Blu-ray

Amelia

Amelia

Alexandre Castongua (Cello); Simon Claude (Violin); Njo Kong Kie (Piano & Musical Direction); Nadine Medawar (Vocalist);

"Amelia is nothing but dance, brilliantly shot, relentlesslyin your face, astonishingly fast. The lesson of Amelia...is to dance this hard, this fast, this gloriously while youstill can." (Los Angeles Times)

Anastasia (Royal Ballet)

Anastasia (Royal Ballet)

Natalia Osipova (Anastasia/Anna Anderson); Marianela Nuñez (Mathilde Kschessinska); Federico Bonelli (Kshchessinska’s Partner); Edward Watson (The Husband); Thiago Soares (Rasputin); Christina Arestis (Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna); Christopher Saunders (Tsar Nicholas II);

"A commanding performance from Natalia Osipova - The present revival of Kenneth MacMillan’s Anastasia brings back to the stage an adventurous, fascinating creation, its final act made in 1967 during MacMillan’s time as director of the Deutsche Oper ballet. Its subject is the derelict woman, known as Anna Anderson, discovered 40 years earlier in Berlin and unwisely supposed to be Anastasia, daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, somehow escaped from the cellar where the imperial family had been murdered by Bolshevik soldiery. Fascinated by this event, MacMillan produced an expressionist drama of haunting imagery and resonating force in which Anna journeys through a labyrinth of memories and suffering in quest of an identity.... Natalia Osipova’s Anna was truth itself in her sympathy and understanding, commanding in emotion as in execution... I salute Osipova, the entire company performance, Crowley’s magnificent designs, and Simon Hewett’s notable account of the Tchaikovsky/Martinů scores." (The Financial Times ★★★★★)

Ashton Celebration (The Royal Ballet)

Ashton Celebration (The Royal Ballet)

Leanne Benjamin (Méditation from Thaïs); Valeri Hristov (Méditation from Thaïs); Yuhui Choe (Voices of Spring); Alexander Campbell (Voices of Spring); Edward Watson (Monotones I and II); Marianela Nuñez (Monotones I and II); Sergei Polunin (Marguerite and Armand); Marianela Nuñez (Marguerite and Armand); Hikaru Kobayashi (La Valse); Ryoichi Hirano (La Valse); Samantha Raine (La Valse); Vasko Vassilev (Solo Violin (Méditation from Thaïs));

"... performances of heart-wrenching intensity ... Polunin stalks the stage like a panther, his every breath and gesture a cry of longing for Rojo's ailing, consumptive Marguerite ... and while his dancing is faultless, it's the other things that you remember. His burning gaze. The ferocious tenderness of his touch. The terrible desperation with which he buries his face in her neck ... Rojo has never been more incandescently beautiful, nor more vulnerable. Voices of Spring [is] deftly performed by Yuhui Choe and Alexander Campbell. They're a well-matched pair, his Tiggerish bounce nicely complemented by her understated technique and knowing smile. Monotones I and II see Ashton in minimalist mood. In this plotless two-part work we see his fundamental beliefs about ballet laid out with limpid simplicity to piano music by Erik Satie. It's exquisitely performed, Emma Maguire's quietly perfect line compelling the eye in the first section, and Marianela Nuñez lunar and inexorable in the second." (The Guardian)

Ashton: Ballets (The Royal Ballet)

Ashton: Ballets (The Royal Ballet)

Akane Takada (Titania (The Dream)); Steven McRae (Oberon (The Dream)); Valentino Zucchetti (Puck (The Dream)); Bennet Gartside (Bottom (The Dream)); Marianela Nuñez (Symphonic Variations); Vadim Muntagirov (Symphonic Variations); Yasmine Naghdi (Symphonic Variations); James Hay (Symphonic Variations); Yuhui Choe (Symphonic Variations); Tristan Dyer (Symphonic Variations); Zenaida Yanowsky (Marguerite (Marguerite and Armand)); Roberto Bolle (Armand (Marguerite and Armand));

"First-rate dancing in an Ashton triple bill that offers comedy, serenity and demi-monde ardour" (The Stage ★★★★)

Ashton: Rhapsody / The Two Pigeons (The Royal Ballet)

Ashton: Rhapsody / The Two Pigeons (The Royal Ballet)

Natalia Osipova (Rhapsody); Steven McRae (Rhapsody); Lauren Cuthbertson (The Young Girl (The Two Pigeons)); Vadim Muntagirov (The Young Man (The Two Pigeons)); Fumi Kaneko (The Two Pigeons (The Two Pigeons)); Ryoichi Hirano (The Two Pigeons (The Two Pigeons));

"Watching the Frederick Ashton double bill now installed at Covent Garden, we see yet again how varied, how beguiling are Ashton’s dance ideas, how elegantly they wear their music, and how flattering they are to their interpreters. Steven McRae dances, blazing through steps, turning with an incandescent bravura, cutting tremendous shapes in the air, wrapping the score round himself, with Paganini (and Baryshnikov) evoked just as awestruck legend has told us. And thus Natalia Osipova, holding Ashton up to the light of her artistry that we may admire the facets and bright-cutting of her dances and his inventions, and moving with the delight in a role that marks her great gift." (Financial Times ★★★★★)

Ballet du Capitole: Trois ballets de Kader Belarbi

Ballet du Capitole: Trois ballets de Kader Belarbi

Davit Galstyan (Le Corsaire (Le Corsaire)); Maria Gutierrez (La Belle Esclave (Le Corsaire)); Julie Loria (The Beauty (La Bête et la Belle)); Takafumi Watanabe (The Beast (La Bête et la Belle)); Artjom Maksakov (Roi Ferrante (La Reine Morte)); Maria Gutierrez (Dona Ines De Castro (La Reine Morte));

"… all the markings of one of the classic ballets: It had romance, spectacle and drama, and it was beautiful." (The Times - La Bête et La Belle)