Stravinsky and the Ballets Rus

Finding a decent production of Stravinsky's first ballet, The Firebird, on DVD is fairly easy. Finding one of his most popular (and notorious) ballet, Le Sacre du Printemps (The Rite of Spring), is not so easy. Thankfully, this DVD contains both of these great 20th century works, performed energetically by the Mariinsky Orchestra and Ballet, under the baton of the great Russian conductor Valery Gergiev.
CD recordings of both of these works, conducted by Gergiev, have received positive reviews. For this DVD, great care went into researching and trying to reconstruct the original choreography. The faithful reproduction of these works are primarily the responsibility of dance historian Kenneth Archer and choreographer Millicent Hodson. Both took great care in presenting these ballets as they might have been seen in 1910 and, scandalously, in 1913, when the debut of Le Sacre du Printemps caused a riot when it appeared at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees.
Fans of ballet and contemporary dance should not hesitate in picking up this DVD. Both performances were filmed in HD, and many camera angles (including aerial) are used to show the work that went into staging these great ballets. Extras include an interview with Archer and Hodson, rehearsal sequences, and historical information about Stravinsky, the dancer Vaslav Nijinsky, and the impresario Serge Diaghilev. This DVD is released in time to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Ballet Russes.

Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring / Alexander Scriabin: The Poem of Ecstasy - Valery Gergiev / Kirov Orchestra
Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird (Complete Ballet, 1910) / Alexander Scriabin: Prometheus - The Poem of Fire - Valery Gergiev / Kirov Orchestra, St. Petersburg / Alexander Toradze

To start off, two great things in this DVD's favor: It's in HD and Valery Gergiev is conducting.

Firebird: I believe I own a copy of every DVD of this ballet: This one goes right to the top for some important reasons. Gergiev: I've always liked his cd of this music, and if anything his interpretation here is even more musical, more luminous, more coloristic here than on the cd. (!) Worth buying for the audio portion alone. Ekaterina Kondaurova as The Firebird: Absolutely spell-binding. You can see her dance some Forsythe on YouTube and she is a WOW as a Forsythe dancer, even better, I would say, than Sylvie Guillem (and that is saying something). She's 5'8", over 6' en pointe, and that alone gives her a great stage presence--a commanding presence in this ballet especially where that commanding presence is almost a requirement. And talk about expressive!: every part of her body, including the most mesmerizing arms and hands. Leeann Benjamin--my now-second-favorite Firebird--says that this is the most difficult ballet to dance because there are so many jumps and you have to do them all while giving the impression somehow of a bird. Kondaurova does just that. (A special personal delight: In the pas de deux between the Firebird and Ivan, at one point he carries her on his shoulder, during which, in all the other recordings, she does something which resembles the breast stroke and which looks silly to me. Kondaurova manages to look fetchingly bird-like and not do this swim stroke at all.) She dances with great amplitude, suppleness and clarity and makes great use of her arched Russian back. I could watch this DVD forever, I think, and never tire in the least of her dancing--it's that wonderful. Ilya Kuznetsov as Ivan: Wow! All other Ivans look rather pale beside his, including Liepa's. Here's a role with no actual dancing in it (unless you consider partnering dancing)--I would think, a rather thankless role--but he gives to it unstintingly. You can easily read all kinds of emotions appropriate to, and enhancing of, the drama in his face, his manner. Bravo! "There are no small parts,..." I could go on, but you get the picture I am sure.

Le Sacre du Printemps: This is a reproduction--as best as can be in this time--of the original that caused such a sensation. Very much an ensemble ballet, much like Les Noces. Everything that is/was classical ballet was thrown out the window: no pointe shoes, no figure-revealing costumes, no classical ballet vocabulary, and not even any turn-out (it's in fact all turn-IN instead)! By-and-large the dancers do a good job of creating an atmosphere of a pagan rite, but for me, at least, it could still look MORE pagan, more primitive. And The Chosen One, Alexandra Iosifidi, is tall (also) and is gorgeous, but to me never looks, while she is standing dead still or while she is dancing, that she is AFRAID. (I would love to see the Joffrey make a DVD of their "Rite" (even without Gergiev) to see how it stacks up, as I have read great things about it.) Of course, she is gorgeous and you can't get a more beautiful name than "Iosifidi". Gergiev is once again magnificent.

All-in-all, very highly recommended.

Young Russian composer Igor Stravinsky's first ballet The Firebird created a sensation in Paris when it was first presented in 1910 by Les Ballets Russes. The second of the trio, Petroushka, appeared the following year. The third,Le Sacre du Printemps, the most revolutionary ballet ever performed and almost impossible to dance because of its irregular rhythms, caused a riot at its premiere in 1913.
Now it is possible to see what caused the uproar with the recreation of the original performances of Firebird and Rite of Spring by the Mariinsky Orchestra and Ballet. Both outstanding performances are conducted by Valery Gergiev and are based on the original choreography by Michel Fokine for Firebird and Vaslav Nijinsky for Rite of Spring.
There are several excellent performances on DVD of The Firebird and a few of The Rite of Spring, but this one is unique. It allows you to see what the Paris audiences saw at the beginning of the last century. Both performances still look revolutionary today. Ballet has never been the same since.

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