M. Diaghileff The name of M. Serge Diaghileff, whose death
we regret to record, will endure as that of a great artist, who carried the organization of the ballet into fields hitherto undreamed of, and who, by combining many arts in one, produced an entirely new form. As a theatrical producer he was never content with anything but the best— the best, in his judgment, being always what might have been thought beyond the appreciation of a popular audience. Yet his ballets became one of the most popular institutions of the British theatre. Truly a singular achievement. Without M. Diaghileff the music of Stravinsky and the painting of Mattise would have been far less well known here than they are. When he first produced a ballet in London, several years before the War, more than half the audience did not sit through it; but when at last he created his public he had a devoted following who could be trusted to find genius even where there was eccentricity.
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