That night the orchestra played like angels. The ballet was in its second season when I invited Sir Thomas to take over the performances. It was a joy to have him in command of the forces. Too little attention is accorded the quality of the orchestra and the conductor in ballet. Quite apart from the musical excellence itself, few people realize of what tremendous value a good conductor and a good orchestra can be to ballet as a whole. _Romeo and Juliet_ never had such stage performances as those when Sir Thomas was in charge. And this is not said in disparagement of other conductors. Not only was the Beecham orchestral tone beautifully transparent, but Sir Thomas blended stage action and music so completely that the results were absolutely unique. The company responded nobly to the inspiration. It was during this season, endeavoring to utilize every legitimate means to stimulate interest on the part of the public that, in addition to Sir Thomas and various guest dancing stars, I also brought Igor Stravinsky from California to conduct his own works during the Metropolitan Opera House engagement. For the sake of the record, let me briefly cite the chronological tabulation of Ballet Theatre through the period of my management. In the autumn of 1943, at the Metropolitan Opera House, there were three new productions, one each by Massine, Tudor, and David Lichine: _Mademoiselle Angot_, _Dim Lustre_, and _Fair at Sorotchinsk_. Massine took the famous operetta by Charles Lecocq, _La Fille de Mme. Angot_, and in a series of striking sets by Mstislav Doboujinsky, turned it into a ballet, which, for some reason, failed to strike fire. It is interesting to note that when, some years later, Massine produced the work for Sadler’s Wells at Covent Garden, it was a considerable success. Tudor’s _Dim Lustre_, despite the presence of Nora Kaye, Rosella Hightower, Hugh Laing, and Tudor himself in the cast, was definitely second-rate Tudor. Called by its creator a “psychological episode,” this sophisticated Edwardian story made use of Richard Strauss’s _Burleske_, an early piano concerto of the composer’s, with a set and costumes by the Motley sisters. Lichine’s _Fair at Sorotchinsk_ was a ballet on a Ukrainian folk tale straight out of Gogol, with Moussorgsky music, including a witches’ sabbath to the _Night on a Bald Mountain_, with settings and costumes by Nicolas Remisoff. It was an addition to the repertoire, if only for the performance of Dolin as Red Coat, the Devil of the Ukraine, who danced typically Russian Cossack toe-steps and made toe-pirouettes. Had the Cossack “Colonel” de Basil seen this, he would, I am sure, have envied Dolin for once in his life. While _Fair at Sorotchinsk_ did not have a unanimously favorable reception at the hands of the press, it was generally liked by the public, as evidenced by the response at the box-office.