Friends Say Farewell to Nureyev : Ballet superstar is buried in a Russian Orthodox cemetery near Paris.

Relatives, close friends and generations of dancers tossed worn ballet slippers and white roses into the open grave of Rudolf Nureyev as the ballet superstar was buried Tuesday at a Russian Orthodox cemetery.

Nureyev, 54, who died last Wednesday of a wasting disease widely believed to be AIDS, was laid to rest in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois outside Paris, final resting place of more than 7,000 exiled Russians.

A service was held simultaneously in St. Petersburg, Russia, by fans and dancers who had worked with Nureyev before his defection from the Soviet Union in 1961.

The burial followed a 45-minute, multilingual homage at the Paris Opera, where hundreds of fans pressed against police barriers outside. Nurevey’s plain wooden coffin had been carried into the lavish 19th-Century theater on the shoulders of six soloists of the Paris Opera Ballet.

Culture Minister Jack Lang, France’s renowned ballet couple Zizi Jeanmaire and Roland Petit, and Patrick Dupont, Nureyev’s successor as artistic director of the Paris Opera Ballet, filed solemnly into the Opera’s marbled hall as a chamber orchestra played Bach.

In accordance with Nureyev’s last wishes, the ceremony was not religious.

About 1,000 friends and admirers attended the tribute, which combined literary readings in five languages with music by Bach, Tchaikovsky and Mahler.

Lang delivered a eulogy recalling the high points of Nureyev’s career, from his discovery of dance at age 5 to his last public appearance Oct. 8 when his final choreography for “La Bayadere” premiered in Paris.

The culture minister praised Nureyev for “confronting death with the same lucidity and valiance which dominated his life.”

Intimates stood at the bottom of the staircase, below the casket flanked by floral arrangements. A small pillow bearing the insignias of the Legion of Honor and Commander of Arts and Letters medals--France’s highest awards for excellence in the arts--was placed two steps below the closed coffin.

Police cordoned off the traffic-snarled area so the funeral cortege--including Nureyev’s two sisters, Rosa Francois and Razida Efgrafova--could head directly to the cemetery.