| | |  | Ballets & Classics | Home » » » Minkus - Paquita / Letestu, Martinez, Paquette, Wilk, Coleman, Paris Opera | | | | | | | Product Details: | | | Actors:
| David Coleman, Agnes Letestu, Jose Martinez, Paris Opera and Ballet, Karl Paquette | | Format:
| Classical, Color, DVD, NTSC | | Language:
| English | | Number of Discs:
| 1 | | Studio:
| Tdk DVD Video | | Run Time:
| 120 minutes | | DVD Release Date:
| March 16, 2004 | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 6 reviews |
| | | | Used and New: | | | |
| All | |
| $69.38 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $72.25 | New | | | $83.11 | New | | | $99.95 | Used
- Mint | | | $128.00 | New | |
| New | |
| $72.25 | New | | | $83.11 | New | | | $128.00 | New | |
| Used | |
| $69.38 | Used
- Acceptable | | | $99.95 | Used
- Mint | |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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6 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 DelightefulMay 31, 2006
I'm not a "ballet historian" like the other reviewer, but I'm a dancer and as much a balletomane as any, and for what it's worth, I think the DVD is delightful. The dancing, and I agree with many other reviewers here, is great. If you're looking for mind-blowing technique and virtuosity, then Paris Opera Ballet isn't the right company for you--I'd suggest American Ballet Theatre, another fine company--but if you're interested in clean technique, beautiful lines, precision, and elegance, then you're going to like this DVD.
7 of 9 found the following review helpful:
niceNov 09, 2005
The video quality is superb.
Dancing is just fine. I don't know why one of the reviewers said the dancing is mediocre. This is a top class production in high quality video and audio. It's beautiful.
40 of 59 found the following review helpful:
 An Interesting Reconstruction of a Nearly Lost BalletOct 02, 2005
"Paquita" was originally staged by the ballet master Joseph Mazilier in Paris in 1846 for Carlotta Grisi (1819-1899). The music for the original 1846 staging of "Paquita" was written by Edouard Deldevez (1817-1897), which has only recently been credited to him alone, as it was incorrectly believed by many historians that the ballet was written jointly between him and Leon Minkus (1826-1917). Contemporary press reports written of the premiere speak to the contrary, as do Deldevez's memoirs. On September 26, 1847 the first Russian production of "Paquita" premiered on the stage of the Imperial Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, being the first ballet staged by Marius Petipa in Russia (jointly with the Balletmaster Pierre Frederick Malavergne), and with the Deldevez's score reorchestrated by Konstantin Liadov. It was not until December 27, 1881 that Petipa presented his definitive version of the ballet, for which he added new dances to the music of Leon Minkus, then ''First Imperial Ballet Composer'' to the Tsar's Imperial Theatres. Of the dances added to Minkus's music: the celebrated "Minkus Pas de Trois" for Act I (which in fact has 2 sections of music by other composers: the second part of the entree is by Deldevez, and the male variation by Adolphe Adam, taken from his 1843 ballet "La Diable a Quatre"), a Polonaise and Mazurka for children of the Imperial Ballet School, and finally the famous Grand Pas Classique.
Despite the fact that "Paquita" was a major staple of the repertory in late Imperial Russia (Petipa coached Anna Pavlova's performance in the ballet in 1904, and added for her the famous so-called "harp variation" to Drigo's music), over time the ballet became lost, falling out of the repertory as many of the old ballets did during the difficult times brought upon the Imperial Ballet after the 1917 revolution.
Today Petipa's 1881 additions for "Paquita" is all that is left in active performace. Today, the Pas de Trois and Grand Pas Classique are major repertory staples for many ballet companies all over the world. Even the final act Children's Polonaise and Mazurka is a sort of 'right of passage' in Russia, often performed when the children are graduating at the end of the school year.
In 2001, the Balletmaster Pierre Lacotte, best known for his resurrections of long lost ballets, revived "Paquita" for the Paris Opera Ballet, which is filmed here. Lacotte was trained by some of the great dancers that had left Russia around the time of the 1917 revolution. Most notably, the great ballerina Lubov Egorova (1880-1972), who like many of her fellow ballet dancer emigres became great teachers.
The biggest dissapointment is that Lacotte did not make any effort to restore Petipa's choreography for "Paquita" - the closest thing to the Romantic Ballet that is every ballet dancer's heritage. Around the turn of the 20th century the Imperial Ballet utilized the Stepanov method of choreographic notation to document their repertory, about 98% percent of which was the work of Marius Petipa. Among the ballets documented - Petipa's "Paquita". This cache of notation (which also include set and costume designs, as well as piano redutcions of the music for some of the notated ballets) was smuggled out of Russia around 1917 by Nicholas Sergeyev, the company's regisseur, who used it to stage such ballets as "The Sleeping Beauty", "The Nutcracker", "Giselle", and "Swan Lake" for the first time in the west (although he didnt create "Giselle", it is Petipa's version that is danced by nearly every company today). Today these notations, which are known as the Sergeyev Collection, are housed in the Harvard University Library. Recently the notations were used by the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet to reconstruct Petipa's 1900 revival of "La Bayadere" and his original 1890 production of "The Sleeping Beauty", as well as by the Bavarian State Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet for their revivals of "Le Corsaire". Unfortunately the notations for many of the works included in the Sergeyev Collection are likely to only sit around and collect dust. Unfortunately most ballet dancers know nothing about them. If I were a part of the administration of the Paris Opera that commissioned this production from Lacotte, I would have demanded he use the notations. But sadly, what we have is Lacotte's choreography, and believe me, he is no Marius Petipa, with many of the dances for the Corps de Ballet looking like something one would see at your everyday dance recital (though the dancers are far more capable) - a rather big suprise for me considering how much of a masterpiece Lacotte's revival of "La Sylphide" is.
Just about every dancer featured in this film (with the exception of Jose Martinez as Lucien d'Hervilly, and the lead male dancer in the Act I Pas de Trois) are horribly un-interesting, and worst of all, boring. Though all the performers have more or less solid technique, that is about where the good qualities end. Some of the other reviewers here praise the dancers, thier style and technique (and one even says that the Paris Opera has the best corps de ballet in world - obviously this person has not seen the Kirov or the Bolshoi these days). But in my opinion as a ballet dancer they havent the faintest idea what they are talking about.
The soloist Danseuses in this film are all horribly un-remarkable, with very 'plain-jane' dancing and neutral performances - watch the Act I Pas de Trois for an example of what Im talking about. One does not need to be a steller virtuosa of Classical technique to please me, but the dancing from these Ballerinas is dissapointing in the extreme, and considering some of the Ballerinas coming out of the Paris Opera these days, why these ladies were cast to dance in a film is really too bad. The best of the leads is without a doubt Jose Martinez, with clean technique and a flare for acting. One reviewer below states that it is refreshing to see another Danseur other than Patrick Dupont or Manuel Legris in a lead role on a Paris Opera Ballet DVD - actually Legris had injured himself before this performance was filmed and was to have danced with Aurelie Dupont as Paquita. It has come to me through the ballet circuit that Letestu and Martinez were the understudies.
The worst of all in this performance is the leading ballerina in the role of Paquita, Agnes Letestu, who is a pretty boring dancer, though her acting was very good. I was shocked when I saw her performance - I wondered how such a ballerina ever made it out of the Corps de Ballet.....and to think this woman holds the rank of Etoile! Her technically under-polished performance was very dissapointing. She has a bad habit of sticking her head and neck out like a chicken when doing pique turns, and she tries entirely to hard to present herself a virtuosa, something completely alien to her. Her variation to Deldevez's wonderful Spanish-style waltz in Act I-Scene 2 with the fan is just awful.
One of the biggest drawbacks of this staging is Pierre Lacotte's omition of the suite of classical variations traditionally performed with the famous Grand Pas Classique. It is widely assumed that all of the variations were composed by Minkus alone, having been part of the Grand Pas Classique from the start. In fact the original Pas as first staged by Petipa had only 2 variations for Paquita and Lucien (as shown in this performance). The tradition of having a suite of 5 or 6 classical variations for soloist ballerinas began not with the original 1881 staging of the Pas, but with a gala performance that took place in 1909 in honor of Catherine II's birthday, via the great Imperial Prima Ballerina Assoluta Mathilde Kschessinskaya. The ballerina instructed some of her fellow ballerina homegirls to add thier favorite variations from various ballets into the performance, which was being presented in an independant form, and the idea caught on, and has remained ever since (many of these exact same variations are still included today when the Grand Pas Classique is performed in Russia). Lacotte also cut the famous variation traditionally danced by the lead ballerina of the pas, and reinstated the variation that was originally danced by Ekaterina Vazem in 1881 (the variation traditionally danced by the lead ballerina of the Grand Pas Classique from "Paquita" - a slow gavotte for solo harp - found its way into the Pas via Anna Pavlova for whom Petipa choreographed the variation in 1904. The variation itself comes from Petipa's 1892 revival of Philippe Taglioni's 1832 "La Sylphide", mounted for the ballerina Vavara Nikitina, for which the composer/conductor Riccardo Drigo adapted the music by Jean-Madaleine Shnietzhoeffer).
NOTE - see the Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet of St. Petersburg dance the Grand Pas Classique from "Paquita" in the film 'Kirov Classics'. For a better revival of a lost ballet by Lacotte, get the DVD of his staging of Petipa's 1862 ballet "The Pharaoh's Daughter" danced by the Bolshoi Ballet - there is also FAR better dancing in this performance. As well, there is a recording by the Sofia National Opera Orchestra, conducted by Boris Spassov of the Grand Pas Classique from "Paquita" that includes all of the variations that turn up in Russian performances. Recorded as well is "The Kingdom of the Shades" scene from Minkus's ballet "La Bayadere". All of the music is in its orignal orchestrations. It is from the label Capriccio and titled 'Leon Minkus: Paquita, La Bayadere' CD 10-544.
7 of 13 found the following review helpful:
 if you like old fashioned ballet....Apr 03, 2005
Pierre Lacotte calls himself the "arqueologist of ballet", and I think it's an accurate definition of his work.
"Paquita"(as a suite of dances) is one of the most popular ballets in the classical repertoire, with it's spanish-styled music, pyrotechnical pas de deux and variations, specially suited for small companies or ballet schools, (16 girls and 1 boy!) good male dancers are hard so to find.....
Lacotte took the so-called Paquita suite, recontructed a whole first act, and added the half of the second act, but he did it as if we were still in 1887! The coreography is so a-terre and old fashioned, it's just boring.
The whole production is gorgeous, stunning costumes and sets,paris opera has the best corps of the world,
soloists and etoiles are first class, it's a shame the dances could be more interesting.
10 of 13 found the following review helpful:
Paris Opera BalletFeb 08, 2005
I bought this DVD just because it was performed by Paris Opera Ballet, but I was pleasantly surprised and I felt like having received an unexpected nice present. It was especially nice to see the other dancers (Letestu and Martinez) where it seems like most of their performance is dominated by DuPont and Legris (They are wonderful too). I read some ballet professional critic was writing against Paquette (not for this one but for other ballet), but I thought he expressed his role very well and his dance was dynamic and suitable. Letestu was beautiful and elegant and Martinez was the typical fairly tale prince. I really enjoyed it. I hope to see this partner in other performance too.
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