Programme
Stravinsky: Petrushka (choreography - Fokine; dancers - Loudières, Mogne, Guizerix)
Weber: La spectre de la rose (Fokine; de Vulpian, Legris)
Debussy: Prélude l'après-midi d'un faune (Nijinsky; Jude, Pietragalla)
Stravinsky: Les noces (Nijinska; Platel, Belarbi, Legrée, Lormeau)

Performers
Paris Opera Ballet

Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) is one of the major figures in ballet history - yet the nearest he got to a ballet move was the flourish as he signed his cheques. The Russian-born St Petersburg law student forced his way into the arts through sheer personal drive and organisational ability: after setting up an art magazine, he became artistic adviser to the Maryinsky Theatre, and set up art exhibitions in St Petersburg and Paris. And it was in Paris - the great hub of world dance - that he came to international prominence.

Diaghilev persuaded the most famous artists, composers and dancers of the day to work with him - artists such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse; composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussey and Erik Satie; choreographers such as Mikhail Fokine, Vaslav Nijinsky, Bronislav Nijinska, Leonide Massine and George Balanchine.

This programme, recorded at Paris Opera Ballet in 1990, is a tribute to the great impresario. It celebrates some of his greatest collaborations (such as the Debussy piece, which caused a scandal in its day: Nijinsky, as the half-man-half-beast unable to suppress his lust while watching some attractive young satyrs dancing, took method acting a little too far).

The line-up of dancers is very impressive, too, including such names familiar to Sky Arts viewers, such as Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Manuel Legris.