Bolshoi Ballet: Recorded "Nutcracker" for cinema showing

[Ian Macmillan]

As a personal test of this new site, and just to get things started, can I say how totally underwhelmed I was by the recorded Bolshoi "Nutcracker" shown in cinemas last Sunday? (Lacking the old forum, Robert Gottlieb of the New York Observer got in ahead of me: http://www.observer....han-well-on-tv/ ) There were some bright moments - Artem Ovcharenko's jumps and the two snow scenes for the corps, although I had to work hard to blot out the dreadful male lamp-carriers in the second of these - but, overall, I found it a fairly wooden production. Too much from the Ministry of Silly Walks, 'children' clearly well beyond teenage, seemingly every timpani stroke accentuated by an attitude, mice reappearing in Act 2 for some reason that escaped me, and an incredible shepherdess with a lamb on wheels in tow. I'm thankful that I had only paid for cinema admission for this, and Mr Gottlieb may have a point about the Grigorovich rep needing a stake through its heart ..... though I might just exclude "Spartacus" from this general condemnation.

[alison]

Thanks, Ian. You've only confirmed that my decision to go to the Ballet.co "lunch" instead was the correct one. I remember seeing the Grigorovich production once and hating it.

[Natalia]

I paid for the DVD, although I knew that I would be seeing the dreaded Grigorovich production with the 'Candelabra Guys' and the ill-fitting cottom ball wigs on the snow ladies! What makes it worth my while are the beautiful leads, Kaptsova and Ovcharenko, and certain soloists, such as Medvedev in the Chinese dance. The HD filming is pristene. It's a shame that it is this production.

[Beryl H]

Glad someone else likes this, although I entirely agree that it's an old, tired production that doesn't begin to compare with the excellent versions by Covent Garden and BRB Royal Ballets and ENB, there are some wonderful things to enjoy, my favourites are Nina Kaptsova, Denis Savin and Artem Ovcharenko's dancing, and the corps in the 2 big waltzes, plus the brilliant picture and sound quality, I have the Blu-Ray and it's one of the best, I'm just hoping for similar recordings of Don Quixote, Coppelia, Le Corsaire and Bright Stream in the future!