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Kirov Swan Lake DVD / Lopatkina and Korsuntsev


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Casting

Odette / Odile - Ulyana Lopatkina

Prince Siegfried - Danila Korsuntsev

The Queen - Alexandra Gronskaya

Tutor - Pyotr Stasiunas

Jester - Andrei Ivanov

Rothbart - Ilya Kuznetsov

Prince's friends - Irina Golub / Yekaterina Osmolkina / Anton Korsakov

Little Swans - Yevgeniya Obraztsova / Svetlana Ivanova / Irina Golub / Olesya Novikova

Big Swans - Alina Somova / Viktoria Tereshkina / Yekaterina Osmolkina / Tatiana Tkachenko

Two Swans - Xenia Ostreikovskaya / Daria Sukhorukova

Spanish Dance - Ketevan Papava / Elena Bazhenova / Islom Baimuradov / Andrei Merkuriev

Neapolitan Dance - Yana Selina / Maxim Khrebtov

Hungarian Dance - Polina Rassadina / Artem Yachmennikov

Mazurka - Galina Rakhmanova / Viktoria Kutepova / Marianna Pavlova / Yulia Slivkina / Andrei Yakovlev / Dmitry Sharapov / Alexander Klimov / Karen Ioannisyan

My thoughts

First Act

The staging is somewhat not for my taste; what is that brick wall doing at the back of the sage?

Prince's friends: Yekaterina Osmolkina and Irina Golub

Yekaterina has a dashing stage presence. Her smile is huge and honest, overall she is lovely. She has a strong technique and great musicality. Gorgeous Kirov arms and legs! Her jumps are very light and her movements are fluid. She reminds me a lot of a mixture of Mariane Joly and Iana Salenko from Staatsballett Berlin.

Irina, on the other hand, seems to be less fluid and has exactly two facial expressions to show: the first would be a half-smile stuck to her face as though it were glued to it - eyes aren't in tune with it - and the second one is a concentrated expression most students show in class. Sometimes, there's even fear hidden behind her smile. Irina lacks the needed technique for the sequence of arabesques in her solo and her foot work isn't as convincing as Yekaterina's is. Apparently, she does not quite master the stage as well as Yekaterina does and the combination of the two of them makes me doubt the casting skills of the Kirov.

Their partner, Anton, was -not- in tune with the music at all, this poor boy!

Jester, danced by Andrei Ivanov, has a very stable technique and brilliant turns with a perfect balance at the end.

As to the Corps: they are basically the same height and their faces look very similar, which is fabulous to such a Corps Nazi as I am. They do all have Kirov arms and legs - and let us be honest, no other school than the Vaganova Academy seems to "produce" such bodies. I cannot quite explain it - their legs look sleek, no bulk at all, yet there are well defined calves and great lines. Their feet are highly-arched and their pointes look like a second glove on their feet.

No Odette in the 1st Act?

Second Act

The staging isn't ... swan - lake enough to me. Although the Kirov does have some beautiful not-too-fake swans swimming around in the background. Rothbart (Ilya Kuznetsov) is amazingly aggressive! I have never seen such an evil Rothbart... it gives a real twist to the whole story. Before, I never regarded him as an object of evil, but rather as .. a counterpart to the good. Ilya is VERY evil. Gorgeous. Perfect technique, very, very evil. Fabulous. He can only be feared. Even his eyes blink in a daunting, intimidating way. Suddenly, without a scary Rothbart Swan Lake doesn't make sense anymore.

Odette... Uliana enters the stage and immediately conquers it. There is no breath left for any other thought but of her beauty. She is not a dancer who tries to imitate a swan - she is the first swan I've seen. Her arms are wings, her legs carry her across the stage as though she would float. Uliana is extremely vulnerable, and as she bows down in front of Rothbart the audience gets a grasp of how he controls her.

When the Prince, Danila Korsuntsev (have not mentioned him yet due to a lack of being special), comes closer to her and touches her to life, Uliana opens up a little.

Corps? The right line is perfectly fine - the left line is not 'in line'. The overall choreography (Konstantin Surgeyev, 1950) is sometimes very Corps-unfriendly because some lines the Corps simply cannot form perfectly. Of course 15 swans can't stand exactly one right after the other, and any tendus and port de bras changes lead to the thought - 'they should have rehearsed this longer'... one Corps dancer always looked up and down when she stood in her frozen position which irritated me a lot. The arabesque hops, though, they master perfectly. Same height, same time - my eyes had a good meal with that one.

Odette's adagio had no sky-high extensions to her ears but a nice height that was enough for adagio work, and ... she had such a calm expression as though she already knew what her destiny would be, but that she would endure all the pain nevertheless for such moments of love. Before Uliana, I thought I had seen adagio work, or at least a vulnerable Odette that equals what is written about the character: somebody out of this world who cannot be reached. I thought I had seen it in Zakharova's interpretation, but now I realise: there are no slower and more graceful, careful turns than those of Uliana. There is no Odette in this world who is so 'far from it', not to be reached by anything as worldly as the rest of the characters. The Prince can only fail, for he reaches for the moon. Yes... Uliana's Odette finally shows me what this ballet is about. I searched for this in all other ballerinas but failed to find it. Ladies and gentlemen... here it is. The perfect Odette. She is a swan, she is elegant and she is pure.

Then there's the disappointment. The Kirov apparently can put together a nice Corps with dancers of the same height, but when it comes to the Little Swans they fail brutally. The very left dancer is the smallest, the very right one (Olesia Novikova) the biggest. Their footwork is technically brilliant although their legs are of different physique. But what are their heads doing? Did their coaches sleep? What, could they have 15 Corps dancers get their arabesque to the same height, but not four swans turn their heads at the same time?

Big Swans. Somova. A matter to be discussed for itself. This ballerina manages to not fully dance out her adagio; all the other swans lean down 'completely' and she doesn't. Expressionless, her emotions are disappointing. Her tan tears all my attention away from the other swans who are truly beautiful.

Then, we have Odette again. Uliana makes even strange jumps look light and gorgeous, and her attitude is stunning: the way she extends her leg makes me want to cry. After her very adagio turns across the stage (solo), the Corps performs brilliant work and uses the space extremely well. But what do I see at the end pose when Uliana stands on Danila's bent leg? Is he holding her on her tutu? Ha ha ha...

Bows. Are there bows after every single Act? How distracting. Wow, a Corps dancer shots an evil look at one of the four swans. Evil, evil. Corps dancers, keep your eyes down, you ruin all the magic with your thoughts of envy and jealousy.

Third Act

What a horrible setting. What are those brown colours about? Are we here in the ballet Sleeping Beauty when everyone's in a coma? I am most certainly not, and this brown-ish stage hurts my eyes and my taste. Can't the Kirov invest in something more royal? This is THE classical ballet.

The Queen appears. Is that a handbag? No, it's a fen. I had hoped for her First-Act-expression-lack to fade away but no, there it is again. I am under the impression that the dancer recently had some botox work done and therefore cannot use her face according to her character. She is neither cold, nor demanding, nor royal.

At least some costumes are less arm-puffy than in the First Act.

The Princess' costumes are gorgeous, but some of the dancers aren't really 'there'. They appear to be somewhere within themselves instead of out-going an plain gorgeous as they should be.

There he is, evil Rothbart. Yes, yes... wonderful.

The Spanish dance is dazzling! No red costumes and yet it is very very Spanish. Rrrr. The woman in the light costume pleases me more, she has something of the dashing Catherine Zeta-Jones temperament.

Why is Rothbart sitting next to the Queen?

Oh, a very beautiful Yana Selina in the Neapolitan dance!

Even more stunning is Polina Rassadina as the Hungarian dancer. She's so witty... so proud... she would make the best Odile.

Now there is what I had waited for... Odile. Is she dashing enough? Is she evil? Does she ridicule Odette with her imitation?

No - she doesn't. Uliana cannot quite nail what Odile is supposed to be. Is she not capable of the evil, I wonder? Her white swan imitation is too close to Odette, it doesn't have any of the witty taste to it which would spice it up and put sense into it.

And here goes my mind to ponder about the costumes since Uliana's performance lacks something: why can't there be white tights and white pointes? Why not? Where to use white tights and white pointes if not in Swan Lake? What's wrong with the costume designers? This is distracting! Really!

Poor Prince, poor Jester. Nice turns, but no 4th position but rather... a tendu backwards.

Danila is a bad jumper, his upper body jerks into the air in his jétés. The other jumps seem fine, though.

Odile's fouettés are not high or clean enough, but I am very pleased with Uliana's musicality so that is perfectly fine with me.

As Rothbart tears her away from the Prince, her expression immediately changes which I find very intelligent. Suddenly, she becomes attentive and he really is her master.

When Danila finds out about his outrageous mistake, the tragedy is missing. He does play a bit with some half-sad facial expressions but in the end, it's not half as heart-throbbing as it should be.

And these bows after every Act are getting on my nerves by now.

Blech-botox-Queen can't seem to smile with her whole face, but Uliana has gorgeous calves. To die for.

Fourth Act

The setting is different from the Second Act, but I don't know if I like it any better.

Somova appears again, and although her make-up is quite the same as every girls', she manages to look a bit trashy. Her tan definitely singles her out and I find it highly distracting. Is there no body make-up?

The choreography's head moves I find distracting as well, couldn't the girls rely on their port de bras? And - why are there black swans?

Ah, there's a swan solo. Who is that? A second swan solo. Really bad landings.

Uliana appears again. The music is very dramatic, and I am eagerly waiting for her to impress me even more than in the Second Act. I am highly disappointed. The needed tragedy, the drama is completely missing. The music carries on without her, she is too calm. It panics and she doesn't.

Rothbart enters and the Corps immediately reacts. Wonderful! He has power over all of them, which I have never seen.

The prince comes closer to Uliana, and at least now I get a tad bit of emotion out of her. 'Don't touch me,' she seems to breathe, and she cannot leave the Prince as well as she can't endure his presence. There we go, the music changes and there is a to-and-fro between Odette, Rothbart and the Prince. Odette and the Prince kiss a last time (again, Uliana, where's your emotion? Why are you so calm?), and what should I think of those lips touching?!

She gives Rothbart an evil look - which certainly gives a twist to it, but isn't carried on well enough because Odette lies down and dies. Or: seems to die. To my bigger disappointment, the Prince rips off Rothbart's wings and Rothbart dies. A happy ending, for Odette 'comes to life again' or 'stops being unconscious', please excuse this irony, but - where is the real drama? What was Odette's evil look about when SHE couldn't do anything but die? It doesn't fit into the picture to me.

The ending doesn't please me in any way. Had it all been more dramatic, I could have lived with it, but Uliana's performance was anticlimatic and I had hoped for some justice. No.

Overall thoughts

The Kirov should really think about their staging, the lightening isn't beautiful in the Swan Lake Acts and not royal in 1st and 3rd Act. Some costumes should be worked on, for ... they are too puffy at the arms and too much overall. The colours are too brown, ... nevertheless, they have some dashing dancers. Their Corps is wonderful (at times), and these Kirov legs and port de bras ... *sigh*

Uliana has a wonderful 2nd Act Odette; yet, for the 3rd Act, I found Zakharova much more witty and convincing. The last Act was a complete disaster to me.

What is it with the Kirov? I recently watched the POB's Swan Lake DVD with Agnes Letestu; I disliked Letestu's interpretation of Odette, but overall, the POB Corps had a better choreography - it was more friendly because it was more easy to make it all look synchronal. Is the POB's Corps really better trained than the Kirov one? I had always, always thought that the Russians had the better Corps. Some parts are really astonishing, but overall, the POB seemed... better. I disliked the POB's costumes, too, but their whole staging was more beautiful (although Nurejev's choreography for the solos were horrible, in huge contrast to the really good Corps choreographies).

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Is the POB's Corps really better trained than the Kirov one? I had always, always thought that the Russians had the better Corps. Some parts are really astonishing, but overall, the POB seemed... better. I disliked the POB's costumes, too, but their whole staging was more beautiful (although Nurejev's choreography for the solos were horrible, in huge contrast to the really good Corps choreographies).

As I had seen both the Kirov Swan Lake with Lopatkina and POB Swan Lake with Letestu live stage in Tokyo last year, one thing I have felt with the corps is that POB corps have very, very noisy feet sound which was very very distracting. One reason is for the complicated choreography by Nureyev for the Swan corps but the sound of their feet was like a marching band. Kirov's corps were much quieter. And POB corps were not in harmony at all at that time.

As a whole, I like the Nureyev's choreography and drama much better and I think the DVD featured performance is very good, but Kirov's corps and Lopatkina was far more better in live performance.

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I can't seem to get enough of Lopatkina's Act 2 adagio...it starts off so beautifully slow and she maintains this throughout most of it---I keep playing and re-playing. It is a real love duet; he isn't there just to hold her up--and she is not just showing off her technique--they really relate to one another. A rare quality in this duet.

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Do you really prefer Nurejev's choreography? I loved his Corps work, but the Pas de Deux danced by Odette and Prince Siegfried were so disappointing - I definitely prefer the "traditional" choreography in those parts.

What I was mentioning is mainly about the corps choreography. I do not like the Sergeyev choreography especially act 4. I understand about the Nureyev Odette and Siegfried pas des duex diappointing in act 2, I agree about that. Athough I like the Rothbart part in Nureyev version because it adds darkness to the story.

Anyway, Lopatkina's 2nd act Odette is just too beautiful to be true.

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'Legwarmer' wrote,

Odette... Uliana enters the stage and immediately conquers it. There is no breath left for any other thought but of her beauty. She is not a dancer who tries to imitate a swan - she is the first swan I've seen.

Lopatkina dominates the stage as Odette. She is spellbinding in live performance.

Corps? The right line is perfectly fine - the left line is not 'in line'. The overall choreography (Konstantin Surgeyev, 1950) is sometimes very Corps-unfriendly because some lines the Corps simply cannot form perfectly. Of course 15 swans can't stand exactly one right after the other, and any tendus and port de bras changes lead to the thought - 'they should have rehearsed this longer'... one Corps dancer always looked up and down when she stood in her frozen position which irritated me a lot. The arabesque hops, though, they master perfectly. Same height, same time - my eyes had a good meal with that one.
Then there's the disappointment. The Kirov apparently can put together a nice Corps with dancers of the same height, but when it comes to the Little Swans they fail brutally. The very left dancer is the smallest, the very right one (Olesia Novikova) the biggest. Their footwork is technically brilliant although their legs are of different physique. But what are their heads doing? Did their coaches sleep? What, could they have 15 Corps dancers get their arabesque to the same height, but not four swans turn their heads at the same time?

Corps 2007 at the Maryinsky is totally different from a generation ago. Under Vinogradov, in live performance, the corps was flawless. There were no wandering eyes, each dancer was the mirror image of the other both technically and artistically. There was consistency and unanimity of impulse. They inhaled and exhaled together. The inclination of their heads, everything down to the spacing of their fingers was perfect. When you get a chance and have the time, try this experiement: Compare the swan corps ranks from the Makhalina/Zelensky, Mezentseva/Zaklinsky dvds, as well as the Tchyentchikova/Zaklinsky PBS video (1986), with this new dvd. IMO there's no comparison.

Re the Little Swans casting, for the past few seasons this has been standard operating procedure. When the Maryinsky came to Orange County last year, one of the Little Swans was totally different in physical proportion to her other three sisters. Although the execution was fine, it marred the line of the dance. In Act 2 of last year's tour, one of the Prospective Brides was head and shoulders above the other contestants during the waltz. Again the line of the dance was marred.

Big Swans. Somova. A matter to be discussed for itself. This ballerina manages to not fully dance out her adagio; all the other swans lean down 'completely' and she doesn't. Expressionless, her emotions are disappointing. Her tan tears all my attention away from the other swans who are truly beautiful.

Somova: Congratulations :shake:- you've discovered the Maryinsky Ballet's Jewel in the Crown > :angel_not::lightbulb:.

Be thankful that this dvd records Uliana's performance. This could've easily been Somova's showcase as Odette/Odile, which is an entirely different story. In September she was given the first "Swan Lake" of the Maryinsky's current season, and has been given Odette/Odile over 12 times in the last year. She's also enjoyed the prestige of some important opening nights on tours as Odette/Odile > cast before both Uliana Lopatkina and Diana Vishneva.

Now there is what I had waited for... Odile. Is she dashing enough? Is she evil? Does she ridicule Odette with her imitation?

No - she doesn't. Uliana cannot quite nail what Odile is supposed to be. Is she not capable of the evil, I wonder? Her white swan imitation is too close to Odette, it doesn't have any of the witty taste to it which would spice it up and put sense into it.

Odile's fouettés are not high or clean enough, but I am very pleased with Uliana's musicality so that is perfectly fine with me.

Uliana is a thinking dancer. Her repertory is not as large or as extensive as Vishneva's or her other peers. She's very much an academic ballerina. She chooses to focus on and perfect the main classical roles: Odette/Odile, Raymonda, Lilac Fairy, Nikiya etc. and preserve Sergeyev's legacy. She knows and understands what her limitations are. For example, she's gone on record why she won't dance Aurora: She has expressed her ideas about the aesthetics and what she believes the role requires. Uliana's approach to Odile is very cerebral; it's not sensual or full of pyrotechnics. Her's is a muted charm. She's herself as Odile. She's a ballerina who knows what she can do well, and she does exactly that.

What is it with the Kirov? I recently watched the POB's Swan Lake DVD with Agnes Letestu; I disliked Letestu's interpretation of Odette, but overall, the POB Corps had a better choreography - it was more friendly because it was more easy to make it all look synchronal. Is the POB's Corps really better trained than the Kirov one? I had always, always thought that the Russians had the better Corps. Some parts are really astonishing, but overall, the POB seemed... better. I disliked the POB's costumes, too, but their whole staging was more beautiful (although Nurejev's choreography for the solos were horrible, in huge contrast to the really good Corps choreographies).

These are two different schools you're comparing here, two different traditions. One corps isn't necessarily better trained than

the other. However, one corps may have superior coaching, repetiteurs and artistic direction than the other. There are some things that are tolerated in one institution, that would never be tolerated in the other. The finished production onstage

all depends on who is at the top of the org. chart.

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'Legwarmer' wrote,
Now there is what I had waited for... Odile. Is she dashing enough? Is she evil? Does she ridicule Odette with her imitation?

No - she doesn't. Uliana cannot quite nail what Odile is supposed to be. Is she not capable of the evil, I wonder? Her white swan imitation is too close to Odette, it doesn't have any of the witty taste to it which would spice it up and put sense into it.

Odile's fouettés are not high or clean enough, but I am very pleased with Uliana's musicality so that is perfectly fine with me.

Uliana is a thinking dancer. Her repertory is not as large or as extensive as Vishneva's or her other peers. She's very much an academic ballerina.

I liked her Odile very much, although it didn't surpass her sublime Act II. Her face was delicious, leaving the malevolence and wink/winks out. I found the way that she moved her working leg in the beginning of the Pas de Deux from the curtsey-like point front to opening her thigh in attitude a tad sensual, and her legs in the lifts quite spidery (a good thing). She was regal and self-assured, in a little black dress but not trashy-evil. I'm reminded of the New Yorker article on Sarkozy about how he adored his wife the way short men adore tall, beautiful women who give them the time of day. (Siegfried might not be short in stature, but he's short in experience.) The court would not have doubted that they were in the presence of royalty. (After all, her father is von Rothbart, not from merchant stock.) It is funny that I think of Lopatkina's Odile as French!

(Speaking of French, the woman who played the Queen in the POB version with Letestu was drop-dead gorgeous.)

I liked Korsuntsev's Prince; in this production he's not given much time to contemplate, yearn, or sulk; he doesn't find out he has to marry a Princess until the beginning of their dance, and then Odile and von Rothbart show up in time. I found his discovery of his mistake (not fatal in this case) moving. Again, in this Production, he might just as well be Desire, since the drama has been pretty much sucked out of it. I'd have to see his Albrecht to see if he has more range. Kuznetsov made evil look quite attractive, apart from the "insect thrashing when his wings are pulled off" death scene.

I loved the lighter-haired woman in the Pas de Trois; I kept thinking of Sleeping Beauty when she danced. She could have blessed the infant Aurora with lightness and grace. The darker-haired woman was more athletic. (The Mariinsky website is not helping me to distinguish between the two, as they both look light-haired to me in their photos.)

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I just want to add that the Blu-ray high-definition version of this performance will start selling on 18 November 2008, according to Amazon.com. I hope it looks really good, because the DVD version already has pretty sharp video even limited to the 480-line resolution of standard NTSC-standard DVD's. Now, I'm hoping that the Roberto Bolle/Svetlana Zakharova performance from 2004 at the La Scala Theatre in Milan will be available on Blu-ray, too, since I believe that performance was also recorded with HDTV cameras.

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The light haired dancer in the Pas de Trois is Yekaterina Osmolkina and the other is Irina Golub, I believe. But you're right, Yekaterina would make a brilliant Aurora!

I just saw this comment after a whole year! Osmalkina has danced Aurora, as we saw her in the role in Los Angeles a few years ago. She is good, and one of the rising stars. I've seen her in other roles ranging from Giselle to Balanchine (Serenade as Russian Girl ... wow!) to Forsythe, and she has very nice classical technique and musicality. We're getting her (as well as Obratseva and Golub, the dark haired girl in the pas de trois) in the Kirov's Nutcracker next month.

Sacto, my copy of the BD Kirov Swan Lake (along with the Bolle Tchaikovsky spectacular and the Acosta Spartacus) should be arriving next week from Amazon, so I hope to post some impressions of it.

--Andre

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Sacto, my copy of the BD Kirov Swan Lake (along with the Bolle Tchaikovsky spectacular and the Acosta Spartacus) should be arriving next week from Amazon, so I hope to post some impressions of it.

--Andre

I hope it does look good, because with a Blu-ray player it demands the best-quality widescreen monitor with HDMI inputs you can afford. Mind you, I'm not sure if I want to see every stubble on conductor Valery Gergiev's face, though. :)

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Sacto, my copy of the BD Kirov Swan Lake (along with the Bolle Tchaikovsky spectacular and the Acosta Spartacus) should be arriving next week from Amazon, so I hope to post some impressions of it.

--Andre

I hope it does look good, because with a Blu-ray player it demands the best-quality widescreen monitor with HDMI inputs you can afford. Mind you, I'm not sure if I want to see every stubble on conductor Valery Gergiev's face, though. :)

If only these blu-rays could improve the performance. Maybe next time?

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I hope it does look good, because with a Blu-ray player it demands the best-quality widescreen monitor with HDMI inputs you can afford. Mind you, I'm not sure if I want to see every stubble on conductor Valery Gergiev's face, though. :)

:) I got the BDs yesterday, and had a quick look through them. It's definitely HD, but not the sharpest HD around, compared to many of the Opus Arte releases, so you may not see every stubble on Gergiev's face! As has been mentioned before, with HD you get to see set seams and lots of other things you don't see in SD, including the errors in the camera work. From watching PNB's Midsummer Night's Dream, and now this, I think whatever HD cameras the English use don't have very good lenses. There are many shots which are pretty soft off center.

Going off-topic slightly, the Tchaikovsky gala is worth it (and it's quite expensive at $38) for Semionova's Black Swan variation, in the Burmester staging. The rest of it is pretty cheesy, in that they kind of mashed up all the act 3 ballet parties into one big scene: Swan Lake intro with some national dances, and then Aurora comes out and does the Rose Adage, another national dance, the Sugar plum pas, another national dance, the Bluebird pas, and then the rest of the Swan Lake party scene. Weird.

--Andre

P.S. I do have a very good video setup, and it's good to see ballet videos coming out now that can exploit it.

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Yes, it is the same production.

Three DVDs of the Bolshoi Ballet's Swan Lake with Bessmertnova/Bogatyrev, Mikhalchenko/Vasyuchenko, and Plisetskaya/Bogatyrev (all recorded in the 1980s, I believe) have a happy ending. But I think I remember reading somewhere that their version was changed to a more traditional sad ending recently -- someone correct me if I'm wrong, please.

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Yes, it is the same production.

Three DVDs of the Bolshoi Ballet's Swan Lake with Bessmertnova/Bogatyrev, Mikhalchenko/Vasyuchenko, and Plisetskaya/Bogatyrev (all recorded in the 1980s, I believe) have a happy ending. But I think I remember reading somewhere that their version was changed to a more traditional sad ending recently -- someone correct me if I'm wrong, please.

That's correct Rosa. Grigorovich unconvincingly changed the ending and the music in a recent revision of his Bolshoi Swan Lake (the Prince is left on his own etc.)

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