Featured Book: The Magical Chorus by Solomon Volkov

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Mr. Volkov writes in Part 1, "The Gathering Storm": "Pétrouchka alone would be enough to immortalize its creators, the composer and designer (Stravinsky and Benois), choreographer (Michel Fokine), dancers (Nijinsky and Tamara Karsavina), and producer (Diaghilev). We can picture them in late May 1911 in the basement of the Teatro Constanzi in Rome, where they rehearsed Pétrouchka for the Paris premiere. … Lev Karsavin … would drop by the rehearsals. … Of all the members of that carefree and happy Roman group, Lev Karsavin had the most tragic fate. … Nijinsky's life, while different, was tragic and symbolic in its own way. In Pétrouchka he danced himself, as the insiders at the premiere knew full well: a puppet manipulated by the all-powerful Magician Diaghilev. Nijinsky was famous for his phenomenal leaps, in which he seemed to hang in the air for an instant. But for the role of Pétrouchka, Fokine did not create any virtuoso steps. Nevertheless, it was a signature role for Nijinsky, as was the Faun in L'Après-midi d'un faun[e], choreographed by Fokine to music by Debussy" (pp. 44-46).