|THE last drawing in this book is of Nijinsky as Narcisse, and if
Narcisse had been a _pas seul_ by Nijinsky I am sure that there would
have been more to praise in it. For once, the mosaic was all wrong, and
so the centre piece could not be all right. I have read enthusiastic
accounts of "L'Apres-midi d'un Faune," which Nijinsky himself arranged,
making Debussy's music the vehicle for a display of Greek poses, and
from Nijinsky's personal performance in "Narcisse" I believe it to be
possible that he has succeeded in doing, in "L'Après-midi de un Faune,"
what Bakst failed to do in "Narcisse. ' ' When, at the end of the
ballet, that colossal stage narcissus was jerked up from the stage pool,
and the limelight was turned on it, I regretfully saw in that light a
limitation in the Russian art. They could not interpret the tranquil
repose, the immanent beauty of Greek ideas.
[Illustration: 0070]
The whole treatment of the exquisite story of the youth who fell in
love with his own beauty, and was drowned seeking to come near its
reflection, was heavy-handed, even a little barbarous and ugly. And all
the grave movements imprisoned in stone and marble by the sculptors of
ancient Greece, all the joyous silhouettes on Greek vases, seemed to
remain remote, and secure from the conquest of the devouring Russian,
restlessly seeking material for his ballets in all nations and all
times. I had a sudden seizure of distrust; it was as though the disdain
of the Greek had sapped the foundations of my belief in the justness of
the praises lavished on the new dance; but then memories of gestures,
colors, bounding movements, freedom of expression given by perfection
of technique, came crowding pell-mell into my mind. The frown on a cold
marble forehead could not extinguish my joy in the flame of life which
burns so ardently in the work of the Russian ballet.