RUSSIAN GENIUS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 157, 29 March 1941, Page 15

RUSSIAN GENIUS

Intimate Biography Of Diaghilev “Serge Diaghilev,” by Serge Lifar (London: Putnam). Serge Lifar, the famous ballet dancer, calls his study of Diaghilev, that remarkable and dynamic figure in the world of art, an intimate biography. He does so with good reason, for it is an extraordinarily revealing bcok, not only of its subject but of its author, too. The book is in two sections. The first and longest is an objective biography of Diaghilev compiled from the many relevant documents which Lifar possesses and from the information he has acquired in his personal association with Diaghilev and with the men who had known him from his •youth onward. A full-length portrait of Diaghilev emerges. His immense enthusiasms, his terrific energy, his wide culture and his knowledge and understanding of painting, music and literature and, of course, his all-important part in the creation of modern ballet are all vividly depicted with a mass of detail every bit of which adds its significant quota to the final effect. Into the record come also the activities of the musicians, painters, writers and dancers whom he attracted to collaborate with him, making a crowded and lively scene with quarrels, recon dilations and arguments on nearly every page. The second section of the book is an entirely subjective account by Lifar of his own relations with Diaghilev It is very frank, very emotional with occasional moments almost of hysteria. The story begins with Lifar’s arrival in Paris from Kiev in 1923 as a recruit for the Russian Ballet. It ends with’ Diaghilev’s death in Venice in 1929 and a tense final scene which included Lifar’s screaming collapse at the funeral service and, his effort to hurl himself into the grave. More by the force of his sincerity than by exceptional literary skill Lifar has been strikingly successful in recreating the colourful personality of Diaghilev complete with all its verve and vitality. This is the biography of a man who was more than the creator of the ballet as we know it today. His Influence spread much wider and the story of his life, therefore, should appeal to many readers other than those primarily interested in the ballet.