Customer Reviews

Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf / Royal Ballet School

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this DVD for my kids, who are familiar with "Peter and the Wolf" from CD and book versions. Both the 5 year old girl and 3 year old boy wanted to see it again at the end of the first showing. It is well done, and my kids obviously enjoyed seeing other kids perform on stage. My kids have no prior exposure to ballet, and this is why I bought it. Based on one of the prior reviews, which complained of close up camera work, I nearly didn't order it. It turns out that the occasional close up is not at all a negative, especially for my kids, since it allowed them to identify with the character. They argued which one they wanted to be. In any case, usually most or all of the stage is shown.
The DVD, although short and without extras, is inexpensive and a good counter to the latest disney shlock.

I bought three copies of this DVD, one for myself, one for my 8-year-old granddaughter, and one for a friend's daughters, ages 11, 9, and 6. All of us, including my friend and his wife, loved it. It is the perfect length for children who are being introduced to ballet. The costumes are beautiful and colorful, and, of course, the music is outstanding. The students dance very well. At the price, it's a bargain. Buy this video & enjoy it with your young ones. Even boys would like this one!

I found this little chestnut on the day we (finally) purchased a DVD player. As a parent and sometime performer, I'm always looking for new ways to introduce my children to classic stories and music. In this production of "Peter and the Wolf," they get both.

As my wife and I watched, we both realized that here was a very clever rendition. I'll grant you that there is very little teaching of musical instruments here, beyond what is written in the narration. But as a simple ballet, using minimal sets, this rendition of an old favorite rings very true. The music, as much as the dancing, sells this disc. I would take my daughters to see such a production in a theater.

Casting was masterful. The principles were delightful, and their characterizations were never over-stated. Sir Anthony Dowell lends a wonderful air of old-fashioned story-teller as both the narrator and the grandfather. The use of chorus to depict meadow, tree, or pond was very cleverly done.

All in all, I'm sure Prokofiev would be pleased. I know I was.

Not much to say. I found it absolutely charming. The dancers are all very good, especially considering their ages. Anthony Dowell gives his expected expert performance. This would make an excellent introduction to ballet for children, perhaps inspiring them like "The Red Shoes" did when I was young.

We got this because it was packaged by Amazon with The Nutcracker. As it turns out, my daughter (who is now 3) absolutely loves it.

The dancers and choreography is outstanding. It's short (30 minutes), but perfect for a young child that you want to introduce to ballet.

My twin toddlers (boy and girl) have absolutely LOVED this DVD since I got it when they were about 18 months. They have learned so much from it: different animals, different instruments from the orchestra (their sounds and names and can identify them in other situations), and they LOVE to imitate the dance. This video is so well done for children. It doesn't move too fast with quick shots here and there, typical of so many videos today, but is focused, up close, colorful, and paced just right. I really wish I could find more videos like this, but I am afraid there are quite few. You won't be disappointed.

I understand that evaluating this DVD may depend on what one is looking for. I've seen a full production of Peter and the Wolf as a continuous ballet, not as a learning experience narrated so that children (and others) can figure out which instruments represent what. This production confuses a learning tape with a ballet. Aside from the distracting narration, I found the photography very disturbing. Instead of letting the viewer see a dance in its entirety the camera jumps around from instant to instant so you can hardly catch one single movement from its beginning to its conclusion. Worst of all was the constant clipping off of the tops of peoples heads, sometimes even the eyes. I recall that Fred Astaire insisted that the camera always show full body shots so people could really experience the dance. Whoever edited this film should learn from Astaire. For me the DVD was very disappointing.

Both of my girls, 8 and 2 love this DVD. Most of the performers are kids, and the story is really easy to see. My little girl danced around and basically had a great time. My 5 year old son was less thrilled and found the wolf eating the duck a little off putting. Naturally the duck comes back to life and all is well at the stories end.

Highly recommended, and quite a bargain.

The enduringly popular work by Sergei Prokofiev is adapted here with admirable aesthetic cohesion by 24 year old choreographer Matthew Hart, and performed by dancers in training with the Royal Ballet, as the Company's Director, Sir Anthony Dowell, one of the very finest artists with the Royal during the last half of the twentieth century, serves as narrator and as the cast's Grandfather in an engaging performance recorded at Covent Garden. Staging is uncomplicated and is distinguished by effective lighting, each craft increasing the impact of Hart's able use of engraved line for the young dancers, designed to capture the attention of an equally young audience, and Prokofiev's orchestral colour is aptly appropriated, with its varied descriptive moods conveyed by Hart for the purposes of dance. The composer's score provides but a limited number of conceivable balletic roles: Peter, his Grandfather, the Wolf, Bird, Cat, and Duck, yet Hart in a master stroke has deployed small groups of dancers to embody abstractions of a forest, a meadow, a wall, and a pond, while Royal Ballet Junior School boys are depicted as bespectacled huntsmen. These latter exhibit the only ragged dancing in the film, while Martin Harvey, one year into the Upper School, displays a good deal of fluency, thereby tendering the work's central performance as the Wolf, while Dowell, completing dilatory enveloping arabesques with a walking stave, creates a correctly personal interpretation in his role as Peter's Grandfather in this delicious film that must certainly garner approval from viewers of all ages. A DVD version provides no extras, but is excellent in every other manner.

If your kids have no knowledge of ballet and think that it's probably boring since all their schoolmates tell them it is this is a great DVD to start them with. Even better, of course, would be to actually take them to see it performed if you can find it in your area, but this will do.

My children were already familiar with, and love, the ballet but this is by far their favorite. The storyline is spoken so they do not have to interrupt your concentration asking you to explain what is going on (another thing that makes it ideal for a first ballet outing) and the story is one that any child can love.

I have three boys and all of them ask to watch this over and over.

As for whether or not it should even be a ballet, let the purists fume. In my opinion this is a non-issue (and I'm somewhat a purist myself).