Your first reaction
to this title might be to expect a disk
of modern ballet, but as you can see
from the program, this is mostly very
classical ballet. The newest music was
written 90 years ago, and the earliest
80 years before that.
The best thing on the
disk is the Sylvia. The music
is good, some of it quite familiar.
These two dancers are, in a word, sensational.
They project the image of youthful energy,
an utter disdain for gravity, and they
do so many pirouettes you’ll be holding
on to the arms of your chair to keep
from getting dizzy. My age or even much
younger, do not try this at home.
In Les Sylphides,
we see Baryshnikov clearly at his prime,
and his partner just as clearly a tiny
bit past hers. Originally the ballet
was called "Chopiniana" but
the title was changed at the first performances
in Paris to remind audiences of the
ballet La Sylphide (singular)
a very popular fairy ballet from 1832
for which the tutu was invented. Ironically,
most ballets from the earliest times
were set to involved plots and often
included sung arias and spoken words
as well as elaborate sets and stage
machinery. For a time the final dance
was reserved for the noble audience
to join in, at least in courtly procession.
What we think of as classical ballet,
all dances and no story, is really an
invention of the 19th century.
The Minkus is great
if you like zarzuela music, and the
dancers are fine, with Bujones very
charismatic and dashing, with flying
leaps. However, I don’t really care
for ballet quite this classical. After
an hour of watching skinny girls in
these very conventional costumes performing
the same five steps over and over and
over again I’m reaching for the fast
forward button. For me, ballet began
with Tchaikovsky, and in this program
only the Prokofiev qualifies. It is
the story of two brothers first consoling
each other in loneliness, and then competing
for the same girl who by her body language
could have walked right in off the streets
of New York. Is she actually popping
her bubble gum? At one point three guys
come in and rough everybody up a little
bit, but our heroes save the day. Anyway,
one brother gets the girl, and the other
gets to cry about it. I think the story
would have been easier to follow if
the two brothers didn’t look so nearly
exactly alike, but with identical hair
and wearing the same flame pattern red
leotards you lose track of who’s who,
if it was ever supposed to matter.
Even strictly classical
ballet is an explicitly sexual entertainment.
The obvious Freudian interpretation
of a man holding a woman and making
her fly can probably go without further
discussion. The dancers are almost completely
naked, the women with their skirts in
the air and their legs as far apart
as they can get, the men with their
intimate anatomical structure clearly
on display. Whatever one’s mindset one
does spend a lot of time staring at
crotches, perhaps wondering if when
the tutu was invented in France did
the girls wear any pants. Of course
the dancers are rubbing against each
other and touching and grabbing each
other everywhere. Viewed in this way,
the fairy dresses, the extreme Tinker-Bell
purity of concept in Les Sylphides
is an almost ludicrous Victorianism.
Modern ballet which was once considered
so shocking is really just a little
bit more of the same thing as always,
and perhaps more authentic to the origins
of the art.
Kids reared on films
like Crouching Tiger... and The
Matrix probably wonder why the girl
needs the guy to fly, why doesn’t she
just do it, the kids assuming
on the evidence of their own eyes that
the ability to fly is minimum qualification
for becoming an entertainer these days.
So take a good look
at classical ballet in this 19 year
old video; it’s probably an anachronism
already and very likely to disappear
soon. And a good look is what you get.
Picture quality is excellent, very clear,
and no NTSC colour jaggies. Some credit
must go to the stage designer and lighting
engineer as well as to the video director
and technicians. Two channel stereo
sound quality is quite good, and it
will open up nicely in your Dolby surround
decoder. Soloists in the orchestra (such
as the violin in the Prokofiev) are
amplified so they dominate the sound
texture.
Paul Shoemaker
American Ballet Theatre Orchestra 
WARNER
MUSIC VISION NVC ARTS 3984-26555-2 [100.00]
