Really Worth Owning | Delibes: Sylvia | Leo Delibes, Darcey Bussell ...

Most Requested By Friends | Delibes: Sylvia | Leo Delibes, Darcey Bussell

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	• Delibes: Sylvia Leo Delibes, Darcey Bussell Opus Arte, 2008 average customer review:based on 16 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A common man's point of view.

This ballet has some of the most beautiful music you will ever have the pleasure to hear. Even Tchaikovsky thought it was the best music he had ever heard. When he heard the music for the ballet Sylvia, Tchaikovsky said that if he had heard Leo Delibes music for Sylvia before he wrote his own music for Swan Lake, he would NOT have written Swan Lake. We should ALL be glad that he did not hear it, because we would not now have the worlds most beloved ballet, Swan Lake.

If for no other reason, one should own this ballet just for the music. It is stand alone quality, as Tchaikovsky's is. However, you also get to see the beautiful and talented Darcey Bussell and very handsome Roberto Bolle perform some extraordinary dancing. The horn passage which is played at Sylvia's entrance is some of the grandest horn music ever written. I think Leo Delibes knew it was good so he let us hear it three times in Sylvia's entrance sequence, and more of it later.

Sylvia is an Amazonian (heroine) huntress who is a protege of the Goddess Diana, and who, in obedience to Diana, has forsaken love. She mocks the statue of Eros, the God of love played by Martin Harvey, who stands so stark still in the opening scene that he seems to be a real statue. The Amazons discover the shepherd Aminta, who is in love with Sylvia, hiding close-by, and during the confrontation, Sylvia, attempting to shoot Eros with an arrow, accidentally shoots Aminta instead. In retaliation Eros shoots Sylvia with a magic arrow, causing her to later fall in love with Aminta. Sylvia realizes she is in love with Aminta and returns to aid him when she is discovered by the evil hunter Orion, played by Thiago Soares, who abducts her and carries her off to his cave where she is held captive.

It is a great aid in the understanding of the ballet to hear Bussell's introduction before each act, accessible only from the chapters menu. We are not all balletomanes, as some people like to call themselves, so we can use some information like she gives us. Also, it's nice to see what happens on stage before curtain-rise, another good reason to have a live performance instead of a filmed sound stage version. I thought it was remarkable that Bussell was able to make a complete costume change (in act two) in just one minute and fifteen seconds. She does this in order to fool Orion into thinking he is winning her over to his advances, but she is really going to try to escape from him after getting him drunk. The Royal Ballet version of Sylvia is very good and the orchestra is superb. Also, the British make very good audiences as they know enough to hold their enthusiasm in check until the right moment. Darcey Bussell gives us some very informative comments just before each act, but you can only access them by clicking on the chapters menu.

I promise you will love this ballet.

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Really Worth Owning

How great to see this ballet restored after all these years. I truly enjoyed it and am glad Bussell was recorded performing it. Of the Royal Ballet dancers it's hard to imagine anyone else in the part (well except Margot but I meant current dancers).

This one was a great surprise and lots of fun

Most Requested By Friends

Of all the ballets in my VHS and DVD collection, this has been the most frequently requested since it arrived in January. Neighbors and friends have brought their friends to enjoy the spectacle of beautiful dancing, orchestral playing and visual splendor on my HDTV large screen, surround sound system. The score has been one of my favorites since childhood and it is well served here. The scenery is lavish and lush. The dancing? In a word, WOW! The pairing of Bussell and Bolle is perfect. Each compliments the other and can dazzle when dancing solo or together. Too bad there wasn't more choreography for Bolle's Aminta, but since this was originally created for Fonteyn (only saw her do a few excerpts, never the complete) it's understandable that Ashton concentrated on her. The supporting dancers and corps de ballet are excellent. One last compliment must go to the video director who, mercifully, ignored the quick-cut MTV style of photography so prevalent today and presents a beautifully balanced presentation so you can see all of the dancing. A wonderful way to spend an evening with family and friends. Most highly recommended.

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Sylvia neglected no longer

The story is nonsense. SO WHAT! The music is great; the dancing uniformly excellent and Darcey Bussell spectacular. If you haven't seen her before ( I had not ), you're in for a treat. Her dancing manages to be at the same time athletic AND beatiful. If you want to see a prima who is technically superb and also sexy (is it O.K. to say that in the context of classical ballet), this is the DVD for you.

Entertaining but not passionate

Posted reviews praising this production are mostly accurate, however there is an element missing that can add enormously to Sylvia and make it a moving experience for the viewer. That element is the chemistry between the main characters of the story. It is possible to convey passion & drama in this ballet in addition to presenting a handsome production. I would cite the work of Gonzalo Garcia & Yuan Yuan Tan in the Mark Morris production for San Francisco Ballet. I saw the same production danced by an alternate cast & the experience was much the same as the Royal Ballet video: well done but romantically unconvincing. It is difficult to be completely satisfied, for example, by a Giselle that does not move you. So it is with Sylvia.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4

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