Glazunov: Raymonda [DVD Video]
![Glazunov: Raymonda [DVD Video]](/images/Glazunov-Raymonda-DVD-Video-B000YRY7WQ-L.jpg)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Gennady Selyutsky, Irina Kolpakova, Kirov Ballet, Sergei BerezhnoiDVD: Region Code 0
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 131 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-12-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Video Artists Int'l
Movie Reviews of Glazunov: Raymonda [DVD Video]
Movie Review: Forget the dowdy costumes and sets and enjoy the dancing
Summary: 5 Stars
"Raymonda" is a ballet that is not very well-known to the casual balletomane. It is still popular in Russia and there have been intermittent revivals in the West (Rudolf Nureyev revived the ballet several times after he defected). But overall it's never become an iconic ballet the way Swan Lake or Sleeping Beauty has. I think this is mostly because of the very weak storyline. It involves a Hungarian princess, and two suitors -- one good, one bad, and something with the Crusades and ... oh forget it, it's just an excuse for some lovely, refined dancing. The score, by Alexander Glazunov, is lovely and tuneful but not really very dramatic.
This telecast, performed by the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet from around 1980 is my favorite Raymonda on video. This despite the grainy video, the rather ill-fitting costumes, and the flat out ugly sets that seem to flap in the background. The reason is the dancing of Irina Kolpakova in the title role. Kolpakova was no spring chicken when this was filmed (she was one of the last students of Agrippina Vaganova, and joined the Kirov in 1952), but all the things she was praised for throughout her career can be seen in abundance on this video. Charm, style, refinement, are all there from her opening solo to the famous "clapping" variation in the last act. Her port-te-bras is textbook perfect, and even at this late stage she still has a beautifully airy jump and a quickness of movement that gives the sometimes lugubrious ballet a joyful energy. She doesn't have to act the part of the young naive Hungarian princess -- she lets her dancing speak for itself. I remember Arlene Croce once saying about a few older ballerinas (and including Kolpakova in the group) that she "danced less but gave more." This is a performance to treasure.
Unfortunately, the men are not up to Kolpakova's level. The Kirov by the late 1970s had suffered terrible blows in the defections of Baryshnikov and Makarova, and the suicide of Yuri Soloviev. Sergei Berezhnoi and Gennady Selutsky are perfectly respectable but also unmemorable. Unlike Kolpakova, whose dancing personifies refinement, there's something a bit routine, rote, and even clunky about the dancing of the men. Abderakhman's costume has to be seen to be believed. Unfortunaely VAI does not document any of the other soloists.
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