Imperial Dancer

by Coryne Hall

  Before rejoining Diaghilev Mathilde had an important duty to perform. She was invited to be part of the delegation making a presentation to one of the actresses at the Alexandrinsky Theatre. The Tsar and members of the Imperial family would be in the audience, so Mathilde put on an elegant white dress with her sapphires. She was rewarded afterwards when Sergei reported that the Tsar said, ‘Malia is extraordinarily beautiful tonight!’ Mathilde said she adored Andrei – but when Nicholas showed her some touching attention all the old feelings blazed out, and she was immersed in her memories ‘of past happiness and grief’.22

  Shortly afterwards she danced before the Tsar again, performing the Spanish dances in Carmen at a benefit performance – but not before obtaining permission to exchange dresses with another dancer so that she would have a more flattering costume.

  Mathilde also appeared in a private performance of the opera Fenella, in which the mute heroine was traditionally mimed by a ballerina. Mathilde and her friends Anna Ostrogradska and Lili Likhatcheva had each invited three men to dine at Cubat’s afterwards. Their plans were thrown into confusion during the interval when Grand Duke Dimitri Pavlovich, an avid balletomane, put his head round Mathilde’s dressing room door and invited her to supper. Naturally she had to ask him to join the party, but this would make thirteen at table. The superstitious Mathilde quickly invited another officer.

  In February 1912 Mathilde rejoined Diaghilev in Vienna, where she arrived with a full complement of servants and took over a whole floor of the best hotel. Among Mathilde’s large retinue were Olga Borkenhagen, Nina Nestorovska and Prince Gabriel Constantinovich, who had been courting Nina since the birthday party at Strelna. Gabriel wanted to marry Nina but was unable to because of his rank. In between rehearsals and performances they went on long drives down the Prater and into the rural suburbs of the city. Mathilde went shopping in the smartest Viennese establishments and in the evenings gave lavish parties in a restaurant, nightclub or cabaret. Sometimes friends came to her hotel suite and sat drinking until dawn.

  The Vienna Opera, orchestra (which contained many respected musicians) and even its ballet company were renowned in Europe. For the more traditionally minded Viennese Mathilde danced Lac des Cygnes and Carnival with Nijinsky.

  They went on to Budapest, where Mathilde took a floor of the Hotel Danube and added Le Spectre de la Rose to her repertoire. The stage proved too small for the scenery and modifications had to be made. Then Nijinsky was taken ill with a bad cold. With Diaghilev delayed in Vienna, Mathilde immediately brought her samovar to Nijinsky’s room and took over, curing him with ‘home remedies’.23 Although Nijinsky missed the opening performance, he recovered in time to partner Mathilde in Spectre, one of his most famous roles. A young girl (Mathilde) returns from a ball and falls asleep in an armchair holding a rose. She dreams of the spirit of the rose (Nijinsky), who comes in through the window and dances with her. Nijinsky’s final leap across the stage and out through the open window left audiences gasping.

  In Budapest Mathilde’s parties were greatly enlivened by Hungarian musicians and she was even friendly towards Nijinsky’s sister. She invited the ballet company to supper after performances, took them all to the theatre and bought presents for everyone before her departure. Once again Sima was in the company. Mathilde recalled that she obtained Diaghilev’s agreement to miss the last performance so that she could be in Russia for her name day (St Matilda on 2 March OS) because Vova would be upset if she was away.

  There is another version of her early departure. After a performance of Spectre, Nijinsky took a curtain call on his own when Mathilde had already returned to her dressing room. Male dancers never took a curtain without their ballerina. Mathilde made a scene and threatened to return to Russia immediately. It took a while to smooth her ruffled feelings but, by the time Nijinsky arrived with a large bouquet by way of apology, it was no longer needed. Whichever version is correct, she certainly did not travel to Monte Carlo with the company.

  Mathilde left Budapest with Nina, whose name day was the day before, but they were delayed in Warsaw because of a derailed train. They spent Nina’s name day in the railway carriage in Warsaw. Unable to get a special train, Mathilde took advantage of the delay to buy her friend a present, a blue enamel cigarette case which was still in Nina’s possession long after the Revolution.

  After a brief stay in St Petersburg Mathilde and Nina left for the South of France. This time they were accompanied by Vova (for the first time using his own passport), a tutor, and Grand Duke Sergei with his brother Nicholas, a confirmed gambler who loved to play roulette. The Grand Dukes were heading straight for Monte Carlo, while Mathilde, Nina and Vova planned to spend Holy Week and Easter in Cannes before rejoining Diaghilev.

  As usual, Vova fell ill on the journey but this time Mathilde had not brought a doctor. The local physicians in Cannes could not decide what was wrong, so Mathilde immediately summoned Dr Feodor von Hasse from St Petersburg. Vova was by now seriously ill and Dr von Hasse had still not arrived. Mathilde was frantic and appealed secretly to a famous paediatrician on holiday in Nice, who could not practise abroad. He diagnosed food poisoning.

  Meanwhile Mathilde was travelling by train to Monte Carlo every day for rehearsals and returning to Vova by car at night. Poor Diaghilev telephoned Cannes every few hours on performance days for the latest news but, like a true professional, Mathilde never missed a show. Sergei’s sister Anastasia (widow of Andrei’s uncle Grand Duke Frederick Franz III of Mecklenburg-Schwerin), lived in Cannes and was one of Vova’s most regular visitors. When he was significantly better Anastasia invited him to tea at the Villa Wendon and after he had finished laughingly complained that even the flies would find nothing to eat. Not until Vova had completely recovered was Mathilde able to join the Grand Dukes at the Hotel de Paris at Monte Carlo.

  On 13 April Mathilde gave the first performance in France of Lac des Cygnes. She also danced Les Sylphides and did not even raise objections when Bronislava Nijinska danced the ballerina’s mazurka. A ballet without what may be termed prima donna turns was alien to Kschessinska, who happily ‘sacrificed the individual traits of each character to the dazzle and charm of the ballerina’ and once said that ‘dancing Fokine’s ballets does not require any technique’. In retaliation, Nijinska unkindly suggested a parody of Mathilde’s show-stopping variation in Le Talisman when Fokine was choreographing the role of the Street Dancer in the fairground scene of Petrouchka.24 Mathilde now regularly supplemented her repertoire with Fokine’s ballets. In March 1912 when Mathilde danced Carnival and Butterflies on the same night, the St Petersburg Gazette remarked how unusual it was to see her adapt so quickly to the style of ballet she had so recently resisted and called her performance ‘acceptable’.

  Mathilde always put in an appearance at the Monte Carlo Casino. No permanent resident, or any employee of the Casino (which technically included the adjacent Opéra) was allowed to play, so the company rushed to have cards issued before Diaghilev could place their names on the restricted list. Andrei liked to play baccarat but Mathilde preferred poker. She was ‘among the worst offenders in the company’, aided by the Casino management who supplied her with a complimentary card. Lydia Kyasht recalled that Mathilde once lost two million francs at the tables. Another time Mathilde lost 60,000 francs in ten minutes without flinching, as she gambled like a maniac on trente et quarante. She only left the Casino to go to the Sporting Club, where the stakes were higher and her fellow players were crowned heads and celebrities.25 King Gustav V of Sweden was a frequent player at the roulette wheel, as was Grand Duchess Anastasia who forbade anyone to talk to her while she was playing.

  Although they were abroad, the proprieties had to be strictly observed. Therefore when Andrei and Gabriel lunched with Princess Yourievsky (who had been mistress and later morganatic wife of Andrei’s grandfather Alexander II), their own mistresses were left firmly behind. The Imperial family’s lives were strictly ruled. When the time allotted for Prince
Gabriel’s trip abroad had expired he had to telegraph the Tsar for permission to remain longer.

  Mathilde now decided to lease a villa. In France she would be able to live more openly with Andrei, something impossible in Russia. There seemed to be no chance of marriage. He not only faced the opposition of his mother, but had seen the fate of Grand Dukes who contracted unsuitable alliances. His brother had been banished abroad for years.

  Mathilde was advised to find a property at Cap d’Ail, an area she had passed through on one of her drives with the ballet company. After looking at several places she decided on Villa Morlat, the comfortably furnished property of Countess Morla. By the time the company left Monte Carlo on 6 May [NS] Mathilde had rented Villa Morlat for the spring of 1913.

  While Mathilde was at Strelna that summer she learnt that her 82-year-old mother, for whom she rented a nearby villa every year, had suffered a third stroke which left her completely paralysed. For Mathilde, Julie and Joseph it was especially hard as they had remained close. The old lady was especially fond of Vova. After having such a large family herself she was expert at managing children and Vova was convinced that no one could feed him as well as his grandmother, by whom he was thoroughly spoilt.

  Mathilde made frequent visits to Krasnoe Selo, both to dance and socialise with friends. Andrei gave supper parties at his dacha on the Strelna highway. Grand Dukes Boris and Dimitri were usually among the guests and Mathilde invited some of the young dancers from the company.

  In August Andrei contracted acute bronchitis and was forced to stay in bed for a month. The doctors feared tuberculosis and sent him to the warm air of the Crimea. Mathilde now had to choose between remaining near her mother or following Andrei. Assured by the doctors that her mother was in no immediate danger and that, if necessary, she would be able to travel back in two days, Mathilde decided to go south.

  Andrei left on 4 September with his ADC F.F. von Kube, manservants, cooks and two automobiles. His cousin Nicholasha had offered the use of the ADC’s house at Tchair, his property on the Black Sea coast. Once Andrei was settled, one of his staff rented a dacha for Mathilde at nearby Novy Mishkor.

  Mathilde followed a few days later accompanied by Misha Alexandrov, Vova, and the tutors Franz Scherdlin and George Pflüger. Andrei said it was impossible to hire servants in the Crimea so she also took her maid, a valet, a butler and two cooks. To transport this entourage Mathilde reserved a whole sleeping-car on the train.

  The Crimea was the holiday resort of the Romanovs. Many of the Grand Dukes bought land there and the Imperial estates covered half of the peninsula, their palaces dotted along the Black Sea coast between Sevastopol and Yalta. The railway only ran as far as Sevastopol, from where the Imperial estates were reached either by boat, or by car. The scenery was spectacular. ‘After climbing up and up for the last time we went through an old archway, then suddenly the whole of the Black Sea spread before our eyes,’ recalled Baroness de Stoeckl after her first visit. ‘It is the most beautiful and startling sight one can imagine.’26

  Mathilde was delighted with the wonderful climate and the remarkable variety of rich vegetation. During the day Vova played tennis on the nearby court and went for walks with Mathilde or his tutors. In the evenings they enjoyed a cosy dinner by the light of the dacha’s oil lamps.

  Mathilde particularly enjoyed walking near the coast where there were superb views of the Black Sea. One day she visited the Tsar’s estate of Livadia. Nicholas and Alexandra had recently built a new white Italianate palace but the old wooden ‘Maly’ palace was still standing and it was possible to see this by special permission of the major-domo. Mathilde walked through the Empress Marie Feodorovna’s rooms, saw the room in which Alexander III died (with its distinctive white cross in the floor marking the place where his armchair had stood when he breathed his last) and then, most interesting of all for her, the rooms which Nicholas had occupied as Tsarevich.

  As often as possible she visited Andrei at Tchair. His health was beginning to improve but the slightest exertion was tiring. Although many of his Romanov relatives were staying on their nearby estates Andrei invited only Mathilde and Vova to visit. On his drives he often called in to see them at Novy Mishkor.

  Nearby was Foros, the property of Mathilde’s friend Ouchkov, who instructed his agent to show Mathilde the estate. She went with Misha Alexandrov and they had an interesting tour followed by lunch, washed down with Crimean wine.

  Alarming news of her mother’s health forced Mathilde to hurry back to Strelna, where Julia Kschessinska died peacefully on 22 November. After a funeral service in the Catholic church her body was taken to the mortuary chapel at the Monastery of St Sergius at Strelna (where Vova took communion), by special permission of the Orthodox Archimandrite (head of the monastery) Serge. By way of thanks Mathilde donated a complete set of mauve brocade church vestments to the monastery, which the clergy wore for the memorial masses said for her mother. In the cemetery, which held the graves of many eminent people, Mathilde built a small crypt with a chapel above. The interior was of marble mosaic and the bronze door was by the sculptor Khlebnikov. The body of Julia Kschessinska was moved to this chapel in 1913.

  After the Revolution the monastery and churches were turned into barracks and the cemetery was destroyed. All recent attempts to find the burial place of Mathilde Kschessinska’s mother have been unsuccessful.

  Meanwhile, on 20 November, Andrei entered a brand new sanatorium at Reichenhall near Munich, as the doctor thought the mountain air would be more beneficial. Almost immediately on his arrival Andrei caught severe bronchitis. When he recovered he was summoned to Munich, where Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna wanted to see just what condition her son was in. She had brought with her from Paris her physician Dr Roben, who found that traces of bronchitis still remained. As Marie Pavlovna had expected, Dr Roben stated that Reichenhall was completely unsuitable for Andrei and he advised immediate transfer to St Moritz for the winter.

  The director of the sanatorium was in despair. It was their first winter season, a lot of money had been spent on publicity and Andrei was their only client. The director hurried to Munich to try and persuade the Grand Duchess to change her mind. Marie Pavlovna and her doctor remained adamant. Andrei was despatched to the Kulm Hotel at St Moritz. To ensure he had the best medical care Dr Maak was summoned from Russia.

  Due to mourning for her mother, Mathilde’s only performance that season was in the benefit for the corps de ballet in December. In January she therefore decided to join Andrei in Switzerland.

  The Kulm Hotel, built in 1856, was the oldest hotel in St Moritz. Eight years later it became the first to welcome winter guests to the mountains and in 1878 the first electric light in Switzerland was installed in the building. Lying in the high alpine valley of the Engadine with a natural backdrop of lakes and pine-covered mountain slopes, it was well patronised by royalty. Attractions included skating, curling, the Tobogganing Club and a golf course, and it was close to the village centre and the funicular station.

  Mathilde was delighted when Andrei met her at the station in a sledge drawn by horses, little bells jingling on their harnesses. In the bright sunshine the picturesque high street resembled a vibrant toyshop window, she recalled, with the people wearing thick, brightly coloured jumpers against the cold, carrying their skis or pulling toboggans along.

  Their rooms were almost a self-contained flat, with a view of the ice-rink and the spectacular valley in the distance. The first thing they did was to buy Mathilde some special overshoes to wear in the snow.

  Although the daytime temperature could rise to 20 degrees Celsius in the sun, in the shade it was usually only around 8 degrees. It was too cold for Andrei to go out before 11 o’clock in the morning when the sun came well up over the mountains. Their first stop was usually the ice-rink, where Mathilde watched Andrei perform. She took a few lessons, although time did not allow her to learn to skate properly. In the afternoons, well muffled against the winter weather, they
drove out in the sledge to admire the wonderful scenery. By 5 o’clock they were back at the hotel before the weather became too cold again. Later they dined in the restaurant or, if they were very tired or too lazy to dress for dinner, a meal was sent up to their suite.

  Mathilde could not stay long in St Moritz. She had to return to St Petersburg to take part in a very important performance.

  In February 1913 the Romanov Dynasty celebrated its tercentenary and great celebrations were planned. The red, white and blue Russian colours decked the streets of St Petersburg, buildings and monuments were lavishly decorated and the press published special jubilee editions to mark the event.

  It was in 1613 during the ‘Time of Troubles’, when the country was ruled by claimants and pretenders and the Poles invaded the land, that sixteen-year-old Michael Romanov was elected Tsar of Russia. Legend says that Michael was hiding in a remote monastery in Kostroma 200 miles from Moscow when the Polish invaders decided to seize him. Ivan Susanin, a peasant, offered to show the Poles the way to the monastery but instead guided them into a dense forest. Susanin paid for this bravery with his life but the young Tsar was saved. Glinka used the story for his opera A Life for the Tsar, which traditionally opened every season at the Maryinsky.

  On 22 February the Maryinsky was filled to capacity for a gala performance in the presence of the Tsar, both Empresses and almost the entire Imperial family, who occupied the four centre boxes. Among the distinguished audience were the Emir of Bokhara and the Khan of Khiva, both wearing colourful national costumes and accompanied by large entourages.

  Partnered by Legat, Mathilde led the mazurka in the second act of A Life for the Tsar, which takes place at a ball in the Polish army’s headquarters. Not once during the evening was the Empress, wearing a white velvet dress with a sparkling diamond tiara, seen to smile. Then, in the middle of the performance, she left the Imperial box in a state of distress. ‘A little wave of resentment rippled over the theatre,’ recalled the British Ambassador’s daughter. Perhaps she was upset by the sight of Mathilde – ‘that awful woman’ – a subject taboo in the family.27