OPÉRA RUSSE À PARIS [RUSSIAN OPERA IN PARIS] Prince Igor: First season: 1929 / Opera Privé de Paris. Paris, 1928

[40] p.: ill.; 32x24,5 cm. In French. Reproductions of set and costume designs for Alexander Borodin's opera "Prince Igor," by Konstantin Korovin. In the publisher's illustrated cover by Ivan Bilibin. In good condition. Minor soiling on the cover. "Russian Opera in Paris" (Opéra russe à Paris) was an opera company that existed from 1929 to 1934. It was created as the Opéra privé de Paris; in 1930-1932 it changed its name to Opéra russe à Paris; in 1933-1934 it was simply called Opéra russe. The founders of the Opéra Russe were opera singer Maria Kuznetsova-Benois, a former soloist with the Mariinsky Opera, and Alexei Tsereteli, a former St Petersburg entrepreneur. The millionaire Alfred Massenet, Kuznetsova's husband financially supported the company. He managed to attract prominent singers to the opera - Russian emigrants, including K.D. Zaporozhets, L.M. Sibiryakov, M.B. Cherkasskaya, N.S. Ermolenko-Yuzhina; in 1930. - F.I. Chaliapin. In 1929 the company staged four operas at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées: Borodin's Prince Igor and Rimsky-Korsakov's Snegurochka [The Snow Maiden], Kitezh, and Tsar Saltan. K. Korovin and I. Bilibin created costume and set designs. Mikhail Fokin directed the production of "Polovtsian Dances". The performances were a great success.