Crafting the Ballets Russes: Music, Dance, Design, and the Robert Owen Lehman Collection

＂Published in conjunction with an exhibition at the Morgan Library & Museum in 2024, this publication tells the story of the artistic collaborations of the Ballets Russes, drawing upon the Robert Owen Lehman Collection of music manuscripts to illuminate this rich history. The book weaves together the careers of the ballet company’s creators, featuring Igor Stravinsky, Claude Debussy, Michel Fokine, Bronislava Nijinska, and Lâeon Bakst, interspersed with illustrations of autograph manuscripts, choreographic notations, and stage designs associated with their works. Authors Robinson McClellan, Assistant Curator of Music Manuscripts and Printed Music at the Morgan Library, and Lynn Garafola, dance historian, examine key ballets such as ＂Firebird,＂ ＂Petrouchka,＂ ＂Afternoon of a Faun,＂ and ＂Bolero,＂ as well as the influence of the impresario Serge Diaghilev, who founded the troupe at the height of the Belle âEpoque＂--

Robinson McClellan is an assistant curator of music manuscripts and printed music at the Morgan Library & Museum, New York. A composer, teacher, and scholar, he earned a doctorate in composition at the Yale School of Music and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. His writing has appeared in numerous arts journals including Liturgy.

Lynn Garafola is a professor of dance at Barnard College, New York. A dance historian and critic, she is the author of the seminal history Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes (1989) as well as a regular contributor of articles and essays to both scholarly and general interest publications. Her most recent book, La Najinska: Choreographer of the Modern (2022), has been widely acclaimed.