Beautiful production especially on Blu-ray
Added 11/1/2009
I Agree to a certain extent with those who felt there were too many close-ups. However, I believe the ensemble dancing was well covered with long shots as were most of the solos, pas-de-deuxs, etc. In addition to the ballet, there are extras on the blu-ray version (which I am reviewing) and, I assume, on the standard DVD, including the wonderful short documentary of the 1915 World's Fair which inspired the lovely production design and choreography by Helgi Tommason and others. The performance on this disc was in 2007.
It is unfortunate that the Blu-ray recording is not available in the U.S. I ordered my copy from a private vendor in the U.K. through Amazon.com United Kingdom. The audio is recorded in PCM 5.0 and is very good with a wide dynamic range. The price for the imported Blu-ray disc is a little "stiff," but if you want the best "Nutcracker" available in high def, you might find it worth it. It is far superior to the ugly Marinsky production (also from Opus Arte) and more suitable for children. So far, foreign imports I have bought on Blu-ray have not been regionally encoded and, therefore, you will have no trouble playing this disc on any Blu-ray capable component. If you wait, it may be offered in this country at a somewhat lower price, but I see no indication that this Blu-ray HD recording will be available here in the near future.
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Original and spectacular
Added 3/9/2009
I bought this production of the Nutcracker because my three year-old was still begging to go back and see Clara two months after we'd seen a local production at Christmas. She adores it and watches it every day. It is just the right length for little ones and adults can appreciate the quality of the dancing, set, costumes, and choreography. I especially like the touch of San Francisco the director added. I highly recommend it.
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Disappointing
Added 3/6/2009
Frankly speaking, this DVD is a disaster. Sorry to say, but film director Matthew Diamond and his cameramen explicitly ruin the show.
You can see the whole stage for only a few seconds in every scene. You see the whole stage, and say "wow, what a wonderful decoration, oops..", then the camera zooms in, you see the smiling faces of dancers. Not their feet, not their body, but their faces. I can say that, Chinese snow queen is a beautiful woman, but I could not appreciate her dance. I'm not exaggerating, camera does not stand still more than 3 seconds. When 3 seconds pass, camera moves, or zooms in, after an additional 2 seconds, then another camera is in action. What a technology!?
I saw many choreograhies of Nutcracker, I think this was a very good one, good dancers, good orchestra, but extremely disappointing film. Not worth buying.
5 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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A missed opportunity and a frustrating experience
Added 1/10/2009
This performance could have been one of the most pleasant of Nutcracker performances available on DVD, if we could see the dance as it was choreographed and performed on the stage. But we see only bits and pieces of the dance shown through endless camera close ups.
During the entire dance we don't see the stage for more than 10 seconds at a time. What we see is close ups of faces, medium shots of one or two dancers in a small area of the stage, the panning of the camera to move along with the dancers from one side of the stage to the other and so on. We get a constant barrage of zoom in, zoom out, pan and scan. At some points if you are not suffering from motion sickness and frustration to the point of closing your eyes, you will notice that while the camera is panning you actually end up seeing blurry images of the dancers. So we get to watch the camera do its thing while the dancers do the dance on the stage that we don't get to see because they are not shown.
I don't know about anyone else but I don't watch a ballet for the smiling faces of the dancers. Furthermore, I'd like to let my own eyes do the panning and scanning of a ballet performance on the stage.
18 out of 22 people found this helpful.
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Old ballet with fresh eyes
Added 1/3/2009
This is by far the best performance of the Nutcracker I've seen, live or recorded. The fresh setting (both time --1915, and location--San Francisco), as well as the beautiful costumes and the fabulous twist on the pas de deux make it a pleasure to watch. The use of the World's Fair Pavilion as a backdrop for Act 2 is also a fun change.
This production is more child-friendly than many others, because it lacks the creepy persona that Drosselmeier is often given. There is also a more playful nature to many of the dances (the Chinese dance with the dragon comes to mind) which children love.
Helgi Tomasson should be commended for choreographing an old standard in a new way that makes it exciting to both new viewers and those who have seen the ballet many times before.
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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