Customer Reviews

The Bolshoi Ballet: Romeo and Juliet, The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty

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I would say that the customer most likely to appreciate this box-set would be the DEDICATED classical ballet enthusiast.

Each of the performances on offer was recorded for video reproduction before more suitable lighting technology was available. Subsequently tranferred to DVD, the visual quality on each is not as sharp as more recent recordings from the Bolshoi Theatre demonstrate. The sound quality is mostly acceptable on three of them - though the sound amplification/reproduction on my copy of Swan Lake would seem to have one of the channels malfunctioning.

That said, these are recordings of a bygone era in Russian Ballet and are worth having for that reason. They feature some of the legendary names of the late Soviet period; and while their apparent blandness on first viewing might be disconcerting to those familiar with a Western European classical style, an appreciation of the refinement of Russian classicism will become apparent with repeated viewing. Enjoy!

Hands down, Bolshoi's Romeo & Juliet will bring you to tears. This series, though lacking Raymonda, has most of Grigorivich's best. The dancing is superb (Mikhail Sharkov as Mercutio or Court Jester in SL, Alexander Vetrov as Tybalt and Blue Bird in Sleeping Beauty, in addition to Irek Mukhamedov and Natalia Bessmertnova). The sets, costumes, staging, choreography, and the entirety of the productions are brilliant, and doesn't compare to a lot of the current productions of the classics. Some can't appreciate the beauty of the traditional Bolshoi, but it's absolutely stunning in my view. SO GLAD these performances were archived!!!