The Nutcracker Ballet

Rating:
Summary: Review from Oz
Review: This recording is an absolute delight, and has to represent the best value for your DVD dollar available anywhere today. Filmed in 1995, (4x3 format, Playable in all Regions) it features Artists of The Ballet of The Slovak National Theatre and Children of The Dance Conservatory, Bratislava with music by the Sofia National Opera Orchestra. The role of Clara is danced by Nora Gallovicova, and The Nutcracker by Jozef Dolinsky (who choreographed this production and is also the company's Ballet Master).
This is not the great "tour de force" production that you would expect from some of the better known international companies that have the facility to solve a problem by simply throwing more money at it, but rather a prime example of a company maintaining its integrity by utilising the available resources at its disposal, and combining it with the enthusiasm of the dancers and students to produce a very 'human' ballet that I found absolutely charming and still thoroughly enjoyable after 10 viewings over a 3 week period.
It obviously pressed all the right buttons for me, so I guess the bottom line has to be; Should you buy a copy of this disk? No, you should buy two. Keep one to enjoy yourself and give the other as a gift. The extra 10 bucks is hardly likely to break the budget, and with the extra royalties going into the company's kitty, maybe we'll be lucky enough to see more of them in the future.