Opus Arte released My First Ballet Collection including 26 ballet scenes featuring some of the world’s most exciting and talented dancers from The Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet and Pacific Northwest Ballet. From the graceful elegance and passion of Swan Lake, to the humor and wit of the Clog Dance from La Fille mal gardée and the exuberant liveliness of The Nutcracker, this is a perfect collection for any ballet beginner.

A website has been designed to accompany this entertaining and educational DVD (http://www.myfirstballetcollection.com) in association with the US branch of the Royal Academy of Dance. Founded over 80 years ago, the Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) is the largest, most influential dance teacher training and examining body for classical ballet in the world. On the website, parents are able to search RAD certified dance schools to find the right school for their child and find helpful tips on locating the right dance teacher if there is no certified instructor in their area. The My First Ballet Collection website also includes a list of websites for major American dance companies, a list of all of the complete ballets from which the excerpts have been pulled, trailers from many of those ballets, and links to the RAD website.

My First Ballet Collection Includes:

Tchaikovsky The Sleeping Beauty Valse

Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Entrance of the Swans

Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Battle of the Toys and Mice

Hérold La Fille mal gardée The Fanny Elssler pas de deux

Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Madame du Cirque and the Dancing Bear

Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Chinese Dance

Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night’s Dream Oberon’s Kingdom

Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy

Hérold La Fille mal gardée Picnic

Adam Giselle Retour des vendangeurs et valse

Hérold La Fille mal gardée Dance of the cock and hens

Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker Russian Dance

Delibes Sylvia Pas des esclaves

Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Dance of the Mirlitons

Prokofiev Cinderella Cinderella

Tchaikovsky Nutcracker Waltz of the Snowflakes

Prokofiev Cinderella Duet of the Prince and Cinderella

Delibes Coppélia Bringing Coppélia to life

Hérold La Fille mal gardée Clog dance

Delibes Sylvia Pizzicati

Tchaikovsky The Sleeping Beauty Act 1 Finale

Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Cygnets’ Dance

Tchaikovsky The Nutcracker Waltz of the Flowers

Delibes Sylvia Les Chasseresses

Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night’s Dream Epilogue

Tchaikovsky Swan Lake Pas de trois – Odette, Siegfried, Von Rothbart

Tags: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Adolphe Adam, blog.naxos.com, Delibes, Giselle, La fille mal gardée, Mendelssohn, My First Ballet Collection, Nutcraker, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Prokofiev, San Francisco Ballet, Swan Lake, Sylvia, Tchaikovsky, The Royal Ballet, The Sleeping Beauty

Following a series of fascinating new choreographies filmed at the Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris, Naxos of America releases Giselle (TDK DVWW-BLGISP) on June 24. Commonly regarded as the apotheosis of the Romantic ballet, the music for Giselle was scored by French composer Adolphe Adam, who wrote more than 80 stage works, some of which, like Giselle and Le corsaire, obtained considerable and lasting success. This production is marked by an all-star cast including Laëtitia Pujol, who dances her first title role after producing surprise successes when she stepped in for the two prima ballerinas Aurélie Dupont and Clairemarie Osta at very short notice. Nicolas Le Riche, one of international ballet’s most respected stars, creates her male counterpart, Albrecht, whose faithlessness drives her insane. Le Riche has been a member of the company since 1988 and is famous all over the world for his elegant strength, the beauty of his expression and the musicality of his movements. Marie-Agnès Gillot creates Myrtha, the Queen of the Wilis and Wilfried Romoli is the young man Hilarion who truly loves Giselle.

The work premiered in the Salle de la rue Le Peletier at the Paris Opéra in 1841 and is considered the first major plot-based ballet to have survived to the modern day with its original choreography almost intact. In the course of the past century and a half, Giselle has undergone only a few changes, most notably by Marius Petipa, who revised the work for his 1887 production at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. This 2006 performance is adapted from the version performed at the Paris Opéra in 1991 (which was based on the Petipa version) and is choreographed by Patrice Bart and Eugène Polyakov, two out-and-out Petipa specialists. The scenery is the work of Alexandre Benois from 1924; originally designed for Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, it heralded the re-emergence on Western programs of the long absent Giselle and to this day it remains the benchmark for traditionalist stagings of this ballet.

Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris was begun in 1681 as an all-male ballet troupe that provided entertainment during the interludes of opera performances. Little by little, starting in the early nineteenth century, ballet was freed from the opera and created its own repertoire with the advent of the romantic ballet. It was then that the traditional philosopher’s stones were created, such as La Sylphide (1832), Giselle (1841), Paquita (1846), the Corsair (1865) or Coppélia (1870). Today, Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris is regarded as one of the best companies in the world. The average age of its dancers is 25 years, making it also one of the youngest dance troups existing today. The repertory of the Ballet de l’Opéra national de Paris is vast, ranging from great romantic and traditional ballets to creations of contemporary choreographers. The Ballet gives 180 performances per season in Paris and abroad.

Tags: Adolphe Adam, Ballet de l'Opéra national de Paris, blog.naxos.com, Giselle, Laëtitia Pujol, Marie-Agnès Gillot, Marius Petipa, Naxos Direct, Nicolas Le Riche, Wilfried Romoli