American choreographer Glen Tetley says of his ballet, set to music by Stravinsky, “I see the Firebird as a symbol of our innermost dreams and longings for freedom and true love, and as a mythological figure representing the struggle between captivity and freedom, between good and evil.” This studio recording was made by the highly-acclaimed dance director Thomas Grimm and features the Danish ballerina Mette Honningen in the title role. A complementary documentary progamme – The Firebird in Rehearsal – is also available.
La Sylphide
When Lis Jeppesen – the Sylphide of our time – in diaphanous white costume and with shining wings, dances for the Scottish farmer James, whom she has entranced with her love and beauty, we are witnessing the first scene of the most famous and enduring ballet by August Bournonville. Of all his surviving ballets it is the oldest and most widely performed. The Royal Danish Ballet rightly regards its interpretations of the Bournonville classics as being in the purest and most faithfully maintained tradition. Lis Jeppesen dances the lead role of La Sylphide, a role which demands lyrical interpretation as well as superb technique. Equal expressiveness and faultless dancing are required of James, here performed by Nikolaj Hübbe. Sorella Englund is the brilliant interpreter of the role of Madge, the witch and fortune-teller, whose rejection by James leads her to seek dreadful revenge on him, with tragic consequences.