Imperial Dancer: Mathilde Kschessinska and the Romanovs (8 page)

Meanwhile, Mathilde’s career was going from strength to strength. In November 1892 she was given the role of Marietta in Petipa’s
Kalkabrino
, which Carlotta Brianza had created the previous year. ‘Kschessinska never failed to take advantage of a situation,’ wrote the choreographer Alexander Shirayev. ‘Using her influential connections at court, she got hold of Brianza’s role in
Kalkabrino
and scored an enormous success.’
Kalkabrino
was a three-act ballet in which Mathilde had a dual role – Marietta, the innkeeper’s daughter who the smuggler Kalkabrino wants to marry, and Draginiatza, a creature of the devil who assumes Marietta’s likeness in order to trick him. This was Mathilde’s first principal role and she danced to a packed house. The
St Petersburg Gazette
noted that the choreography arranged for the more experienced Italian ballerina had remained unchanged, and Kschessinska danced ‘boldly, beautifully, consummately’.
⁴

‘Mlle M. Kschessinska,’ reported the magazine
Artist
in December, ‘is talented, young and nice-looking, and completely in command of all the reserves of choreographic means of the Italian dancers.’
⁵
Mathilde owed her mastery of the Italian technique to Cecchetti and to acknowledge this she kissed him on stage in front of the audience. During an interview for
Petersburg Life
Mathilde paid tribute both to Cecchetti’s teaching and the example of Carlotta Brianza.
Kalkabrino
, Mathilde said, was the first complete ballet she had learnt and there were only four big rehearsals. Cecchetti told the newspaper about her great talent and desire to work hard.

Mathilde was ‘a
terre-à-terre
dancer’, but this lack of elevation was compensated for by the speed of her movements and a dazzling smile.
⁶
Contemporaries agree that she had powerful, muscular legs (not the graceful legs or the refinement of the later ballerina Anna Pavlova), a sturdy frame and a meticulous ballet technique. The critics were impressed by the maturity of her performance but it was her coquetry,
piquancy and charm which explained the secrets of her stage success. Audiences found her fascinating. ‘She was a marvellous dancer – very light, very fast on her toes,’ recalled Alexander Danilova, who knew Mathilde in later years. ‘She had complete command of the stage and a certain diamantine brilliance which she “sold” to the audience.’ Felia Doubrovska said ‘she had a bad figure and bad legs, was never on full
pointe
, but was still an extraordinary and wonderful dancer.’
⁷

The Tsarevich’s interest in Mathilde was well known in the theatre and that season her stage appearances were more frequent. She danced a classical
pas-de-quatre
in
Sylphide
, with Olga Preobrajenska and two male dancers, and performed during a masquerade ball. Mathilde was very friendly with Preobrajenska, who was determined to make her own way without influential ‘protectors’. One day Sandro informed Mathilde that his company of the Guard Equipage would be passing along the embankment. Mathilde and Olga went in a sledge to watch. Unfortunately, as the band struck up the startled horse charged off, overturning the sledge. The girls climbed out, shaken and bruised but unhurt.

On 18 November Mathilde danced one of the fairies in
Sleeping Beauty
, with several Grand Dukes in the audience. After the performance she brought Tchaikovsky on to the stage behind the lowered curtain, where he was to be honoured with the presentation of a crown for the fiftieth performance of the ballet. Mathilde said she then disappeared backstage to talk to the Tsarevich and was late for the presentation. This incident caused much gossip.

By now people were making jokes about the Tsarevich’s relationship with the ballerina. On 6 December, Nicholas’s name day, the Maryinsky Theatre staged the first performance of Tchaikovsky’s opera
Iolanthe
in the presence of Alexander III and the entire court. When the baritone sang the aria ‘Who can compare with my Matilda?’ the audience sniggered.

Despite Mathilde’s determination, and the knowing assumptions of St Petersburg society, consummating the affair proved agonisingly difficult. On 25 December she wrote in her diary: ‘First day of the celebrations, but Malechka is sad, and it is understandable, she still has not seen dear Nikki.
When?
…’
⁸

On 4 January 1893 Mathilde replaced the Italian ballerina Antonietta dell’Era, dancing the Sugar Plum Fairy in
The Nutcracker
. Afterwards Nicholas spent ‘two excellent hours’ with ‘marvellous MK’. He noted in his diary, ‘she has become prettier and put on weight’,
⁹
but still the affair was not consummated.

Mathilde was frustrated by Nicholas’s indecisiveness. On 8 January he visited the house ‘and we had a serious talk’
¹⁰
– in fact an argument. Nicholas sat opposite Mathilde, ‘not like someone in love with me, but somebody indecisive, not understanding the bliss of love’. Although during the summer he had spoken of a more intimate relationship, suddenly he began to say the opposite. ‘Now he says he doesn’t want to be my first. That it would torment him his whole life. That if I was not still a virgin he would not hesitate.’ Mathilde was astounded. ‘But what did I feel listening to him, I am no fool and I understand that Nicky did not speak honestly. He cannot be my first! Ridiculous! Is it possible for a person who is passionately in love to talk like that? Of course not, he is just afraid to be tied to me for the rest of his life, if he was my first.’ Finally, she almost succeeded in convincing him. ‘He said, “
it is time
…”’ and ‘promised it will happen in a week’s time, as soon as he returns from Berlin’.
¹¹

Nicholas was stalling. Princess Alix would also be in Berlin for the marriage of the Kaiser’s sister Margaret on 13/25 January. Although Nicholas and Alix had not met since 1889, they had corresponded and her sister Ella often acted as a go-between. Now Nicholas’s parents had given him permission to ascertain Alix’s feelings and he needed an opportunity to speak to her alone. If there was any hope of marriage a full-blown liaison with Mathilde would complicate matters. Things had reached this impasse when Mathilde scored her greatest triumph of the season.

On 17 January Mathilde Kschessinska became the first Russian ballerina to dance Aurora in
The Sleeping Beauty
, one of Petipa’s great classical ballets, created for Carlotta Brianza in 1890. Partnered by Nicolai Legat, Kschessinska appeared elegant, sparkling with real diamonds, displaying ‘masses of fire, strength, audacity in double turns, aplomb, strong
pointes
’, reported the
St Petersburg Gazette
.
¹²
Yet what meant more than anything to Mathilde was the praise of Tchaikovsky, who came to her dressing room to offer his congratulations personally and said he would compose a ballet for her. Alas, Tchaikovsky died from cholera later that year before it could be written.

Nicholas returned from Berlin in the middle of January without having had a chance to speak to Alix. By 22 January Mathilde still had not seen him. She waited sadly and anxiously for the evening, hoping he would be at the French Theatre. She was not disappointed. As she left the box Mathilde noticed Nicholas staring at her. Unfortunately, although she wanted to hurry home, it was a long time before a carriage was called. Finally Mathilde set off. She was overtaken on the road
by Joseph, who called out that Nicholas was on his way. In her diary Mathilde recorded her excitement at the thought of seeing him soon. When she reached the house his coat was already in the hall. With him were Baron Zeddeler and Sandro. ‘I arrived very cheerful as I was already happy that Nicky was looking a lot at me in the theatre and I had a bit of time to reassure myself as to why Nicky had not come to me before.’
¹³

The following evening he again visited the house. At first Julie was there with Zeddeler, but then Nicholas and Mathilde were left alone. Still nothing happened. ‘I will insist it be my way,’ wrote Mathilde, ‘no matter how difficult it could be.’
¹⁴

Nicholas’s diary is discreet on the subject of his relationship with Mathilde. He was writing for history, knowing that because of his position it would eventually be read by others. Phrases like ‘sat together nicely’, or ‘spent an excellent time’, give no hint of exactly when they became intimate. The only clue is an entry in the diary from which it appears that Mathilde may finally have triumphed in the bedroom on 25 January: ‘This evening flew to my MK and spent the very best evening with her up to now. I am still under her spell – the pen is shaking in my hand!’
¹⁵
The long-awaited consummation of their affair had apparently taken place. As her brother Joseph later wrote in his unpublished memoirs, ‘she helped to establish his sexual identity by releasing him from unhealthy compromises with the flesh and his increasing fear of women’.
¹⁶

Now their meetings settled into a routine. Nicholas usually arrived in time for supper and Mathilde stood by the window to watch him ride up. Sometimes he came alone, sometimes with the three Michaelovichi Grand Dukes. Mathilde occasionally invited other friends such as Count Andrei Shouvalov, Vera Legat, Olga Preobrajenska, or Nicholas Figner, a tenor from the Maryinsky Theatre. ‘Set off to Mathilde and Julie Kschessinsky where I had supper as usual,’ Nicholas wrote. Afterwards they talked and played baccarat. Sometimes Nicholas remained behind. ‘Visited MK and remained until morning.’
¹⁷

‘She wasn’t beautiful, her legs were too short,’ recalled one of the dancers. ‘But her eyes! Two pools. She was enticing, a little temptress … Because of her eyes she was called the “fairy of the Parc des Cerfs”: the French King Louis XV had kept his harem at the Parc des Cerfs.’
¹⁸
She certainly knew how to entice the Tsarevich.

Nicholas recorded the progress of the affair. Between January and July 1893 he visited Mathilde’s house twenty times and on at least six of these occasions it is possible to establish that he stayed all night.
Only once during this period did he attend the ballet without calling on her afterwards. He visited her at the theatre three times and noted twice that he was thinking about her. ‘At 12 o’clock set off to MK, with whom I stayed until 4 o’clock. Chatted a lot, laughed and spent a lot of time with each other.’ A few days later they spent ‘a marvellous 3 hours’ together.
¹⁹
They led a quiet life, seeing only close friends. He began to spend a large part of the evening with Mathilde whenever the opportunity arose, treating her house as a second home, although they never actually lived together. When Mathilde was performing the Tsarevich came backstage afterwards to praise her dancing. Sometimes he did not attend, so as not to create unnecessary suspicion. ‘Had a bite to eat at 7.30, just at the time
Sleeping Beauty
was beginning, and my thoughts were there since MK was appearing as the principal character.’
²⁰

Mathilde enjoyed profiting from her relationship with Nicholas. The presents increased. There was a diamond brooch, and a necklace of large diamonds (which she often wore on stage), as well as other valuable gifts. She became spoilt, began to put on airs, act ‘royally’ and make demands in the theatre. An instruction from the Imperial Household informed the Director of the Imperial Theatres that Kschessinska was to have veto rights over productions and casting, including first choice of any roles she desired. ‘Kschessinska had a swollen head from the time she became special,’ said General Alexander Bogdanovich.
²¹
Yet when she asked Petipa for Virginia Zucchi’s old role of Esmeralda she was refused. Only those who had suffered in love, he explained, could dance this role successfully. Mathilde would recall his words later – and understand.

‘She is … pretty, very lively and frivolous,’ wrote General Bogdanovich, who had an influential St Petersburg salon. ‘The Tsarevich said to this “Mala” that he asked the Tsar not to marry for two years. She is boasting of her relationship with him to everyone.’
²²

The affair had now reached its peak and was the talk of St Petersburg. Alexei Souvorin recorded on 8 February 1893 that when the Tsarevich visited the Kschessinsky apartment her parents withdrew and pretended not to notice. Souvorin, publisher of the influential
New Times
in St Petersburg, was mistaken. Mathilde was established in her own house.

This had naturally come to the attention of the Okhrana, the Tsar’s secret police. According to Count Lamsdorff, Nicholas visited Mathilde at night and preferred to return from her house on foot, incognito. For security reasons he was shadowed by the Okhrana. Nicholas
complained to General Wahl about what he called surveillance and it was even alleged that he threatened to ‘crush the face’ of any of these observers he noticed.
²³
Nevertheless, the Okhrana agents continued to report that he crept back to the Anichkov only at dawn.

Lamsdorff also said that the Emperor and Empress had only recently become aware of Nicholas’s
true
relationship with Mathilde. The Imperial children certainly thought that their parents were unaware of what was going on. The Empress often complained that she seldom saw her eldest son, yet it would surely not have been difficult to learn from the police where Nicholas had been when he returned very late, or even the following morning.