On 29 December 1921, as The Sleeping Princess entered the second month of its run at London's Alh... more On 29 December 1921, as The Sleeping Princess entered the second month of its run at London's Alhambra Theatre, The Times announced that a plan was afoot to film the ballet. Amazingly, the initiative came from the inveterately anti-populist Diaghilev himself. Impressed by the film version of The Three Musketeers that Walter Wanger was then producing at Covent Garden to music 'synchronised' by conductor Eugene Goosens, Diaghilev had come to the conclusion 'that the same method might be applied to bring about the more general appreciation of classical ballet'. 'It has [also] been suggested,' continued The Times, 'that the film be done "in natural colours in the same way as The Glorious Adventure, the next production to be shown at Covent Garden [and] the first British film of the kind to be carried out in colours. In this way the glories of M. Bakst's costumes would not be lost, and the whole action of the ballet would be materially assisted.'" The scheme, as indicated by a follow-up article, was part of a larger undertaking to 'produce original films built up on original musical scores and on the scores of a number of existing operas'. The artistic side was entrusted to motion picture newcomersthe painters Augustus John and S. H. Sime, who were to 'concern themselves with the settings', and the composerJosef Holbrooke, who was to 'provide much of the music'.2 In other words, the plan was intended to appropriate the 'cheap and rapidly breeding cinema', in T. S. Eliot's words,3 for the purposes of 'high art', the reason Diaghilev would have entertained the idea in the first place.
On 29 December 1921, as The Sleeping Princess entered the second month of its run at London's Alh... more On 29 December 1921, as The Sleeping Princess entered the second month of its run at London's Alhambra Theatre, The Times announced that a plan was afoot to film the ballet. Amazingly, the initiative came from the inveterately anti-populist Diaghilev himself. Impressed by the film version of The Three Musketeers that Walter Wanger was then producing at Covent Garden to music 'synchronised' by conductor Eugene Goosens, Diaghilev had come to the conclusion 'that the same method might be applied to bring about the more general appreciation of classical ballet'. 'It has [also] been suggested,' continued The Times, 'that the film be done "in natural colours in the same way as The Glorious Adventure, the next production to be shown at Covent Garden [and] the first British film of the kind to be carried out in colours. In this way the glories of M. Bakst's costumes would not be lost, and the whole action of the ballet would be materially assisted.'" The scheme, as indicated by a follow-up article, was part of a larger undertaking to 'produce original films built up on original musical scores and on the scores of a number of existing operas'. The artistic side was entrusted to motion picture newcomersthe painters Augustus John and S. H. Sime, who were to 'concern themselves with the settings', and the composerJosef Holbrooke, who was to 'provide much of the music'.2 In other words, the plan was intended to appropriate the 'cheap and rapidly breeding cinema', in T. S. Eliot's words,3 for the purposes of 'high art', the reason Diaghilev would have entertained the idea in the first place.
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