36 replies to this topic

[bingham]

Raymonda DVD is now available for preorder in the Amazon website.It is scheduled for a April
24 release

[Helene]

Many thanks for the heads up, bingham!

It's a little tricky to search for now.  So far, there's no unique ID assigned, and it's listed as "Glazunov: Raymonda (2012)" with no reference to La Scala at all, except on the (unsearchable) cover art graphic, but searching for that brings up no results.  If you search for "Glazunov:  Raymonda", you'll need to scroll down the results page.

Please note that it's offered in Blu Ray and regular DVD versions, and they are listed as separate entries, not necessarily consecutively.

[Birdsall]

Thanks, Bingham, I pre-ordered my copy, and it is dirt cheap at $20!!!

[Kerry1968]

It'll be nice to have another Raymonda to add to our collections.

[Susanna]

I ordered this DVD via Amazon UK and received it yesterday. The DVD is all I hoped for after I read the detailed descriptions in the respective thread. Costumes and stage setting are beautiful, the dancing of the corps is excellent and the soloists are brilliant.

I was so glad I bought this… until Raymonda's variation during the third act started.

During this variation, which is danced beautifully by Olesia Novikova, some "artistic" person decided to fade in the hands of the piano player who accompanies this variation. The fading occurs on the right side of the screen and does not interfere with Novikova's dancing, but it is extremely distracting if you suddenly see those hands. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it, absolutely useless and in my opinion an effrontery against the dancer!

I am really angry at Arthaus or whoever is responsible for this and if there were more current performances of Raymonda available on DVD I honestly would think about returning the DVD, but as this is not the case…..

If anybody has already received a Blu-ray of the ballet, please let me know if there is the same problem or if there is possibly a choice option to avoid this silly fading.

[Birdsall]

This performance is on YouTube in 4 parts and has the split screen with piano. That is how someone filmed and edited it. We were all hoping they would take the split screen out for the DVD release, but apparently not! Shoot!

[California]

I just received my copy and watched it twice. The split screen with the piano keyboard is very odd, as they don't do anything like that anywhere else. But I did note that this musical section is unusual in having a solo instrument with almost no orchestration "behind" it, at least compared with the rest of the score. The credits say "directed for TV and video by Lorena Sardi," so perhaps she is responsible for this odd choice. Otherwise, the camera work was excellent. My test: is the camera looking at the things I want to look at? Ensemble, full-stage from above, close-up, etc.

I love this DVD. The lavishly detailed costumes are impressive and the knee-length tutus are startling, but it sounds like they did extensive historical research on this (and everything else), so it's interesting to see.

One small detail I noticed in a close-up: Olesia Novikoa (trained at the Maryiinsky) adds thick yarn in a blanket stich around the pointes of her shoes. I've seen that with several other Russian dancers, but not Americans, and wondered if that's the generally accepted practice in Russia to add stability (presumably).

[Birdsall]

Yes, I find the piano appearance jarring and distracting. What is worse is that there are two split seconds when the screen goes black. I think it is when the editor removes the piano (split screen) but when it is put back on the side there is no blacking out. So why did they need to black out the picture to make the piano disappear? It happens twice, and it is just a split second both times, but SO annoying! This is a pivotal variation, and it is just too much distraction. That is my only complaint too. I actually can live with the piano, but the two split second black outs are horrible!!!

But the entire rest of the video is wonderful. I was glad to be able to see the picture more clearly than the YouTube version and to be able to make it a large screen. I'm glad there is finally a commercial version available that is not from the 1980s!!! Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the other versions I have, but the video quality is not the same.

This new version (which is more historically accurate apparently than the other versions available) is a gem, although the corps seems to have moments when they are not all placed properly. Overall, it isn't bad and the pluses far outweigh the minuses.

I do like how the Bolshoi makes Jean de Brienne's and Abderahman's roles a bit larger and gives them more exciting choreography (Grigorovitch's choreography) on the one hand, but I love being able to see how the "original" ballet looked as well. Basically, I like both approaches.

[Kerry1968]

The DVD looks awesome on a 55" Vizio LCD HDTV.

[EricHG31]

Thanks to an exceptionally kind person on this forum, I was lucky enough to see the Raymonda telecast shortly after it aired.  I've had a hard time paying off student loans, and with money in general, and actually didn't realize this had been released as a BluRay until a few months back.

Finally watching it, all I can say is wow.  While Sleeping Beauty holds a special place in my heart as the perfect classical ballet, Raymonda comes close.  I think in it, particularly when you watch this reconstruction, you see Petipa taking ballet to its purest form.  Which is probably why the story matters so little--and yet, I think this production shows that the story works better when it's not toyed with.  The various Soviet era versions stip away the mime (and at least in Sergeyev's Kirov version, and by all accounts the current Bolshoi version) remove the White Lady, but I think that does it a diservice.  The only thing missing from the reconstruction is more dancing for the men--though I shudder to think of a Nureyev moment of introspection (I admit, I've not seen his version of the ballet with the POB).  (The moment with the piano, as mentioned above, is horrible--I hoped that was just something due to the telecast, but at least it's a variation we've been able to see many times before.)

An amazing release--I only wish the Mariinsky's Sleeping Beauty reconstruction had been similarly filmed.

[Birdsall]

Eric, I am so glad you love Raymonda. I don't know why I do either. Maybe it is because of what you said. It does seem like pure Petipa.

I do love the sets and story telling (mime) in the La Scala video and Novikova is terrific (although she was even better, in my opinion, in this past September's Raymonda at the Mariinsky).

This is definitely an important dvd release that captures what Raymonda probably looked like in Petipa's time. So I treasure it.

But I have to say that I prefer the Mariinsky version simply because the corps de ballet is so gorgeous with what I call their ocean flowing arms. When they dance together and those arms are flowing, I melt. I only see Novikova with Mariinsky style arms in the La Scala video. The rest are much more stiff looking to me.

Even the Sergeyev Sleeping Beauty at the Mariinsky is my favorite.  I know people will be aghast that I prefer the Sergeyev over the reconstruction. When the fairies enter in the Sergeyev version with their ocean flowing arms altogether it takes my breath away. It is such a beautiful moment for me. When the fairies do not enter with ocean flowing arms like at other companies I am disappointed.

[Helene]

Right now, the best we have for the Mariinsky reconstruction of "Sleeping Beauty" is Act III with Obrastzova on the "New Year's Eve in St. Petersburg" DVD.

[EricHG31]

I was going to write a (much delayed) post about seeing the Mikhailovsky's production of Swan Lake in Vancouver this past June,  One thing I really noticed was the corps seemed to really be aware of that sensibility, even though the production stems from the Soviet era.  Lines were softer, and it didn't feel imposed on them, the way it does sometimes (I agree with you Helene) in the Scala Raymonda.

The K Sergeyev Sleeping Beauty remains my favorite of the filmed versions--I think partly because I grew up obsessed with the early 1980s video with Kolpokova, so in a way that is what ballet is for me.  Seeing the reconstruction thanks to youtube has changed some of that, but I admit, I still think his version of the prologue is beautiful--if (largely without all of the mime) quite different.

The New Years DVD you mention is a great document of Act III (as well as the brief scene before), The documentary about the Mariinsky, Sacred Stage also shows most of the vision scene from the previous act, albeit filmed more from the wings which I find annoying.  I do wish the entire production had been filmed (it's still listed on their website repertoire so maybe it still can be) at the least to have a visual document of such a reconstuction.  Honestly, at my most cynical, it seems like a wasted money opportunity for the company.

[naomikage]

Helene, on 16 December 2012 - 06:32 PM, said:

Right now, the best we have for the Mariinsky reconstruction of "Sleeping Beauty" is Act III with Obrastzova on the "New Year's Eve in St. Petersburg" DVD.

I think it is not Obrastzova but Osmolkina on the "New Year's Eve in St. Petersburg" DVD.

[Helene]

naomikage, on 17 December 2012 - 06:40 AM, said:

Helene, on 16 December 2012 - 06:32 PM, said:

Right now, the best we have for the Mariinsky reconstruction of "Sleeping Beauty" is Act III with Obrastzova on the "New Year's Eve in St. Petersburg" DVD.

I think it is not Obrastzova but Osmolkina on the "New Year's Eve in St. Petersburg" DVD.

Yes, I was mistaken:  it is Osmolkina as Princess Aurora.  Thank you for the correction!