The Kirov Celebrates Nijinsky / Sheherazade, La Spectre de la Rose, The Polovtsian Dances, The Firebird

If you only ordered this DVD to get "Firebird", you would get your money's worth. However, the other three ballets are bonuses worthy of your time and money also. The ballets on this disc, in the order they appear in the program are: Sheherazade,w/music of Rimsky-Korsakov, Le Spectre de La Rose w/music of Carl Maria Von Weber, Polovtsian Dances, w/music of Alexander Borodin, and Firebird, w/music of Igor Stravinsky. All of the music is spectacular, but Firebird is a cut above.Diana Vishneva is a fabulous Firebird, with great jumping and turning ability, typical of the Russian ballerinas, and her partner Andrei Yakovlev, is very good also, but his dancing is limited to supporting his partner. Besides, he would have had trouble dancing in the costume they had him in. I think that if he had grasped a real bird by the tail-feathers as he did his Firebird, she would have just pulled out her tail-feathers as she struggled to get away. I caught a little bird once on my enclosed porch, (I was afraid it would break it's neck flying into the windows), so I held it by it's tail-feathers as I was trying to release it, and it pulled ALL it's tail-feathers out as it struggled to get away. It was able to fly w/o It's tail-feathers, however. Our Firebird did not pull out her tail-feathers until she was ready to give one to her captor in exchange for her release. A very magical feather it is too, for when our hero is about to be turned into stone by the magic of the evil sorcerer Kotchei (sometimes spelled Kashchey), he uses it to call the Firebird to his rescue. Some of you have never seen this ballet, (I had not when I first bought it) so, take the plunge and get it to view over and over. If you really love FIREBIRD, for heavens sake, get the Royal Ballet version also, w/Leanne Benjamin.... Stravinsky - The Firebird & Les Noces / Royal Ballet ....It's even better than this one (IMO). Read my review on it.The best thing about Sheherazade is it's music. The story concerns an orgy, plain and simple. Of course, this is an orgy your children can watch. An Arabian Sultan, Shakhriar, has a harem, and I suppose his favorite concubine is Zabeida, whom he suspects is unfaithful to him. So, he fakes a hunting trip and goes off leaving his harem to the safe keeping of a comical eunuch, who is tricked into giving up the keys of the harem to the concubines, who in turn unlock the doors to allow their lovers inside to.....well you know what. The Sultan returns to find the orgy, and kills everyone. But, to hear the beautiful music you have to put up with a 20 to 30 murders, and one suicide. Not too much to ask, is it?Le Spectre de La Rose is the story of a girl who dreams. She falls asleep with a rose in her hand, and dreams of a ghost who enters through a window looking all rose colored, and dances with her until she awakens, then he jumps through the window through which he entered. The music is Von Weber's, "Invitation to the Dance", which is his claim to fame. The story is believable, because remember, the only entertainment in years past was dancing and other musical galas, so she could have gone to a dance and dreamed about it later. It's a very nice short ballet.Polovtsian Dances includes a vocal by a Russian speaking chorus of very good voices. Of course a ballet is the main feature, with music by Borodin. The beautiful music inspired the once popular song "Stranger in Paradise", back when songs used to make sense. This is also a short ballet worth having. For pure listening pleasure, this is as good as music gets. It's right up there with Tchaikovsky for me.Hey, would you be interested in hearing another fabulous Russian chorus? Buy the opera SADKO by Rimsky-Korsakov. It has an aria by a tenor that is so utterly beautiful you might cry when you hear it. It's called THE SONG OF INDIA sung by "the indian guest". The dancing girls he brings with him aren't hard to look at either..... Rimsky-Korsakov - Sadko / Vladimir Galouzine, Gegam Grigorian, Sergei Alexashkin, Larissa Diadkova, Nikolai Putilin, Valery Gergiev, Kirov Opera

The four ballets presented by the Kirov are all based on the original designs for Diaghilev's Ballet Russes, and the jewel-like colors leap off the screen. (The costumes for Sheherezade and The Firebird especially seem to be inspired by the jeweled eggs of Faberge.) The dancing is indeed technically accomplished -- perhaps too much so, since the bodies that Michael Fokine had to work with were probably not quite this flexible (just a theory). I've read the posted reviews on this site, and they had valuable things to say: I find myself wavering somewhere in between.Scheherezade seems to be the least choreographically accomplished, taking a while before the dancing really kicks in, and when it does, the moves seem quite repetitive at times, especially in the long central pas de deux. (Sometimes it seems like there are long stretches of filler material.) Still, I've only read about it up to now, so it was good to see it.Le Spectre de la Rose is a mood piece more than anythng else, and the performance here is quite good. So what if Zhanna Ayupova forgets to close her eyes: other famous theatrical sleepwalkers keep their eyes open as well, notably Shakespeare's Scottish Lady in the play and in Verdi's opera. Otherwise, how would she know where she was going? (And don't forget Balanchine's sleepwalker in La Sonnambula.) This sleepwalker gets the romantic mood right, and that's what matters. Igor Kolb as The Spectre is appropriately androgynous, and although I found his leaps graceful, they didn't seem quite effortless.I saw a production of Prince Igor in New York some years ago, and the ballet was the best part. The choreography then was by Balanchine; the Fokine original presented here is very exciting and captures the exotic and barbaric energy of the score perfectly. Too bad the sopranos in the chorus were too far away from the microphones -- they get most of the tunes; and because the altos are right on top of the amplification, they do not sound beautiful.I bought this DVD for The Firebird: I think it's the only really traditional one available (?). Visually, it is stunning to see.I did find Diana Vishneva's performance more concerned with choreography than drama: her attempts at escape from Prince Ivan just seemed to be an ordinary set of lifts. As Ivan, Andrei Yakovlev doesn't get much to do besides partnering and postering, but he does it well and presents a real character. I don't recall Kotschei being quite so reptilian: Vladimir Ponomarev's performance - and his costume - is delightfully hideous.The Mariinski Theater orchestra under Mikhail Agrest performs the various scores well, but they fall asleep for a moment in the apotheosis section of The Firebird. All in all, this is a very entertaining DVD, and deserves repeated viewings.

The Kirov dancers not only have formidable technique, they know how to use it. The dancers are all beautiful but sincere and dance honestly. Especially notable is their joy of folk dancing in this DVD. It captures the true spirit of dance, which is joy. I can watch this over and over and never tire of the beautiful dancing of the Russians. To me, the two jewels of this recording are the Firebird and Spectre de la Rose. I imagine what Nijinsky must have looked like as the spirit of the rose. The Russian man has amazing flexibility, which is only seen in male dances who start training young enough to develop it. The choreography of this is brilliant, as is the choreography in the Firebird. The firebird is a true animal spirit, which Nijinsky has captured in his ballet. A very entertaining DVD.

Full of colour and sensuality, superb music. The spectre of the rose came at the right moment, I had been reading Elisabeth von Arnims book on gardening, and I could see her, at the turn of the century, resting after a hard days work directing her gardener to plant many many rose bushes, relaxing in front of her open window at dusk and the superb spectre comes in and they dance faultlessly and dreamily together. I appreciated the Firebird too, very delicate and firey, I have another version which I have never liked, but this version is magic with a very handsome hero well in evidence. Yes, I do love this dvd.

ずっと見たかったルジマトフのシェヘラザートです。トゥシューズをはかなくてもザハロワは全身が美しい。火の鳥は期待が強すぎたのか大きな感動はありませんでした。ヴィシニョーワは甲があまりでてない。ダッタンジンの踊りは躍動感がありオペラとの相乗効果で素晴らしい作品です。

The style and decoration and costumes are made in memory of Vaslav Nijinsky. It is a great pleasure to watch these traditional ballets and to see how emotional dancers can express themselves with the whole body and how touching the stories are. I love this DVD and can watch it many times.

買う前、商品ページに書いてあった配送予定より、大幅に遅れたが、自分の質問に対し、ちゃんと応えてくれました。どちらかというと、システム上の問題なのかしら？…最初から、「発送後、販売店から表示された日程」を商品ページに書いて欲しいとは思いましたが…

The best item on this DVD is the first one.The Specter de la Rose male dancer is a million miles away from what was Nijinsky,s .See Sokolova,s book "Dancing for Diaghilev" This dancer is far too thin and lacks the abilty to perform the batterie steps needed in this role.The Firebird version in both it,s decor and costume is nothing like the perfomances seen at Covent Garden or by The Royal Birmingham Ballet.As for the steps of the dance.Fokine,s grandaughter,s interferance is a negative contribution.As is the case for The Prince Igor ballet.As an ex dancer I can truly compare performances.In recent years I have seen The Kirov at Covent Garden. Their performance of another Fokine classic namely "Petrouska" not on this DVD was also a dissapoitment.

キーロフの２００２年１０月パリでの公演です。１．シェヘラザードシェヘラザ－ド スヴェトラーナ・ザハ－ロワ金の奴隷 ファルフ・ルジマートフ２．薔薇の精少女 ジャンナ・アユポワ薔薇の精 イーゴリ・コルプ３．ポロブィッツ人の踊りボロブィツ人 イスロム・バイムラードフポロヴェツ人の少女=ポリーナ・サラ－ディナ奴隷の少女=エレーナ・バゼノワ４．火の鳥火の鳥 ディアナ・ヴィシニョーワイワン アンドレイ・G・ヤコヴレフ王女 ヤナ・セレブリャコーワカスチェイ ウラジーミル・ポノマリョフシェヘラザードは、文句無しです。ルジマートフもう４０歳位でしょうか？さらに磨きをかけ、素晴らしかったです。火の鳥は、以前テレビ放映でカナダのバレエ団のスタジオ録画を見ましたが、全然違うのですね。つまらないと思っていましたが、この火の鳥を見て、他のものも見たくなりました。ビシニョーワとても良かったです。とっても安定感がありますし、華があると思います。コールドも流石といった感じでした。パリ・オペラ座が大好きでしたが、この一枚を見てから、すっかりキーロフファンになりました。