Essential Ballet (Kirov Ballet) (1993) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Ballet	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1993
Running Time	116:14
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (57:43)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Floral Street Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	The Kirov Ballet
Case	Flexbox
RPI	$36.95	Music	The Kirov Orchestra The Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra

    I know almost nothing about ballet, except for a recent viewing of Billy Elliot, so this is the first full ballet that I have ever seen. I volunteered to review this disc, primarily as a learning experience. I wanted to sample some classical music and also have a chance to view a dance genre that I have somehow managed to avoid in the past. I'll stick pretty much to describing the content and the quality of the video and audio. I'll not pass any judgement on the quality of the actual dancing as it could be good or bad and I still wouldn't know it.

    Essential Ballet contains two separate features. Feature One sees the Kirov Ballet performing at Covent Garden in London, with musical accompaniment from the Kirov Orchestra. This was filmed in 1992 in the presence of HRH Diana Princess of Wales and is a very formal occasion. The following pieces are presented;

• Eugene Onegin - Tchaikovsky

• Paquita -  Minkus

• Swan Lake - Tchaikovsky

• The Leaves are Fading - Dvorak

• The Nutcracker - Tchaikovsky

• Diana & Acteon - Drigo

    Feature Two sees an outdoor gala performance in Moscow's Red Square, with music from the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. This is a less formal occasion as many of the audience appear to be your average Muscovite out for a good night. The following pieces are presented;

• The Sleeping Beauty - Tchaikovsky

• Le Corsaire - Adam

• Giselle - Adam

• Aniuta - Gavrilin

• The Firebird Suite - Stravinsky

• The Dying Swan - Saint-Saens

• Don Quixote - Minkus

Video

    Essential Ballet is presented in an aspect of 1.33:1 and is therefore not 16x9 enhanced. This is an NTSC disc, so your display device will need to be capable of displaying this format.

    Sharpness and shadow level are excellent, although there certainly isn't much variety in terms of lighting or camera angles to show up any inadequacies.

    Colours are quite muted, with little vibrancy. Most of the dancers' costumes are white and except for a couple exhibiting minor colour bleeding they are well-rendered.

    There were no MPEG artefacts or any other video problems noted.

    This is an RSDL-formatted disc, with the layer change occurring between the two features at 57:43.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two soundtracks present on this disc; a Dolby Digital 5.1 track and a PCM Stereo 2.0 track. I listened to both tracks in about equal portions. Both are excellent, though the centre and surround use on the second feature provide a fuller and wider soundstage that seems to capture the variety of the orchestral instruments more.

    There are no dialogue problems as there is obviously no dialogue!

    The music presented is a nice variety of classical music for the novice listener such as myself, with a mixture of unfamiliar pieces and a couple of instantly recognisable classics on offer.

    Surround use was mostly evident during the second feature with significant amounts of the orchestra playing through the rears in addition to most of the audience sounds. The subwoofer had little use.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are no extras.

    This is a multi-region disc, and is the same the world over.

    Essential Ballet is a good disc to use as an introduction to ballet and classical music as it presents some variety with lesser known pieces in addition to some instantly recognizable pieces such as The Nutcracker. The quality of the video is consistent with my expectations given the source material. The quality of the audio is excellent. There are no extras at all, which is disappointing.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall