10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A common man's point of view., January 5, 2010
This review is from: Stars Of The Russian Ballet. Vol. 1 (DVD NTSC) (DVD)
The picture you see on the cover of this DVD is Maya Plisetskaya in a pose as she dances in the ballet "The Fountain of Bakhchisarai". Maya really loved this ballet, but she only liked to dance the part of Zarema, the once favorite concubine of Khan Girzi (also spelled Girey). In a fit of jealosy, Zarema has killed Maris (also called Maria), who the Khan kidnapped and subsequently fell in love with. What we see here, is Zarema offering her breast to the Khan's knife. I won't tell you any more of the story, except to say that this is the only known ballet where the two prima ballerinas of the Bolshoi, Galina Ulanova and Maya Plisetskaya dance together in the same ballet. But guess what? The Fountain of Bakhchisarai ballet is not on this disc. It is on another DVD called Stars of the Russian Ballet, true, but not this one. It's on Kultur D1199. Or click here....
Stars of the Russian Ballet / Galina Ulanova, Maya Plisetskaya, Vakhtang Chabukiani, Boris AsafievNow, I'm going to give you a lot of information you won't find any where else, so pay attention. This is another DVD called Stars of the Russian Ballet. In the lower left corner it says Vol. 1. Every word on the keepcase and disc is in the Russian language, except the disc does have Stars of the Russian Ballet in English. You will have to buy the DVD to get this information, and then only if you select the chapters menu. I will give you the chapter number, title, date filmed, music composer, and the dancers.
Chapter 1, The Dying Swan-1975, Saint-Saens, Maya Plisetskaya
Chapter 2, Don Quixote exerpt,1972, Minkus, Ekaterina Maksimova, Vladimir Vasiliyev.
Chapter 3, Melody, 1970,Antonin Dvorak, Natalia Bessmertnova, Alexandr Lavrenyuk.
Chapter 4, Butterfly, 1983, J. Offenbach, Irena Kolpakova, Sergey Berezhnoy.
Chapter 5, Mazour Dance, 1972, A Scryabin, Ekaterina Maksimova.
Chapter 6, Peri,1983, Buergmuller, Lyubov Kunakova, Marat Doukayev.
Chapter 7, Melody , 1978, K. Gluk, Marina Kondratiyeva, Maris Liepa, Choreographed by Asaf Messerer,
Maya Plisetskaya's Uncle who, with his wife, (Maya's aunt) helped raise her. (Point of interest).
Chapter 8, La Bayadere, 1979, Minkus, Nadejda Pavlova, Vycheslov Gordeyev.
Chapter 9, Don Quixote, exerpt, Gypsy Dance 1971, Tamara Varlamova and Troupe.
Chapter 10, Swan Lake exerpt Act 3, 1973, P Tchaikovsky, Maya Plisetskaya, Valery
Kovtun.
Vol.2 (same disc)
Chapter 1, Swan Lake exerpt, Act 2 pas de deux, 1973, P Tchaikovsky, Maya Plisetskaya, Valery Kovtun
Chapter 2, Narcissi, 1971, N. Cherepnin, Vladimir Vasiliev.
Chapter 3, Esmeralda, 1983, Pugni, Tatyana Terekhova, Nikolay Kovmir.
Chapter 4, Lala & Majnu, 1971 S. Valassanyan, Marina Gorodskaya, Ella Kasterina.
Chapter 5, Giselle, 1978, A. Adam, Marina Kondratyeva, Valery Kontun.
Chapter 6, Venice Carnevale, 1983, C. Pugni, Svetlana Efremova, Valery Yemec.
Chapter 7, Don Q exerpt, 1976, Minkus, Nina Timofeyeva, Alexander Godunov.
Chapter 8, Legend of Love, 1978, A. Melikov, Ludmila Semenyaka, Alexander Bogatyrev.
Chapter 9, Romeo & Julia, 1979, G. Berlioz (ultra beautiful), Eketerina Maximova, Vladimir Vasiliyev.
Some of the color is a bit faded the sound is good but you will have to turn the volume down quite a bit. There are dances on these discs which can be found on other DVDs, but there is also some very good new stuff here also. The total running time is 121 mnhyT (whatever that means). It's in the 3:4 ratio video format, naturally. I liked everything on the DVD. I think you will too........Richard.
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