Boris Kochno
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Boris Kochno (January 3, 1904, Moscow — December 8, 1990, Paris) was a Russian poet, dancer and librettist. He was a lover of Karol Szymanowski while a schoolboy of fifteen in Elisavetgrad in 1919, where he received as a gift a Russian translation of the chapter The Symposium from Efebos, the composer's unpublished novel on male love. Szymanowski also dedicated four love poems to the youth. Later he became Sergei Diaghilev's librettist and lover for 8 years, till Sergei's death in 1929 at 57. He also had an affair with Cole Porter in 1925, with whom he carried on a lengthy correspondence.
Upon Diaghilev's death he and Serge Lifar tried but failed to hold the Ballets Russes together. His later career included a position as Monte Carlo ballet director, where he became an influential figure in post WWII French ballet. In 1933 he co-founded, together with George Balanchine, the short-lived company Les Ballets, which made its debut that summer at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees.
There are a number of published works by him. One, Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes, is a record of the Diaghilev era. The other, Christian Bérard, is a scrapbook of reminiscences about, and art of, his former friend and collaborator.
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