Product Details

• Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• 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: Kultur Video
• DVD Release Date: March 28, 2006
• Run Time: 62 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000EGDBKG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,093 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

From The Royal Theatre, Copenhagen with The Royal Danish Ballet. When Lis Jeppesen - the Sylphide of our time - in diaphanous white costume and with shining wings, dances for the Scottish farmer James, whom she has entranced with her love and beauty, we are witnessing the first scene of the most famous and enduring ballet by August Bournonville. The great Danish choreographer and former dancer (he had partnered Marie Taglioni) created La Sylphide for the Royal Danish Ballet in 1836. Of all his surviving ballets it is the oldest and most widely performed.. The Royal Danish Ballet rightly regards its interpretations of the Bournonville classics as being in the purest and most faithfully maintained tradition. Lis Jeppesen dances the lead role of La Sylphide, a role which demands lyrical interpretation as well as superb technique. Equal expressiveness and faultless dancing are required of James, here performed by Nikolaj Hübbe. Sorella Englund is the brilliant interpreter of the role of Madge, the witch and fortune-teller, whose rejection by James leads her to seek dreadful revenge on him, with tragic consequences. Gurn: Morten Munksdorf, Effy: Ann-Kristin Hauge, Anna: Kirsten Simone, Nancy: Anne Marie Vessel.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quintessential Romantic ballet, March 28, 2006

By 

Marc Haegeman "Marc Haegeman" (Gent, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: La Sylphide - Lis Jeppesen, Sorella Englund, Royal Danish Ballet (DVD)

DVD's featuring the Royal Danish Ballet don't come by the dozen and this re-release of August Bournonville's "La Sylphide", the quintessential Romantic ballet, is particularly welcome. Bournonville created his version of the ballet in Copenhagen in 1836, four years after the premiere of the original "Sylphide" from Filippo Taglioni at the Paris Opera. While the Paris "Sylphide" disappeared from the repertory the Danish version was miraculously kept in performance until the present day.
Recorded at the Royal Danish Theatre in Copenhagen in 1988, this famous film has been available on laserdisc some ten years ago and its release in the DVD-format was long overdue. The staging by Henning Kronstam and Arlette Weinreich, based on the authoritative production of Hans Brenaa is nothing short of ideal, while the cast led by Lis Jeppesen (the Sylph of her generation), a youngish Nikolaj Hübbe (in his debut as James) and Sorella Englund as Madge, is simply outstanding. Supporting roles include Morten Munksdorf as Gurn, Ann-Kristin Hauge as Effy and Silja Schandorff as the leading sylph in Act 2.

The video-transfer is excellent, the sound is simple stereo. "La Sylphide" is a short ballet (just over an hour) and some bonus features should have been included, such as a documentary on August Bournonville, the Royal Danish Ballet or its School.

But for the performance itself, nothing but the strongest recommendation.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Classical Ballet In The Danish Tradition!, April 9, 2006

By 

J. M WILINSKY (teaneck, NJ United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: La Sylphide - Lis Jeppesen, Sorella Englund, Royal Danish Ballet (DVD)

The Royal Danish Ballet is one of the oldest continuously performing ballet companies in the world and the keeper of a very special ballet tradition all of their own. Students of ballet will notice many Danish-isms in their dancing(I won't go into detail here). This is a beautiful performance, very nicely captured on dvd. The sound and image are perfect. We have had the French version on dvd for a while(see my review of it) and you might wonder how the two versions compare. The French version is longer and the music and choreography are quite different. The two scores are composed by different people. The stories are essentially the same. In the Danish version Gurn, Effy, and Madge, the witch, play a slightly bigger role, making a more significant appearance in the second act. The Danes practically invented the use of ballet mime and we get a wonderful eyeful here. The mime is done so beautifully that it is dancing in itself. The Scottish women in the first act dance in character shoes, not on pointe, while in the French version all of the women are on pointe. In both versions the entire productions are fantastic!

As far as the story goes, James is about to marry Effy(and James's friend Gurn wishes it were he that would marry her). James is visited by a beautiful sylph(a fairy of the atmosphere) and becomes intrigued and preoccupied with her to the point that he forgets to attend his wedding. He also gets on the bad side of Madge, the witch, and winds up with a completely broken heart, left with no love at all. One question which comes to mind in this story is exactly what are we to think of James? Is he bewitched? Is he a cad? Is he hypnotized? It is hard to imagine why one would give up Effy(she is quite a catch!) for a fairy.

If you like classical ballet, you can't get much more "classy" than this!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great video, bad sound, March 25, 2011

By 

ker (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: La Sylphide - Lis Jeppesen, Sorella Englund, Royal Danish Ballet (DVD)

I ordered this video to have a good record of the dancing in the Bournonville production. The video quality is just fine, but the sound is off by about half a beat. My guess is that this happened in the translation from PAL to NTSC. It is unfortunate. I even exchanged my original purchase for another in hopes I just had a bad copy, but alas, it is the same issue, so I returned the second as well. It is very distracting in the "reel" section of Act I to hear the stomp of feet before you see it! It is then also extremely distracting in all the fast-paced solos that are so musical in nature.
However, if you are looking for style pointers from Lis Jeppesen, and want to see an excellent "Madge", this is the DVD to purchase. There's nothing much more beautiful than watching Nikolaj Hubbe's batterie....so turn the sound down and enjoy!