Order No: 89100Swan Lake featuring The Kirov Ballet St. Petersburg Sleeping Beauty featuring The Australian Ballet CompanyThe Nutcrackerfeaturing The Australian Ballet Company
The four-act ballet Swan Lake, based on a German fairy tale, was first produced in Moscow in 1877 at the Bolshoi Theatre with a choreography by Julius Reisinger and was a total failure. In 1895 a completely new version of the ballet, choreographed by Lev 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.When it was staged in 1993 for the first time, this spectacular production of Sleeping Beauty by the Australian Ballet Company has been hailed as a visual and artistic masterpiece. It is the magical tale of the beautiful Princess Aurora, condemned to sleep for one hundred years under a spell of a wicked fairy. Choreographically, Sleeping Beauty is rich in many different styles, authentic court dances, elements of romantic ballet, classical ballet technique and abstraction, mimed scenes, grand processions, character and folk dances. Sleeping Beauty is at the same time both an homage to French dance of the 17th and 18th centuries and an anticipation of trends that would lead into the 20th century.In a stunning departure from tradition, Australia’s most eminent choreographer, Graeme Murphy, transformed Nutcracker into a turbulent portrait of a famous Russian-Australian ballerina. Recorded in 1994, it is a moving tribute to the vision and dedication of artists. The ballet reinterprets the traditional story giving it an Australian context while retaining enough elements to make it recognisably a version of Nutcracker.
