russian

Vassily Grigorievich Voskresensky (16 September 1888 – 27 July 1951), usually referred to as Colonel Wassily de Basil, was a Russian ballet impresario. By 1923 Wassily was doing well enough to hire Olga Smimova and Nikolay Tripolitov as his principal dancers on small tours in France, Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It was at this point he adopted a "stage name" Wassily de Basil (essentially Basil de Basil) in 1923 and gave the name of his troupe as Ballet Russe directed by W. de Basil.[3] Around 1925, de Basil partnered with Alexey Tsereteli (also Zereteli) and Ignaty Zon to form the artist's agency called Zerbason.[4] In 1929–1930 de Basil's ballet troupe acted together with Tsereteli's opera troupe.[5] De Basil, Tseretelli, and Michel Kachouk, the manager of Feodor Chaliapin, became directors of the Opéra Russe à Paris, a company originally formed by soprano Maria Kousnetsova (also Maria Kuznetsova).[4] De Basil and René Blum, ballet director at the Monte Carlo Opera, along with financier Serge Denham, founded the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo in 1931.[6] The ballet gave its first performance in Monte Carlo on January 11, 1932- the national holiday of Monte Carlo. Blum and de Basil did not agree artistically, leading to a 1934 split,[7] after which de Basil formed an arrangement with financier Sol Hurok.[7] Col. de Basil initially renamed the company Ballets Russes de Colonel W. de Basil. De Basil brought the Original Ballet Russe on a tour of Australia in 1939–1940,[6] traveling there aboard the P&O ocean liner RMS Maloja in September 1938. He had earlier organized tours to Australia in 1936–1937 and 1938–1939, although he did not travel with the company. During his visit to Australia, de Basil commissioned work from Australians, especially from designers, who included Sidney Nolan and Kathleen, and Florence Martin. He also instigated a design competition for an original Australian ballet, which was won by Donald Friend with designs for a ballet based on a fictitious event in the life of Ned Kelly. Source; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_de_Basil

Super photo, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums))))

The Sunday Oregonian, August 19, 1917, SECTION FIVE, Image 69 printed a cropped version of this photo with the caption: "M. Kurupensky is the new Ambassador to Japan from Russia." oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn83045782/1917-08-19/ed-1/se...

Thanks for this information B-59. We'll add some of the information to the record the next time we update.

The Russian ambassador to Japan in 1917 was Vasily Nikolaevich Krupensky (1868-1945) He was ambassador from 1916-1921. Krupensky is the modern transliteration and is more accurate to the original Russian Крупенский than Kurupensky, used by Bain. ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D1%80%D1%83%D0%BF%D0%B5%D0%B...

see also

The website of THE EMBASSY OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION TO JAPAN gives his name as Krupensky Vasily Nikolaevich as well, but according to that he was ambassador in 1916 and 1917 only, s. www.russia-emb.jp/english/embassy/history/index.html