Saltarello

Ostrich, sorry to disappoint you - forever.

Oh well I'll just have to depend on the enlightened members of Ballettalk to fill me in on the interesting news. Meanwhile I'll consider getting it just for the pictures, as I'm a big Thomas Lund fan.

Last year I had the fortune to meet Tomas Lund on the stage, immediately after his performance in La Sylphide in Rome. He was with Gudrun Bojesen and both of them were very kind and amusing. Nice costumes too.

The best advice I can give about the Fracci/Nureyev Giselle is: don't get it. It's a sad document of two declining dancers. The production values are shoddy. Fracci's dancing has become leaden -- she fails in the hyperexposed moments of the second act. Nureyev too looks exhausted and his dancing has become sloppy. Both of them milk the applause -- Nureyev at one point gets up off the ground to take a bow, and then collapses again. But compared to their earlier films (Fracci's film with Bruhn, Nureyev's film with Seymour and the clips of him dancing with Fonteyn) this performance is very disappointing.

Actually both Fracci and Nureyev were not at the top of their possibilities. She is 44 and he 42, but i love this Giselle beyond the technical skill of the dancers. The 'pathos' in this Giselle is extraordinary to me.

The final part of Act II is available on YouTube. (Search on "giselle fracci nureyev")

Well, I decided to buy the Ferri Giselle. It was an excruciating decision, as your posts made me want to see every one, but I went with Ferri because I know I like her dancing and her acting. I also can imagine that she'd be a great Giselle because of her wonderful lightness and her beautiful feet.

It's on its way to me, and I can't wait! (But one of these days I'll have to check out Terekhova's Myrtha. I think she is amazing.)

If you like Nureyev and Fracci there is also this DVD, which has been registered 'live' in 1980 at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma.

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album....album_id=104354

I love it very much.

If you decide to buy the Ferri Giselle you'll see a young Roberto Bolle aged 20 in the Pas de paysans.

Fracci and Ferri are surely my favourite Giselle.