goodpointe

Hello, I don't know much at all about ballet but make occasional blundering forays into it. I was hoping to get some advice; I'd like to watch a DVD of this Nutcracker ballet that seems to get mentioned every time Christmas rolls around, but which I've never seen. I would like to watch a "traditional" version of the ballet, but the various productions' DVDs' descriptions and reviews online seem to almost always talk about new twists and creative reinterpretations. Might anyone be able to recommend a good "traditional" production or two that are available on DVD? (Honestly I'm not even sure if it makes sense to talk about a "traditional" version of this ballet anyway; perhaps there is no such thing?) Thank you for your help!

Hello all, I'm new to both the board and to ballet, so please make the usual n00b allowances. I was wondering if anybody here knows of a good source (preferably online) of detailed ballet synopses, where the synopsis is divided by each separate piece/number/track in the ballet? Obviously there would be some variation from recording to recording and production to production, but I hope that, for some of the classics at least, I can find a fairly universal piece-by-piece breakdown. For example, some ballet recordings' CD liner notes provide this for each track on the CD - "1. General Russian-themed celebratory dance, 2. The princess searches for the missing ring", etc. Thank you for your help. (If you're curious as to why I'm asking: I've long been interested in musicals, and would like to further investigate other art forms that can use music to tell stories. I find I often enjoy listening to music and imagining the story, as much as / more than seeing a visual interpretation. I can easily, legally download ballet albums online, but without a segmented synopsis I'm lost as to the specifics of what's going on for any given track.)