (music by Jacques Offenbach, arr. Manuel Rosenthal)
- 1938: Seventh Symphony (music by Ludwig van Beethoven)
- 1938: Nobilissima Visione (music by Paul Hindemith)
- 1939: Capriccio Espagnol (music by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; filmed in Warner Bros.' 1941 short Spanish Fiesta)
- 1942: Aleko (music by Pyotr Tchaikovsky)
- 1943: Mam'zelle Angot (music, Charles Lecocq)
- 1944: Mad Tristan (with sets, costumes, and artwork by Salvador Dalí)[20]
- 1948: Capriccio (music by Igor Stravinsky)
- 1952: Laudes Evangelii (music by Valentino Bucchi, filmed for TV by Joan Kemp-Welch in 1961).
Filmography
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1932 | The Blue Danube | Dancer | |
1947 | Carnival in Costa Rica | Roberto | Uncredited |
1948 | The Red Shoes | Ljubov | |
1951 | The Tales of Hoffmann |
Spalanzani / Schlemil / Franz | |
1953 | Aida | Uncredited | |
1954 | Neapolitan Carousel | Antonio 'Pulcinella' Petito | |
1959 | Honeymoon | The Spectre in 'El Amor Brujo' |
See also
References
- ^ Janet Sinclair, "Massine, Léonide," in International Dictionary of Ballet, edited by Martha Bremser (Detroit: St. James Press, 1993), vol. 2, pp. 918–22. Includes biographical facts, an interpretive essay, and extensive chronologies of roles performed and works created.
- ^ Varnovskaya, V. "Артисты Дягилева" (in Russian). The Ballet Magazine. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
- ^ Scheijen 2010.
- ^ Lynn Garafola, Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989).
- ^ Au, Susan (1988). Ballet and Modern Dance (2nd ed.). London: Thames & Hudson LTD (pg 106–108)
- ^ Norton, Leslie (2004). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc, Publishers (pgs 1–3)
- ^ Au, Susan (1988). Ballet and Modern Dance (2nd ed.). London: Thames & Hudson LTD (pg 110–111)
- ^ Léonide Massine, My Life in Ballet (London: Macmillan, 1968).
- ^ Vicente García-Márques, The Ballets Russes: Colonel de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, 1932-1952 (New York: Knopf, 1990).
- ^ "Blum Ballet Sold to Company Here," New York Times (20 Nov 1937).
- ^ a b Andros, Gus Dick (February 1997). "Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo". Andros on Ballet. Michael Minn. Retrieved 5 June 2010.
- ^ australiadancing[usurped] through the Internet Archive
- ^ Jack Anderson, The One and Only: The Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo (New York: Dance Horizons, 1981), p. 281.
- ^ Frederic Franklin, interviewed by John Mueller, Cincinnati, Ohio, October 2004; bonus material on Gaîté Parisienne, a film (1954) by Victor Jessen on DVD (Pleasantville, N.Y.: Video Artists International, 2006).
- ^ Norton, Leslie (2004). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc, Publishers (pgs 198-204)
- ^ Norton, Leslie (2004). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company Inc, Publishers (pgs 229-331)
- ISBN 978-0-415-15982-1.
- ^ "Lorca Massine".
- ^ García-Márquez, Massine (1995), p. 381.
- ^ Martin, John (16 December 1944). "BALLET PREMIERE OF 'MAD TRISTAN'; Salvador Dali's Creation is Offered at International with Moncion, Worth". The New York Times.
Sources
- Scheijen, Sjeng (2010). Diaghilev: A Life. Profile Books. ISBN 978-1846681646.
External links
- Leonide Massine[usurped] on Australia Dancing
- Léonide Massine at IMDb
- Leonide Massine watches a rehearsal of Parade - with images
- Massine-Ballet.com
- Grave site
- Archive film of Leonide Massine's Gaite Parisienne in 1948 at Jacob's Pillow
- Guide to Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo records concerning Leonide Massine at Houghton Library, Harvard University