Arnaud, B., editor

[Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes] Programme: Soiree de Gala, 14 Mars 1913 [Programme: Gala Evening, 14 March 1913]

Lyon-Paris: [Association De La Presse Quotidienne Lyonnaise], 1913. Item #1451

24 pages. Illustrated self-wrappers, cord-bound with original twisted gold and navy string. 24 cm. A well-preserved copy, internally fresh, with only minor wear and light toning to the edges of the wrappers.

A richly produced souvenir program for the Gala Evening (Soirée de Gala) organized by the Association of the Lyon Daily Press at the Grand Théâtre de Lyon, featuring the celebrated Ballets Russes under the direction of Serge Diaghilev. The program included Cleopatra, Carnaval, Les Sylphides, and the Polovtsian Dances from Prince Igor. The cast features Vaslav Nijinsky, Bronislava Nijinska, Lydia Nelidova, Adolf Bolm, Alexandre Gavrilov, Nikolai Kremnev, and others, with music by Arensky and production design by Léon Bakst. Michel Fokine served as choreographer.

The booklet is lavishly printed, with full-page halftone photographs of the principal dancers, elaborate multicolor ornamental borders (some in metallic gold), and intact patterned tissue guards interleaved between plates. The front wrapper features a polychrome imperial Russian coat of arms in an embossed decorative frame; the rear wrapper displays an unsigned chromolithograph of a female dancer in an orientalist costume, heightened in gold.

No institutional holdings were located via OCLC, and only one auction record could be traced: a copy was sold by the ARTMAXIMUM auction house (Berlin) in 2017 for €1100.

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