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

On August 26, Opus Arte presents Sleeping Beauty performed by The Royal Ballet and conducted by Valeriy Ovsyanikov. This performance of Tchaikovsky’s second ballet, filmed in December of 2006 to mark the 75th anniversary of The Royal Ballet Company, is a revival of the original full-length 1946 production of Sleeping Beauty. As a fitting tribute to The Royal Ballet’s unique style and lush designs, the original designs by Oliver Messels and choreography by famed Marius Petipa are used for this commemorative occasion. Dancers Alina Cojocaru, Federico Bonelli, Christopher Saunders, Genesia Rosato, and Marianela Nuñez lead the viewer through this wonderfully whimsical fairy tale.
Based at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, The Royal Ballet is Great Britain’s most prestigious ballet company. The 95-strong troupe is acknowledged to be reaching a new artistic and technical peak with talented dancers at all levels in its ranks. The Company’s wide-ranging repertory showcases the great classical ballets including The Royal Ballets own heritage, alongside new works by the foremost international choreographers of today and choreographers from within the Company’s own ranks. This range embraces all the celebrated three-act classical ballets, together with works by Founder Choreographer Frederick Ashton and Principal Choreographer Kenneth MacMillan, ballets by George Balanchine, William Forsythe, Christopher Wheeldon and works by Ashley Page and rising British talents amongst those regularly performed.

Tags: Alina Cojocaru, blog.naxos.com, Christopher Saunders, Federico Bonelli, Genesia Rosato, Marianela Nuñez, Marius Petipa, NaxosDirect, Opus Arte, Sleeping Beauty, The Royal Ballet, Valeriy Ovsyanikov

On July 29, Opus Arte releases La fille mal gardée, with music composed by Ferdinand Hérold (arranged by John Lanchbery) and choreography by Frederick Ashton, recorded live at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London, in February of 2005. It has been said that La fille mal gardée was the first ballet about regular people in everyday situations, and although its first performance occurred at the dawn of the French Revolution, there is no evidence that proves that its original choreographer meant the ballet as revolutionary propaganda. The simple story of a forbidden village love affair, it is without question that that the ballet is intended as an unpretentious illustration that true love conquers all. 

La fille mal gardée was first performed in 1789 at the Grand Théâtre in Bordeaux and was choreographed by Jean Dauberval. Frederick Ashton’s production of the ballet premiered at the Royal Opera House on January 28, 1960, and unlike many of the other ballets that Ashton had choreographed in the 1950’s, it became an immediate classic. It was famous Russian ballerina Tamara Karsavina who convinced Ashton to create his own version of Hérold’s ballet. Karsavina showed Ashton the mimes that she had learned as a child at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg. These passages dated back to the production staged by French Choreographer Marius Petipa in 1885, and some markings in original choreographer Dauberval’s score suggest that some of them may go back to 1789.

Tags: Anthony Twiner, blog.naxos.com, Carlos Acosta, Ferdinand Hérold, Frederick Ashton, John Lanchbery, La fille mal gardée, NaxosDirect, OA0992D, The Royal Ballet