Amazon.com: Sleeping Beauty [VHS]: Alla Sizova, Yuri Solovyov: Video

"For a look at the great Kirov Ballet performing one of the world's most beloved ballets in an acclaimed film, this video collector's item is truly 'the fairest of them all'"--Kultur Video

That's some truth in advertising, right there. I've reviewed a number of other ballet titles, and this is one of my very favorites. The music was written by the greatest ballet composer of all times, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and it is performed with finesse by the Leningrad Opera and Ballet Theatre Orchestra. The music is famous; in fact, I even heard the "Rose Adagio" from this ballet used during a credit card commercial while writing this review. I guarantee that you will like the music even better when you see Alla Sizova dancing to it, rather than some silly credit card being twisted around on the screen by robotic arms. The choreography is by K. Sergeyev, after M. Petipa. The sets are among the best that I have seen on ballet video, and they were done by M. Drotkin. This was originally a motion picture, and the videotape is in letterbox format to preserve the aspect ratio. The run time is eighty-four minutes, whereas a full-length stage performance can run as long as one hundred sixty minutes. These cuts may be a disappointment to some, but I feel that it makes the video very watchable for people with busy schedules.

The list of stars is long, and it begins with Alla Sizova as Princess Aurora. Sizova is a beautiful dancer who earned critical acclaim for her Aurora. She really makes you feel good while watching her. Yuri Solovyov is Prince Desire. He was one of the Kirov's "golden boys" (after Nureyev, and before Baryshnikov). His dancing is notable for his soaring jumps. The evil fairy, Carabosse, is danced by the great teacher Natalia Dudinskaya, who was one of Agrippina Vaganova's star pupils. The opportunity to watch a legend like Dudinskaya is one of the compelling historical reasons to buy this tape. The Lilac Fairy is danced by Irina Bazhenova, whose pretty pose graces the picture on the front of the VCR dust jacket. Like Sizova, she has beautiful arms and hands, and she also makes you feel good while watching her. Princess Florina is danced by Natalia Makarova, but a word of warning is in order for her fans: her dancing is lovely, but her divertissement is heavily cut and is barely two minutes in length. There are also some appearances by students from the Vaganova Choreographic School, who look adorable in their cute costumes. In all, it's a distinguished cast of principal dancers, backed up by the excellent Kirov corps de ballet.

One highlight is Dudinskaya's dancing during the prologue. In the story, Carabosse was accidentally left off of the guest list for the baby Aurora's christening. Carabosse shows up uninvited, and she is in the mood for revenge. In most productions, the role of Carabosse is primarily theatrical, but Dudinskaya's dancing is done sur les pointes--while in her fifties! Her interpretation is a dance de demi-charactere. After mocking the good fairies, she manages to work her way over to the crib where baby Aurora is sleeping, and none of the others are there to protect the little child from Carabosse. Scary! Of course, this is where Carabosse casts her evil spell on the babe. As far as I'm concerned, Dudinskaya is the definitive interpreter of the role on video.

Another highlight is Sizova's dancing of the "Rose Adagio" during the coming out part of the story in act one, where four debonair cavaliers are present to court Aurora. While dancing with them, Sizova masters the difficult balance tests with delicate arms and hands. Unlike some performers who seem to be only good at adage, but not allegro dancing (or vice versa), Sizova is a well-rounded ballerina who presents herself very nicely. Alla Sizova is a "true" Aurora.

Yuri Solovyov is a well-matched partner for Sizova, and their dancing together is very tender. Some of his jumps are very impressive, and he does a spectacular grand allegro routine near the very end. At first, he works en diagonale with double cabrioles and double tours en l'air, followed by a pirouette en dehors. As the intensity of the music builds, he travels en manege with tour jetes, coupe jetes en tournant and chaine turns, ending his tour de force on one knee at the feet of the beauteous Princess Aurora. What a guy!

It's difficult to find enough good adjectives to describe my feelings about this title, but I'll try: (1) it's a classic; (2) it makes me feel happy watching it; (3) it's some of the best money that I have ever spent on my ballet video collection; and (4) the principal dancers are all ballet heroes in my book. To date, I've watched six different performances of this ballet on video, and this is by far my favorite one (the others being the 1990 Kirov with Asylmuratova and Zaklinski, the 1980 Kirov with Kolpakova and Berezhnoi, the 1989 Kirov with Lezhnina and Ruzimatov, the 1994 Royal Ballet with Durante and Solymosi and the 1972 National Ballet of Canada with Tennant and Nureyev). I highly recommend this purchase. They truly do not make them like this anymore. For those of you who enjoy my writing, you are invited to click on "rss28" above to visit my member page, where you can find many other reviews of ballet titles. If you click on "listmania lists" on my member page, you can find my Ballet Favorites list, which includes this title. This Kirov Ballet performance is a thing of beauty!

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Timeless Classic, January 10, 2003

By A Customer

This video is a superb example of true Russian/Soviet trained dancers combined with Soviet style of "cultural propaganda". The film (created in 1964) was made to be shown in the movie theaters to bring more art to the masses (let's not forget that the arts were on very high level in former Soviet Union and still are in the present-day Russia). This movie-version style should explain somewhat choppy cinematography. On the other hand, it's is a classic that should be owned by all avid ballet lovers as well as by those who are just remotely interested in ballet. It is a great family movie!
The dancers in the main roles were the stars of the Kirov Ballet in the 60's and 70's. How can one go wrong in owning a tape with such stars in their prime as Alla Sizova, Yuri Soloviev, Natalia Dudinskaya, Natalia Makarova, Valeri Panov among many others? To any ballet student this should be a historic recording of what true classical training can produce. It's a pure academy of dance! For someone to say that the dancers are out of shape, because they might seem a little more meatier than our present-day concept of bones, is absurd! After all, it's the muscle that gets you up into the air -- not bones.
Alla Sizova was a lyrical dancer with pure classical style training and faultless technique. She received gold medal at Varna competition in 1964, and it's safe to assume that this ballet was filmed shortly after that. She was very popular in England when Kirov Ballet toured there. Unfortunately, she had a back injury and wasn't able to dance for 2 years, but she came back to dance and tour with Kirov in England and Europe without any loss of her brilliant technique. Presently, I believe, she is teaching in Washington D.C.
Yuri Soloviev was one of the most talented dancers that Russian and world ballet ever had. His technique was impeccable, his jumps absolutely breathtaking and....his life was extinquished much too soon for us to enjoy his talent. If for nothing else, one should have this tape to remember Soloviev's extraordinary talent.
Moreover, this film captured very young Natalia Makarova in the role of Princess Florina.
I hope this insight is somewhat helpful.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Superb Sizova and Soloviev, March 31, 2003

By	Alastair Macaulay (London, UK) - See all my reviews

If you know "Sleeping Beauty", the reason to have this "Beauty" is the superlative dancing by Sizova and Soloviev. Nobody dances like them any more, and it's our loss. Sizova dances with a spontaneity and musical emphasis unlike any other Kirov dancer I've ever seen. Her Aurora was a vital part of the Kirov's first sensational tours of the West in the 1960s; curiously, I saw her dance Princess Florine at the Kirov in Act III in 1984, and even then she was dancing with amazing freshness - alas, by that point, a freshness unlike anyone in the company. Even though Soloviev isn't really a prince (he was a very famous Bluebird), he becomes a hero like no other - utterly innocent and caught up in the story as if for the first time. Latterday Kirov or Western dancers would dance this ballet with more attention to minor technical perfection and with less feeling for dance and music and character. To watch how Sizova's torso is always alive through each dance is glorious, and the way that Soloviev effortlessly phrases his series of double tours en l'air like a continuous outpouring of one single ardent thought (whereas most dancers present them like one technical cliche after another) is thrilling even if you've seen this ballet more than two hundred times in the theatre. When I first saw this film in the early 1980s, the Kirov was seldom seen in Britain or America, and it was one kind of revelation. It doesn't, however, represent how the Kirov's production worked in the theatre, it has a partly bad text (Carabosse danced on pointe and acted heavily by Natalia Dudinskaya), and it's heavily cut. Now that I've seen the Kirov and its various "Beauty" productions many times, this film is a different kind of revelation: what the Kirov was like before it became congealed by academicism. Makarova is the best of a mainly good supporting company; if you know your Kirov "Beauty"s, most of the dances here are alive as they aren't in later Kirov videos. But Sizova and Soloviev are the great reason to have this tape.