Dress, theatrical dress (ensemble)

This silver lamé and cream satin dress is part of the costume, designed by Léon Bakst, for one of the twelve mazurka women who appeared in the Scene V of the ballet The Sleeping Princess. The mazurka men and women formed twelve couples in this final scene. This costume is very well made and was possibly made in Paris. The bodice and panniers are made of a silver lamé printed with a pattern of fish scales. The panniers are bordered with artificial green leaves and two bands of gold tissue and gold fringe fall from either side of the waist The underskirt is of oyster coloured satin and is decorated with silver braid and appliqué. The mazurka costumes were worn again for Le Mariage d'Aurore (Aurora’s Wedding), scene V of the original ballet, by Colonel W. De Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, when they toured Australia in 1936/7. For this tour this dress was worn by English dance Anna Severska, whose real name was Joan Annette Fenchie-Stafford-Northcote.

In 1921 Serge Diaghilev staged a reconstruction of the Imperial Theatre’s The Sleeping Beauty. This ballet had been choreographed in 1890 by Marius Petipa to the music of Tchaikovsky. Inspired by the success of the long-running musical Chu Chin Chow, Diaghilev hoped that The Sleeping Princess, as he renamed it, would run forever. It was a hugely ambitious project. Diaghilev secured the Alhambra Theatre, London and the financial backing of Sir Oswald Stoll to the tune of over £20,000. He employed Nicolas Sergeyev, the former régisseur of the Mariinsky, to stage Petipa’s choreography. Diaghilev altered the score with additions from The Nutcracker and other ballets, and employed Bronislava Nijinska to create additional choreography. The full length ballet was divided into five scenes, The Christening, The Spell, The Vision, The Awakening and The Wedding

Léon Bakst was commissioned to design the opulent costumes and sets. In just over three months, a staggering six changes of complex set and nearly 300 individual costumes were made for Diaghilev’s most ambitious project to date. No expense was spared with even the costumes for minor roles being exquisitely crafted. The costumes were made between workshops in Paris and London with many constructed by Bakst’s preferred costume maker, Mme Muelle, in Paris.

The Sleeping Princess opened on the 2nd of November, 1921. A full-length ballet was a new experience for London audiences, and initially was a great success. The production needed to run for six months in order to break even. After the New Year, sales began to drop and on the 4th of February, 1922, after 105 consecutive performances, The Sleeping Princess closed. Despite the work’s perceived failure, it remains one of the longest-running ballets ever performed on the West End.

Stoll seized the sets and costumes in lieu of the outstanding debt, and the company was given a month’s leave. The costumes were stored under the stage of the Coliseum. Diaghilev was eventually able to settle the debt and buy back the costumes but he had moved on artistically and only some costume from Scene V were used again. The majority of the surviving costumes were sold in a renowned auction at Sotheby’s, London, in 1968, and the remainder in 1973. The costumes in the Museum of London’s collection were purchased in 1968.

Notes by Caroline Hamilton