“From their first performance to Diaghilev’s death, the Ballets Russes were in a state of acute financial crisis, and neither the company nor its director ever had a permanent home. The strategies with which Diaghilev addressed these obstacles are astonishingly modern in their scope. He was a master of spin with a sophisticated understanding of the nature of celebrity and power, a consummate networker, and he knew exactly how to manipulate the press.”