Technical Details: Interactive Menu in 6 languages Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1.+ Digital Stereo Region Code: 0 Picture Format: 4:3 Acts can be selected Ballet’s biography   Running Time: ca .80 min Order No: 60010 P.I. Tchaikovsky Swan Lake   Ballet / Soloists: Ballet of the Kirov Theatre St.Petersburg, Yelena Yevteyeva, John Markovsky a.o. Director: Appollinary Dudko   The four-act ballet Swan Lake, based on a German fairy tale and with music by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, was first produced in Moscow in 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre with a choreography by Julius Reisinger and was a total failure. After Tchaikovsky’s death in 1893, a memorial to the composer presented the second act, succesfully recoreographed by Lev Ivanov. In 1895 a completely new version of the ballet, choreographed by Ivanov and Marius Petipa was staged at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and this time the ballet received the appreciation that it had rightfully deserved. The new choreography fulfilled the expectations of  the Russian public as it added an element of „pressure“ to the composition.   The DVD in hand presents a „classical“ staging of the ballet from 1968 which is based on the Ivanov/Petipa choreography. This Russian screen version of Swan Lake is a colourful and magnificent version of one of the ballet classics of all time, performed by the world-famous Kirov ensemble.