exactly where do I get them?
"Arrow" <Dunham16@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:1194530611.747962.323980@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> As more and more "long forgotten ballet vhs" programs are being re-
> issued in DVD,
> occasionally budget DVD you have to buy on the internet from China,
> two of
> Ulanova's programs have been re-issued to fantastic tehcnical
> improvements in the old VHS.
> STARS OF THE RUSSIAN BALLET is a program of excerpts from SWAN
> LAKE,
> FOUNTAIN OF BACHISARAY and FLAMES OF PARIS, filmed when Ulanova was
> 43 years old. It includes footage of Ulanova dancing with her first
> partner, Konstantin Sergeyev, (before he went on to choreograph a
> version of LE CORSAIRE still used by
> ABT today), as well as valuable and exciting footage of some of her
> most famous contem****aries including Dudinskaya, Chabukiani and 27
> year old Maya Plisetskaya (who was already in the Bolshoi when this
> film was made). FOUNTAIN was created on Ulanova by Lavrovsky in 1934.
> I have always thought that the three arabesques involving extensions
> of increasing amplitude, which Ulanova's character dances in response
> to an allegation made by Plisetskaya's character in what was Act III
> of the original ballet, represent Ulanova at her greatest, but with
> the
> new clarity of the DVD, there is so much more of Ulanova's celebrated
> technique
> to marvel at. For example, Ulanova's air work in her character's
> birthday
> party scene seems to, if anything, "out-distance" Plisetskaya's much-
> marveled-
> at elevation when Plisetskaya's charcter gain's entrance to Ulanova's
> room by leaping over the
> crouched/sleeping figure of the chaperone. As well, the clarity of the
> DVD gives
> MUCH more to marvel at, as the exquisite timing and elegance of
> Ulanova's wrist
> finials.
> The abridged GISELLE was filmed during two live performances in
> London when
> Ulanova was 46 years old and the enthusiastically "bravoed"name star"
> of the first Bolshoi tour in the West. The original vhs had EXTREMELY
> BAD COLOR QUALITY,so that Ulanova's make-up as the Polish peasant girl
> seemed best not viewed too closely. This is completely cleared
> up in the DVD, so the full effect of Ulanova's creation of an
> inexperienced and vulnerable
> young maiden can be marvelled at, as well as Ulanova's performance
> during the
> last fifteen minutes of the ballet, where her justly marvelled-at air
> work in the
> sixteen entrechats quatres en diagonale and in the fourth movement of
> the grand pas (which was supposed to have been added at the Kirov in
> the
> nineteenth century) have long been considered among the "msot
> spectacular athletic
> feats" ever commercially recorded in ballet. One of the most
> incredible
> things about this performance is that while the variation with the
> hops en pointe
> and the drama-ballet in the forest with Albrecht are both omitted from
> the
> film, ULANOVA HAD ACTUALLY BEEN REGULARLY DANCING THE ROLE AT THE
> KIROV
> BEFORE THE VARIATION WITH THE HOPS EN POINTE HAD BECOME
> STANDARD CHOREOGRAPHY IN ACT ONE.
> The greater clarity of the DVD makes for some other improvements
> as well. The
> divertissement program which begins the DVD has some rare footage of
> the famous Raise Struchkova, as well as Ulanova's performace in THE
> DYING
> SWAN. While the Hilarion of the GISELLE performance is uncredited on
> the
> vhs and recorded in VERY poor quality on that issue, the performer
> turns out
> to be the famous Levashev on the DVD. Hisxtraordinary performance as "
> forester
> much more handsome and much more masculine than Albrecht" as well as
> better
> mannered, culminates in a VERY great performance of the "Hilarion and
> the
> Wilis" set piece in the second act which may be one of the marvels
> of footage recorded in this time period.
> Arrow
>
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