Cimarosiana

Seymour, Maurice: Kira Abricossova [Bousloff] (foreground) with Lara Obidenna and Valentin Zeglovsky in Leonide Massine's 'Cimarosiana', Ballets Russes, c. 1935

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Cimarosiana, a divertissement ballet by Leonide Massine, was originally extracted from the final act of Diaghilev's 1920 production of Domenico Cimarosa's opera Le Astuzie Femminile. The extract, with the score arranged by Ottorino Respighi and with an added pas de quatre by Bronislava Nijinska, was first presented as Cimarosiana on January 8, 1924. Design of scenery and costumes was by Jose-Marie Sert.

This work was revived by the de Basil Ballets Russes, premiering in New York on November 4, 1936. It was performed in Australia by the Original Ballet Russe, opening on January 12, 1940, with a cast of forty dancers.

The following description by Kathrine Sorley Walker, quoting from A.V. Coton's A Prejudice for Ballet, gives a feel for the style of the eight divertissements that comprised the work:

"Coton describes its stages – an opening pas de trois for 'a male dancer with unusual fluidity of line' and two girls with 'enough elevation to help create the illusion that the dancing is a transposition of music into water-forms, as in the counterpoint of fountains'. ..Then came a Sicilian pas de six followed by a Tarantelle... – 'one of Massine's best miniatures of speed and gaiety'. The pas de quatre... was an 'exercise in support work' and led to a second pas de trios, 'a beautiful demonstration piece of fine character work built around a maze of lifts'... The ensemble Contre-danse prefaced the leading pas de deux... which had a 'Petipa-like quality in its rigorous simplicities of pattern based on the circle and triangle and was followed by a joyous finale'."

The Sydney Morning Herald review of the Australian premiere gives a strong indication of the design of the work:

'Cimarosiana proved to be a slight but richly coloured work.

Jose-Maria Sert's scenery shows a moonlit rooftop, with a baroque dome, and lights of a city in the background. A crowd, attired in gay colours, stands about.

The dresses were all the purest fantastification. A pas de trios danced by Petroff, Jasinsky and Morosova suggested rustic Greek array. Another pas de trios was a pretty conceit in pale yellow and russet. Tatiana Riabouchinska wore a carnival dress with a high blue feather. Another dancer had on the silken knee-breeches and white hose of the eighteenth century. Some of the spectators boasted military accoutrements with high shakos. Others were crowned with Schubertian top hats.

Somewhere or other all this had a remote wild relationship with real places and periods. But in its true nature, Cimarosiana was a series of divertissements.'

Bibliography:

Kathrine Sorley Walker, De Basil's Ballets Russes (London: Hutchinson, 1982), p. 65 ; 'The Ballet: An Enthusiastic Audience', The Sydney Morning Herald, 13 January 1940, p.19

See also: Ballets Russes Australian tours ; Jasinsky, Roman ; Massine, Leonide ; Petroff, Paul ; Riabouchinska, Tatiana

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Find more about Cimarosiana in:

• Internet - Google
• Articles - New York Public Library Dance Collection
• Pictures - Picture Australia