In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

82 8 Soiree de Paris Soiree de Paris was a month-long season of ballet and theater organized by Count Etienne de Beaumont at the Theatre de la Cigale in May and June 1924.1 According to the souvenir program and the poster, the season was a charity benefit for the Society for Relief for the War Widows and the Committee to Help Russian Refugees, under the patronage of the President ofthe Republic and Mme Millerand; the President ofthe Council and Mme Poincare; Marshal and Mme Foch; and the Princess Sixte de Bourbon; its committee of honor and roster of patrons include diplomats, political and military officials, and minor royalty.2 In his biography of Cocteau, Francis Steegmuller suggests that the season was organized to "refloat" Leonide Massine, who had been dismissed by Diaghilev in 1921, had organized his own, unsuccessful companies, and had asked to be readmitted to the Ballets Russes in 1922, but was refused) Massine reports modestly that "I was very surprised and flattered when [Beaumont] asked me to collaborate in a new venture he was planning,. . . a charitable venture for the assistance of French war widows and Russian refugees.... He asked me to choreograph five productions for him."4 In his preface to the souvenir program, Beaumont states as his goal to combine all the artsdance , painting, music, and poetry- which in their own ways reveal the new spirit and the youngest countenance of France.5 Perhaps Beaumont, who was an avid ballet fan and friendly with Misia Sert, Valentine and Jean Hugo, Jean Cocteau, and others in Diaghilev 's circle, aspired to become as active an impresario as the producer ofthe beloved Ballets Russes. He directed his social life with all the care ofa metteur-en-scene, and the borderline between private life and theater in his social set was not always clear. In their biography ofMisia Sert, Fizdale and Gold call Beaumont "the Diaghilev of costume balls."6 They describe one party in which "Max Jacob appeared as a monk, Jean Hugo as an Imperial Guard, and Lucien Daudet ... as the Spectre de la Rose."7 Reginald Bridgeman, a secretary to the British ambassador in Paris, reported that each Beaumont ball had a theme-the French colonies, the court ofLouis XN -and that at the first of these parties, in 1919, the guests were requested to arrive "leaving exposed that part of one's body that one considUnpublished . Soiree de Paris ered the most interesting."8 At Beaumont's Bal des Jeux in 1922, Raymond Radiguet came disguised as a shooting gallery, carrying clay pipes and wearing a cardboard target over his evening dress; Valentine Hugo appeared as a merry-go-round, Jean Hugo represented a game ofbilliards, and Misia Sert's nephew Jean Codebski was a house of cards.9 At the Bal de Mer, Jean Hugo was one of four men disguised as waiters from Prunier's who carried the Maharanee of Kapurthala, as caviar, on a tray.lO And in 1923 at the Bal Louis XIV, the Countess de Castries, as "La Malade Imaginaire," was carried in on a chair; Raymond Radiguet was in attendance as "a patient, made up with spots, meaning measles."ll The Duchess de Cramont, in mourning, appeared as an executioner bearing the head of John the Baptist on a platter, attended by Jean Hugo as Herodias and the Prince de Chimay as Salome.12 Despite its cache - besides its list of dignitaries, the program announces that the lighting was designed by Mme LOle Fuller- the Soiree season was somewhat haphazardly organized. Programs were changed or substituted at the last minute, and announcements in the newspapers often conflict, even in the same publication. The souvenir program and poster give 17 May 1924-30 June 1924 as the dates of the season, as does Massine in his autobiography, but the listings in Le Figaro indicate that performances were given every night between 18 May and 18 June, but not before or after. Because Le Figaro gives last-minute details on repetitions generales and changes of program, and upcoming events, I have used its listings in compiling the following classification of the Soiree de Paris season.13 The opening program, listed as playing 18 May-23 May, was listed under "Spectacles and Concerts" daily in Le Figaro as follows: ALa Cigale (Nord 07-60), 11 9 heures, "Soirees de Paris," organisees par Ie Comte E. de Beaumont. Vogue, Mouchoir de Nuages, Ie Beau Danube, Salade. Projections lumineuses de miss...

Share