Ballet Videos and DVDs 5 Performances

Ballet Videos and DVD - Nutcracker, Rambert, Raymonda, Road to the Stamping Ground, Romeo and Juliet, An Evening with the Royal Ballet and Russian Ballet Highlights.

See Ballet Videos 1, Ballet Videos 2, Ballet Videos 3, Ballet Videos 4, Ballet Videos 6.

DVD (D1429) - $29.99
Fantasy and magic are the essential ingredients of The Nutcracker, and Tchaikovsky’s imaginative score helps bring to life the fantasy world of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s enchanting story of The Nutcracker and The Mouse King. Gennady Rozhdestvensky is the guest conductor who …”drew ravishing playing from this most ravishing of Tchaikovsky’s ballet scores.” (Guardian)

Though the original scenario for The Nutcracker was considered to be fatally flawed, this magical work has survived to become one of the firmest favorites in the ballet repertory. This new production by Artistic Director of Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, Peter Wright, with the help of Tchaikovsky ballet expert, Roland John Wiley, attempts to rescue from far-flung archives surviving evidence of the original Ivanov/Sergueyev staging, combined with some captivating modern stage effects.

192 mins. (1985)
VHS - NTSC format only (Canada, USA).
DVD - Region 1 (US, Canada)

Rambert Triple Bill Video (0085)

VHS Only - $29.95
Robert North’s Lonely Town, Lonely Street conveys a passionate and energetic picture of lonely people in a large city, set to a jazzy score by Bill Withers which gives the dancework its title.

For his Sergeant Early’s Dream, Christopher Bruce chose a theme based on the emigration from the old world to the new. “Throughout there is a feeling of sadness at leaving the old home and losing touch with old roots. However, people take with them threads of their own culture which will inevitably develop separately.

There is a little of this influence as the ballet progresses but most of the numbers recall the folklore of the old world, reenacting life, loves and tragedies of the people of the past.” Christopher Bruce. Lastly, Bruce’s Intimate Pages used Janacek’s String Quartet No. 2, which the composer wrote in the last year of his life when inspired by his love for a woman forty years his junior. The ballet captures Janacek’s great happiness as well as the unbearable anguish of earlier tragedies in his life.

98 mins.
VHS - NTSC format only (Canada, USA).

Raymonda - The Bolshoi Ballet In Moscow Video

Raymonda - The Bolshoi Ballet In Moscow DVD Only (D1170) - $29.99
This glorious three-act ballet boasts a magical score by Alexander Glazunov, filled with melody, color and grand effects.

ACT 1 – Ludmila Semenyaka is magnificent as the youthful, charming Raymonda, niece to the Countess Sybil de Daurice of France. Raymonda is engaged to the gallant knight Jean de Brienne, who is superbly portrayed by Irek Moukhamedov. Because he must immediately depart on a campaign with King Andrei II of Hungary, the youth comes to the castle to bring his fiancée gifts and to bid her farewell. That night as Raymonda muses on her beloved, a statue of the White Lady, patroness of the House of Daurice, appears in a vision. She beckons the girl to the Magic Garden of Dreams, where Jean awaits her. But the apparition suddenly disappears, and in Jean’s place there is an unknown, exotic Eastern knight, who makes a passionate declaration of love to the bewildered Raymonda, when she faints, the knight vanishes. As dawn breaks, Raymonda awakens in the belief that her dream has been a terrible omen of her destiny.

ACT II – A celebration is underway at the castle. Among the guests is the Saracen knight Abderakhaman, performed by the electrifying Gedeminas Tarands. In him the terrified Raymonda recognizes the mysterious stranger she saw in her dream. Though he promises to give her riches and power in return for her heart and hand, she rejects him. Aberakham tries to abduct Raymonda. Unexpectedly however, Jean and the other knights return from their mission. To resolve the differences between Jean and Abderakham, King Andrei proposes a duel of honor. Aberakhman is defeated and Jean reclaims the overjoyed Raymonda.

ACT III – Raymonda and Jean are married at the court of King Andrei. In honor of the monarch, Hungarian dances are performed during the wedding festivities.

146 mins. (1980)
DVD - All Region

Romeo & Juliet Video

Romeo & Juliet DVD Only (D1183) - $29.99
This film is the famous Royal Ballet production of Romeo and Juliet.

This historical performance stars Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev as the quintessential stage lovers. It captures the greatest dance partnership of our century at the peak of their careers.

Fonteyn and Nureyev’s performance has been critically hailed as “perfection of movement which epitomizes the freedom that lies beyond technical mastery. It expresses itself as poetic lyricism.”

Romeo and Juliet features the music of Serge Prokofiev; a work which has been recognized as the first great full-length ballet score since Tchaikowsky’s classics. The choreography of Kenneth MacMillan is acknowledged as the reason for the ballet’s successful transfer to the film medium. John Lanchbery conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. It is a film for lovers of ballet and romantics alike.

125 mins. (1966)
DVD - Region 1 (US, Canada)

Romeo and Juliet Video

Romeo and Juliet DVD (D2102) - $29.99
Ballet in three acts after William Shakespeare. Paris Opera Ballet. Music – Sergei Prokofiev. Juliet: Moniquie Loudieres. Romeo: Manuel Legris. Tybalt: Charles Jude. Mercutio: Lionel Delanoe. Orchestre De L’Opera National De Paris conducted by Vello Pahn. Choreography and Staging: Rudolf Nureyev. Set Design: Ezio Frigerio. Costume Design: Ezio Frigerio and Mauro Pagano. Lighting Design: Vinicio Cheli. Directed by Alexandre Tarta. Produced by Francois Duplat and Damien Mathieu.

“One again the Paris Opera Ballet offers one of the most beautiful performances you could ever hope to see … very moving … Shakespeare is well served!” Le Parisien. “… a splendid recreation, totally faithful to Nureyev, this Romeo and Juliet is one of the great events of the year” Le Figaro.

150 mins. (2000)
DVD - Region 1 (US, Canada)