With premieres in Paris and London by Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, the ballet-pantomime Josephslegende (or La Légende de Joseph) was poised to follow in the footsteps of a series of revolutionary performances choreographed by Michel Fokine. The debut of Josephslegende on May 14, 1914 in Paris was framed on the program by the Ballets Russes premiere of Fokine's Papillons (originally premiered in St. Petersburg in 1912 with Schumann's Op. 2 orchestrated by Nicholas Tcherepnine), as well as a revival of Fokine's wildly popular Schéhérazade, which had debuted in Paris in 1910 during the second saison russe. Behind Josephslegende stood a creative team that comprised the vanguard of pre–World War I artists and personalities: Diaghilev and Fokine, as well as Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Count Harry Kessler (coauthors of the libretto), Vaslav Nijinsky (the original choreographer and intended creator of the role of Joseph), Léonide Massine (the eventual first Joseph), Léon Bakst and Alexandre Benois (costumes), and José-María Sert (scenic design, based on Bakst's initial conception). Moreover, Josephslegende was the company's first and only collaboration with Richard Strauss, one of the most prominent living composers of the day.