Léonide Massine | |
|---|---|
| Леонид Мясин | |
_-_1914_-_Ritratto_da_Leon_Bakst.jpg) Portrait byLéon Bakst, 1914 | |
| Born | Leonid Fyodorovich Myasin (1896-08-09)9 August 1896 Moscow, Russian Empire |
| Died | 15 March 1979(1979-03-15) (aged 82) Borken, West Germany |
| Occupations | Dancer, choreographer |
| Years active | 1915–1948 |
| Spouse(s) | (d.1987) (d.1990) 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 asLéonide Massine (9 August [O.S. 28 July] 1896 – 15 March 1979), was a Russianchoreographer 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 inLa Boutique fantasque (1919), the Hussar inLe Beau Danube (1924), and, perhaps best known of all, the Peruvian inGaîté Parisienne (1938). Today his oeuvre is represented by his son Lorca Massine, who stages his works around the world.
Massine was born into a musical family on 9 August 1896 inMoscow,Russia. His mother was a soprano in theBolshoi Theater Chorus and his father played the French horn in the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra. Leonid was one of five children. He had three brothers, Mikhail, Gregori, and Konstantin — as well as one sister — Raissa. Due to their small age difference, Leonid and Konstantin were very close during childhood. Beginning when Leonid was seven, the Massine family spent most summers at their summerdacha in Zvenigorod-Moskovsky.
In 1904, Leonid successfully auditioned for theMoscow 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 balletRuslan 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, his brother 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,Sergei Diaghilev came to Moscow in search of a dancer for a new production ofThe Legend of Joseph. His favoriteVaslav Nijinsky had originally been cast in the role, but Diaghilev terminated Nijinsky's contract upon his marriage toRomola de Pulszky. Diaghilev was attracted to Massine's onstage presence and acting, and invited him to audition for the choreographer,Mikhail Fokine. After the audition inSt. Petersburg, Massine joined Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes.[2][3]
From 1915 to 1921 Massine was the principal choreographer ofSergei Diaghilev'sBallets Russes.
Following the departure ofVaslav 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, calledLe Soleil de Nuit, used Russian folklore elements. The balletParade 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 asThe Three Cornered Hat, premiered at the Alhambra Theater in London, on 22 July 1919.Manuel de Falla composed the score andPablo Picasso designed the sets and costumes. Massine's collaborators, all Spanish, helped to make this ballet more authentic to its subject matter.Le Tricorn was a triumphant success. The story was inspired by the novelEl sombrero de tres picos (1874) byPedro Antonio de Alarcón. In order to authentically depict the Spanish character dances, Massine carefully studied the authentic Spanish character dance style.[6]
WhenGeorge 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 createdJeux d'enfants [ru] to libretto byBoris Kochno, scenic design was byJoan Miró. In 1933, Massine created the world's first symphonic ballet,Les Présages, usingTchaikovsky'sSymphony No. 5.[8] This caused a furor amongst musical purists, who objected to a serious symphonic work being used as the basis of a ballet. Undeterred, Massine continued work onChoreartium, set toBrahms'Fourth Symphony, which had its premiere on 24 October 1933 at the Alhambra Theatre in London. Massine also choreographed a ballet toHector Berlioz's 1830Symphonie Fantastique and danced the role of The Young Musician withTamara Toumanova as The Beloved at its premiere atCovent Garden, London, on 24 July 1936 with ColonelWassily de Basil'sBallet Russe de Monte Carlo.[9]
Leaving Col. de Basil's company, in 1937 Massine andRené Blum (himself a former associate of de Basil's) acquired financing fromJulius Fleischmann, Jr.'s World Art, Inc. to create a new ballet company,[10] with Massine as the resident choreographer. Massine soon discovered that the ballets he had choreographed while under contract with Col. de Basil were owned by his company. Massine sued Col. de Basil in London to regain the rights to his own works. He also sued to claim theBallet Russe de Monte Carlo name.[11] The jury decided that Col. de Basil owned Massine's ballets created between 1932 and 1937, but not those created before 1932.[12] It also ruled that both successor companies could use the nameBallet Russe — but only Massine & Blum's company could be calledBallet Russe de Monte Carlo. Col. de Basil finally settled on theOriginal Ballet Russe.[11]
The newBallet Russe de Monte Carlo debuted in 1938; Massine choreographedGaîté Parisienne, set to music byJacques Offenbach, which premiered on 5 April at the Théâtre de Monte Carlo.[13][14]Gaîté Parisienne was one of Massine's most celebrated works during this time. Instead of a whole, singular composition for the score, Offenbach created a series of divertissements. This allowed Massine to use a wide variety of dancers and tempi, all while conveying a single narrative. Massine revived the piece for American Ballet Theatre in 1970.Lorca Massine and Susanna della Pietra mounted an additional revival for ABT in 1988. In this production, the costumes were designed by Christian Lacroix, who created animated and eccentric costumes based on his own 1987 haute couture collection.[15]
A month after premieringGaîté Parisienne Massine producedSeventh Symphony, to Beethoven's score. It premiered on 5 May 1938 in Monte Carlo, withAlicia Markova,Nini Theilade,Frederic Franklin, andIgor Youskevitch as the principal dancers.
Massine left Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1943.
In 1977 Massine moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to begin a series of choreographic workshops, as well as revive his workLe Beau Danube for the Marin Ballet. At the same time, Massine was working on plans forParisina, 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 ofThe Nutcracker, which was never seen outside the studio.[16]
Massine appeared in two feature-length films by the British directorsMichael Powell and Emeric Pressburger:The Red Shoes (1948) andThe Tales of Hoffmann (1951). He also had a cameo appearance in Powell's later filmHoneymoon (1959). Massine starred in several films of balletshort subjects. ForWarner Brothers, he starred with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in a short Technicolor film of his balletCapriccio Espagnol, entitledSpanish Fiesta (1942). He choreographed and danced in the 194720th Century Fox color filmCarnival in Costa Rica, and also choreographed and appeared as Pulcinella in the filmCarosello Napoletano.In 1941, Warner Bros made an attempt at a film version of the ballet ofGaîté Parisienne, entitledThe Gay Parisian. The attempt was not well received, partly due to the fact that the signature role, played by Alexandra Danilova in the original work, was recast with a lesser dancer, Milada Mladova.
In his youth, Massine was the protégé and lover ofSergei Diaghilev.[17] In later life he had numerous love affairs with 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 inBorken,West Germany, where he died on 15 March 1979.[19]
In 1968 Massine published his autobiography, entitledMy Life in Ballet.
Massine was inducted into theNational Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame in 2002.
| 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' |
