BALLET
Apparitions. (Covent Garden.)
THE welcome given to Margot Fonteyn when she returned to Covent Garden after a six-months illness was one of the most touching ex- pressions of human warmth it was possible to imagine. One could feel that the audience was sharing both her delight because she was able to dance again, and her nervousness lest her illness had left some scars upon her delicately poised artistry. From the burst of applause which greeted the first fleeting vision of her, 'until the curtain finally went down at the end of the ballet, the theatre was pervaded by this atmosphere of conflicting emotions ; then all of a sudden apprehension was thrown to the winds, and the house shook with the tumult of clapping, cheering and stamping 'of feet. Apparitions was the ballet chosen on this occasion, for, without overtaxing her physical strength or presenting any very strenuous technical difficulties, it shows Fonteyn in a role which is essentially hers, and which allows her excellent scope for both the sensitivity and power of her dramatic ability. 4 LILLIAN BROWSE.
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