Tarfumes.com - Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake / Makarova, Dowell, Royal Ballet Covent Garden

	List Price: $29.99 Our Price: $26.99 Your Save: $ 3.00 ( 10% ) Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 2 days Manufacturer: Kultur Video Starring: Natalia Makarova, Anthony Dowell
Average Customer Rating:
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Brand: Swan EAN: 9780769714080 Format: Classical ISBN: 0769714080 Label: Kultur Video Manufacturer: Kultur Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Kultur Video Region Code: 1 Release Date: 2003-04-15 Running Time: 137 Studio: Kultur Video Theatrical Release Date: 1982
Related Items Tchaikovsky - The Sleeping Beauty / Durante, Solymosi, Dowell, Royal Ballet The Nutcracker / Baryshnikov, Kirkland, Charmoli Don Quixote / Baryshnikov, Harvey, American Ballet Theatre Romeo and Juliet (Royal Ballet)- Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn Great Pas De Deux - Fonteyn, Nureyev, Makarova, Dowell, Baryshnikov, Bessmertova, and more
Editorial Reviews: It is difficult to believe today that Swan Lake was a failure on its production in 1877 and was not successful until the Petipa/Ivanov version of 1895. Today it is regarded as one of the greatest works in the art of ballet. The magic of Tchaikovsky’s music, embodying the love of Prince Siegfried for the enchanted Swan Queen, has greatly contributed to making this the best loved of all classical ballets. This production, with designs by the late Leslie Hurry, stars Natalia Makarova as Odette-Odile and Anthony Dowell as Prince Siegfried. Prince Siegfried celebrates his twenty-first birthday; his mother tells him it is time to marry, but he prefers to go hunting. Alone, by a lakeside, he sees a swan who turns to human form. She is an enchanted princess who can be saved only by true love. He promises this, but is tricked by the wicked magician who disguises his own daughter as the swan-maiden. In despair, Siegfried and the swan-maiden leap to death together and their sacrifice destroys the evil power.
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: I recommend the DVD of the Swedish Ballet as First Choice Comment: All that I might have said has been well presented by those who ranked this performance two or three stars. I am sellling off my copy of this Royal Ballet DVD - not that it's a bad production at all but that it is over-rated and rather bland. I highly recommend the performance by the Swedish Ballet as a first choice keeper. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake It is gripping it its drama, the sets establish a mood but do not call attention to themselves, and the emotional commitment of everyone involved is clearly profound. And oh yes, the dancing and the acting (it is a story ballet, after all) are superb, and the orchestral playing if not better in execution is certainly better in recorded sound. Customer Rating: Summary: Admirable - As "Swan Lake" Goes. . . Comment: I must first acknowledge up front that "Swan Lake" (SL) is not my favorite ballet, and of the three most famed full-length ballets set to Tchaikowsky's music, I prefer the other two, not least because the music itself in "Nutcracker" and "Sleeping Beauty" is far superior (in my opinion) to the pedestrian, repetitive score the composer did for SL. Act I is an outright bore - Baryshnikov once said that as a youngster when he was sent off to see productions of SL at the Kirov, he would sit there thinking to himself, "Isn't it over yet? Why isn't it over yet? When is it going to be over?" Out of four acts, there is really only about 45 minutes of dancing worth watching: the Act II lakeside scene, the famed Black Swan pas de deux in Act III, and a few moments in the rather short final act. The rest is filler, and to less than inspiring music. All that said, great dancers in the leading roles can make SL worthwhile, especially if you can push a button and skip Act I and everything in Act III until Odile arrives. . . In this particular version, the Royal Ballet serves up its excellent corps, a mature but still technically sound Natalia Makarova in the title role, and Anthony Dowell as the feckless Prince Siegfried. Makarova was born to dance Odette - her lyricism, beautifully articulated feet, back, and arms, and Kirov style are in perfect soulful sync with the choreography. Although close to the end of her career here, she is still just about fully in command of her technique and shows that her fame in the role was justly earned. I have never found hers a particularly sympathetic persona but in this performance her occasional inability to conceal her awareness of her gifts did not intrude. She is less successful, but only slightly less so, in Act III as Odile. Makarova was never a brilliant classicist, and the bravura dancing required of Odile is generally not her strong point. In this dilemma she is not alone, as few ballerinas combine the extraordinary lyricism required of Odette AND the brilliant, diamond-hard classicism required of Odile. In fact, originally, the ballet was conceived for two ballerinas, one dancing Odette and another Odile. The same ballerina doing both parts was a later development. Nevertheless, Makarova does well in Act III, considering its choreography does not play to her strengths. She travels practically all the way downstage during her 32 fouettes, but she gets them all done completely and, at the age of 41 and in such a taxing role, that is saying something. Her balances (which were curiously lacking in security when I saw her years earlier in "Sleeping Beauty" - Aurora was definitely NOT one of her better roles) are marvelous and this is, ultimately, a very satisfying performance. Dowell, by contrast, seems curiously bland emotionally - perhaps his natural reserve paled even further next to Makarova's Kirov emotionalism - although he executes his few solos beautifully - one forgets what beautiful, elegant, legs he had - with high jumps and clean turns. His partnering is, as always, faultless, but, like the Prince in "Sleeping Beauty", this is mostly a thankless part. The Royal Ballet's corp performs beautifully, the production is completely traditional - and one of my favorite dramatic dancers from the Royal's past, Derek Rencher, is wasted as von Rothbart (who is NOT wasted as von Rothbart?!). You want to see Derek Rencher as a biting Tybalt in the first of these recorded, live full-length ballets from the Royal, the Czinner production of Macmillan's Romeo & Juliet, filmed in 1966, with a very mature Margot Fonteyn and a young Rudolf Nureyev - but that, as they say, is another story. Customer Rating: Summary: Still the best Swan Lake on dvd Comment: I'm not an expert but was a ballerina as a little girl and graduated into toe shoes in my early teens, so I know how difficult it is to dance ballet. Makarova is simply enchanting as Odette the Swan Princess. She was in her early 40's when this was filmed in the 80's. Her classical training in the Russian ballet program is very evident here. She's not perfect, but comes pretty close. This is a very demanding role for any ballerina especially one nearing the end of a fabulous career. Her legendary reputation is certainly solidified by this magnificent performance. Her beautiful, fluid arm movements are absolutely mesmerizing. Her facial and physical expressions add to a beautiful, dramatic interpretation. I have yet to see another ballerina emote and bring forth such dramatic intensity as Odette. Dowell is a very talented dancer and quite handsome too. I enjoyed his pirouettes and he has amazing balance. I thought he was quite sensitive as Prince Siegfried. They seemed to have very good chemistry. The Swan maidens were wonderful, but lacking the exact precision of the Paris Ballet or Kirov corps. Film was beautifully shot and has held up well considering the age of the original master tape. Overall, this is still my favorite Swan Lake performance on dvd simply for Makarova & Dowell's performances. At the curtain call, it was charming to see Makarova kiss a single red rose from her bouquet and present it to Dowell for a job well done. Customer Rating: Summary: Still the definitive "Swan Lake" - on video Comment: I have watched many live and video performances of this ballet and this is the one version I find myself returning to time and time again. There is something so dramatically compelling about the way Makarova and Dowell interpret their roles that my attention is held in a way that perhaps more technically proficient renderings of the roles could not. Makarova and Dowell in the leads are ultimately the most satisfying interpretations I have yet witnessed. Makarova's dancing is a wonder to behold; her magisterial, liquid adagio dancing in the Act II grand pas deux was of course, a given. Makarova's dancing was possessed of a unique physicality, a way of moving that made it seem as though her arms and legs were radiating a plush and limitless stretch. One could almost see an energy field originating from the centre of her body and pulsing out through her arms and legs and emanating far beyond her head, hands and feet. There seemed to be a mysterious and boundless stretch to Makarova. Baryshnikov too, had this "mysterious stretch" in his dancing. And Makarova's hands, what magical and bewitching worlds can be conjured from a pair expressive arms and hands! Watch, at the coda of Act II when Makarova's Odette runs towards Dowell's Siegfried, and is caught in his arms and lifted high above his head. With a ripple of her arms, the well-timed arch of her back, neck and head, one could almost believe Odette would take flight right then. The moment is breathtaking and for that moment, time might as well have stopped. What has continued to surprise me is Makarova's Odile. In this act Makarova, physically, becomes a whole other creature. The same lambent grace is still there, the same palpable and mysterious stretch, but now her edges have sharpened and her dancing has taken on a hard, cold, obdurate quality. I will never forget her baleful expression when she first turns towards Prince Siegfried to present her hand for the very first time. This moment marks the beginning of the Act III "Black Swan" grand pas de deux, and what a spellbinding moment it is. The whole ballroom now shines with a hectic glitter and now begins the ultimate dance of deception. Unshakable bravura was never a hallmark of Makarova's dancing and I could quibble about her indifferent fouettes. I prefer instead to revel in the splendour of her dramatic interpretation. From start to finish, Makarova's Odile is a textbook example of how to enchant a Prince and an audience into believing completely, an evil magician's deception. Even as Makarova negotiates Odile's treacherous choreography, her conviction and her hold on her dramatic portrayal is so unwavering that by the end, the Prince is utterly destroyed. Makarova's Odile is so convincing that at the end of the pas de deux, the audience finds itself on its feet applauding not a ballerina, but for the total triumph of von Rothbart's diabolical creation. As an aside, Makarova's pique/chaine turns at the end of her solo are so fleet and so delicious that I never again want to see another dancer stumping her way through this same variation. I make special mention of Sir Fredrick Ashton's choreography in Act IV. There's a particularly lovely and effective sequence where in small groups, Odette ushers away her swan sisters and returns to a kneeling Siegfried, bends down slowly and deeply into an arabesque penche and bestows her forgiveness for Siegfried's unwitting betrayal. Almost no one does this "forgiveness and reconciliation" scene anymore. The overall production values of the Royal Ballet's "Swan Lake" are somewhat inconsistent, the stage sets and costumes look like they were taken out of cold storage and the dancing of the corps de ballet could benefit from a more pliant use of the back and arms. Natalia Makarova and Anthony Dowell's dancing are of a kind that informs an age. I search in vain for a young Makarova or a young Baryshnikov that would bring the same magic and transcendent artistry from which their legends were made. Customer Rating: Summary: A Great Way to Tell the Story of Swan Lake Comment: This is an outstanding performance by the Royal Ballet. The Royal Ballet is one of my absolute favorite ballet combanies. Makarova is phenominal. Her Odette is so dramatic and is filled with passion. On the other hand, her Odile is creepy. A perfect Odile in my opinion: wicked and bewitching. I especially loved Makarova's facial expressions during the Adagio in act one. They were so dramatic and filled with passion. It was as if Makarova dedicated herself to her role. Like Fonteyn, she can act as well as dance. I recommend this ballet to anyone who loves ballet and romance. It's a great ballet. More Reviews