The importance of Monte Carlo to Diaghilev

The Monte Carlo contract arrived in time to give him some welcome security. There were only three performances a week; the programme served as a repetition generale for Paris and gave the artists time in which to rest. Monte Carlo was also the resort of the rich and influential from all countries, a perfect centre for the personal word-of-mouth propaganda of which Diaghilev was a master, sounding out on occasions the barber or the maitre d'hotel. In addition Monte Carlo came to fulfil a far more important function; it was essential to Diaghilev's method of creation from 1911 to his death.

Diaghilev created through others. He prided himself on being 'a collector of geniuses'. He would visit art exhibitions and concerts, meet poets and musicians, contacting those whom he thought useful to his work. He relied on his flair in the first place, but a ballet could not be produced by snap decisions. The various artists must meet together in a relaxed atmosphere, they must talk, produce ideas, tear them to pieces and think again. His painters were easel-artists and they had to get to know the nature of ballet; the composer and the choreographer, with the aid of a piano, had to learn to speak the same language. Monte Carlo was the ideal centre for such work. Every season artists flocked there, often as his guests, and many a ballet was conceived in the Hotel de Paris, at a supper table presided over by Diaghilev. It was his Versailles. On one occasion at a premiere in the Monte Carlo Opera House, he told the present writer, 'If the theatre burned down tonight, a large part of the world's creative artists would be wiped out.' And it was true.

Ballet Russe: the Age of Diaghilev by Arnold L Haskell. 1968. Page 71-2.