"Actor: Tamara Karsavina"

• The Glory Of The Kirov Ballet | DVD | (02/04/2001) from £18.67   |  Saving you £-0.68 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The Glory of the Kirov assembles footage from a variety of Russian sources--some of it, including moments from the early careers of famous defectors such as Nureyev and Baryshnikov, was previously suppressed and thought lost. The Kirov Ballet and Opera of St. Petersburg, and their earlier incarnation as the Maryinsky, have always been the Bolshoi's principal Russian rival and an impressive nursery of talent. This profile includes silent footage of the Ballet Russe's Tamara Karsavina doing her barre exercises as well as a classic extract from Ulanova's White Swan pas de deux in the 1940s. The 1960s are heavily represented here with extracts from Glazunov's Raymonda and Khatchaturian's Spartacus as well as even more famous repertory such as Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet and Petipa's choreography for Le Corsaire. There are also two versions of Fokine's Dying Swan, one from Olga Moiseyeva and a performance from Makarova whose sublimity almost makes us forget the tasteless arrangement of the Saint-Saens score for strings and Hollywood choir. This disc encapsulates the greatness of Russian ballet in its Soviet period as well as some of its lapses of taste. --Roz Kaveney