{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/1250872537?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"1250872537","authors":["Rupert Christiansen"],"book_id":"9781250872531","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/diaghilev-s-empire-9781250872531","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781250872531.jpg?v=a60680a4cc04d68f","description":"A Best Book of the Year at The New Yorker and The Telegraph “Amusing and assertive . . . [Christiansen’s] delight is infectious.” —Alexandra Jacobs, The New York Times Book Review Rupert Christiansen, a renowned dance critic and arts correspondent, presents a sweeping history of the Ballets Russes and of Serge Diaghilev’s dream of bringing Russian art and culture to the West. Serge Diaghilev, the Russian impresario and founder of the Ballets Russes, is often said to have invented modern ballet. An art critic and connoisseur, Diaghilev had no training in dance or choreography, but he had a dream of bringing Russian art, music, design, and expression to the West and a mission to drive a cultural and artistic revolution. Bringing together such legendary talents as Vaslav Nijinsky, Anna Pavlova, Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, this complex and visionary genius created a new form of ballet defined by artistic integrity, creative freedom, and an all-encompassing experience of art, movement, and music. The explosive color combinations, sensual and androgynous choreography, and experimental sounds of the Ballets Russes were called “barbaric” by the Parisian press, but its radical style usurped the entrenched mores of traditional ballet and transformed the European cultural sphere at large. Diaghilev’s Empire , the publication of which marks the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of Diaghilev’s birth, is a daring, impeccably researched reassessment of the phenomenon of the Ballets Russes and the Russian Revolution in twentieth-century art and culture. Rupert Christiansen, a leading dance critic, explores the fiery conflicts, outsize personalities, and extraordinary artistic innovations that make up this enduring story of triumph and disaster.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9781250872531","publication_date":"20231205","publisher":"Picador","slug":"diaghilev-s-empire","subtitle":"How the Ballets Russes Enthralled the World","title":"Diaghilev's Empire"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"PER003010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Ballet & Classical Dance","score":0.7706,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"PER003100","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Dance History","score":0.7539,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"PER003040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Modern Dance","score":0.7029,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"PER003010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Ballet & Classical Dance","score":0.7706,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"PER003100","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Dance History","score":0.7539,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"PER003040","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Modern Dance","score":0.7029,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"HIS013000","confidence_band":"high","label":"French History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"PER003100","confidence_band":"high","label":"Dance History","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Ballet & Classical Dance","score":0.7706,"slug":"ballet-classical-dance"},{"label":"Dance History","score":0.7539,"slug":"dance-history"},{"label":"Modern Dance","score":0.7029,"slug":"modern-dance"}],"reader_fit":["For readers interested in the history of ballet and the arts","For readers drawn to artistic innovation and cultural change"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Trudy Garfunkel"],"book_id":"9781497648470","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781497648470.jpg?v=a49042ea296c14e0","score":0.7054,"title":"On Wings of Joy","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781497648470"},{"authors":["Jennifer Homans"],"book_id":"9780812968743","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780812968743.jpg?v=e7c5efdcf57e1df6","score":0.6921,"title":"Apollo's Angels","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780812968743"},{"authors":["Susan Au"],"book_id":"9780500204115","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780500204115.jpg?v=8bc3ecd57104bc0e","score":0.6761,"title":"Ballet and Modern Dance Third Edition","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780500204115"},{"authors":["Robert Gottlieb"],"book_id":"9780060750718","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780060750718.jpg?v=9f2295e2bc7cadba","score":0.6648,"title":"George Balanchine","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780060750718"},{"authors":["Eliza Gaynor Minden"],"book_id":"9780743264075","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780743264075.jpg?v=1e90f14b15c5f41a","score":0.6424,"title":"The Ballet Companion","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780743264075"},{"authors":["Toni Bentley"],"book_id":"9780593316399","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780593316399.jpg?v=3801b8ebead66844","score":0.6358,"title":"Serenade","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780593316399"},{"authors":["Mindy Aloff"],"book_id":"9781598535846","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781598535846.jpg?v=4e909d8991ff4aea","score":0.6348,"title":"Dance in America: a Reader's Anthology","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781598535846"},{"authors":["Robert Farris Thompson"],"book_id":"9781400095797","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781400095797.jpg?v=df7c62fdd8958149","score":0.633,"title":"Tango","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781400095797"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:history"],"label":"History","score":0.4536,"slug":"history"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:music"],"label":"Music","score":0.0456,"slug":"music"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:twentieth century"],"label":"Century","score":0.0323,"slug":"century"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Ballets Russes history, Artistic innovation, Cultural change.","Themes: History, Music, Century.","Reading lane: Ballet & Classical Dance and Dance History."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.92,"pacing":"unknown","reader_fit":["For readers interested in the history of ballet and the arts","For readers drawn to artistic innovation and cultural change"],"themes":["Ballets Russes history","Artistic innovation","Cultural change"],"tropes":[]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":0,"goodreads_ratings_count":98,"goodreads_reviews_count":18,"quality_score":0.8683}}