Product Details

• Actors: Marianela Nunez, Thiago Soares
• Format: Classical, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: French, German, Spanish, Italian
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: BBC / Opus Arte
• DVD Release Date: October 27, 2009
• Run Time: 139 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002KLGLUU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #124,264 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Swan Lake" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

TCHAIKOVSKY:SWAN LAKE - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great dancing and choreography, awful production, November 7, 2009

By 

Ivy Lin (NY NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Swan Lake [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

I once saw a television interview with Dame Ninette di Valois in which she carefully explained the difference between "production" and "choreography." She pointed out that productions of 19th century classics like Swan Lake are way more variable than choreography.
The current Royal Ballet production of Swan Lake has perhaps the most authentic choreography available, especially in the famous Ivanov "white acts." The Royal Ballet had access to Nicholas Sergeyev's original notations of the 1895 Petipa/Ivanov production that aren't seen in any other production, like children dancing as part of the corps of swan in the second act. The child swans surrounding Odette make a poignant and striking picture: you see clearly the hierarchy that is so important in classical ballet depicted in the swans. There are children, then there are adult swans, and finally there is Odette, the Swan Queen. The production also contains mime that is not included in any other production I've ever seen. Just for the scene of the swans miming tears in Act 4, this dvd is worth it. When Sir Frederick Ashton was director of the Royal Ballet he made a few additions to Swan Lake, including a solo for Nureyev, and a pas de quatre in Act 3. Unfortunately those additions are now gone from the current Royal Ballet production.
It is too bad that the authentic choreography is coupled with one of the ugliest productions of Swan Lake I have ever seen. Yolanda Sonnabend's sets have two effects: 1. they clutter the already small Royal Ballet stage; and 2. they take away any sense of enchantment and of a fairy tale. The setting is updated to Imperial Russia, which apparently means "unbelievably garish, tacky, and borderline goth." The first act is okay, a bit too glitzy for my taste but not actually offensive. In Act 3, the setting seems to be some kind of Las Vegas "haunted house" spectacle, complete with sinister cobweb decorations, huge candlelabras, and christmas tree lights. Odile enters the party with a gaggle of witches. All the female dancers are dressed as if they were going to a fancy masked ball/halloween party. The overall impression is one of complete tackiness. But it is the famous "white" acts that are the most ugly. Forget the lake -- there is none. Instead we have a completely black stage, with some shiny spiral staircases. Rothbart appears in the form of a giant owl. The sense of natural beauty that Tchaikovsky and the choreography evoke so vividly is totally gone. The costumes are not as bad - the swans are dressed not in the short classical tutus, but longer feathery skirts. I quite like the effect -- it gives them a more birdlike, "flying" look. The cosumtes also contrasts nicely with Odette's short classical tutu.
Marianela Nunez dances the duel role of Odette/Odile. She is tall and long-limbed, and able to create beautiful lines with her long legs, arched feet, and lovely, expressive arms. But she also has something that I find many O/O's, even the most famous ones, lack: inherent warmth. Her Odette is not a remote tragedienne, but a living, loving woman trapped in a bird's body. She uses her large eyes to great effect. Her Odile doesn't drip evil, but instead is truly sexy and irresisistible. Nunez can do the tricks -- the multiple pirouettes, the long-held balances, the sky high arabesques, but I never felt like she was simply showing off. Her Siegfried (and off-stage husband) is Thiago Thoares. He unfortunately is not nearly the dancer his wife is. He partners her nicely, but is rather unremarkable as a dancer. He has some rather hammy facial expressions, and a clunky, choppy way of dancing that seems to break the ballet into definite steps, rather than one seamless flow of choreography. I know they are married in real life and thus probably prefer to dance together, but she is simply a better dancer than him. The act one pas de trois is often a favorite place for balletomanes to spot future stars, and I thought both Laura Morera and Yukui Choe showed off winning personalities and impressive technique. '
The dvd comes with extras of an interview with Anthony Dowell, himself a legendary Siegfried (he can be seen in a wonderful 1981 video with Natalia Makarova), and also four ballerinas: Monica Mason, Beryl Grey, Lesley Collier and Marianela Nunez. I watched them but did not find them all that interesting.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars My first impulse was to savage the designer, Yolanda Sonnabend..., August 27, 2010

By 

J. Faulk (New York NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Swan Lake (DVD)

...for the visual disasters of Act I (Prince Siegfried's birthday fete outside the castle gate) and Act III (the masquerade in the castle ballroom, where the Prince is to choose a bride at his mother's insistence). Both acts have complex sets, fronted by dancers and supernumeraries in often lavish detailed costumes in a wide spectrum of intense color. The dancers are absolutely buried in all this density. How could Ms Sonnabend doing dozens and dozens of individual costume sketches not realize the overload when they were conglomerated on animated figures? Producer Anthony Dowell (in his Interview) admits he had to curb her (but obviously she rode him down). In startling contrast are Acts II and IV (the dark ground beside the lake of the swans, on the right some metallic rods remaining from a ruin).

Then, my second impulse--after checking her out online, especially at the "cloudsouth" site--was to be a gentleman to this old-timer. Born in 1935 in Rhodesia, Ms Sonnabend moved to England in 1954. The old swan now lives in St Johns Wood in the "last un-renovated house in London" in total but artistic disarray, and goes on working. Sadly, she has cancer, and her distinguished brother, Dr Joseph Sonnabend (important in AIDS work) left New York in 2009 to live with her. She has achieved international import in ballet, opera, theater, film; she also paints, including a discomforting portrait of Stephen Hawking. Apparently, she designed the present Swan Lake in 1987, and the production has been revived a number of times. Note that this DVD offers a 2009 performance.

MARIANELA AND THIAGO

Born in 1982 in Buenos Aires, Ms Nunez joined the Royal Ballet in 1998. Her Odette/Odile surpasses criticism, though we can expect she will add some personal touches in the next ten years. In the Supplement where she converses with three Swan Princesses of yesteryear, Ms Nunez is quite charming, warm, and good-humored, and comfortable in English.

Born in 1980 in Rio de Janeiro, Mr Soares joined the Royal Ballet in 2002, and promptly fell for Marianela. He proposed in 2006. Much of his performance in the present ballet is miming and partnering. His two solos are brief, and his style seems soft to me. Perhaps it's a hangover from his early training, and he might profit from additional classes with a different, expert teacher (as Michael Somes did). Since the Swan Lake music, scenario, and choreography have a history of adjustments, some choreographer owes Prince Siegfried one or two brilliant additions, maybe--like Frederick Ashton-- asking Mr Soares what he does best.

FIX-ITS

ACT I. This 30 minutes is a weak beginning for a story ballet, dramatically speaking. Sure we watch ballet for the dancing, story is secondary. But I felt I was required to watch too long too many dancers, especially the five-part pas de trois, obviously irrelevant to progress. The bibulous Tutor and his two spiffy little girls, I can do without. Why would Siegfried and his friends want to go swan-shooting with crossbows at night? Hardly a fowl for the table.

ACT II. The Evil Spirit (aka Von Rothbart) that has the swans in thrall is in bulky "owl" costume, spoiling his menace. There is no suggestion of lake. I've no doubt that Ms Nunez could be a movie actress with an expressive face, so in DVD ballet work she might be encouraged to deepen her reactions, beyond traditional stock faces.

ACT III. The audience gives an enthusiastic round of applause to the Neapolitan Dancers, just two of them simply costumed, simply choreographed--compact enough to be focused on. Another specialty dance or two are submerged in enveloping costumes for four couples, kind of adhering to each other by overcrowding. The cataclysmic effect at act's end--flickering candles, red flood light, heavy smoke--seems overdone.

ACT IV. The pure lovers' suicides: There has been no foreshadowing of the several steps leading up to the ledge, where Odette simply steps off, unemotionally, and drops like a stone (oh yeah, there's a lake down there). After two or three beats (for the danseuse to get clear) Siegfried does the same. Indifferent treatment of a climactic moment. The swans close in on the Evil One, he writhes on the ground and evaporates. The swans divide left and right, upstage lights up, and framed there a silvery reed boat bears the semi-recumbent lovers, his arms about her. Too distant for a viewer to appreciate, and one expects a medium closeup, as on the case cover, but the camera/editor doesn't think so.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars So So, April 11, 2010

By 

CWJ "Ballet Fan" (Owings Mills, MD United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Swan Lake (DVD)

I was really looking forward to this DVD and I was very disappointed so where do I start.
The production is updated to be set in Russia at the time when the ballet was originally choreographed. Argh. Act 1 costumes are okay but a little distracting and annoying and I don't like the changes in the order of the dances. I do love the Act 2 settings and costumes and very few people "mess" with Act 2. And then there's Act 3 in which the costumes are sort of like a demented "Phantom of the Opera" masked ball, leaving not a whole lot of room to spare on the stage - and a weird "mirror" or window on the back set that sort of reflects what is happening on stage. Act 4 back at the lake and again the settings are fine.
I don't get into "technical" discussions of the dance positions and how they are performed. People who know far more than me write complex reviews about these things and I bow to them. But I do know if I like a performance and this one I do not. Marianela Nunez is a skilled performer and I loved her in La Fille Mal Gardee but I do not think she has the emotional maturity for this role. In her Odette I did not see any of the tragedy and in the Evil Odile I really wasn't quite sure what I saw. I like both Cojocaru and Rojo very much and think either would have been much better for this role which requires so much of those who perform it. Thiago Soares is not nearly as good as his partner and I found his Prince either wooden or looking a little puzzled as to why he was there.
The included special with the four ballerinas discussing Swan Lake was one which I did not find terribly interesting. Lets just say if they had interviewed Makarova, that would have given some real insights from a ballerina who brought so much to her performances. I still think the Royal Ballet 1982 version with Makarova and Dowell is the best and if I could only own one, it would be the one.