Performers: Viengsay Valdès, Romel Frómeta and dancers of the Ballet Nacional de Cuba
Chroreographer: Alicia Alonso after Marius Petipa and Alexandre Gorsky
Orchestra: Symphonic Orchestra of the Great Theatre of Havana/Giovanni Duarte
Studio: BelAir classiques, BAC 036 [Distr. by Naxos]
Video: 16:9 wide screen, color
Audio: PCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
Regional coding: All regions
Menu language: English and German
Bonus feature language: French and English
Booklet: 24 pages in French, English and Spanish
Ballet length: 96:33
Extras length: 31:00
Performance: ***** Sound: *****
This new DVD presents a performance of the ballet Don Quijote, one noted for its
sublime romantic choreography. Our choreographer is Alicia Alonso (b. 1920) who based her present vision of Don Quijote’s choreography on that of its first creator, Marius Petipa (1818-1910) and his successor Alexandre Gorsky (1871-1924); this ballet was premiered in 1869 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Alonso’s choreographic realization is in the best of romantic ballets’ tradition which requires a substantial dose of technical virtuosity seldom found on the part of todays dancers. Alonso was the epitome of the intensely dramatic dancer and ultra-pure technician both in classic and romantic ballet during her many dancing years. She also founded the Cuban Ballet School in the early 1950s; notable features of this school are the musicality of their ballet conceptions which adhere to the melodic line rather than the rhythmic line. The salient features of this ballet style are refined aerial steps and demanding technical virtuosity.
To begin with Ludwig Minkus’ (1826-1917) score for this ballet can sound really good or really bad depending on how it is performed. In the best Western European tradition classical ballet’s musical orchestral scores are almost always performed as an adjunct to the choreography. The music is “light” in nature and given barely any importance as choreography comes first, the ballerina second and the corps of ballet next. The ballerina’s partner is almost of a secondary importance as well. On rare occasions a strong male dancer becomes pivotal to a ballet in the Western model, for example the late Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Barishnikov – both of them for totally different reasons: Nureyev for his physical prowess and Barishnikov for the inventiveness of his realizations with Faruk Ruzimatov and Julio Bocca lying in between these two exceptional styles.
In the case of this performance the musical score is treated in the best of the Bolshoi and/or Kivov ballet traditions exemplified by the late conductors Yuri Fayer, Algis Zuraitis and Victor Fedotov. Giovanni Duarte is absolutely on time with the dancers as to the proper characterization of music for a ballet, any ballet. If this is not clear listen to John Lanchbery’s trivial pastiche arrangements of Minkus musical scores for Don Quixote and La Bayadere dedicated to Nureyev. There is no question (at least for me) that a ballet’s (any ballet) music is just as important as the dancing and the choreography which also reflects in many ways Richard Wagner’s Opera and Drama (1851) ideology for opera. I would extend Wagner’s arguments to ballet, especially those created by Minkus, Tchaikovsky as well as Stravinsky and Copland for all it matters. In Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky and Lev Ivanov’s (his favorite choreographer) words: ballet has to be symphonic or it’s nothing.
Duarte gives life to the music mostly by developing and executing a clearly Russian lyric symphonic approach characterized by sheer delicacy while preserving what I believe is the ballet’s original orchestration and its delicious musicality. Duarte’s and his orchestra performance is absolutely perfect in my mind.
Now to the dancing, Viengsay Valdès’s dancing in the role of Kitri (or Quiteria) exhibits supreme confidence and beautiful composition and always a seductive smile as it befits this ballet which in the end is a comic ballet. For a superlative example of her technical and dramatic prowess move to Track 20 at about 1:53 and witness her 52 seconds long performance of the well established (by tradition) 32 fouettés en tournant. In many ways she approaches with her performance that of Maya Plisetskaya’s who made this (Kitri) her signature role besides that of the Death of the Swan. A marvelous and inspiring performance by Valdès.
About Romel Frómeta he certainly shows technical ability and physical prowess a-la Nureyev but not the grace of a Barishikov in the same role. In the case of Frómeta he leans closer to Nureyev than anybody I have seen lately. Is that a good or a bad thing? I don’t know the answer, it all depends where one comes from in viewing ballet as a neo-Italian/French or Russian type characterization while on the other hand the corps de ballet is definitely leaning toward the Russian perfectionist tradition. For an extensive exposition on this matter turn to the bonus feature on this DVD with Alicia Alonso herself as the ballet teacher.
As far as the six-channel DTS surround sound is concerned it offers enormous dynamic range. Great sound on the front/central and subwoofer speakers while the rear speakers, instead of the common homogenized acoustics we normally find, carry the sound of the orchestra and audience with the mics probable placed in the midst of the hall. To me this is reference sound…bravo! The same for the creative imagery and well-delivered color. Finally, I highly recommend this DVD – as well as Barishnikov’s (1983) – both are a must for ballet lovers.
— John Nemaric
