Marcia Haydee and Ivan Liska star in this Hamburg Ballet production of the Chopin/John Neumeier ballet.

Average Customer Review: ( 10 customer reviews )
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What can one say about the music? One would think that Chopin was still alive and worked with Neumann to score the piece especially for his choreographic designs and book.

I have seen this ballet on stage, and I loved it all over again, but this video should be in every ballet lovers collection.

7 of 7 found the following review helpful:

DVD version ruins John Neumeier's vision. Get VHS to experience it properlyApr 30, 2008
By J. Pilgrim
Die Kameliendame aka The Lady of the Camellias is a breathtaking ballet choreographed by John Neumeier and performed with the amazing talents of Marcia Haydee, Ivan Liska, and the Hamburg Ballet. I purchased the VHS version by KULTUR several years ago. With VCR technology phasing out and my VCR eating my copy of Die Kameliendame, I thought I'd purchase it on DVD. Horrendous decision! DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHONE, the company responsible for the transfer to DVD, destroyed what was once a beautiful ballet and turned it into CHARLIE CHAPLIN meets cheap Kung-fu. The technology used for the transfer sped up the whole film making it void of any emotion that was present before their tampering.

The video quality is great and the audio quality is vastly superior than the VHS version but it does NOT justify what they did to the ballet! Kudos to the choreographer, dancers, and musicians! Shame on the DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHONE company for ruining this artistic treasure!

8 of 10 found the following review helpful:

Best Ballet EverAug 03, 2000

This is one of the greatest ballets of all time by one of the most phenominal ballet companies. I have yet to see a better performance to date. Plus, it has been impossible to find this version until now. If you only take the time to see one ballet, let this be it.

1 of 1 found the following review helpful:

Superp or, "Ausgezeichnet"!!Aug 23, 2009
By William E. Keasberry
I have always liked the music of Frederic Chopin, and did not feel that there was something missing. Until "Lady of the Camellia's" when I realized that Chopin's music has been for a century a soundtrack in search of a story.
And "Lady of the Camellia's" was for a century, a story in search of a sound track. Add John Neumeier and the Hamburger Ballet and you've got pure serendipity. A whole much greater than the sum of its parts.
(I already had a thirty year old VHS tape of it)

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