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Rating: 
Summary: Magnificent dancing
Review: Nureyev's "Don Quichotte" produced for the Paris Opera Ballet is a miracle of dancing and story-telling. Nureyev, we are told, was addicted to old Hollywood musicals and in this ballet it shows. The routines of the corps de ballet are amazing in their complexity and fluidity, clearly owing much to Busby Berkeley.The corps are as much stars of the show as are the etoiles, but the etoiles are magnificent. Jean-Guillaume Bart as Espada the toreador has a swaggering insolence and precision of line equalled only by Marie-Agnes Gillot, the "street dancer" who partners him.However, it is the dancing of Manuel Legris and Aurelie Dupont, Basile and Kitri, that is a wonder to behold. They are perfectly matched and move in total harmony throughout. Legris who, we are told by one critic, "is in the autumn of his career" dances his socks off with a brio and perfection seldom seen anywhere. The total production is so funny it makes one laugh, and the dancing so close to the Platonic Ideal that it makes one want to cry at its beauty. Few productions ever lift the spirits as this one does. We should thank God for the Paris Opera Ballet and its dancers, and for Nureyev who lives on in this production. Buy it now. Buy it for your friends!
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent dancing
Review: Nureyev's "Don Quichotte" produced for the Paris Opera Ballet is a miracle of dancing and story-telling. Nureyev, we are told, was addicted to old Hollywood musicals and in this ballet it shows. The routines of the corps de ballet are amazing in their complexity and fluidity, clearly owing much to Busby Berkeley.The corps are as much stars of the show as are the etoiles, but the etoiles are magnificent. Jean-Guillaume Bart as Espada the toreador has a swaggering insolence and precision of line equalled only by Marie-Agnes Gillot, the "street dancer" who partners him. However, it is the dancing of Manuel Legris and Aurelie Dupont, Basile and Kitri, that is a wonder to behold. They are perfectly matched and move in total harmony throughout. Legris who, we are told by one critic, "is in the autumn of his career" dances his socks off with a brio and perfection seldom seen anywhere. The total production is so funny it makes one laugh, and the dancing so close to the Platonic Ideal that it makes one want to cry at its beauty. Few productions ever lift the spirits as this one does. We should thank God for the Paris Opera Ballet and its dancers, and for Nureyev who lives on in this production. Buy it now. Buy it for your friends!
Rating: 
Summary: faulty (absent) center sound channel
Review: The DVD I recently received had nothing recorded for the middle sound channel; otherwise the production, video and dancing were excellent and worth 5 stars if the center sound channel had been present.
Louis and Janet Schlom
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