The Glory of the Bolshoi (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Ballet	Booklet Web Links
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	90:04 (Case: 96)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Natalia Bessmertnova Vakhtang Chaboukiani Ekaterina Geltzer Musa Gottlieb Pyotr Gusev Mikhail Lavrovksy Olga Lepeshinskaya Maris Liepa Ekaterina Maximova Maya Plisetskaya Marina Semenova Galina Ulanova Valdimir Vasiliev
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$39.95	Music	Various

   When one talks about great ballet companies of the world, there is perhaps one above all others that would be immediately known - The Bolshoi, one of two great Russian companies, the other being The Kirov. Now I may not be the greatest example of a ballet fan around but even I can appreciate a collection of extracts that demonstrate the art of some of the most famous dancers to have danced with the famed company. Whilst I have not heard of most of the dancers, it does not take much to realise that they have some serious talent. This collection of filmed extracts is a terrific voyage through the best of the best, even if at 90 minutes it is far too short to do justice to them. Mind you, it does show up quite obviously how the ideal ballet body has changed over the course of the past century. The oldest extract on offer here officially dates from 1913, although many believe it to date from 1911, and the most recent dates from 1984. Over the course of that period, the male dancer has changed from someone who looks roughly like a front-rower on a union team to the more svelte but athletic looking type that seems to be the norm today.

   The extracts on offer here are:

1. Chopin Les Sylphides - Waltz, choreographed by Fokine, danced by Galina Ulanova and Vladimir Preobrazhensky (1952)
2. Schubert Moment Musical - pas de deux, unknown choreographer, danced by Ekaterina Geltzer and Vasili Tikhomirov (1913)
3. Moszkowski Moszkowski Waltz, choreographed by Vainonen, danced by Olga Lepeshinskaya and Pyotr Gusev (1940)
4. Tchaikovsky Swan Lake - White Swan pas de deux, choreographed by Ivanov, danced by Marina Semenova and Yuri Kondratov (1946)
5. Tchaikovsky Swan Lake - Black Swan pas de deux, choreographed by Petipa, danced by Maya Plisetskaya (1947)
6. Gliere Ribbon Dance, choreographed by Messerer and Lashchulin, danced by Asaf Messerer (1940)
7. Boston Waltz, unknown choreographer, danced by Marina Semenova (1934)
8. Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker - pas de trois, choreographed by Vainonen, danced by Alla Mankevich, Ekaterina Maximova and Vladimir Vasiliev (1953)
9. Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker - Sugar Plum Fairy solo, choreographed by Ivanov, danced by Ekaterina Maximova (1958)
10. Solo sequences from La Corsaire, Laurencia and Don Quixote, choreographed by Petipa, Chaboukiani and Petipa, danced by Ekaterina Maximova and Vladimir Vasiliev (1960s)
11. Khachaturian Spartacus (excerpts), choreographed by Grigorovich, danced by Ekaterina Maximova, Maris Liepa and Vladimir Vasiliev (1968) and Natalia Bessmertnova, Mikhail Gabovich and Irek Mukhamedov (1984)
12. Yarullin Shuraleh - pas de deux, choreographed by Jacobson, danced by Maya Plisetskaya and Yuri Kondratov (1955)
13. Schumann Etude, unknown choreographer, danced by Galina Ulanova and Yuri Kondratov (1951)
14. Asafiev The Fountain of Bakhchiserai (excerpts), choreographed by Zakharov, danced by Galina Ulanova, Yuri Zhdanov, Maya Plisetskaya and Pyotr Gusev (1953)
15. Asafiev The Flames Of Paris - pas de deux, choreographed by Vainonen, danced by Musa Gottlieb and Vakhtang Chaboukiani (1953)
16. Ravel Ravel Waltzes, choreographed by Lavrovsky, danced by Natalia Bessmertnova and Mikhail Lavrovsky (1964)
17. Rachmaninov Paganini, choreographed by Lavrovsky, danced by Ekaterina Maximova and Yaroslav Sekh (1964)
18. Shchedrin The Little Humpbacked Horse, choreographed by Radunsky, danced by Maya Plisetskaya and Vladimir Vasiliev (1964)

   This is a rather intriguing mix of dance, some classical ballet and some abstract ballet, with a bit of stuff in between. Whatever the style of ballet though, the style of dancers is equally intriguing. Marina Semenova is the epitome of the Soviet woman that was so pushed by the Communist propaganda machine, but she gave way to a much more attractive style of dancer. And it is three of those dancers that stand out here: Ekaterina Maximova, Maya Plisetskaya and Natalia Bessmertnova. They alone provide plenty of highlights here, and provide a clear bunch of examples as to why the current crop of emaciated (or is that anorexic?) dancers have plenty to learn from the history of the art. The male dancers are on the whole a little less distinctive although there is plenty to admire in the skill department there too.

   This is one of those DVDs that hung around the unwanted pile for a while before it managed to make someone's pile. Whilst I would not proclaim it a gem in the rough, there is certainly a lot more here I enjoyed than I was expecting. A fascinating collection of some rather rare footage that would probably have the true fans of ballet in fits of ecstasy. Whatever your views on ballet, there is nothing here to prevent an outright recommendation, all things considered.

Video

    What we have on offer here is a collection of rare archival footage that was given some restoration in the mid 1990s in order to allow its release. Naturally, with the age of the source material varying so much, there is plenty of inconsistency in the material but overall this is no worse than I was expecting.

    All the footage is presented in a Full Frame format and it is not 16x9 enhanced.

    Despite the wide range in age of the material, there is a better degree of sharpness here than I was expecting and only one or two of the extracts descend into diffuse messes that have little or no real depth of field to them. Indeed, the 1913 piece is extremely good in comparison to other pre-1930 material I have seen on DVD. Detail is generally quite good, with just a couple of extracts showing some very limited detail owing to mistiness in the video material. Shadow detail is average as we would expect from this sort of material. Clarity is not especially great as there are various degrees of grain on offer here. Some of it gets pretty ropey but generally it falls in the category of noticeable but bearable. There seems to be some problems with low level noise in the transfer in a couple of extracts.

    This is a mixture of black and white and colour footage. The term black and white is pretty much used advisedly, as there is little actual black and white on offer and rather the tone is light grey and dark grey. Whilst I would certainly have loved to seen much better than we have here, I recognise that this is being a tad unrealistic. The colour material is all on the undersaturated side, but in general looks quite good all the same. Only the Paganini shows some disturbing lapses in colour, being a little too yellow in tone and with a high degree of fluctuation in the tones to boot. Nothing here to really rave over but equally nothing to really complain about. There is nothing approaching bright and vibrant transfers here, and there is no problem with oversaturation or colour bleed.

    There did not appear to be any significant MPEG artefacts in the transfer, although pan shots show the characteristic loss of resolution for material of this age. Apart from some obvious shimmer in the background of some pieces, there are no real problems with film-to-video artefacts in the transfer. There are plenty of film artefacts in the transfers, some rather too noticeable. Nonetheless, this is to be expected in material of this age and I cannot say that I found it that distracting.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is just the one soundtrack on offer on the DVD, being an Audio Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

    The music comes up quite well in the soundtrack, although we are talking about a relatively aged collection of source material and it really does show at times. The main issue is the degree of hiss in the soundtrack. Since there is only music on offer here, there is nothing obviously awry with the sync in the transfer.

    The music comes from a rather varied collection of composers, from some of the greats to some of the unknowns. Most of it is distinctive enough and does a good job of providing the backdrop to the choreography on display.

    The obvious trait in the sound is the hiss, and at times it is pretty distracting. However, having been used to the vagaries of Russian archival music recordings on compact disc, I really could not say that this was unlistenable at all. The lack of consistency in the sound is the other obvious trait, and this ranges from quite decent to quite strident at times. You can pretty much forget anything in the way of surround channel use here - this is predominantly mono sound and even when stereo makes an appearance, there is not a whole heap of stereo effect. There is certainly nothing in the way of rear channel use at all, and the subwoofer can take a serious holiday here. Regrettably, the vagaries of Russian archiving has seen several of the pieces here suffer from distortion and crackles. There are also a few dropouts here and there but overall nothing that really would have us rioting in the streets.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    Well, not exactly sod all, but pretty close to it!

Menu

    Nothing terrific, but it does the minor job it needs to do in a suitably clean looking way.

Booklet

    A serious underachievement in my view. Just a few pages of very brief notes about each piece and the significance thereof. I seriously missed the chance for a read of some biographical notes and a history of this famed company. Basically, a serious chance to provide something decent has gone begging big time.

Web Links

    I really wish that NVC Arts would lose this waste of time and space. It is the obligatory automated link to their web site.

    As far as we have been able to ascertain, this has not yet graced the Region 1 release sheets.

    The Glory Of The Bolshoi is a better than decent look at some rare archival footage of one of the greatest ballet companies of all time. The only serious downers on the whole package are the length, which really deserves to be about twice the length that we have here, and the lack of an adequate extras package. Whilst the audio and video transfers have some problems, in the main these are no worse than I would be expecting in this vintage source material. If you have an interest in the art, then there is every reason for you to be indulging in this effort. Non-fans might well consider this for it is a fascinating look at the changes in ballet over the course of seventy years.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall