Recent DVD releases - Bonus Materials?

[Solor]

I was thinking of up-grading my ballet film collection to include some DVD releases.

I am interested in getting the Royal Ballets "La Bayadere". I was wondering if anyone knows if there are any x-tras included in this re-release to DVD? Or any of the recent Kirov Ballet re-releases, like Don Q or Corsaire have any x-tras?

If anyone knows of any DVD releases of any of the classical rep. with any bonus materials would be great!

[chrisk217]

If anyone knows of any DVD releases of any of the classical rep. with any bonus materials would be great!

I can speak only about the region-2 versions of Corsaire & Bayadere but from what I remember there was nothing special, except maybe a synopsis (very short) Also, at least in region-2 these were bad video dumps so if you already have the vhs there's not much point in buying them. Of course things may be different in region-1 but somehow I doubt it....

On to disks that actually have extras:

The POB school Coppelia. This has it's drawbacks (it's not the wholle of Coppelia, and it's a school performance, albeit a better than usual school performance and one with splendid costumes) It comes with an 50min documentary called Les enfants de la dance (the children of the dance) about the POB school and it's students. There are interviews and class footage. It feels a bit hokey and staged at times, but it's an interesting window in the school's life. This was made at the mid-80s and the students we see struggling are today's etoiles (Dupont, Martinez, LeRiche etc)

The Het Sleeping Beauty DVD with Sofianne Sylve also has it's drawbacks. For one, Sylve is not your usual Aurora, she's far more athletic looking and bit less refined. When I first got the disk I did not like her interpretation, but after a bit more exposure I started to appreciate some aspects of her dancing. That said there are 35 minutes of extras on the DVD, some not terribly interesting some others more interesting (like rehearsals, interviews with Sir Peter Wright & footage of Sylve)

The POB La Sylphide contains a small 20 minute doc called Rediscovering La Sylphide. Lacotte, Lefevre, Dupont and Ganio talk in it.

Marguerite and Armand with Guillem and Le Riche had a 20 minute making-of that shows them on tour in Japan. This is no great bargain however since the actual ballet lasts about 30 minutes and few things happen during the documentary (it's the kind of doc that shows them boarding buses, visiting supermarkets and maybe a little bit of the rehearsal, if you're lucky)

All in all, the best extras I have seen lately are not extras at all but really companion disks to the POB releases. I'm reffering to the Dancer's Dream series. There are 4 (Bayadere, Raymonda, Sleeping Beauty and Romeo & Juliet - all Nureyev's version) There is nothing new in them for anyone who has read up a bit about the ballets and their history, but they are visually very pleasing and there is a lot of rehearsal footage.

Hope I helped

[richard53dog]

I was thinking of up-grading my ballet film collection to include some DVD releases.

If anyone knows of any DVD releases of any of the classical rep. with any bonus materials would be great!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Chrisk already mentioned a couple of releases with bonus materals.

I like the Dutch Sleeping Beauty's extra chapters quite abit, particularly the school kids and Wright's discussion of the importance of the Lilac Fairy and Carabosse both being shown as very powerful. Also I love the coaching of the mime sequences. The deletion is one of the things I SO dislike of Sergueyev's version.

I also like the footage of Sylve dancing a number of things including clips of a Dewdrop wiith NYCB

The Wright Swan Lake with the Swedish Ballet has a bunch of extra segements, some of them interesting interviews.

Richard

[Helene]

My favorite part of the bonus material on the Sylve/Sleeping Beauty DVD is where Peter Wright is coaching the corps, and he stops them and tells them that this is classical ballet and to stop doing arabesque penche.

[richard53dog]

My favorite part of the bonus material on the Sylve/Sleeping Beauty DVD is where Peter Wright is coaching the corps, and he stops them and tells them that this is classical ballet and to stop doing arabesque penche.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Helene, yes. But he is so diplomatic. When he discusses a balance at a crucial point, he tells Sylve "it must be steady; not like a breeze is coming in through the window."

I said earlier that I love the bits with the schoolkids. It's priceless to see ALL of them doing one of the fairy's mime (strength?) in the auditorium itself in what looks like a rehearsal.

Richard

[canbelto]

I really enjoy the documentary about Sylve, especially because it contains clips of her dancing Dewdrop and Swan Lake. But she surprised me -- offstage she doesn't have the kind of graceful femininity I associate with ballerinas. In one scene she wears stonewashed jeans and these rather mannish boots.

As for DVD extras, the Nureyev film of Don Quixote has a mini-documentary about the filming of DQ (in an airplane hanger!).

[BalletNut]

I have the DVD of the Kirov Don Q (with Terekhova), and there aren't any extras in it that I know of.

[Cliff]

Swan Lake at Teatro alla Scalla with Svetlana Zakharova has a 10 minute feature showing rehearsals. Sub-titles are available in a long list of languages. This is an excellent video.

[Mrs. Stahlbaum]

Swan Lake with the Royal Swedish Ballet has four extra features: an interview with choreographer Sir Peter Wright; an interview with the director, Petter Jacobsson; an interview the the principal dancers, Nathalie Nordquist and Anders Nordstrom; and an overview of notable productions of Swan Lake.