Revealing
the 1909-1912 Period of the Ballets Russes
Recently, I came across the most extraordinary footage.
It is of Ida Rubinstein acting, but more importantly dancing,
in an extended way in the 1921 Italian film ‘La Nave’, which was based on Gabriele
D'Annunzio's 1908 drama about the founding of Venice.
Often such legendary figures disappoint when revealed at
last on film, but this is not at all the case here.
Rubinstein gives the strongest impression of the perfumed oriental
Art Nouveau exoticism of the early
period Ballets Russes of 1909 to 1912.
And who better to do so. She had appeared in the title role
the company’s ‘Cléopâtre’
(1909), with choreography by Mikhail Fokine and costumes and sets by Leon
Bakst ...
... and as Zobeide opposite Vaslav Nijinsky in 'Schéhérazade'
(1910) with the same choreographer and designer ...
To give some sense of Rubinstein’s extraordinary impact on
stage, it’s instructive to read the following notes by Jean Cocteau made on her
entrance in ‘Cléopâtre’ during the
first few performances of the work:
“Then a ritual cortege was seen to appear.
There were musicians who plucked long, oval-shaped citharas, their tones richly
resonant, yet soft as the breath of serpents. Flutists, their arms raised in
angular poses, blew from their sonorous pipes spirals of sound so piercing, so
sharp, ascending and descending in turn, that one’s nerves could hardly endure
them. There were terra-cotta-complexioned fauns, with long white manes; narrow-hipped
young women with painted elbows and flat eyes; and all the other attendants on
a royal gallery.
Finally, borne on the shoulders of six colossi,
there appeared a kind of ebony and gold casket, which a young black watched
over diligently, touching it, clearing the way for it, urging on the bearers.
The bearers set the casket down in the middle
of the temple, opened its double lid, and from within lifted a kind of mummy, a
bundle of veils, which they placed upright on its ivory pattens. Then four
slaves began an astonishing maneuver. They unwound the first veil, which was
red, with silver lotuses and crocodiles; then the second veil, which was green
with the history of the dynasties in gold filigree; then the third, which was
orange with prismatic stripes; and so on until the twelfth veil, a dark blue,
which, one divined, enclosed the body of a woman. Each veil was unwound in a
different fashion: one called for a manage of intricately patterned steps,
another for the skill needed to shell a ripe nut, another for the casualness
with which one plucks the petals of a rose; the eleventh veil, in what seemed
the most difficult movement, was peeled off in one piece like the bark of a
eucalyptus.
The twelfth veil, dark blue, Mme Rubinstein
released herself, letting it fall with a sweeping circular gesture
.
She stood, leaning forward, her shoulders
slightly humped like the wings of the ibis; overcome by her long wait, having
submitted in her dark coffin, as we had, to the intolerable and sublime music
of her cortege, she wavered on her high pattens. She was wearing a small blue
wig, from which a short golden braid hung down on either side of her face.
There she stood, unswathed, eyes vacant, cheeks pale, lips parted, shoulders
hunched, and as she confronted the stunned audience, she was too beautiful,
like a too potent Oriental fragrance.”
Born into a wealthy Jewish family in Kharkov,
or possibly St. Petersburg, Ida Rubinstein
had little formal ballet training, though her skills were developed with
coaching from Fokine. What she did possess was tremendous stage presence and a
strong ability to act.
She made her debut in a single and private performance of
Oscar Wilde's ‘Salomé’, in which she stripped naked in the course of the Dance
of the Seven Veils. She was painted as this character by Valentin Serov in
1910.
She then appeared in leading roles in the Ballets Russes, such
as the title in ‘Cléopâtre’
(1909) and Zobeide in 'Schéhérazade' (1910).
Leaving the Ballets Russes in 1911, this extraordinary force
of nature formed her own dance company, which she funded by her own inherited
wealth.
Here she commissioned a number of lavish productions, using
variously Fokine as choreographer, Bakst as designer and Debussy as composer.
These ballets include 'Le Martyr de Saint Sebastien' (1911) ...
... and 'Helene de
Sparte' (1912) ...
Always one to attract attention, she drew the notice of the
Archbishop of Paris, who prohibited Catholics from seeing 'Le Martyr de Saint
Sebastien' because the saint was played by a woman and a Jew.
In a sense, Rubinstein was to momentarily take on the
creative and succès de scandale mantle of Serge de Diaghilev.
Not one to be any way checked by convention, in 1911,
Rubinstein began a three-year affair with Romaine Brooks.
Brooks painted and photographed her over this period.
During World World One, Rubinstein again was at the centre
of things, converting the Carlton Hotel into a hospital for wounded Allied troops
and undertaking
charity performances.
After the war, she appeared in various plays, and performed
in Staat's ‘Istar’ (1924) at the Paris Opera.
With Bronislava Nijinska as choreographer, Rubinstein had a
company in Paris between 1928 and
1929. She commissioned ‘Boléro’ from Maurice Ravel and performed in the ballet
choreographed to the music. Other commissions include Nijinska’s ‘Le Baiser de
la fée’ with music by Sauguet and Leonide Massine's ‘David’ with music by
Stravinsky.
Most definitely not ‘Vivir con miedo es como
vivir en medias’ (‘A life lived in fear is a life half lived’)!
But let’s return to 1921 and that footage from Gabriellino
D'Annunzio and Mario Roncoroni’s ‘La Nave’.
In this sequence from the film, Rubinstein in the role of Basiliola
is called on to dance for the crowd.
The choreography is in a sense a pastiche of much that this Belle
Époque figure was famous for. The overall feeling is of reminiscent ‘Salome’.
And the opening scene, in which she makes a strong bold arm movement, recalls
Cocteau’s note about ‘Cléopâtre’
- ‘The twelfth veil, dark
blue, Mme Rubinstein released herself, letting it fall with a sweeping circular
gesture’.
I dare you not to enjoy Ida Rubinstein in this segment of 'La Nave'!
