Exhibition "Benoit & Fokine"

2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of theater artist Alexander Nikolaevich Benois and the 140th anniversary of the birth of ballet dancer and choreographer Mikhail Mikhailovich Fokin.

From September 17, 2020, the Benois & Fokine exhibition will start working at the St. Petersburg State Theater Library. The exposition will be dedicated to two joint works of the artist and the choreographer - the ballets Armida’s Pavilion and Petrushka.

The idea of creating a ballet called "Omphale" originated with Alexander Benois in the early 1900s. He recalled: “… During 1900-1903, the idea of ’my ballet’ took on a somewhat definite shape. Found a plot. On the advice of Somov, it seems, I read a collection of stories by Théophile Gaultier, and most of all I liked the fantastic story "Omphale". A mixture of something nightmarish, ghostly with quite real phenomena. <…> Then I decided that this is an excellent subject for a dramatic ballet, and my ballet must certainly be dramatic. " The premiere took place on 25 November 1907 at the Mariinsky Theater. The ballet received the name "Pavilion of the Armida" and consisted of one act, having turned from three acts into one act thanks to Mikhail Fokin. “When the libretto was handed over to me and I got acquainted with it in detail,I came to the conclusion that the ballet was unnecessarily stretched out into three acts, that there is not enough material in it and that it would benefit if it was reduced to one act in three scenes, ”the choreographer wrote in his memoirs. In this version, the "Pavilion of the Armide" was presented on May 19, 1909 in Paris, at the Châtelet Theater.

The ballet "Petrushka" was first shown to the general public on June 13, 1911, also at the Parisian theater "Chatelet" as part of Sergei Diaghilev’s "Russian Seasons". The libretto was written by Alexander Benois and Igor Stravinsky, production and dances by Mikhail Fokin. According to Igor Stravinsky’s recollections, “the great success of ’Petrushka’ was unexpected. We were all afraid that the place assigned to him in the program would bring him destruction; because of the difficulties of the stage design, it had to be performed first, and everyone said that in the beginning it would not be successful. "

Mikhail Fokin wrote: “I got acquainted with the wonderful music of this ballet when it was already finished by Stravinsky and the plot of the ballet, created by him together with A. N. Benois, was completely ready. I entered into cooperation with the composer and the artist when the main characters of the plot, the main line of its development, had already been created by them. Nevertheless, when I say ’my ballet Petrushka’, when I say that this is one of my most successful achievements, one of my most significant productions, I feel that I have every right to do so.

The Benois & Fokine exhibition will show Alexander Benois’s sketches for the Armida Pavilion and Petrushka ballets from the collection of the St. Petersburg State Theater Library. They will be supplemented by fragments of the artist’s and choreographer’s memoirs about the creation of the performances. There will also be presented photographs depicting Anna Pavlova as Armida, Vaslav Nijinsky as her slave, Georgy Rozai as the Jester and scenes from the first production of the ballet “Pavilion of Armida”.

The exhibition will be open from 17.09. - 16.10.2020

in the library at the address: st. Architect Rossi, 2 (entrance from Ostrovsky square).

Free admission.