Nijinsky [antikvár]

chapter one MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH THE RUSSIAN BALLET early in the spring of 1912 i was invited to attend the first performance of the Imperial Russian Ballet in Budapest. The city was in a great state of excitement. Fantastic tales of the glamorous, exotic beauty, and of the attainment of great heights of artistic achievement, had preceded this unique company, which was a part of the Imperial Theatre of St. Petersburg. I recalled that in my childhood I had once seen a performance by former dancers of the same Imperial Ballet, and above all I remembered the imperceptible smoothness and fragile elegance of the prima ballerina Preobrajenskaya, as delicate as a Meissen figurine. For her partners she had the two dashing Legat brothers, Russia's foremost dancers, complete technicians of their time. So what I expected now to see was an equally enchanting performance. The brilliant audience which gathered in the Municipal Opera House to welcome the Russian artists, who had already taken Paris and all Western Europe by storm, was formed of the élite of the then prosperous Hungarian capital. The people of Budapest were rich, critical, and intelligent. With all the pride of a small capital they maintained a running competition with Vienna. Budapest was willing to be shown, but it insisted on the most capriciously high standards. They expected a great deal. As soon as the orchestra struck up the first few bars of the overture, everyone felt that the strange, powerful, alluring music was the composition of a great master. And then, as one ballet followed the other, we were transported from the tall red temple of Egyptian stone to the cruel luxury of a Persian harem and to the endless barren Tartar steppes. A magic hand lavished upon us the inexhaustible variety of gorgeous colours. It was a riot of hitherto unknown colours: purples, greens, of unthinkable depth. Oranges, all enveloped in the golden Barbaric art of Byzantium. The very soul of each country and period was 1.','! I I 'li ' I .'< I ¦ i; 1 .i ! , I I ¦ ¦ i . -