Imperial Dancer: Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs (29 page)

Mathilde’s last London performance was on 7 December. Her relations with Diaghilev were again friendly. Hearing he was planning a St Petersburg season for 1912 she obtained the promise of the Narodny Dom (the People’s House), a newly built theatre with low-priced seats, and even agreed to appear there with the company. Although Mathilde insisted that she wanted Nijinsky as her partner, Nijinsky would have to do three years’ military service if he returned to Russia. Yet no one mentioned the problem to the numerous Russian officials who attended Mathilde’s parties. Diaghilev was depending on Mathilde to use her influence and he asked Bronislava to be especially helpful to the ballerina at rehearsals, but Mathilde was cold towards Bronislava, criticising Diaghilev’s decision to let her perform the ballerina’s mazurka in
Les Sylphides
.

Shortly afterwards, when Bronislava was accused of starting a rebellion in the company, she suspected that Kschessinska was behind the accusation. Later, an elegant lady walked into the War Minister’s office in St Petersburg and succeeded in influencing him against the abolition of Nijinsky’s military service. Bronislava again implied that Kschessinska had a hand in this. ‘I was never able to discover the identity of the mysterious woman in expensive furs who seemed to play a role in this tragedy, with its malicious similarities to Nijinsky’s dismissal from the Imperial Theatres in 1911,’ she commented bitterly.
²¹

On 7 January the Narodny Dom burnt to the ground and Diaghilev’s St Petersburg season was cancelled. With his Russian season cancelled, Diaghilev hastily arranged performances in Dresden, Vienna and Budapest. On 4 January Mathilde received a telegram from Diaghilev in Berlin, asking about the possibility of again obtaining Maria Piltz from Warsaw. This was followed by another flurry of telegrams asking her to replace Karsavina in Vienna and Budapest. Mathilde agreed to share the ballerina’s roles with Lydia Kyasht.

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.