Diaghilev on DVD

[EricMontreal22]

I'm only recently getting into checking out and comparing modern reconstructions of the famous Diaghilev ballets. I'm a bit disappointed though because ones I know have aired on TV or video aren't on DVD (maybe we can expect more with the current centenary of the first visit to France?)

Currently all I have on DVD is the Kirov DVD filmed in Paris as a tribute to Nijinsky (something I think they called it as a selling point as for me it seems more like a tribute to Fokine...) I've read many mixed reviews of it online but i'm quite pleased with it--it's filmed very well and for the most part i like the dancing and quality of the reconstructed designs--I've never seen a Scheherazade I've liked as much nor a Firebird that claimed to use the orgiinal designs and yet looked as good.

Where would one suggest going next? I used to have a taped off tv video--years ago as a teen, of a Paris company I believe (the Paris Opera?) doing some numbers--I know they did Petrushka and I believe maybe Faun... I also had a taped off tv copy fo the reconstruction of Nijinsky's original Rite of Spring/Sacre du Printemps done by the Joffrey Ballet which I know was controversial but I loved--I've seen that on youtube but it doesn't seem to be on DVD, which surprises me.

Is ther emuch out there? I'm mainly interested in productions that try to revive the original complete Diaghilev produced production--designs and all--with emphasis on the Stravinsky works post Firebird, etc.

[rg]

the credits for PARIS DANCES DIAGHILEV follow at the end of this post.

at one point there was a telecast of of Nureyev leading a Paris Opera Ballet PETROUCHKA, credits also follow, that was not released commercially to the best of my knowledge:

<<Petrouchka/ directed by Yves-Andre Hubert ; choreography by Serge Golovine after Mikhail Fokin and Bronislava Nijinska ; music by Igor Stravinsky.1976. (62 min.) : sd., col.

Telecast on CBS Cable on May 18, 1982.

Scenery and costumes, Alexander Benois ; executive producer, SFP.

Performed by Rudolf Nureyev (Petrouchka), Noella Pontois (Doll), Charles Jude (Moor), Serge Peretti (Magician), and members of the Paris Opera Ballet.

Host: Patrick Watson.

<<Paris dances Diaghilev c1990. 84 min. : sd. color

Videotaped onstage at the Opéra de Paris Garnier. Co-produced by NVC Arts and La Sept in association with the Arts and Entertainment Network. Distributed as a videotape by Elektra Entertainment, a division of Warner Communications, Inc., New York, as part of the Elektra Nonesuch Dance Collection. Producer: Robin Scott. Television director: Colin Nears. Lighting director: Bernard Girod. Performed by the Paris Opéra Ballet. Orchestra of the Paris Opéra conducted by Michel Tabachnik.

Petrouchka (approx. 36 min.). Chor: based on the choreography and production by Michel Fokine, restaged by Nicholas Beriosoff. Mus: Igor Stravinsky. Scen/cos: reproduced from the designs by Alexandre Benois. Perf. by Thierry Mongne (Petrouchka), Monique Loudières (the ballerina), Jean Guizerix (the Moor), Alain Bogreau (the charlatan), Olivier Patey (the principal coachman), Viviane Descoutures (nurse), Virginie Kempf and Brigitte Hermetz (street dancers), Muriel Halle and Nathalie Riqué (tzigane dancers), and others. -- Le spectre de la rose (approx. 10 min.). Chor: Fokine. Mus: Carl Maria von Weber, orch. by Hector Berlioz. Lib: Jean-Louis Vaudoyer, after Théophile Gautier. Scen/cos: reproduced from the designs by Léon Bakst. Perf. by Claude de Vulpian (the young girl) and Manuel Legris (the rose). -- L'après-midi d'un faune (approx. 12 min.). Chor: Vaslav Nijinsky. Mus: Claude Debussy. Original design: Bakst. Perf. by Charles Jude (the faun), Marie-Claude Pietragalla (nymph), and others. -- Les noces (approx. 26 min.). Chor: Bronislava Nijinska. Mus/lyrics: Stravinsky. Scen/cos: Natalia Gontcharova. Perf. by Elisabeth Platel (the bride), Françoise Legrée (first bridesmaid), Kader Belarbi (the bridegroom), Jean-Yves Lormeau (best man), Brigitte Hermetz and Virginie Kempf (bridesmaids), Frédéric David and Patrick Félix (ushers), Viviane Descoutures (bride's mother), Guy Vareilhes (bride's father) Jocelyne Genet (bridegroom's mother), Olivier Patey (bridegroom's father), and others.

Four ballets originally performed by the Ballets Russes, performed as a tribute to Serge Diaghilev.

[volcanohunter]

Last spring I was looking at the Ballets Russes posters hanging in the foyer of the Théâtre du Châtelet and hoping that since 2009 marked the centenary of Diaghilev's first ballet presentation in Paris, we might see some Ballets Russes-related releases on DVD. I'm more than a little frustrated that Paris Dances Diaghilev and Joffrey Ballet's Tribute to Nijinsky, both of which were released commercially on VHS, have not yet been released on DVD. For that matter, I wouldn't object to a DVD release of Herbert Ross' Nijinsky either.