Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32353 in DVD
• Brand: Royal
• Released on: 1997-02-27
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 105 minutes

Amazon.com
This ballet may be Tchaikovsky's grandest achievement, The Nutcracker's eternal popularity notwithstanding. And when in the hands (and feet!) of the Royal Ballet, whose superlative 1994 production has been taped for posterity, the composer's singular genius for dance becomes palpable to even the most casual viewers. With choreography by Marius Petipa (who updates Kenneth Macmillan's and Anthony Dowell's work from earlier stagings) and with Dowell's lovely production, the Royal Ballet demonstrates yet again its preeminence in the world of ballet. Viviana Durante dances the princess with otherworldly grace and fluidity, and her partner Zoltan Solymosi's prince is impossibly agile and equally graceful. Dowell even contributes wonderful comic relief as the evil fairy. Barry Wordsworth and the Royal Orchestra do Tchaikovsky's beautiful score, and the remarkable dancers, justice. A ballet company at its considerable performing peak has been preserved for all. --Kevin Filipski

From the Back Cover
"A production to last into the next century", this Royal Ballet performance of Tchaikovsky's beloved fairy tale features an all-star cast. 132 minutes, color, 1994. Cast:

Viviana Durante: Princess Aurora
Zoltan Solymosi: Prince Florimund
Anthony Dowell: Carabosse
Benazir Hussein: The Lilac Fairy
William Tuckett: King Florestan
Elizabeth McGorian: The Queen
David Drew: Court Chamberlain Cattabutte

Customer Reviews

A PERFECTLY BEAUTIFUL PRODUCTION
I needed a video so that my young daughter could see what she was working toward in her beginning ballet class. She'd seen a local performance of "The Nutcracker" but I wanted her to see a completely professional company at work. I couldn't have chosen better. The production is very traditional, best for a first-time experience. Durante is a marvelously delicate Aurora and Solymosi is every inch a prince. The video quality is excellent which cannot be said of very many ballet videos on the market. The lighting is such that every detail is visible and the sound quality is high. My only quibble is that the story scrolls by so fast that it is difficult to read it outloud. Very minor quibble, that!

An excellent video of a ballet classic.
It is generally agreed by ballet critics that video and film cannot capture the impact of a ballet performance, and are best used to record performances so that later dancers can see how it was done. However, these critics have the advantage of living in those few cities with well established ballet companies. Sleeping Beauty is a long ballet, with many roles, and thus is beyond the resources of all but the largest companies. This video is of an excellent performance by the Royal Ballet. The dancing, costuming, and sets are all excellent. The camera work also does a good job of making up for not being there in person.

Great Durante, hideous sets
The Royal Ballet has always regarded Sleeping Beauty as its calling card, from the days when Margot Fonteyn made a sensation in NYC as Aurora. Perhaps no other Petipa ballet is so suited to the Royal Ballet style -- regal, elegant, perhaps even a bit stiff.
In 1993, a much ballyhooed new production of Sleeping Beauty was unveiled at the Royal Ballet. It was produced by Anthony Dowell, and combined the truly bad (the sets, which were centered around bizarre skewed semi-circle steps at the back of the stage) with the ugly (the overfrilly-fussy tutus, the ugly hats on all the extras). The Prologue was especially unfortunate -- in ballet, scenery's first goal is to do no harm. The overwhelming, gray dome-shaped backdrop hovered over the fairies in the most unflattering way. Aurora's entrance is also ruined by the semi-circle steps -- she's supposed to bound onstage, a beacon of light and energy. In this production she has to gingerly negotiate the steps, ruining one of Sleeping Beauty's most charming moments. More importantly, the semi-circle acts as a barrier between the dancers and the court onlookers. It has the unintentional effect of making the court proceedings look terribly remote.
The Aurora of this production, Viviana Durante, is in many ways a remarkable dancer. Tiny, with a face that's not particularly beautiful, she wins us over by the sheer solidity of her dancing. It'd be hard to improve on her balances in the Rose Adagio -- no wobbling, no shaking, no frantic grabbing of the next prince's hand. In many ways, she's the perfect British Aurora. Earthbound and very classical, she omits all the big grand jetes that the Russian Auroras are so fond of. Whereas Russian Auroras with their heavily arched placement of their back, neck, head and even legs usually struggle in the Rose Adagio and triumph in the Vision Scene, Viviana is the opposite. There's nothing ethereal about Viviana. She has an incredible vertical alignment and sense of balance. Nothing can shake this -- no attitude, no balance, no developpe. If I make Viviana Durante's Aurora sound charmless, I dont mean to. In fact, her solidity *is* the charm. By the final pdd with the famous fishdives, Viviana had thoroughly won me over, not by her smile or her looks or her ethereal jumps, but by her absolute consistency. It's a joy to see the demands of a role so wonderfully mastered.
Benazir Hussein is the Lilac Fairy, and perhaps the weakest link in the cast. Her very ordinariness is a detriment to a role that requires extraordinary grace and charm. Technically, she's weak. In the Prologue she fumbles the Lilac Fairy's variation. The Lilac Fairy is supposed to turn, kick her leg up in attitude, turn again, kick again, and so on, never putting her free leg down. Benazir can't pull this trick off, and she substitutes a turn, followed by an arabesque. But she struggles even with this easier variation. She has to stop after two turns, puts her free leg down, does two pirouettes, and lamely tries the variation again. She does this in an incredibly sloppy way, travelling all over the stage. Not one of the video's highlights.
Prince Florimund has perhaps the weakest role of all -- he does little other than support Aurora in the Vision Scene and Wedding. Zoltan Solymosi does a fine job, but he is way too tall for the tiny Durante (the original Aurora was supposed to have been the very tall Bussell, who pulled out due to injury).
Anthony Dowell is the Carabosse. Future star Leanne Benjamin is the Florine (and a good one I might add).
One other thing to add: the Royal Ballet version keeps much of the mime of Sleeping Beauty, whereas the Soviet versions eschew the mime. To me, mime is important in Sleeping Beauty, to flesh out the fairy tale. When a storyline is so thin, mime breathes life into the ballet.