There will be a great deal written and, especially, shown in exhibition this year about Sergey Pavlovich Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes – not that there has not been a Diaghilev industry beavering away at exploring and discussing his achievements during the past half-century in rather exhausting fashion. But there will be more, much more, since May 18 marks the centenary of that first evening of ballets presented by Diaghilev in Paris, and with it the first shoots of balletic rebirth in western Europe.

In any survey of cultural forces shaping the 20th century, Diaghilev must be included, although he neither painted nor made dances, nor (after an angry brush with Rimsky-Korsakov: “The future will show which of us two is considered the greater in history”) composed.