Music: The Bolshoi Returns

As the most fabled of a long procession of Hurok-sponsored dance companies to reach the U.S., the Bolshoi Ballet was received in 1959 with curiosity and great gusts of cold-war camaraderie. Last week the Bolshoi was back at the Metropolitan Opera House, and balletomanes were eagerly queuing for tickets in the pelting rain. Some of the carnival air of the first visit was gone—as was the Bolshoi's great ballerina, Galina Ulanova, who now serves the company as a repetiteur, i.e., an overseer of rehearsals and performances. But the Bolshoi had brought with it...