Ближний Восток и его соседи

g 135 h Diaghilev’s Scheherazade and Russian Orientalism Potiphar’s wife, Indian Bayadere, the queen of Shemakha, as well as Chinoiserie characters in Les Orientales . The juxtaposition was obvious: aggressive and wildly lecherous colourful Oriental characters were balanced with white romantic fairy and colourless ghost-like European heroines, like Giselle or the Sylphids. Diaghilev’s Orientalism was both generic, spontaneous and pragmatic, which revealed him as a true artist and true businessman. To create a meticu- lously authentic dance in Thamar , the soloists were sent to Georgia to learn how to dance the lezginka . However, Bakst’s designs for Thamar were a rather stylised Oriental blend with a strong influence of Persian Qajar costume — re- produced also in Scheherazade — but presented as ‘Adolescent Indian’ ( sic ). The merging of such features within the generic ‘Russia’s own Orient’ was typical of Diaghilev’s productions: Thamar’s lovers were dancing the lezginka in costumes of Qajar princes (Bakst, 1912), while Polovtsian girls in Prince Igor were wearing dresses made from Central Asian ikats (Roerich, 1909). In music, a similarly vague and conventional image of the Orient was used, a mingling of everything non-Russian, that is non-European. Tchaikovsky Pl. 8. Lev Bakst, A dolescent Indian , poster of the ballet Scheherazade, Comoedia Illustré (15 June 1910) © Artstor Pl. 7. Lev Bakst, Tamara Karsavina and Adolph Bolm , poster of the ballet Thamar, Comoedia Illustré (1 June 1912) © Artstor