CREATING A SCENE
Parade’s collaborators
Serge Diaghilev (1872-1929)
After arranging exhibitions and concerts in his homeland, the Russian impresario (pictured above) brought Musorgsky’s Boris
Godunov to Paris in 1908, starring bass Feodor Chaliapin. This was followed by three Stravinsky ballets, The Firebird (1909),
Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). Diaghilev founded the Ballet Russes in 1909.
Léonide Massine (1896-1979)
Following studies at the Moscow Ballet School, the Russian dancer (pictured above) took over from Vaslav Nijinsky as the premier male dancer for Diaghilev in 1915.
Parade was the fourth of the many ballets he choreographed for the Ballets Russes.
Erik Satie (1866-1925)
The composer earned his living as a café pianist in Paris before entering the city’s Schola Cantorum in 1905. Ravel’s performance of some of his piano pieces (1911) widened Satie’s appeal.
Parade was his introduction to the stage.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
The Spanish painter arrived in Paris in 1901. With his friend Georges Braque, he explored the possibilities of Cubism before the two artists went their separate ways in 1914. Parade was the first of his four ballets for Diaghilev.
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)
After leaving home at 15, the French poet, playwright and, later, film director entered the Paris literary world, producing his first volume of poems, La
lampe d’aladin (1909). In 1912 he wrote the scenario of the ballet Le dieu bleu for the Ballets Russes.