Fuchs Lívia: A tánc forradalmárai. Vendégszereplők 1898 és 1948 között. Bajor Gizi Színészmúzeum, Budapest 2004. március 19 - május 2. (Budapest, 2004)

Kísérlet a szintézisre

audience considered these ballets erotic, even perverse, while it was the Asian character of Russian people that they seemed to discover in the boisterous whirls of Polovtsian Dances. The audience was enthralled by the splendid Russian dancers, especially Vaslav Nijinsky, whose performance was greeted with standing ovation, particularly in Le Spectre de la Rose. The venue of the second set of performances of the Ballets Russes, in December and January, was the Opera. The management quintupled the prices of tickets, the performances nevertheless sold out every night. There was no considerable change in the repertory — only Thamar, Les Sylphides, The Firebird and Narcisse were added to it. It was with much curiosity that the public looked forward to the performance of Nijinsky’s first work, since it was well known that the premiere of L’aprés-midi d’un Faune ended in scandal, and the local audience took

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it as a test of their taste and understanding how the infamous composition was received. In Budapest, the ballet did not incite a scandal as in Paris, although it was not a resounding success either. According to a paper, it was a flop, which claim is contradicted by the fact that it was immediately reprised.

The 1927 performances of the company in Budapest introduced a fully changed troupe, and a Ballets Russes excelling in different types of innovation than at the previous times. Diaghilev brought new, experimental works by young choreographers, and only one old composition, Polovtsian Dances. The new modernity of Massine, Nijinska and Balanchine — in their choice of subject, genres, music and scenery — flabbergasted Budapest audiences, or at least those who had expected the old company. The group’s reception by the general public was

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