When Salvador Dali's ballet, Mad Tristan, opened in Manhattan in 1944, it provided one critic with "a 25-minute yawn." Most other balletgoers yawned, too, if not so long-windedly, and Mad Tristan flopped. Last week, the Grand Ballet de Monte Carlo had given it five performances in London. This time the madness proved catching.
Shouts of "Stop it!" and "Rubbish!" were raised in the audience. Blurted a visiting conductor: "I think this is a public scandal."
A few critics liked it; one thought Mad Tristan "beautifully presented." But the Times spoke for the majority: "Regurgitation...
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