Magnificent scenic effects and dramatic choreography have ensured the popularity of Petipa’s exotic ballet Le Corsaire, a story of pirates and shipwreck, set on the Ionian coast.
This production features Altynai Asylmuratova and Faroukh Ruzimatov who give exuberant and extroverted performances.
Giselle is a dramatic and timeless tale of love, deception, revenge and forgiveness, an enchanting classical ballet from the Romantic era. The ballet’s combination of dramatic acting, virtuoso technique and ethereal beauty continues to enthral audiences around the world. Dutch National Ballet’s production, by the creative partnership of Rachel Beaujean and Ricardo Bustamante, features atmospheric designs by Toer van Schayk and a captivating international cast.
The acclaimed Swedish choreographer and dancer, Mats Ek, made dance history in the early eighties with his bizarrely unromantic and radically drastic new interpretation of the ballet classic. He interpreted the content and the style of the second act in a contemporary way for the Swedish Cullberg Ballet – one of the most famous modern dance formations in the world. Mats Ek keeps the music of Adolphe Adam: he uses a 1969 recording of the Monte Carlo Opera Orchestra conducted by Richard Bonynge that we also hear in this studio recording. The premiere cast of characters, Ana Laguna (Giselle), Luc Bouy (Albrecht), Yvan Auzely (Hilarion), Vanessa McIntosh (Bathilde) and Lena Wennergren (Myrtha), turn the accompanying recording into a first class ballet documentation.
“My version of Giselle is an attempt at retelling the story. For me Giselle – and this applies to the old ballet as well – is about love. Love, which in the old version conquers death. That differs in mine. But love remains the main thing.” Mats Ek”
The American Ballet Theater is one of the most renowned classical dance companies in the world. The company’s long history is strongly linked with Antony Tudor, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins, three of the most distinguished choreographers of our century. With its strong contrast between the realistic peasants of the first act and the disembodied spirits of the second, “Giselle” can be considered as romantic ballet at its peak. Following the premiere of David Blair’s choreography of “Giselle” for the American Ballet Theater in 1969, the New York press acclaimed Carla Fracci and Erik Bruhn as one of the most convincingly harmonious partnerships at work on the ballet stage.
With fairytale-like staging and a “Pas de deux” that made Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn a legend and always awaited in the ballet galas, Le Corsaire is considered a choreographic milestone in the history of ballet. Le Corsaire debuted with enormous success at La Scala to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the legendary choreographer Marius
Petipa. The choreographic version by Anna-Marie Holmes after Marius Petipa and Konstantin Sergeyev made it „great fun! Spinatelli has given the dancers ravishing costumes and the orchestra plays some of ballet’s biggest hits. La Scala’s ballet company in top form.” (Gramilano) “A majestic staging and an excellent Dance Corps.” (L´ape Musicale) “Impeccable” (Informadanza)
This first-ever studio recording of the world-famous Kirov Ballet was made by the award-winning director Thomas Grimm at the Danmarks Radio Århus Dance Studio, the most advanced facility of ist kind. It showcases highlights from their repertoire, both classic and contemporary, and features a galaxy of star dancers, including Larissa Lezhnina, Altynai Asylmuratova, Sergei Vikharev, Faroukh Ruzimatov, Konstantin Zaklinsky, Yelena Pankova and Yulia Makhalina. These Kirov performances may be acquired separately or combined in a mixed bill; Petrushka (50′), Chopiniana (36′), Paquita (37′), Le Corsaire – pas de deux (9′), Markitenka – pas de six (16′), The Fairy Doll (12′), Barber’s Adagio (14′).
This portrait documents a star’s effort to be, and to stay, the best. The cameras follow Patrick Dupond to Tokyo, Paris and Milan and show him training, rehearsing, performing and talking about his career. He is seen dancing Coppelia with the National Ballet of Marseille, working on Daniel Ezralow’s Soon and Alwin Nikolais’s Arc en ciel, performing in the Salome choreographed for him by Maurice Béjart, and rehearsing Giselle with Carta Fracci.
If you wander “through the woods, through the pastures” musically, you soon come into romantic hunting grounds. These words from Weber’s opera Der Freischütz are the guiding idea for the traditional Salzburg New Year’s Concert of the Bläserphilharmonie Mozarteum Salzburg, led by Hansjörg Angerer. The Bläserphilharmonie, which is composed of top-class musicians from leading symphony orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Münchner Philharmoniker, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, roams through the most beautiful hunting, nature and forest music of the 19th century.
The La Scala production of Yvette Chauvirè’s version of the unforgettable choreography by Coralli – Perrot, in a modality designed by the director of the Ballet Manuel Legris.
