garybruce

Thanks to you and Michaelbaker for your reviews. I'll go and splurge on the POB version.

Thanks to both of you for your assessments, which are helpful. I did note that a Mr. Lopez on Amazon.com claimed the original Petipa choreography is intact at Harvard Univ. in the Sergeyev (sp?) notations brought out of Russia after the Communists took over. Perhaps some ambitious youngster will restage the original.

I've been trying to locate a DVD of Paquita but the POB versions both receive awful reviews in Amazon.com. Kirov Classics DVD only has the Pas de Trois and Grand Pas Classique. Any leads? PS Not having seen the ballet, I don't know if it merits full treatment. Or are the Petipa variations the only real value in the choreography?

Lidewij... hank you so much for that hyperlink to the video clip--it correlates to the description of the filming of the Giselle rehearsal at the Savoy Theater from one of the boxes there. I do wonder how long the original film is, though. I've emailed the Rambert Ballet in England but no answer as to whether they have it or know of its whereabouts.

Carbro, you should know that Spessivtzeva taught at Ballet Theatre in the late 1930s-early 1940s, just before she entered a mental institution for 20 years. So ABT would be honoring one of their own if they would rejuvenate video of her dancing in the role that made her famous.

RG, many thanks for that lead. I've pinpointed the source for the English Giselle. June or July 1932 at the Savoy Theater, where one Walter Duff filmed Spessitzeva at a dress rehearsal of Giselle, produced under the auspices of the Camargo Ballet Society (1930-33), which Sir Anton Dolin helped to establish. I'll try the Rambert people and let you know. In the meantime... The NYPL DOES have this film of Spessivtzeva dancing Giselle at the Paris Opera Ballet. Giselle: Act I excerpts (Motion picture) Imprint [1938?] Description 1 reel. 6 1/2 min. 160 ft. : si. b&w. ; 16 mm. Call Number *MGZHB 4-1000, no. 158 Location Performing Arts - Dance Can New Yorkers go to the NYPL dance library branch and arrange to watch this excerpt and report back to Ballet Talk?

It's my understanding that Dolin's videotape, Portrait of Giselle, utilized a clip from the original 1932 taping, and clips were also used in the 30 minute documentary called The Sleeping Ballerina by the BBC in 1964. But where is the original 1932 film? I think I'll write to the folks at ABT and the Lincoln Center branch of NYPL and cross my fingers -- their resources should probably be able to pin down its current location and owner. Since the BBC and Dolin both were able to access it, it may well be in England.

Arlene Croce in her "Dance in Film" article in Afterimages states there is a film record of Spessivtzeva rehearsing Act I of Giselle, taped in 1932, bits of which was used in the documentary about her called The Sleeping Ballerina. She describes it as "marvelous". Does anyone have any info on it? I did a Google search and came up empty as to its current owner or location. My thoughts were to locate it, and seek to have the NEA or NEH fund a film restoration and commercial release. Is this something that ABT could do without much labor?

How is it, canbelto? I just ordered it myself on Amazon and look forward to seeing it, given that my only knowledge of both dancers is from their Spartacus. Given the date of performance, it appears to be during the couple's prime period.

RQ, thanks for the tip, but unfortunately, Google did not have anything to show on the Liepa DVD. Natalia, I've emailed the Foundation asking about the DVD set and will share their response on Ballet Talk. Lidewij, I appreciate the You Tube clip. There must be fuller video records from which these clips were culled--for example, his Don Quixote with Plesitskaya. Perhaps the new documentary will offer up more.

RQ, this is news to me. I haven't seen the Russian 2-set DVD offered anywhere. Can you provide purchase details?

Did he feature as Albrecht, albeit briefly, on the deliciously overpriced "The Glory of The Bolshoi DVD Video"? I've not found a complete listing of those snippets. I checked and he isn't there as Albrecht. Funny but I just picked up a Dance Horizons pamphlet that had photos of him dancing Giselle at the... Metropolitan Opera House in NY in spring 1975! Nothing in the pamphlet indicates any of his performances that New York spring was ever filmed.

GoCoyote! writes: The is also a new documentary in the works due for release in 2009 titled 'Sylvie Guillem, the last ballerina assoluta'. Terrific news. I have to consider getting an all-region DVD player as well if releasing DVD's for each region is going to be the wave of the future.

I've heard that Maris Liepa's Albrecht in Giselle was as phenomenal as his portrayal of Crassus in Spartacus. Does anyone know if the Russians ever videotaped it?

Many thanks, canbelto. I ordered the Seven Ballets DVD, but the Marguerite and Armand is only available for Region 2 folks. I'm trying to get Evidentia.

"CINDERELLA would seem to be all there is, or has been, of multi-act ballets on video w/ guillem. (a quick look at amazon, in the US, shows only 2 used cassettes of this video available, so i assume it's no longer on the market here in the states.) " Thanks for your replies, but my God, that is really depressing to ponder--no full length ballet on DVD for a 20-year career on stage. Hard to understand the marketing strategy behind that thinking. It reminds me of Nijinsky's (or Diaghilev's) decision to have photos taken of the dancer by professionals in a well-lit studio, but not any moving film. I guess the powers that be must have proof that providing video of ballet undermines their ticket sales. For me, seeing ballet on film only stimulates my curiosity to experience it in the theater. I'll have to be satisfied with my You Tube clips of Sylvie. C'est dommage.

Does anyone know if Sylvie Guillem is in any full-length classical ballets on DVD? I've failed to find any. She's been dancing since 1984, so I thought POB or the Royal would have put out several of them.