Customer Reviews

La Sylphide - Lis Jeppesen, Sorella Englund, Royal Danish Ballet

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

 

 

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.

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!

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!

Watching Aurelie Dupont in the Lacotte version of Sylphide almost made me decide to by that one instead. But in the end, I found the Royal Danish version a lot more satisfying.

The first Act seemed a lot more authentic to me and I loved the mime. The dancers are all very good, and I actually liked the male lead better than the French one.

Also the witch in this version is played by a woman, Sorella Englund, and she does a fantastic job. This is not a comic role which might be made funnier by a male impersonating a female, it's a tragic one, and requires a serioud interpretation, not a clownish one.

Apart from all that, the music in the Danish version is far more enjoyable.

I love this DVD and I have watched it several times. I highly recommed it.

I'm not an expert of ballet, I don't know the technical names of the moves or how the steps should be executed. I do however know when I hear music that takes over my soul and moves me to tears, something magical is happening. I saw such beauty and passion between the leading characters and I felt blessed to have stummbled across this ballet. I couldn't take my eyes off of my TV screen.

Lis Jeppesen is so graceful and I had to watch this story a second time because I didn't want it to end. I had to share it immediately so I ordered it and sent it to my parents. I knew that they would appreciate it even more. My father is German (loves Opera, ballet, classical music) and my mother used to dance ballet when she was very young. Mom called me after she and Dad watched it and they were very impressed.

I'd never heard of this story and it was easy to follow and understand what was happening. It's a tragic tale of a man (about to be married) falls in love with a fairy but his intense love leads to tears.

A superb cast and recording of this classical masterpiece .I have a chance to compare this next week when my wife and I will be at the Met . It will be produced by the American Ballet Theatre on the stage.