| | |  | Ballets & Classics | Home » » » Adam - Giselle / Carla Fracci, Erik Bruhn, John Lanchbery, American Ballet Theatre | | | | | | | Description: | | Launched by the design house of Carla Fracci in 2004 CARLA FRACCI GISELLE by Carla Fracci for WOMEN posesses a blend of: It is recommended for wear. | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| Carla Fracci, Adolphe Adam, Erik Bruhn, John Lanchbery, American Opera Ballet Theater | | Format:
| AC-3, Classical, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, NTSC | | Language:
| English | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Deutsche Grammophon | | Run Time:
| 95 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| August 09, 2005 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 14 reviews |
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2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Awful camerawork mars what could have been a perfect Fracci and Bruhn performanceNov 08, 2008
I saw the name "Carla Fracci" and snapped like a salmon at this video.
Now that I've watched it, I feel profoundly ripped off. Fracci's Giselle is legendary, and I was so looking forward to seeing her. But whoever shot and edited the film SHOULD have been shot. A dancer's body - ALL PARTS OF HER BODY - should be in the shot when she's dancing, and the shot should be at straight-on level, not overhead (or under-the-tutu, as it was for an unfortunate instant near the end of the second act). I know this ballet fairly well, and there is a part that I love in the second act, when Giselle does that series of small jumps that make her look weightless, then stays in place to do a series of little jumps-with-beats (I don't remember the terms). Fracci was doing that wonderfully well, when suddenly, in the middle of her footwork, the camera cuts to a FULL SCREEN OF JUST HER FEET DOING THE BEATS. That is a pet peeve of mine. Sorry.
Then there were all the blurry bits, and the Wili-dancing we see only reflected in a pool of water (my theory is that they filmed a few steps, with one camera focused on the dancers and another on their reflection, so that later they could string the two bits together to make it look like one long dance sequence). And then in the first act, there were several inexplicable cuts to a barely-discernible face of someone of indeterminate sex, staring out at us with a coldly hostile expression on his/her face. It was like something out of "The Ring." I expected to get a phone call saying I had a week to live. My guess now was that it was the Queen of the Wilis, but it could have been someone who had wandered onto the set, for all I know.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the horseback scene (as you may already have guessed, this movie was not a straight video recording of a ballet performance; someone tried to make a "movie" out of it, the way Baryshnikov did (successfully) with his production of "The Nutcracker".) All of Albrecht's entourage are riding horseback through the woods. We get an extended horse's behind view of them as they trot along. Unfortunately, the cameraman was apparently ALSO on horseback behind them with his camera, and the shot goes up and down and up and down with the motion of the horses until I actually started to feel motion sickness.
But Fracci and Bruhn were so good. Lanchberry used to be the ABT orchestra's conductor back in the day, so it's not as if he didn't know that a ballet performance looks like. Maybe he spent so much time in the pit he figured that if he didn't need to see the dancers, nobody else did.
So I'll be looking for more Fracci, but the pickings appear to be slim.
But she's the Giselle they say she is, and more.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 GiselleDec 21, 2007
I saw this ballet danced by Brun in the 70's on T.V.. The performance by Brun was brillant. I ordered this DVD hoping I would still feel the same way after all these years. I was not disappointed and the DVD was of the highest quality and the dancing was as magical as I remembered it to be!
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Movie director's input ruined a good (not great) balletDec 26, 2006
I've watched a lot of movies over the past 50 years, and I think I'm in a position to say that it's very likely that the director of this movie never got a job as director of a movie again. That's how badly he directed this version of Giselle. I also have watched some excellent ballet DVDs in the past year, so I knew that this ballet had to have been performed better. I bought the Giselle by the La Scala ballet company with Alessandra Ferri as Giselle, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
 Problematic but Worth It AnywayOct 18, 2006
Being of a certain age, I saw these two luminaries of ballet history perform Giselle with American Ballet Theatre in 1967 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music - a never to be forgotten evening. This DVD captures the qualities that made those performances legendary. Erik Bruhn's nobility of line and clean technique, Fracci's ravishing second act, with her melting port de bras and weightlessness, her touching and unforced first act with its beautifully acted Mad Scene, are all here. Bruhn, at about 42, was at the end of his career here while Fracci, at about 30, was at the height of hers, but they work magically together. Fracci has a beautiful face but a less than beautifully muscled body compared to other ballerinas, yet somehow, her (I believe underrated) technique infuses all Giselle's movements with beauty. I respectfully disagree with the reviewer who preferred Fracci's first act to her second act. I think her second act here is stunning - as a TIMES reviewer once put it reviewing her "Giselle", "She touched the heart as well as the eye."
To me she was not "cold and distant" as characterized by a reviewer below, but out of reach, as a ghost naturally is.
Not to be overlooked is the late Toni Lander's marvellous Myrthe, Queen of the Wilis - all cold purpose and fine technique - Lander, who was Bruhn's countrywoman as well as his colleague, was a wonderful dancer and Myrthe's opening solo in Act II is a very difficult one.
Ted Kivitt and Eleanor D'Antuono, ABT's home-grown soloists who did eventually become principal dancers with the company, are delightful in the Peasant Pas de Deux in Act I. Both went on to dance the leading roles in "Giselle" but received scant attention because of the presence in the company of superstars like Bruhn, Fracci, Makarova, and Baryshnikov. Kivitt's and D'Antuono's earnest, well-danced performances were no match for the charisma of the foreign stars that ABT imported. It was an unfair situation but one containing some inherent truth - Kivitt and D'Antuono simply lacked the top tier presence that allowed dancers like Bruhn and Fracci to command a stage, rather than merely to dance upon it. That said, it is nice to see Kivitt's and D'Antuono's genuine talents also preserved for posterity on this DVD.
That's the good news. The bad news: the self-indulgent camera antics of a moron who thought that ballet lovers would really be interested in watching Erik Bruhn do one of his first-act variations from behind a jug instead of face on, or watching Carla Fracci's floating arms as a (poorly visible) reflection in a pool, all for the sake of "atmosphere". The cameraman who did it, and the director who allowed it, should both be hanged.
Well, nothing is perfect. As ballet history alone, and as a record of legendary performers in roles they were justly famous for, this DVD is worth the price and the watching time. But how wonderful it would have been if someone with intelligence and taste had been around to restrain the egoism of the cameraman!
11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
One Of The Most Beautiful Versions Of Giselle On DVD!Jul 15, 2006
This studio performance of Giselle by the great team of Carla Fracci and Erik Bruhn, with members of the ABT and the Berlin Opera Orchestra was recorded in 1968, but it looks like it was done only yesterday! I do not know exactly how Deutsche Grammophon accomplished this feat, but the image(full screen) and sound(DTS 5.1) are absolutely at the highest standard, even by today's strict digital degree of perfection(this is shot on film with the crisp images that it imparts). The dancing itself is by some of the ballet greats of recent history and so, this qualifies also as a classic performance( I know of no other case where these two qualities come together in one recording!). Fracci and Bruhn are at their very best here, and we can see why they are so well regarded by history. Great artists are able to perform by the usual classical standards, but in an indescribable way that makes their performance unique. The choreography is also excellent and complete with the peasant pas de deux included as well as all the second act variations. The part of Hilarion, danced by Bruce Marks, is also given very extensive choreography in the second act and he dances it very well.
The orchestra, conducted by John Lanchbery, plays with fantastic depth of feeling and is a wonderful feature of this DVD.
The camera work is something that has not been seen before, nor after. It is very unusual and distinctive for a ballet movie, even a dance-for-camera movie. It highlights the great acting and facial reactions by a variety of occasional closeups to the point where we can at times see the pores in their skin. Do not become alarmed that this is a problem. Most(85%) of the time the camera is used conventionally, but at other times it really draws us into the action as never before! In every ballet the camera sometimes leaves out a view of the steps, and that happens here a few times, but it is done to good effect and only repetitive steps are compromised by this, so you actually are not left wondering what is happening. The coverage of the corps de ballet is superb, using a variety of shots, including floor level views and closeups of the footwork. There are even a few shots from under a transparent floor. There are also a few outdoor shots, and the entrance of the royals is one of them, showing us how they ride through the woods on horseback(real horses and hounds!); This is the most extensive version of this scene in any Giselle performance that I know of.
All in all, this is certainly one of the finest versions of Giselle on DVD, and suitable for all collections, whether it is your only Giselle, or added to your collection as a classic.
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