Maria Kuznetsova - The Ballets Russes

The Ballets Russes

On the eve of the First World War, Kuznetsova participated in, and helped to finance, the famed Les Saisons Russes of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in London and Paris.

With the help of her friend, the artist and designer Léon Bakst, Kuznetsova won the role of Potiphar's wife in Richard Strauss's ballet La Légende de Saint Joseph (or Josephslegende) in 1914. The production included a veritable who's who of the Edwardian art world. It was produced by Diaghilev, composed and conducted by Strauss, choreographed by Michel Fokine, designed by Bakst and José Maria Sert, while the lead was danced by Léonide Massine.

It was an important role, and she was certainly in good company, but they were held to a punishing schedule with little time to rehearse. To make matters worse, Strauss was in a foul mood because his lover, Ida Rubinstein, who was to have danced Lydia Sokolova's role, had abruptly abandoned the project. Furthermore, Strauss abhorred working with French musicians, and was constantly at daggers drawn with the orchestra. Diaghilev, meanwhile, had not yet recovered from Vaslav Nijinsky's departure the previous year from the Ballets Russes.

Despite the problems backstage and an outraged British press, who found the work obscene, the ballet successfully debuted in both London and Paris that spring as reported in the New York Times:

PARIS, May 14 - At the Opera tonight the Russian ballet season opened with the premiere of Richard Strauss's "The Legend of St. Joseph."...

The part of Joseph was excellently performed by a young member of the Moscow "Artists Theatre", Leonide Miassine, who joined M. Diaghilew's ballet company for this purpose. Mme Kousnetzoff abandoned singing for the time being to impersonate Potiphar's wife ...

A crowded house was evidently highly pleased.

The most memorable thing about the production was said to be Sert's luxurious Venetian themed sets and Bakst's costumes. Sokolova recalled Kuznetsova's costume as being particularly inspired:

She moved about on high gilded clogs, attended by servants, two of whom had a couple of honey-coloured wolfhounds on white leads ...

In addition to trying her hand at ballet, Kuznetsova performed in several operas that season. In one memorable performance she joined the celebrated Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin in a production of Borodin's Prince Igor, choreographed by Fokine, and staged at Drury Lane on June 8, 1914.