Rudolf Nureyev (1938-1993) is once again hot news. 
          This year marks the 20
th anniversary of his death and, as 
          detailed by his eponymous Foundation’s own website (
see 
          here), many of the world’s leading ballet companies are marking 
          the fact. As the dancer/choreographer/producer was closely associated 
          with both London and Paris, it is hardly surprising that it is those 
          two capitals that account for the majority of the commemorative events. 
          
            
          Nureyev was both an intensely charismatic and a polarising figure in 
          the world of dance. But he was also, in one respect, exceptionally fortunate. 
          Even though occasional attempts to put him on a par with the likes of 
          the Beatles or Andy Warhol as a 1960s cultural icon do seem somewhat 
          far fetched, his fame - and, indeed, his later notoriety - did extend 
          way beyond the rarefied world of ballet. From the very day of his defection 
          to the West at Paris’s Le Bourget airport in June 1961, dramatically 
          defying the KGB’s attempts to entice him onto a plane back to 
          Moscow, Nureyev was always hugely newsworthy. As a consequence, he was 
          far more often filmed, both in his normal everyday life and, thankfully, 
          in performance, than any other dancer of his generation. 
            
          Warner Classics’ nod to the 20
th anniversary is a box 
          set of three Nureyev filmed performances/productions, conveniently - 
          if, as we shall note later, not necessarily felicitously - collected 
          together and available both on Blu-ray and DVD. 
            
          Nureyev as dancer and choreographer (“after Petipa”) is 
          to be found in the earliest material. It’s a rather odd feature 
          film, made for cinema, of the ballet 
Don Quixote, far more of 
          a rarity on the stage in 1972 but thankfully becoming much better known 
          these days. I reviewed this disc just last year - 
see 
          here. For now, then, I will merely repeat that a jet-lagged Nureyev, 
          suffering, moreover, in the intense Australian heat, appears not to 
          gel with a cast that was, to be fair, largely unknown to him. His partner 
          Lucette Aldous gives a comparatively low-key performance that may well 
          disappoint anyone familiar with the flashy pyrotechnics of, say, Nina 
          Ananiashvili or, more recently, Natalia Osipova. Meanwhile, John Lanchbery’s 
          unnecessary and sometimes rather crude and vulgar tinkerings with the 
          score may well have been at Nureyev’s request but do, nevertheless, 
          a real disservice to Minkus’s beautifully crafted music. 
            
          The disc’s partially redeeming features - a splendid contribution 
          from Robert Helpmann, some imaginative camerawork and a thorough restoration 
          process what has brought the original colours back to life quite superbly 
          for this reissue - along with the desirability of watching, at least 
          once, anything in which Nureyev performed, mean, though, that it need 
          not necessarily be ruled entirely out of court. 
            
          Neither of the other two performances in this set showcases Nureyev 
          the dancer. In September 1983 he had taken up the post of Artistic Director 
          at the Paris Opera Ballet and had gone on to mount his own new productions 
          of, among others, 
Romeo and Juliet (1984) and 
La Bayadère 
          (1992). Discs 2 and 3 of this set contain Paris performances of those 
          two. Both, it is true, were recorded after Nureyev’s death. But 
          both feature dancers with whom he had personally worked and both were 
          recorded sufficiently shortly after his death for his influence to be 
          still apparent. This set’s Romeo, for instance, is Manuel Legris, 
          a particularly favoured protégé who had enjoyed a spectacular 
          rise to prominence in the Paris company under Nureyev’s patronage. 
          Within just six years of joining the ranks of the 
corps de ballet 
          in 1980, the 21 year old completely bypassed the intervening rank of 
          
Premier Danseur when Nureyev, in a dramatically contrived moment 
          on stage in front of a wildly applauding New York audience and to the 
          surprise of everyone, not least Legris himself, personally promoted 
          him from 
Sujet to the highest company rank of 
Etoile. 
          
            
          Taking the earlier of these recordings, 
La Bayadère, first, 
          I have to agree with my colleague Dave Billinge who described the production 
          - with choreography by Nureyev, once again “after Petipa” 
          - as “spectacular to look at, brilliantly costumed (literally) 
          and with magnificent sets to act as background to some top class dancing. 
          All the principals are at the top of their profession and the large 
          
corps de ballet has a level of precision that leaves one breathless 
          - Classical ballet 
par excellence - ” (
see 
          here). I would certainly second all those points but I beg to differ 
          with some of the others that Dave goes on to make. Some of my disagreements 
          are minor and subjective and nothing to do with Nureyev at all. I find 
          Minkus’s score, for instance, far more enjoyable - and well constructed 
          for Petipa’s choreographic requirements - than Dave does. Similarly, 
          I espouse what is almost certainly a minority opinion in considering 
          
La Bayadère’s “real life” drama to be 
          rather more involving than the supernatural fantasticalities of Dave’s 
          beloved 
Swan Lake. 
          
  
          The really major objection that I have to Nureyev’s production 
          is that he fails to tackle the issue of the “missing” fourth 
          Act. While, even today, the Paris and the major Russian dance companies 
          choose to end the drama with flawed hero Solor’s opium-induced 
          vision of the celebrated Kingdom of the Shades, several other companies 
          now opt for Natalia Makarova’s addition of a reconstructed final 
          Act that brings the story to a more emotionally satisfying conclusion. 
          Anyone who is mainly familiar with 
La Bayadère through 
          the Royal Ballet’s two filmed productions (see 
here 
          and 
here) 
          or the splendid one from La Scala, Milan (TDK DVWW-BLLBSC), will find 
          the Nureyev production lacking not just a full 21 or so extra minutes 
          of music and dancing but a final cathartic emotional resolution to the 
          story. That having been said, Nureyev’s production does include 
          some attractive elements that Makarova did 
not include, most 
          notably a spectacular 
Indian dance that raises the Palais Garnier 
          roof and actually inspired me, back in 2005, to e-mail my enthusiastic 
          appreciation to the charismatic dancer Gil Isoart - whose kind but rather 
          succinct response read, in full, “I just watch your message thank 
          you very much for it.” 
            
          Moving on to the set’s final disc, the 1995 performance of 
Romeo 
          and Juliet certainly looks very good, with attractive, well lit 
          sets and costumes so gorgeous that even Verona’s whores must be 
          doing fantastic business to pay for their outfits. They and the rest 
          of the Paris 
corps de ballet dance with their usual degree of 
          well-executed precision, while the principals are, as one would expect, 
          equally skilled. 
            
          Manuel Legris’s - or, rather, Nureyev’s - conception of 
          Romeo is as a thoughtful dreamer, somewhat reminiscent the 1930s actor 
          Leslie Howard in his film interpretation. He dances beautifully and 
          with great grace, but lacks the sheer charisma, raw sexuality and stage 
          presence that Nureyev himself brought to the part. I took a little time 
          to warm to Monique Loudières’s Juliet, though that, I think, 
          is a reflection of the role itself where she is only gradually brought 
          to maturity by her interaction with her lover. Her technique is of the 
          highest quality. Of the other leading roles, I found Charles Jude’s 
          depiction of Tybalt as a poisonously violent psychopath particularly 
          effective, while Annie Carbonnel dances a more than usually jolly - 
          and, in the midst of all the bloody circumstances, surprisingly relaxed 
          and apparently stress-free - nurse. 
            
          The Paris Opera Ballet sets are surprisingly spacious, making full use 
          of the wide and deep stage in the crowd scenes. That makes an interesting 
          contrast with the famous Kenneth MacMillan Royal Ballet production in 
          which Nureyev himself had created the original role of Romeo in 1965. 
          The Scottish choreographer brings more of the action to the front of 
          stage where some impressive sets create darker, more claustrophobic 
          spaces that symbolically emphasise the characters’ pent-up, indeed, 
          often lethal, inner passions.  
            
          The Paris production’s musical performance comes as something 
          of a contrast with London too. In general, conductor Vello Päh 
          leads a more stately and more orchestrally-blended account, less raw 
          and edgy than his British counterparts: the sections of the score that 
          depict the ballet’s many fight sequences offer good illustrations. 
          That is of a piece with the two contrasting productions, for Nureyev 
          deliberately eschews many of the rough edges that MacMillan intentionally 
          chose to emphasise. On the other hand, the more refined Paris approach 
          pays off well in quieter, more lyrical scenes such as the “balcony” 
          
pas de deux or the scene where the lovers implore Friar Laurence 
          for his help. 
            
          There are the usually encountered problems when close-ups occur in ballet. 
          While the theatre audience is fortunately too far away to see, a probing 
          camera clearly shows that “corpses” - of which 
Romeo 
          and Juliet boasts rather a lot - are breathing and our suspension 
          of disbelief is thereby abruptly, if only momentarily, destroyed. 
            
          The presentation of these discs is also rather questionable. Given that 
          they are being packaged and marketed as a unified, themed set, is it 
          too much to ask that the separate discs might have been provided with 
          a uniform identity on their front edges? I realise that doing so might 
          well have incurred some extra manufacturing costs, but it would at least 
          have avoided giving the impression that Warner Classics was simply repackaging 
          some old stock. 
            
          In my particular case, another area of annoyance with the finished product 
          was the lack of uniformity in the information that they communicated 
          to my DVD/Blu-Ray player. Whereas 
Don Quixote showed its track 
          number and its timing on the front panel display, both the other discs 
          simply generated the word PLAY. That was not the most helpful information 
          for a reviewer keen to pinpoint specific timings for his readers’ 
          reference but not prepared to sit there in front of the TV screen with 
          an old stopwatch. 
            
          A more serious issue to bear in mind - and one that affects all three 
          of these discs - is that while Blu-Ray technology may well be able to 
          maximise the quality of the visual image, it can only maximise it 
to 
          the quality of the original recording at its best. None of these 
          productions had been originally filmed in high definition. Today, many 
          other Blu-Ray/DVD releases of this repertoire can boast HD filming and 
          many viewers have, perhaps sadly, come to regard that as a 
sine qua 
          non. Faced with alternatives such as the memorable and hugely enjoyable 
          2006 Mariinsky Ballet 
Don Quixote (
see 
          here), the outstanding 2009 Covent Garden 
La Bayadère 
          or its equally attractive 2006 La Scala equivalent, and either one of 
          the recent Royal Ballet releases of 
Romeo and Juliet (see 
here 
          and 
here), 
          I suspect that many potential buyers may not even consider these older 
          and occasionally somewhat grainy recordings of the Nureyev productions. 
          
            
          That would, though, be a great shame. Rudolf Nureyev was without doubt 
          an egotistical, selfish and, pretty often, not even a very pleasant 
          man to be around. Equally, though, he was certainly a much larger than 
          life character who gave classical ballet a profile on the international 
          arts scene that it sorely lacks today. 
            
          As the current live commemorations in theatres across the world are 
          demonstrating, Nureyev’s legacy has certainly lived on - but it 
          deserves, perhaps, somewhat better recognition than is offered by this 
          particular box set. 
            
          
Rob Maynard 
            
          Nureyev’s legacy deserves somewhat better recognition than is 
          offered by this particular box set.  
          
          Performance details
          
Léon MINKUS  (1826-1917) 
          Don Quixote - ballet (1869) [127:00] 
          Choreography by Rudolf Nureyev after Petipa
          Additional music by John Lanchbery 
          Don Quixote - Robert Helpmann
          Sancho Panza - Ray Powell
          Basilio - Rudolf Nureyev
          Lorenzo - Francis Croese
          Kitri/Dulcinea - Lucette Aldous
          Gamache - Colin Peasley
          Street dancer/Dryad queen - Marilyn Rowe
          Estrada - Kelvin Coe
          Two girl friends - Gailene Stock; Carolyn Rappell 
          Matadors - Ronald Bekker, John Meehan, Rex McNeil, Rodney Smith, Joseph 
          Janusaites, Frederic Werner 
          Gypsy dancers - Alan Alder, Paul Saliba 
          Gypsy king - Ronald Bekker 
          Gypsy queen - Susan Dains
          Two gypsy girls - Julia da Costa, Leigh Rowles 
          Cupid - Patricia Cox
          Leading fandango couple - Janet Vernon, Gary Norman 
          Artists of the Australian Ballet
          The Elizabethan Trust Melbourne Orchestra/John Lanchbery
          Cinematography - Geoffrey Unsworth
          Production/ costume design - Barry Kay
          Directed by Rudolf Nureyev and Robert Helpmann 
          rec. Melbourne, Australia, 1972
          Region: all regions 
          NTSC 4:3 FF 
          Sound: 5.1 surround / Dolby 2.0 stereo 
          
Léon MINKUS  (1826-1917) 
          La Bayadère - ballet (1877) [130:00] 
          Choreography and staging by Rudolf Nureyev after Petipa
          Orchestrations by John Lanchbery 
          Nikiya - Isabelle Guérin 
          Solor - Laurent Hilaire 
          Gamzatti - Élizabeth Platel 
          The fakir - Lionel Delanoë 
          The high Brahmin - Francis Malovic 
          The rajah - Jean-Marie Didière 
          The golden idol - Wilfried Romoli 
          The three shades - Agnès Letestu, Clotilde Vayer, Nathalie Riqué 
          
          Orchestre Colonne/Michel Quéval 
          Directed for video by Alexandre Tarta 
          rec. Palais Garnier, Paris, May 1994 
          Region: all regions 
          NTSC 16:9 
          Sound: L-PCM stereo 
          
Sergey PROKOFIEV  (1891-1953) 
          Romeo and Juliet - ballet (1935) [149:00] 
          Choreography and staging by Rudolf Nureyev 
          Juliet - Monique Loudières 
          Romeo - Manuel Legris 
          Tybalt - Charles Jude 
          Mercutio - Lionel Delanoë 
          Benvolio - Wilfried Romoli 
          Rosaline - Karin Averty 
          Paris - José Martinez 
          Lady Capulet - Clotilde Vayer 
          Lord Capulet - Olivier Patey 
          The nurse - Annie Carbonnel 
          Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris/Vello Päh 
          Directed for video by Alexandre Tarta 
          rec. Opéra Bastille, Paris, July 1995 
          Region: all regions 
          NTSC 16:9 
          Sound: 5.1 surround / Dolby 2.0 stereo