<P>I did not know that the great Richard Buckle had passed away and was surprised and saddened to find that he passed away yesterday. The first of many obituaries, I am sure.<P>SATURDAY OCTOBER 13 2001 <BR>Obituary <P>Richard Buckle <P><B>Adventurous ballet critic who for half a century shaped public taste with his enthusiasm and wit </B><P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Nobody but Richard Buckle would have had the style, or the effrontery, to organise a gala performance under the title The Greatest Show on Earth and then, when it was clear that his ambitious ideas for it would not all come off, to reduce ticket prices by 90 per cent and rename it a répétition générale. Even so, he managed, on that memorable occasion in 1971, to present at the London Coliseum two new ballets, a cast including Fonteyn, Nureyev, Jeanmaire and many former stars of the Diaghilev Ballet making their final appearances, plus designs ranging from Bakst to Andy Warhol. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P>Richard Buckle, CBE, critic, author and exhibition organiser, was born in Warcop, Westmorland, on August 6, 1916. He died in Wiltshire on October 12, 2001, aged 85.<P><A HREF="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,60-2001354520,00.html" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A><p>[This message has been edited by Emma Pegler (edited October 13, 2001).]

The Independent obituary:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Richard Buckle was a ballet critic with a flair for notoriety; he eventually became famous as a writer, editor and biographer of Diaghilev and Nijinsky. Unfortunately for his talent and integrity, he was by nature flippant and flagrant with his ready wit. He flaunted his homosexuality when homosexuality was still a crime. He was frequently at the heart of a scandal and became for a while the enfant terrible of the ballet.<P>Not particularly striking as a personality, he dressed more as a stockbroker and was more than slightly snobbish. He enjoyed the good life and was generous. He never lacked friends, though undoubtedly his unbridled tongue, or his prodigal pen, made him enemies. He enjoyed ballet and dancers voraciously and became hooked on the Diaghilev myth; art had to be sophisticated, decadent and, if possible, outrageous. He wrote a book on Nijinsky (Nijinsky, 1971) and followed it with a book on Diaghilev (1979).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><A HREF="http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=99180" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A><P>

Obituary in the Guardian:<P>Richard Buckle <BR><B>Ballet critic who revolutionised exhibition design and wrote biographies of Diaghilev and Nijinsky</B><P>Roy Strong<BR>Guardian<P>Saturday October 13, 2001<P><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>It is a measure of how far Richard Buckle, who has died aged 85, is a forgotten figure that his name did not figure in any of the reviews I read of the 1996 Diaghilev exhibition at the Barbican Centre. By then, to have seen his 1954 Diaghilev exhibition, one would have had to be well over 50. This was one of the landmark exhibitions of the postwar era, not only for the celebration of its hero and the artistic achievements of the Ballet Russes but also for its revolutionary exhibition technique.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><A HREF="http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4276346,00.html" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A>

The Daily Telegraph's obituary:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>RICHARD BUCKLE, the ballet critic, author and exhibition organiser who has died aged 85, specialised in being outrageous - and succeeded so well that his considerable talents were often undervalued.<P>In fact, he helped revolutionise ideas about mounting exhibitions, notably through the show on Diaghilev which he prepared for the Edinburgh Festival of 1954. Rejecting the traditional practice, whereby visitors wandered at will from room to room, he obliged them to follow a fixed route, which took them past not so much a display of objects as a series of dramatic tableaux.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/dt?ac=006328776824338&rtmo=pUNl4S4e&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/01/10/19/db01.html" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A><P><BR>Alasdair Steven's obituary for the Scotsman:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>RICHARD Buckle, who was universally called Dickie throughout his life, was a debonair, enthusiastic man who adored every aspect of theatre, but became an authority on dance, and especially the Diaghilev period. <P>His Diaghilev exhibition at the 1954 Edinburgh Festival rekindled an interest in that most evocative era and drew attention to the impressive array of artists, musicians and composers who worked for the company.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> <P><A HREF="http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/searchresults.cfm?id=117301&keyword=buckle" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A>

For those uninitiated in the ways of Buckle, I highly recommend his biography of Balanchine. I happily passed a lazy week in an olive grove in Umbria this summer reading this book amongst others.

From the NY Times:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Richard Buckle, Author on Dance, Dies at 85<P>JACK ANDERSON, NY Times<BR> <BR>Richard Buckle, an influential British dance critic and dance historian and the organizer of imaginative exhibitions, died on Oct. 12 while being taken by ambulance from his country cottage in Dorset to a hospital in Salisbury. He was 85.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/20/obituaries/20BUCK.html?searchpv=past7days target=_blank>More</a>

Richard Buckle's memorial service:<P> <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>A memorial service has just been held at St Paul's, Covent Garden, for the first writer who ever influenced me: Richard Buckle. Influenced, that is, in the sense of my wishing to write like him, a feat that I have not achieved.<P>Many readers might not have heard of him because he wrote mainly about a minority interest: ballet. There were many other interesting things about him. He had been a brave Guards officer in the Mediterranean campaign. With his shows on Diaghilev, and later Shakespeare, he revolutionised the way in which exhibitions are put on in this country.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><A HREF="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fopinion%2F2002%2F03%2F16%2Fdo1604.xml" TARGET=_blank><B>more...</B></A><BR>