Crafting the Ballets Russes

Robert Owen Lehman’s music manuscript collections include a trove of early 20th-century ballet. This exhibit, part of the museum’s centennial, begins with the arrival of Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes troupe in Paris in 1909 and follows its history and impact, particularly as it relates to the rise of women in leading creative roles. Those women include Bronislava Nijinska, whose choreography shaped Les Noces and Bolero, and Ida Rubinstein, who became a major patron of music.