Essential Ballet: Stars of Russian BalletRating:
Release Date: 12 December, 2000 Retail Price: $29.98 OUR Price: $26.99 You SAVE: $2.99! Cast: |
Essential Ballet: Stars of Russian Ballet Reviews
A great variety from the world's greatest ballet company
This Dvd is certainly one of my favorites with two gala performances included! Julia Makhalina's white swan adagio is the best I have ever seen and is reason enough to purchase this dvd. "The leaves are fading" was wonderful and much better than ABT's rendition in "variety and virtuosity". The excerpt from paquita was great but certainly not as awesome as the complete version in "Kirov Classics" with Mahkalina as the lead. "Diana and Actaeon" was beautiful (what else could be expected from Larissa Lezhnina?) though some camera angles were quite frustrating and a few turns seemed uncharacteristically wobbly. Also, there are several variations performed by vaganova ballet academy students that are certainly a treat.
The Red Square Gala also has a great variety of pieces as well as a variety of dancers from companies other than the Kirov. This gala showcases too many elderly ballerinas for my tastes. There are also some more annoying camera angles.
Overall this truly is a must have for all Kirov fans, but there are certainly better versions available of some of the selections.
Great dancing of some of ballet's greatest scenes
A magnificent DVD! Simply breathtaking !
This DVD features excerpts from performances of the Kirov Ballet at Covent Garden and an open-air concert from Red Square in Moscow.
It is difficult to know were to start: there are so many exquisite performances on this disc. I will pick out a few (really, you could mention all of them)
The beauty, grace and sensitivity of Julia Makhalina as Odette(with Andris Liepa) in the Adagio from "Swan Lake".
The obvious joy and subtle sadness, coupled with the incredible dancing skill of Altynai Asylmuratova and Konstantin Zaklinsky in " The Leaves Are Fading "; music by Antonin Dvorak.
The unbelievable athletic abilities of Farukh Ruzimatov in his Pas de deux with Larisa Lezhina from Drigo's "Diana and Actaeon".
And then there were the young dancers from the Vaganova Ballet Academy doing a wonderful job on Minkus's "Paquita: Polonaise and Mazurka" and also a credible rendition of the Dance of the Mirlitons from Tchaikovsky's " The Nutcracker"
Overall, I personally enjoyed the Covent Garden section a little more and yet my favorite piece is probably the Pas de deux from the Act II of Giselle (Adam) by Carole Arbo and Kader Belarbi; the smoothness, the height of the lifts, the glides, the quiet touches and the grace of both performers is simply hard to believe.
As a bonus there is a short commentary on the history of ballet by Ruth Leon in the accompanying booklet that is interesting reading.
All in all, some great performances of the greatest ballet scenes you'll ever find on one disc. Highly recommended!
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