Product Details

• Actors: New York City Ballet, George Balanchine, Suzanne Farrell
• Format: Classical, DVD, NTSC
• Language: Unknown (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Nonesuch
• DVD Release Date: June 8, 2004
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000228SX2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,485 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

CHACONNE/PRODIGAL SON/BALLO DELLA REG - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars also a dream come true, April 21, 2007

By 

Ernest L. Sparks "erniesparks" (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Choreography By Balanchine / Chaconne, Prodigal Son, Ballo Della Regina, Elegie, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux (DVD)

PBS: Great Performances > Dance In America > Choreography by Balanchine >:
Parts 3 and 4 of 4 (1977)

I saw some of this series on TV back in 1978. I was awe-striken. I was a twenty-year fan of Stravinsky's music already and impressed by the composer's high opinion of this dance master (Mr. B). Seeing it for myself (being unable to go to NYC and actually attend) was totally thrilling and indelibly memorable.

After getting the first DVD and playing it to death, I hungered for more and bought this one. I'm sure glad I did.

Chaconne, with music by Gluck, is ravishingly beautiful stuff. The costuming is all white, so the series producer talked Mr. B into a scenario and decor, with clouds, mountains and (?) other stuff. I saw ballet to this music in the opera Orpheus and Eurydice many decades ago. I recall the male dancers wore greco-roman soldier costumes. This version was a specialty made by Mr. B when he and his American Ballet Company were employed by the Metropolitan Opera. Apparently the opera management didn't see any need for more than a perfunctory dance number in the opera. Mr. B thought he had full license to extend the role of dancing in opera. That partnership did not survive.

Prodigal Son, with music by Prokofiev, is the real reason I ordered this DVD. This work is a landmark, both unusual for Balanchine and for Diaghilev too. This was the last work created for the old impressario (and his Ballet Russe) while he lived. I suppose it counter-balances the plotless dances on the first DVD. The biblical parable is reduced in complexity, with the son's degradation reduced to bad associates plus a seductress. The end of the ballet I had seen already on TV: the son crawls to his father, literally climbs into his father's arms and gets wrapped in his father's robe. The son is played by Michail Baryshnikov.

I have noted my favorites. The other dances on this DVD are swell. I especially like the two Tschaikowsky works.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Balanchine designed for TV by Balanchine, May 30, 2010

By 

drkhimxz (Freehold, NJ, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Choreography By Balanchine / Chaconne, Prodigal Son, Ballo Della Regina, Elegie, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux (DVD)

The great virtue of this disc is that it was designed for television by Balanchine and is not a live performance designed for the stage and captured by video. The difference is immediately visible. Everything that is going on is right before your eyes, one does not face the phenomenon of either seeing close-up only a portion of the stage action or seeing the whole of the action as if one were in the uppermost region of the balconies (from which I saw this wonderful New York City Ballet company back in the mid-sixties at the New York State Theater). Balanchine here certainly draws on his Hollywood experience to solve the problem that Gene Kelly writes about in moving from stage to film in the early forties, how to convey the illusion of three-dimensional action on a two-dimensional screen.
As to the short ballets herein contained, what can one say. They are Balanchine. They are Patricia McBride. They are Baryshnikov. They are, in other words, top of the line choreography performed by top of the line dancers. Though thirty years old, the video and sound are first rate as you sit in a front row seat to enjoy a well-diversified program.
One need not be "into" ballet to like these pieces; one need only be susceptible to the charm of grace, the interweaving of expressive bodies into pleasurable patterns, and to music melded to dance to produce enlarged experiences of both.

32 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars FINALLY!...ONE OF THE MISSING BALLET JEWELS ON DVD, June 16, 2004

By 

MUSIAKO "LOOKING FOR DON JUAN DVD" (Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Choreography By Balanchine / Chaconne, Prodigal Son, Ballo Della Regina, Elegie, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux (DVD)

A MUST HAVE for ballet dancers, dance teachers and coreographers. This dvd bring us back the presition in movements and beatifull lines of Mr. genius Balanchine's creations. kind of old videorecordings...but still the magic on it. there are some works missing on this dvd and the other one (tzigane/jewels...etc) like serenade, star and stripes...etc...we hope in the future comes out more balanchines dvds with all the great coreographies and great music that he always used.