Your Desert Island Ballet DVDs

[hfbrew]

I

 

Thanks so much afds - I have just ordered the Nerina/Blair Fille from Amazon!  I shall look forward to wallowing in nostalgia!

I've just ordered it too- I was thinking only earlier that I'd wished I'd seen Nerina as Fille .   What would we all do without Ballet.co!

[LinMM]

Completely off topic but love your new piccie Quintus ....is that a long eared owl?

 

Still trying to get my act together on the DVD's but I'd definitely go for Diana Vishneva in R and J if that's a possibility though I loved Fonteyn and Nureyev in the Macmillan version too.....but could settle for them in Marguerite and Armand if a DVD exists.

 

I also love Month in the Country and saw the premier of this. So am seeing if this is on a compilation somewhere with hopefully Lynne Seymour Denise Nunn Wayne Sleep and Dowell ......can live in hope!!

[Quintus]

that's a scops owl in our local sanctuary - cute little things, they huddle together and bob up and down..

 

I've just ordered the RB Manon with Rojo/Acosta, which I've never seen, so that's something to look forward to.  I'd love a Polina Semionova release of that, as I've seen some some great clips of the pdd - she's another one who's a bit underrepresented on disc..

[hfbrew]

Thanks to this wonderful forum I now own a copy of the original cast of La Fille Mal Gardee!  I used to have a picture of Nadia Nerina in my bedroom as a child.

How I envy some of the people on this site who actually saw the likes of Fonteyn, Nureyev, Sibley , Dowell, etc.....  I read all the Ballet literature I could as a child (I remember my teacher asking if anyone had heard of Diaghilev and of course I  had!) . 

 

But I never actually saw Ballet until my teens- Desmond Kelly was my first Siegfried...

[Aruna S]

I remember reading an article about Nadia Nerina in an old issue of Good Housekeeping when I was a child in India. It was while Fille was being created. At that point I had no clue that I would ever get to see Fille live at Covent Garden or see Nerina's performance on DVD, but I vividly remember the sense of excitement about the production. I still remember the photographs and the name of the author, Godfrey Winn.

[LinMM]

Somebody gave me a book with lots of photos in about Margot Fonteyn when I was about nine. I really loved this book and looked at it over and over again. I remember being particularly mesmerised by pictures of her in Giselle and Symphonic Variations for some reason. I was so excited when I finally saw her when about 12/13 at a gala up in London.

 

I also remember the excitement when Anthony Dowell came on the scene he had such a pure classical technique and I particularly loved him and Sibley in The Dream. I feel too I have been very fortunate to have seen so many wonderful dancers.....but it's interesting how the previous generation of dancers (eg like Ulanova and her generation for me) always seem to take on a special aura. So no doubt in a few years time people will look back on this generation and say "I wish I had seen......." and so on. Though I do appreciate one or two dancers may have that extra special something.

 

Quintus I will get there in the end though I may have to cheat too and have six and one of those may not exist!! It's difficult choosing between which ballets and which artists to take! Still trying to find out about Dances at a Gathering and Month in the Country!

[Ian Macmillan]

Lin's post reminds me that I meant to contribute days ago.  I'm sure about the first two, and have had to think a bit about the others.

 

First - The RB's Firebird & Les Noces from around 2001/2 - not so much for the first, though no objections to being marooned with memories of Benjamin and Cope, but for Zenaida Yanowsky's Bride in Les Noces and David Drew's droll Extra, with his reminiscences of rehearsing the first production with Nijinska.  I saw Les Noces for the first time during that run, and have been captured by its music, mass movement, and pervasive sense of ritual, ever since.  Inter alia, David tells how Nijinska chose the first Bride.  She had all the ladies in the company line up in a particular pose, went along the line looking into their eyes, and chose Beriosova as a result.  Of course, I cannot say Beriosova looked, but I feel sure that Yanowsky's look of perfect resignation throughout this performance must have been very much what Nijinska had in mind.

 

My second choice would be the RB's DVD of the first run of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, with the initial long First Act - primarily on account of Yanowsky demonstrating the other end of her character spectrum as the manic Queen of Hearts.  I also happened to be there the night that I think most filming was done, and her Rose Adagio spoof is never-to-be-forgotten!  I've also found that watching the CD with its close-ups has given me a much better sense of what Lauren Cuthbertson was doing as Alice in that 70-minute Act I, and my respect for it all has increased accordingly.

 

I'd need something of a contemporary nature and, as there is no commercial recording of Cathy Marston's work, I'd go for Leipzig Ballet's The Great Mass, recorded in 2005.  Choreography by Uwe Scholz, using Mozart's C Minor Mass and a number of other pieces, including an Arvo Pärt Credo, it would satisfy on dance and music grounds.

 

For light relief, one of the Trocks' DVDs, probably the one with Swan Lake Act II (the swan on a trolley, Benno being monstered by swans) and the quasi-Balanchine Go for Barocco, which slips in a Brandenburg on the musical side.

 

Are boxed sets allowed?  If so, how about No 5 being a set of RB MacMillan ballets:  Ferri and Eagling in R&J, Penney and Dowell in Manon, and the Bussell Prince of the Pagodas?

 

By the way, are there any ENB DVDs out there at all?  I can't think of one, and I'm sure there ought to be. 

[Anjuli_Bai]

Well, I just have to add Kylian's "Petit Mort."   The music is Mozart (so I get a bit a Mozart on my tropical island).  This ballet is astonishing.

 

and

 

Paul Taylor's "Promethean Fire" to Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (that way I get some Bach).

 

and

 

Ailvin Ailey's "Revelations" - absolutely relevatory.

 

and

 

if this is simply too much cheating - well, I am willing to consider rotating my stash. 

 

and

 

I'm willing to share. 

 

In fact, I propose that we all go to the same island.  Tropical breezes, watch dance DVD's on the beach  -  yes, this could work.

Edited June 22, 2013 by Anjuli_Bai

[Jane S]

 

Quintus I will get there in the end though I may have to cheat too and have six and one of those may not exist!! It's difficult choosing between which ballets and which artists to take! Still trying to find out about Dances at a Gathering and Month in the Country!

 

I assume the RB has film of its original Dances at a Gathering cast somewhere in the archives but I don't think its ever been released even in extracts. There is definitely a film of Seymour and Dowell in Month in the Country: it was shown on television in 1978 but so far as I know has never been released commercially.

[LinMM]

Re Anjuli's above post

What a great idea and in between the watching of the DVD 's swimming in the hopefully warm sea(shark free of course) relaxing with a piña colada or two perhaps some of the forums dance teachers could take it in turns to give ballet lessons and do a bit of repertoire from Forums DVD collection!!

Actually this sounds like my idea of heaven!

[LinMM]

Sorry Quintus am trying to stick to thread

[Anjuli_Bai]

I have the complete ballet of "Month in the Country" with Sibley and Dowell.  Unfortunately because of copyright concerns I am unable to share it.  We taped it during the original telecast.

 

At that time a blank VHS tape cost $100.00.  My husband has since put it on DVD.  So, if we have it - others must, too.

[LinMM]

Jane S will have to check then with Quintus whether tv films will be allowed!

But I have a feeling it has to be on a DVD recording to really qualify for the desert/tropical island!!

But thanks for the info.....don't suppose there's a recording of Fonteyn and Nureyev in Marguerite and Armand do you know?

[Anjuli_Bai]

Jane S will have to check then with Quintus whether tv films will be allowed!

But I have a feeling it has to be on a DVD recording to really qualify for the desert/tropical island!!

But thanks for the info.....don't suppose there's a recording of Fonteyn and Nureyev in Marguerite and Armand do you know?

 

Yes, we have the complete M & A with F & N.

[Quintus]

I think we have to stick to commercially published DVDs, so the rest of us stand a chance of getting hold of them if they inspire us...   And only 5, otherwise there's no challenge -  any attempts to smuggle more on will be foiled by trained crabs.

 

 I too really enjoyed the Agony & Ecstasy series on TV, and it has found its way onto a dvd-r chez moi via Youtube for safe keeping; I'm surprised they didn't release it as I think there would have been enough buyers.

 

No-one's come up with Auerbach's The Little Mermaid, which would seem appropriate viewing!

[LinMM]

Anjuli is your M and A with F and N a commercially released one then or is it home made so to speak!

[LinMM]

Ive got the four main full length ballets I want

Giselle, R and J, Swan Lake and Fille.

The fifth DVD would have to be a sort of one act ballet combination set!

Before make decision on the Fille one to take ....very difficult as I love Acosta and Nunez in the roles but a lot of good casts in this and may in the end have to decide between a current cast or a recording with Alexander Grant as farmers son in it.

 

Next question then is .....is there a recording of Alexander Grant in this role.....I imagine at that time even Ashton could have been doing one of the Ugly sisters ....maybe with Lesley Collier as Fille?

[LinMM]

Going doolally don't think there's an ugly sister in Fille!

[hfbrew]

Well having just watched La Fille with the original cast, I have to go with this one! Was completely blown away by it - lucky, lucky people to have seen these musical, fast footed, precise and above all joyous dancers!

 

So I have now seen Alexander Grant as Alain. I have a video of the 1980 production with Collier (now there's a dancer I was lucky enough to see for real) and am pretty sure Gary Grant is Alain in that one!

 

So now its La Fille from 1962! along with the Trocks, two Northern Ballet productions and Penguin Café!

Edited June 22, 2013 by hfbrew

[LinMM]

Decisions decisions!

[toursenlair]

I assume the RB has film of its original Dances at a Gathering cast somewhere in the archives but I don't think its ever been released even in extracts.

 

There's just a huge shortage of Robbins on DVD generally, and I think it's because of the Robbins trust. Paris Opera Ballet produced a

Tribute to Jerome Robbins in 2008, with In G major, In the Night, and The Concert. It's the only Robbins DVD I know of , other than West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof, of course.

Also very little Robbins on YouTube. Such a shame, all those wonderful ballets that you pretty much have to live in New York to see. Glass Pieces (there's a bit of this on Bringing Balanchine Back), Fancy Free, Dances at a Gathering, Other Dances, etc etc.

[Thecatsmother]

A multi regional DVD player in the UK is a bonus as you can get some great US documentaries and performances:)

[toursenlair]

Just wanted to say, I'm surprised everyone is taking on this premise of being marooned on a desert island with NO LIVE BALLET and only FIVE DVDs with such equanimity. Surely our reaction at such a thought ("No BALLET????") should be....

 

The Horror... The Horror....

 

 

[Jan McNulty]

Well I had planned on being marooned with NB and BRB with the dvds being for additional entertainment!

[mijosh]

Can't be bothered with DVDs as there's nothing like the real thing. In consequence my one luxury item (bearing in mind that Dame Sybil Thorndike chose her husband,Lewis Casson) would be the entire New York City Ballet,live, whenever I felt the need, which would be often.

[Quintus]

oh dear, we've slipped from the entirely plausible and scientific monkey-powered home cinema into the realms of fantasy..  in that case, so as not to be greedy, I'll settle for being marooned with Polina Semionova 

[Bluebird]

 

By the way, are there any ENB DVDs out there at all?  I can't think of one, and I'm sure there ought to be. 

 

You might be able to find them, on Ebay,(in their previous incarnation as London Festival Ballet) in Makarova's Swan Lake.  This was filmed in the early seventies with Evelyn Hart and Peter Schaufuss.  It's currently available from market traders on amazon.com but I believe the DVD they're selling is region 1 only so you'd need a multi region player on your desert island!

 

Edited to add that I believe this is the recording that features a very young Leanne Benjamin in the Ashton pas de quatre

Edited June 23, 2013 by Bluebird

[LinMM]

Just thought of another ballet may not be able to do without Concerto....with that wonderful Shostakovitch music!

 

I thought I had seen a lovely DVD compilation of this with Las Hermanas and Requiem. This for me would combine beautiful Macmillan ballets with some of my favourite music .....The Faure I would definitely have on my desert island discs choices!!

 

Unfortunately this turned out to just be a review not a Dvd otherwise this would have been one of my choices.

Can somebody please put these three on DVD

[hfbrew]

My ds choice was my new, wonderful La Fiile with Nadia Nerina, a great pas de deux dvd  that I own, a collection from Royal Ballet which includes Fonteyn in the Firebird , the first Trock  dvd and Tales of Beatrix Potter!

 

He would have chosen Northern's Romeo and Juliet but its not available commercially. we have a video recording from when it was on telly!

 

 I love this thread- its certainly made for entertaining discussion in our household with dvds all over the living room floor..

[Quintus]

polite note to hfbrew from the Desert Island Health & Safety Executive; please do not leave your 5 DVDs strewn all over the beach as this constitutes a trip hazard

[Aruna S]

Quintus, would the island equipment include a stereo system? So that we could take CDs for the music of ballets we've been forced to leave out? 

[Ian Macmillan]

If we're playing by Roy Plomley rules, people will be wanting to bring a book next - ie in addition to the provided Bible and Full Works of Shakespeare.

[Mummykool]

I've been thinking about this for days....I would want to take so many!

 

In the end I decided I would need at least one 'old' ballet so plumped for La Bayadere with Acosta /Rojo/Nunez. I was at the performance they recorded and Marianela absolutely nailed it. Happy memories.

 

I would also have to have something to remind me of our New York/ABT days. Every Christmas PBS would show Nutcracker with Gelsey Kirkland (now there was a ballerina) and Mikhail Baryshnikov. I think I've got two copies of that DVD in case I wore the first one out! I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned it.

 

I would definitely need a MacMillan ballet. Manon is just too sad, (especially on a desert island), so I would take Mayerling. It would have to be the version with Irek Mukhamedov and Vivianna Durante. I felt much the same when the Royal Ballet let her get away as I do now about losing Alina Cojacaru!

 

I definitely would need something to make me smile, so Alice's Adventures in Wonderland would be on my list. Love the music and it is worth sitting through the long first act just for Steven McRrae and Eric Underwood. Zenaida Yanowsky's Red Queen was priceless. We were at that recording too, so that somehow makes it special!

 

Finally I would have a Trock DVD as I absolutely love them. I would go for Program 2 with Les Sylphides as the adaptation of the steps for fewer dancers is just so clever. Last we saw them one of The 'Sylphs' starting sleepwalking and went clean off the stage into the orchestra pit. Priceless!

 

I must admit however, that if they ever release the DVD of the live Bolshoi broadcast of Osipova/Vasiliev dancing Don Quixote, the Trocks would probably have to go. That or I would have to take up smuggling. In which case I'd have a copy of Fille, Corsaire and a couple of modern pieces as well!