REDISCOVERED MASTERPIECES FROM THE RUSSIAN OPERA at Bonhams

Alexander Golovin’s designs for Igor Stravinsky’s opera
on show at Bonhams

Exhibition: Music, Magic and Flight: Alexander Golovin’s Designs for the Lost Production of Igor Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol
Location: New Bond Street
Date: 24 May – 6 June 2018
International Director, Russian Department: Yelena Harbick

The international auction house, Bonhams, will hold an exhibition of Alexander Golovin’s magnificent designs for Igor Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol to celebrate the centenary of the ‘lost’ 1918 Mariinsky Theatre production. The exhibition Music, Magic and Flight will take place in London from 24 May to 6 June 2018 at Bonhams main UK saleroom at 101 New Bond Street.

Le Rossignol (The Nightingale) was the first opera composed by Stravinsky, which in this production featured sets and costumes by the renowned designer Alexander Golovin, one of the most remarkable Russian artists of his time.

This 1918 staging brought together an astonishing trio of creative genius: Stravinsky, fresh from his career-making successes in Paris and London with Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes; the innovative theatre director Vsevolod Meyerhold; and Alexander Golovin – who brought a new focus on design to 20th-century theatre.

However, after a single performance on May 30, 1918, at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, this daring and sumptuous production disappeared from the repertoire, lost in the chaos of revolution and civil war. The designs finally found their way into the hands of Michael Klatchko, a Russian doctor who travelled internationally and had close ties to the Russian émigré community in Paris. Klatchko kept the works until his death – whereupon they were discovered in his collection by his family. Douglas Engmann, Michael Klatchko’s grandson, noted “These exquisite works made theatrical history, and their subsequent journey from St Petersburg to San Francisco is as legendary as the plot of the opera. We are delighted to share Golovin’s extraordinary vision with a wider audience.”

International Director of the Russian Department, Yelena Harbick, said, “This exhibition at Bonhams is a rare opportunity to see these extraordinary and beautiful works. They provide a fascinating visual narrative of the final vestiges of the opulence and elegance of the late Imperial Theatre, and reveal the brilliant creativity of the Russian Theatre that flourished during the most explosive and transformative years of the early 20th century.”

Alexander Golovin (1863 – 1930)

Russian-born Alexander Golovin was a painter, interior decorator, illustrator and stage designer, known for working with Sergei Diaghilev, Constantin Stanislavski and Vsevolod Meyerhold. After studying at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, he began his career as an interior painter and decorator.

In 1900, Golovin collaborated with Konstantin Korovin on the design of the Russian Empire Pavilion at the Paris World’s Fair, and with Mikhail Vrubel on a majolica frieze for the Metropol Hotel in Moscow, before moving to Saint Petersburg. There he made his name as a stage designer working for the Imperial Theatres, combining symbolism and modernism in both operatic and dramatic productions for Diaghilev, Meyerhold and others. In 1910, he provided the set and costume designs for Stravinsky’s Firebird ballet.

Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971)

Igor Stravinsky was a Russian-born composer, pianist and conductor widely considered one of the most important composers of the 20th Century. He achieved international fame with three ballets commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev and performed in Paris by Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes: The Firebird (1910), Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913). The last of these changed the way composers thought about rhythmic structure, and solidified Stravinsky’s reputation as a musical revolutionary.

Vsevolod Meyerhold (1874 – 1940)

Vsevolod Meyerhold was a Russian and Soviet theatre director, actor, theatrical producer and creator of a new acting system called ‘biomechanics’. His unconventional theatrical stagings made him one of the seminal forces in modern international theatre. Meyerhold joined the Moscow Art Theatre and there began to formulate his avant-garde theories of symbolic, or “conditional” theatre. During 1920–35, he achieved his greatest artistic success as a director with Fernand Crommelynck’s Le Cocu magnifique (The Magnificent Cuckold, 1920) and his controversial 1935 production of Aleksandr Pushkin’s story Pikovaya Dama (The Queen of Spades).

Bonhams

Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's largest and most renowned auctioneers, offering fine art and antiques, motor cars and jewellery. The main salerooms are in London, New York, Los Angeles and Hong Kong, with auctions also held in Knightsbridge, Edinburgh, Paris, San Francisco and Sydney. With a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 22 countries, Bonhams offers advice and valuation services in 60 specialist areas. For a full list of forthcoming auctions, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments, please visit bonhams.com.