Customer Reviews

Dancer's Dream: The Great Ballets of Rudolf Nureyev - Raymonda

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I enjoyed learning more about Nureyev as a director and choreographer because much has been written about his life and talent as one of the greatest dancers in history. If you are interested in understanding more about Nureyev, this documentary is for you.

My only disappointment is that after watching bits and peices of the ballet I wanted to see the production of Nureyev's Raymonda in its entirety, but it is nowhere to be found! To be honest, I would much rather see the magic of the dancing than listen to others talk about how amazing it is. Because this documentary leaves you yearning to see the full length ballet that apparently does not exist is the reason it receives four stars.

Of the "Dancer's Dream" documentary films, I think this one is the most informative and interesting. The "Dancer's Dream" documentaries are about Rudolf Nureyev's productions of ballets during his reign at the Paris Opera Ballet. There's documentaries of four of his productions: La Bayadere, Raymonda, Romeo and Juliet, and Sleeping Beauty.

The reason I find this particular documentary so interesting is that it interviewed a large number of dancers who danced in Nureyev's Raymonda. They have mixed and sometimes conflicting views of working with Nureyev, but they all cite his absolute perfectionism and devotion to dance. There are tantalizing clips of etoiles like Elisabeth Platel and Manuel Legris dancing Raymonda, which make me long for a complete video. (Complete videos exist of Nureyev's Sleeping Beauty, R&J, and La Bayadere.) But just as interesting is all the interviews with the dancers, who are all articulate and thoughtful. Particularly insightful is Florence Clerq. Best of all, we get to see rehearsal footage with Nureyev and his dancers, which I found just as beautiful as actual performance footage.

Highly recommended.

This is a great documentary. After I watched the "Etoile" a sort of documentary about Paris Opera Ballet dancers, I was more interested in dancers in addition to the ballet performance. Having said that, Paris Opera Ballet really needs to release the Raymonda ballet performance DVD to show the great work by those dancers. There are some clips here and there but not enough. It is said "Raymonda" is one of the most difficult ballet to dance, and it looks like Nureyev made it more difficult but I would like to watch his entire version by the Paris Opera Ballet. They are the only who is keeping Nureyev versions of ballets as repertory.

It is difficult to understand why this DVD has been discontinued. I have mine, and I will hold on to it forever. It is also difficult to understand why Amazon has given it only a so-so rating, based heavily on a low rating from a reviewer who was expecting a performance DVD. This is the most interesting and informative of the four superb Dancer's Dream DVDs, going back as it does to the 1983 premier and then bringing us forward to a 1998 revival. This one was dear to Nureyev's heart, and it has more fascinating action coverage of him in rehearsals than any of the other three in the series. The DVD provides coverage of six fine ballerinas in the Raymonda role: Platel, Gaida, Clerc, De Vulpian, Pontois and Pietragalla. We also see four dancers in the Jean de Brienne role: Legris, Jude, Martinez and Nureyev, and as Abderam we have Guzerix, Romoli and Hilaire. For some reason the POB did not issue a performance DVD of Nureyev's Raymonda, although a DVD can perhaps be found of a stage rehearsal. Performance DVDs have been issued for the other three ballets in the Dream series: La Bayadere, Sleeping Beauty and Romeo & Juliet.

At 4 or 5 years old, I used to dream to be a ballerina. But I came to throw it away after watching Rudolf Nureyev dancing on the TV. The ballet art didn't look much. And almost 30 years after I have become a passionate ballet fan thanks to Florence Clerc. I didn't know they were able to express a shyness of young lady in a dance. This DVD is doumentary. This is why I gave 4 stars. You can't see the marvel of each dancer. I wish that Amazon Com would look for a complete piece of each of these dancers. And moreover to prepare DVDs with region code all/free. You can't imagine how much I pay for a DVD with region 1, first the price of DVD then for its dubbing. But even so, I want to see !!

It's hard to tell from the way the product is displayed here, but this is not the production of the ballet itself, it's a documentary about the Nureyev production for Paris Opera Ballet. There is some footage of Nureyev talking, and interviews with the principal dancers. As of this date, there isn't a DVD of Paris Opera's Raymonda, although the newer Bolshoi version has good reviews, and that's the one I bought. Another warning, there are two different DVD-case pictures for this DVD, due to two different manufacturers. One is TDK and the other is Kultur. They are both the same documentary, neither is the actual ballet. The Dancer's Dream series from POB is a great idea, but in my opinion only when you can also buy the full ballet with the cast shown in the documentary. Otherwise, I don't think there's a point to it. The documentaries are only really interesting when paired with the full ballet. Even so, seeing some footage of Nureyev at work is interesting, as well as the interviews with the stars of the cast -- you can see they are on their best politically correct behavior when talking about him since he had died by the time the documentary was put together. There were a lot of wars between the POB dancers and Nureyev when he was artistic director, but they're being very careful to avoid that topic, although there are a few comments that lift the veil just a bit.

I love POB's "Dancer's Dream" series, especially this one and "Romeo and Juliet". I love watching the POB etoiles rehearsing as well as listening to them talking about Nureyev and his work. The documentary includes a bunch of precious snippets of different dancers dancing the same roles. Moreover, it has footages of Nureyev talking and rehearsing the ballet. Watching the old footages of Nureyev coaching Elisabeth Platel and Charles Jude, as well as other etoiles such as Manuel Legris dancing the role, is a lovely treat.

I wanted to see the production of the ballet, not a group of French dancers talking about the production. Talking is, after all, not what dancers do best. And the need for subtitles for what they do say further diminishes the "text," since content is always lost in translation. Too bad!

it was very exciting to watch raymonda ballet, and im a fan of paris ballet opera, i almost have the complete collection of paris opera ballet dvd. but when i purchase this item i was very discourage! im expecting more superb performances, cause the cast are my favorite dancers, i was hoping that i can watch the full length production of this ballet, but what i see is a sort of documentary. So i can rate it only for 2 stars, im so sorry for this. But i think if they could release the full length of this raymonda ballet. Well i think! they are more excellent compare to the other ballet companies!

I bought this DVD because I have seen "Raymonda" and wanted to relive the experience. This NOT a presentation of the ballet. It is a series of interviews with people associated with the ballet (including Nureyev), but those interviews are all in French. You can turn on the subtitles, but they tend to go by quickly, so that's difficult to follow.

Here's the funny thing - sometimes the person on-camera is speaking English, but there's an announcer translating their words to French. The subtitles are cearly retranslations back to English, because they rarely quote the original interviewee's words.

If you only have passing interest in the performance, and if you want to practice hearing French, this DVD is for you. But from what I know, that's a small audience.