Russian Ballet: The Nutcracker
Russian Ballet Collection • 1h 42m
Directed by Yuri Grigorovich • Documentary • With Ekaterina Maximova, Vladimir Vasiliev
• 1978 • 102 minutes
The Nutcracker speaks to the child in everyone, with its happy dreams of snow, presents, adventures, toys and wishes fulfilled. Despite Tchaikovsky’s most addictive score, the original 1892 ballet was considered a failure, too much plot in the rst act, not enough plot in the second. Yuri Grigorovich’s 1966 staging at the Bolshoi, designed by Simon Virsaladze, revised the incomplete scenario to focus on the dreams of the teenaged Masha, who receives a nutcracker doll from her godfather at her family’s Christmas party. Sneaking down at night to her doll, Masha is swept up in a magical transformation where the Christmas tree grows to a huge size and rats fight an epic battle with the toys.
The chance to see the legendarily captivating Ekaterina Maximova as Masha, alongside her great husband, Vladimir Vasiliev, as the Nutcracker, makes this 1978 live recording, digitally restored and remastered to HD quality, essential viewing.
Up Next in Russian Ballet Collection
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Russian Ballet: Spartacus
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• 1979 • 133 minutesPlease note that due to the age of the recording, some of the sections of this video are quite dark.
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Russian Ballet: Swan Lake
Documentary • With Maya Plisetskaya, Alexander Bogatyrev
• 1976 • 130 minutes
Please note that this film starts with 3 minutes of black while the overture plays. Also, since this was recorded for television in the late 70s, some sections are quite dark.
No ballet has such deathless appeal as...
