New York City Ballet in Paris

It's unfortunate but for various reasons there is little film of this "millenial" generation of NYCB dancers. Tiler Peck, Robert Fairchild, Sara Mearns, Sterling Hyltin and many others are giving great performances night after night but unless you see NYCB in person, you've never seen them dance. This DVD rectifies this situation a little with an excellent program of all-Balanchine works taken from NYCB's highly successful tour to Paris last year.The program is a tribute to both Balanchine and France -- all the works are by French composers. It's a pretty accurate snapshot of the current state of NYCB. Walpurgisnacht is perhaps the lightest work -- it's more about The Hair than The Dance. But Sara Mearns throws herself (and her tresses) into this role with such fervor that the 18 minutes fly by. Adrian Danchig-Waring is her appropriately understated partner and Lauren Lovette is a perky in the second solo role.Sonatine is a small jewel of a ballet. Its subtle accents don't necessarily translate well to film, and Joaquin de Luz's showy style clashes with the quiet charm of the work. But Megan Fairchild is a delight -- such accurate footwork! Such a simple, happy style! La Valse is given a great performance by the astonishingly versatile Sterling Hyltin -- someone that bubbly can't play the doomed socialite right? She can, and she does. Amar Ramasar is also excellent as Death. Ravel's moody score and Balanchine's ominous, creepy choreography continue to make their impact.Finally, Symphony in C, which probably would routinely make the list for Balanchine's all-time greatest ballet. It's a 40 minute explosion of dancing and joy. It calls upon all the resources of the company. You have Tiler Peck, serene and classical, in the first movement, Teresa Reichlen, magisterial and austere in the great Adagio, newcomer apprentice Alston McGill a little gawky but irrepressible in the third movement (and Anthony Huxley, one of the company's best virtuosos, jumping away in the role associated with Edward Villela), and Brittany Pollack, a human gyroscope, in the fourth movement. The ballet's finale is guaranteed to bring happiness to any audience. Is it a perfect performance? No, but I wouldn't live without it.Camerawork is excellent. This becomes an immediate "must-have" for ballet-lovers.

Pleasant enjoyment

It is a real treat to get the New York City Ballet on a commercial video! I don't understand why the NYCB doesn't release more videos. Maybe it is a cost problem, but I know all my fellow ballet lovers would buy 200 other NYCB videos if that many were released!If you are a NYCB lover, get this! If you are a ballet lover in general, get this!

Excellent dance film! The New York City Ballet is at top form. The camera covers the dancers completely from head to foot so you see the entire dance. There is no breaking to the audience or people watching from backstage which can ruin a dance film. The dancing is superb. This is the way I like to see a dance film.

I saw this same performance at the Kennedy Center and it is so fun to rewatch it at the beautiful Paris Opera House. Gorgeous performance!

One of my favorite ballets is Symphony In C and this one presents it beautifully

I have ordered and re-ordered this DVD, it there seems to be a manufacturing defect that makes large and small portions of the images into pixelated blocks, obscuring the dancing. Amazon said they would investigate the lot to see if there were others like this. Won't be ordering a third time to get another defective DVD!

I've never been a Balanchine fan, but I don't remember -- in over seventy years of live ballet attendance -- actually disliking his work. All four of the ballets on this DVD have the silliest, the most inane, the most boring choreography that I remember seeing. I saw the Bizet live with Vilella -- perhaps he was so thrilling I didn't notice in the third movement that the corps de ballet was standing rooted in place, occasionally waving arms and every so often kicking a leg forward and back.Ballanchine has been much praised for the musicality of his choreography, but waving arms and jumping about in time to the music is not choreography. In the third movement of the Bizet, there is one step in a pas de deux that is original -- that's it for the entire DVD. I'd worry that I have been spoiled over the past two or three decades by Kenneth Macmillan's and Yuri Grigorovitch's brilliant work, except for the fact that I still love Marius Petipa. As for musicality, how about Lynn Taylor-Corbett's Great Galloping Gottschalk? Or David Parson's The Envelope?The NYC Ballet company, in this set of performances, shows a lot of depth and some very nice dancing. There is not one dancer with the charisma of Villela, Youskevich, Tallchief -- the list could go on. Two perhaps could shine with better choreography: Lovett and de Luz. Unless you're a completist, spend you money elsewhere.BTW: the second star was for the excellent program notes, giving full casts and photos of scenes.

This remarkable interpretation of a choreograpy of Bizet ' Symphony in C created in 1947,. by the NY City Ballet will not allow you to take your eyes off the screen. These disciplined young dancers bring fresh life to a whole program basically conceived half a century ago, because there is no one around to-day to create anything new showing this much talent. The other performances will not disappointing you either. G. Bizet;s latter part of his life, the most productive was, like Mozart's, plagued by poverty.

Balanchine resta un grande; le sue coreografie spesso dimostrano eleganza ma non riescono ad emozionare. Anche qui

Balanchine hervorragend umgesetzt - sehenswert!

This is a superb representative selection of Balanchine’s choreographic work and spreads widely across his career. There are several illuminating reviews of this disc submitted by others who, naturally concentrate on the actual dancing detail. There is little need to add to those in that way therefore so this review aims to give some musical background to the choreography.The opening Walpurgisnacht ballet dates from 1980 to music by Gounod. In the original 1859 opera a ballet sequence is placed towards the end where Faust’s pact with the devil is close to the end whereby his debauched life is to be paid for by his death. Inserting ballet into opera was a regular feature of French opera at that time. Balanchine’s far later creation perfectly suits the subject.The following Sonatine from 1975 is a setting of Ravel’s 1906 music of the same name for solo piano. As expected the pianist in this case is on stage during the performance which is essentially a tender study of a young man / woman relationship.Ravel’s music is also used for ‘La Valse’ premiered in 1951. The original ‘La Valse’ was written post first world war by Ravel for piano solo. He also orchestrated the piece as heard here. It was conceived as a warning of impending further warfare which eventually came true with World War 2. Ravel used the concept of a high society waltz scene swirling in ever tumultuous action until it eventually collapses – like his envisioned social collapse. Balanchine extended this short piece by preceding it with Ravel’s 1911 Valses Nobles et Sentimentales, again written for piano solo and orchestrated the following year. This piece had nothing to do with warfare and makes for an effective partner as precursor to the events anticipated in La Valse. Balanchine’s choreography is a vivid portrayal of this pair of linked scenarios.The disc closes with a setting of Bizet’s early symphony of 1855, lost and later found in the Conservatory library in 1933. Since then it has been a popular concert and recorded work. It is essentially a joyful and exuberant piece and Balanchine delivers this with matching choreography requiring an almost bewildering feast of spectacular activity for the whole Corps de Ballet. This is a true showpiece and it is not surprising that it is a centrepiece of the New York City Ballet repertoire. It makes for an excellent finale to a non-stop feat of excellent ballet.Balanchine was a major influence in ballet choreography whose work was unfailingly of high artistic quality perfectly matched to well-chosen music. Interestingly, unlike Ashton’s choreography where the pace of musical performance is often fitted to the choreography, in Balanchine’s case, as clearly demonstrated here, the dancing is matched to the pace of the musical performance. Thus the music has the ebb and flow as originally intended by the composers, and excellently delivered in these performances. This enhances the apparent freedom of the dancing and suggests great fluidity of expression. In a composition such as La Valse, it is vital that such fluctuating pace is delivered for the music to have any meaning. It is a tribute that the choreography and these performances manage to combine the musical needs so seamlessly with the needs of the dancers.The quality of the visual and recorded sound (DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 and stereo) on this (Blu-ray as reviewed) disc is exemplary throughout. The supplied notes are also of an interesting informative nature and are a good example of what should be normal practice.The dancing by the members of the New York City Ballet, both individually and as a whole, is of a remarkably high and consistent quality which amounts to a wonderful celebration of their, and Balanchine’s, art.

George Balanchine's choreography is absolutely unmistakable: he revels in symmetry and is a master of fitting dance to music not specifically written for ballet. This disc has three distinct, separate dance sequences. All are very different from each other and feature dance for the sake of dance rather than trying to tell a story, vey much along the lines of Jewels, but in no way related. So why have I not given this disc 5*? As I said at the beginning, Balanchine loves symmetry, so deviations from that symmetry stand out like a sore thumb and there are a number instances, particularly in corps work where the differing height of arms and/or legs or late movements almost make you feel that the company was under-rehearsed. However, that said, the overall programme, the soloists and the orchestra, and (to be fair!) the majority of the corps do a great job in keeping Balanchine's works alive. If you enjoy Balanchine, even if you are unfamiliar with these particular dances, then you are sure to enjoy this disc. The Blu-ray Disc has exceptional photography and sound.