Arrow
2006-10-24 14:50:19 UTC
I do not believe that this historic performance from 1965 has ever been
transferred to DVD,
although its original issuing company, VAI, which stopped selling VHS
tapes long ago,
DOES have some of its other copyrighted performances currently
available on DVD in the KULTUR catalogue.
Apparently, when Alicia Alonso danced the title role of the ballet in
Russia and attracted the notice of Galina Ulanova, the (much) younger
brother of Plisetskaya, Azari Plisetski, returned to Cuba with her and
was instrumental in bringing the Cuban ballet to its worldwide fame.
(Indeed,
Azari was recently invited by Baryshnikov to teach in America.)
Like the Fracci/Bruhn GISELLE taped five years later, this is a
motion picture version
which is as much an art film as a record of dance. Giselle's spirit
seems sometimes to vanish
into thin air as the audience is supposed to imagine but rarely sees
this way. There
is also, as in the Fracci/Bruhn film, a moment here and there where the
camera
does not show the dancing feet, hence one misses a bit of what one
would see onstage.
In this famous performance, Alonso is Giselle and Plisetski is
Albrecht. Fernando
Alonso dances a down-scaled version of Hilarion and Mirta Pla is a
wonderful Myrtha.
While the photography is rather amateur-ish, much of the Wilis scene
shown
in complete clarity on a small screen seems to slightly fade out on any
sort of
big screen televison, Alonso's performance is definitely worth seeing
on this
black and white version. The stage set is gorgeous and the version
quite
traditional. Alonso's famous lifts and entrechats quatres en diagonale
in
the grand pas is as glorious as one remembers, something not generally
done nowadays. The general production level reminds us that the corps
et
al in western companies was just not that glorious at the time. Indeed,
the corps in the 1977 taping of the ballet at ABT just isn't that much
better yet, nor is the photographic quality. This video is a treat for
those who have never seen a traditional full-out GISELLE, and much more
inclusive of the entire ballet than the
celebrated 1958 taping with Galina Ulanova and Nicolai Fadayechev.
transferred to DVD,
although its original issuing company, VAI, which stopped selling VHS
tapes long ago,
DOES have some of its other copyrighted performances currently
available on DVD in the KULTUR catalogue.
Apparently, when Alicia Alonso danced the title role of the ballet in
Russia and attracted the notice of Galina Ulanova, the (much) younger
brother of Plisetskaya, Azari Plisetski, returned to Cuba with her and
was instrumental in bringing the Cuban ballet to its worldwide fame.
(Indeed,
Azari was recently invited by Baryshnikov to teach in America.)
Like the Fracci/Bruhn GISELLE taped five years later, this is a
motion picture version
which is as much an art film as a record of dance. Giselle's spirit
seems sometimes to vanish
into thin air as the audience is supposed to imagine but rarely sees
this way. There
is also, as in the Fracci/Bruhn film, a moment here and there where the
camera
does not show the dancing feet, hence one misses a bit of what one
would see onstage.
In this famous performance, Alonso is Giselle and Plisetski is
Albrecht. Fernando
Alonso dances a down-scaled version of Hilarion and Mirta Pla is a
wonderful Myrtha.
While the photography is rather amateur-ish, much of the Wilis scene
shown
in complete clarity on a small screen seems to slightly fade out on any
sort of
big screen televison, Alonso's performance is definitely worth seeing
on this
black and white version. The stage set is gorgeous and the version
quite
traditional. Alonso's famous lifts and entrechats quatres en diagonale
in
the grand pas is as glorious as one remembers, something not generally
done nowadays. The general production level reminds us that the corps
et
al in western companies was just not that glorious at the time. Indeed,
the corps in the 1977 taping of the ballet at ABT just isn't that much
better yet, nor is the photographic quality. This video is a treat for
those who have never seen a traditional full-out GISELLE, and much more
inclusive of the entire ballet than the
celebrated 1958 taping with Galina Ulanova and Nicolai Fadayechev.