Cheap Le Corsaire / The Kirov Ballet (Video) Price

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Customer Reviews of Le Corsaire / The Kirov Ballet

The Kirov Ballet At It's Best!
This was worth every penny!! There was nothing bad to say about it. The costumes were tremendous, the scenery was extremely elegant, tasteful, and realistic, and the dancing was beyond great; it was terrific!!! There were so many great additions too. At the beginning and end, the Corsaire sails on a real ship with great waves, and the lighting on the stage looks very much like sand. This is a must-have for everyone, and you won't regret it if you buy it.

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The Kirov's Flare for the Exotic Shines Like a Diamond
This ballet was staged for the first time in Paris in 1856 to choreography by Joseph Mazalier. It was great success, mostly due to the exotic setting of the plot being, I believe, somewhere in the Middle East, and its beautiful score by Adolphe Adam. The ballet was staged for the Russian Czar's Imperial Ballet in St Petersburg in 1858 by Jules Perrot, cheif choreographer at the Paris Opera.

The ballet was revised several times afterward by the great choreographer Marius Petipa (Creator of "La Bayadere, "The Sleeping Beauty", "Swan Lake", "Nutcracker") who by the time the ballet had come to Russia, was chief ballet master and choreographer of the Imperial Ballet. He consistantly reworked the choreography adding music by many composers other than Adam: Cesare Pugni, Prince Oldenbourg, Leo Delibes, Leon Minkus, and Ricardo Drigo.

The ballet was unkown out side of Russia untill the famous dancer Rudolf Nureyev defected from the Kirov Ballet ( formorly the Imperial Ballet)of the Soviet Union in 1962. For himself and his partner Margot Fonteyn, he staged the "Le Corsaire" pas de deux. This number (not by Adolphe Adam but added in by Petipa in 1899 to music of Ricardo Drigo) has become the ultimate virtuoso peice to show off technique and flash. But the full length work was not staged in the west for many years. In the mid 90's, it was staged for the Boston Ballet by the great Russian ballerina Natalia Dudinskaya and later, that version was staged for American Ballet Theatre. It has been mounted by ballet companies the world over since.

Here, we have the Kirov performing in 1990 in a spetacular update of the great spectacle. The dancers are the finest of Russian schooling and dance with the utmost virtuosity. Altinai Assylmorotva is divine in her interpretation of Medora, displaying the exoticism of the setting. Yelena Pankova's Gulnare is charming, and she displays much grandeur in the Pas D'sclave. The men are exceptional as well, Farukh Ruzimatov is the perfect slave Ali with his flamboyant self. Konstantin Zaklinsky is cocky and mean as Lankendem. It is quite a treat to see these late 20th century dancers of the Kirov, who have been coached by the direct descendants of ballet's greatest artists, display how amazingly ballet dancing has evolved in Russia.

This spectacular prodution has supreme dancing, lavish sets and costumes, and makes American Ballet Theatre's version look lame! Five stars!

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delightful
This deserves five stars on all aspects of the production: the costumes, the music, the developing of the story line, and best of all - the dancing! Generally I find the Kirov's costumes very uninteresting and even dull sometimes. But this is a happy exception, they are lovely. The music is melodious and wonderfully danceable - it is a compilation of four composer's work. You could almost not want a better cast in Yefgeni Neff, Asylmuratova, Pankova, Ruzimatov, and Zaklinsky.

Altynai Asylmuratova gives a magnificent performance as Medora. Her acting is superb, her first entrance on the stage is electrically joyous. I can watch it over and over again. In the slave market scene her every move expresses desperation, which is also embodied in the music. The more I see of her the more I realise what an exceptional dancer she is. Unfortunately there is not all that much of her on video. Yelena Pankova as Gulnare has a feather-lightness to her dancing, and together with her fragile looks it suits the music perfectly. Ruzimatov is of course marvelous in the part he does so well, the well known `le corsaire' pas de deux. Apart from that he has not got all that much to do. This video is a total visual excitement in every sense.