Delibes:coppelia [BLU-RAY]

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L\xe9o Delibes\x92s Copp\xe9lia is not only a collection of fine dances. It is primarily an abrasive and sardonic comedy, which is somewhat unusual in the world of classical ballet. But most importantly, it is a comedy for which excellent music was composed. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky\x92s assessment of Delibes\x92s ballet scores, allegedly capable of overshadowing the choreography itself, is well known: \x93What beauty, what elegance, what richness of melody, rhythm and harmony!\x94 It is not fortuitous that music from this ballet should be performed, for its own merits, during concerts. Funnily enough, the main theme of this light-hearted ballet is taken from E.T.A. Hoffmann\x92s anything but joyful novellas \x96 mainly from The Sandman. In Hoffmann\x92s tale, the young man\x92s infatuation with the doll ends tragically, while in the ballet, the lively and energetic Swanilda (Frantz\x92s fianc\xe9e) is able to over with the old Copp\xe9lius, the cunning inventor of the \x93Girl with the enamel eyes\x94 and free her lover from the doll\x92s poisonous charm. Copp\xe9lia was premiered in 1870 at the Paris Opera on choreographer Arthur Saint-L\xe9on\x92s initiative. A virtuoso dancer, Saint-L\xe9on was Marius Petipa\x92s predecessor as Head of the Petersburg Ballet. His interest in folk culture, music and dance, is mainly responsible for the appearance in the music score of such a rich \x93selection\x94 of dance melodies based on folklore, and especially Slavic and Eastern European themes. A few years later, Marius Petipa and Enrico Cecchetti brought the ballet \x93back\x94 to the Russia that had proved such a vivid source of inspiration for its librettist, and adapted the choreography for the Russian stage. However, this new version fell out of interest during the XXth century, until Sergey Vikharev and Pavel Gershenzon\x92s revival in 2009. It is here interpreted by the Bolshoi Ballet\x92s finest dancers: Margarita Shrayner is the witty Swanilda, and Artem Ovcharenko the love-sick Frantz.