The Russian Ballet Last nights performance of "La Boutique Fantasque" and the Polovison songs and dances from "Prince Igor" was far the most impressive show that I have ever seen on the Lyceum Stage, and one of the most impressive that I have seen any where. It provided two hours of unadulterated joy. The progress which the Russian ballet has made in the course of the last year is well nigh incredible, The sparkling music of Rossini would alone make "La Boutique Fantasque" a joy to hear. The human characters of this delightful fantasy mimed with a precision that indicated weeks of hard practice. Conspicuous, as far as it is possible to be in such excellent—company, were the shopkeeper, Mr. Tourenin whose acting in a recent A.D.C. production was so uniformly well received, and his assistant, Mr. Sokolsky, the producer. The acting of the six children deserves special commendation.
Of the dancing characters the chief honours go to the Can-Can dancers, Miss Audrey King and Mr. Kniazeff, the Spanish doll, a child dancer of enormous promise and present achievement, who gave an encore in response to overwhelming applause, and the three Cossacks, Mr, Lantzoff and Miles, Hazankina and Makovskaya, whose truly amazing gymnastics left them powerless to respond to the thunderous acclamation of the audience, Excellent also were the two French poodles whom I mistook for monkeys, or perhaps polar monkeys, till a glance at the programme undeceived. me, the three playing cards, specially Mr. Winner as the King of Spades and the three Tarentella dancers. The costumes. and scenery left little to be desired and were an enormous improvement on anything which the company has yet attempted.
The "Prince Igor" dances were magnificently performed. The ballet was fortunate in securing the assist-arca of Mr. Kolehin's chorus, who rendered Borodin's thrilling Polovtsen songs to perfection. I know no music of its peculiar barbaric type more exciting unless it is Stravinsky's "Les Noces." The dance of the warriors was especially effective, and the Tartar boys dance gave another opportunity to the juvenile members of the company to show what they could do. The inclusion of children in both ballets was a particularly delightful feature ai the evening. The dresses and scenery of "Prince Igor" were even better than those in "La Boutique."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.