Prokofiev;Sergei Peter a/T Wol [Blu-ray] [Import]

Peter and the Wolf, with legendary music by Prokofiev, and choreography by Matthew Hart, is danced by (primarily) students of the Royal Ballet School. The enjoyability of this ballet demands a certain context: if viewed as an intellectual and intricate new story ballet, it falls flat. If viewed as a homey children's ballet, it excels. The most brilliant thing about the production is the music, created by the legendary Sergei Prokofiev in 1936. The choreography is inventive and modern, illustrating the story very well. What makes the production come together is Will Kemp's narration of the human and animal characters (including the different instruments that identify with each character), as well as his role as the grandfather. The wolf is danced by Sergei Polunin. Though not an especially technical role, dramatically, Polunin does it well. The other dancers, students of the Royal Ballet School, are cast and dance so well that at times, it's as if one is viewing the dancers of the Royal Opera House itself. Though minimalistic, the sets and lighting well-suit the ballet, adding to it's homey charm. The ballet is also fairly short, just around a half an hour, another reason why children would love it. The filming is excellent, and if viewed as a children's classic, the ballet is exceptional, if not ideal.

I'd recommend this to anyone with the desire to step towards bringing the world of ballet to their children, if not for the sake of revisiting their own homey children's tales.

I recently purchased this video of the Royal School of Ballet performing Peter and the Wolf to show to my music classes. I teach K-6 music in elementary school. I showed it in my K-3 classes (and even to one of my advanced bands, 5th and 6th graders), starting with an introduction to the instruments they would hear and a brief synopsis of the story. They LOVED it!!! During the viewing one kindergartner whispered to his classroom teacher, "This is a really good story!" The quality of the production is excellent, the dancing and costuming wonderful and imaginative, the characters animated and relatable. The narration keeps them well aware of the story line. It provides students and children with a great introduction to ballet and music in general.

This production of Peter and the Wolf - recorded at the Royal Ballet Theatre - features new choreography by Matthew Hart and stars Britain's Royal Ballet Theater principal dancer Sergei Polunin as the wolf. The Grandfather - and narrator - is played by Will Kemp. The rest of the cast are students at the Royal Ballet School. As Hart points out in the bonus 8-minute featurette, he wanted to have as many students on stage as possible, so he used them to create the lake (a la Busby Berkeley!) and the wall and the bushes. The costumes are very colorful and the 31-minute ballet moves quickly. This is a production that will appeal to children - who will relate to both the bright colors and the ages of the dancers.

Most of the movements are closer to Modern Dance than ballet. Polunin does leaps but there really is not a lot - if any- of pirouettes in the choreography.

The camera work is great and the image is sharp.

Another well-done DVD from Opus Arte

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"