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Summary: Nureyev's Own Staging of "Swan Lake"
Review: Throughout his incredible career, Rudolf Nureyev staged the entire classical repretoire throughout the world. In his native Russia, the ballets of the old world Imperial Ballet (his parent company: The Kirov) were performed in the old traditions, among these being the ballerina being placed as the focal point of an entire ballet. Nureyev felt that the male should be just as equally prominent as the ballerina. He made sure that when he staged his versions of the great classical repretoire, he did them his way, with the male alongside the ballerina. At times, he would loose the ballerina and end up dominating the entire performance (not with Margot Fonteyn of course).But no matter, his "Swan Lake" for the Vienna State Opera Ballet is quite well done. Most people in their reviews scream about it because it is so different from the traditional version (see the Kirov version for an example). I myself am not a fan of people tinkering with "Swan Lake", but Nureyev's version is great dispite its differences. His performance is excellent, though he cannot surpass his longtime partner, the late great Dame Margot Fonteyn. Her performance is as divine as she herself was. Nureyev does a good job salvaging the music not usually used in traditional performance in his re-organizing of Tchaikovsky's score. I will not spoil the details of the changes but they are quite good, if at times a little over the top. But c'mon its Nureyev! Get this video!
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