Bakst /

Leon Bakst is, of course, best known for the ballet costumes and sets that he created for the Ballets Russes beginning in 1909, and which took le tout Paris by storm. Ingles's volume features many of those sets and costumes, and includes his memorable portraits of the members of the World of Art group, which was formed in St. Petersburg. But the volume also includes some irrelevant Russian paintings and some irrelevant photographs of contemporary ballet productions. As for the text, it deals primarily with Bakst's career in personal terms; it details his relationships with phenomenally talented people such as Stravinsky and Nijinsky with whom Bakst worked. But the text does not so much as mention Lynn Garofola's magisterial Diaghilev's Ballets Russes (CH, Feb'90), nor does it address such interesting questions as the effect of Bakst's Jewish origins or the relation of his work to that of other set and costume designers of the time. However, the book is so decorative in and of itself that most will not notice any lacks. General readers; undergraduates. J. M. Curtis; emeritus, University of Missouri--Columbia

Born Lev Rosenberg in Belarus in 1866 to modest means, Leon Bakst was already an accomplished artist when he joined the creative circle around Sergei Diaghilev, impresario of the Ballets Russes. Bakst's bold, colorful set designs and exotic costumes became integral to Fokine's innovative choreography and forever changed ballet. Oriental exotica like Scheherezade, Cleopatre, and Thamar and daring ballets like L'Apres-midi d'un Faune are indelibly associated with Bakst, as are The Firebird, Le Spectre de la Rose, and The Sleeping Beauty. Nijinsky, Karsavina, Ida Rubinstein, and Pavlova wore costumes by Bakst in some of their most famous performances. Some of the ballets are still performed today using his costume and set designs. Mostly in color, the 170 illustrations found here vibrantly display Bakst's artistry. The text by freelance writer Ingles is briefer than Charles Spencer's Leon Bakst and the Ballets Russes (Academy Ed., 1995. o.p.), but Ingles's book is a gorgeous, visual tribute to an artist every lover of ballet and theater must know. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.DTherese Duzinkiewicz Baker, Western Kentucky Univ. Libs., Bowling Green (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.