Programmes--Opéra Privé de Paris.

Opéra Russe à Paris. Printemps 1930. Paris, 1930, 9 coloured illustrations after designs by Boris Bilinsky mounted on card, plain illustrations, wrappers illustrated by Bilibin



Ibid. 2e Saison. Paris, 1930, 8 coloured illustrations after designs by Bilinsky mounted on card, plain illustrations, wrappers illustrated by Bilibin



together 4 items, 4to

Started after the death of Diaghilev in 1929, both the Opéra Privé de Paris and the Opéra Russe à Paris were another continuation of the Ballets Russes. Co-directed by Maria Kousnezoff-Massenet, they performed Russian operas and ballets in Paris, Barcelona and London in the late 1920s and 1930s.

The painter Konstantin Korovin (1861-1939) began designing stage sets for the Mamontov opera house in 1885, and increasingly did work for the theatre, moving to the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg at the beginning of the century. In 1923 he moved to Paris and spent most of the rest of his life designing stage sets for major theatres around the world. The Russian artist, illustrator of books, set and costume designer Ivan Bilibin (1876-1942) did much work for the Ballets Russes. His work was strongly influenced by Russian folk and medieval art. Boris Bilinsky (1900-1948) was commissioned in 1927 to produce the graphic designs for the French release of Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis.