Chopin - Die Kameliendame (2007)

A classic!

I bought this DVD because I wanted to see something different from the well-known ballets. What a great and moving opportunity it has been! I have played this disk every evening for a full week. The choice of Chopin's music is wonderful to convey the pathos of the Dumas tragedy which one cannot get from La Travita. One can sit a whole evening just living through Chopin's music which comes out crystal clear or one can watch the dancing which, as others have noted, is passionate and challenging. Or one can live the tragedy. One of my my most beautiful buys ever. September 19, 2008

DVD version ruins John Neumeier's vision. Get VHS to experience it properly

Die Kameliendame aka The Lady of the Camellias is a breathtaking ballet choreographed by John Neumeier and performed with the amazing talents of Marcia Haydee, Ivan Liska, and the Hamburg Ballet. I purchased the VHS version by KULTUR several years ago. With VCR technology phasing out and my VCR eating my copy of Die Kameliendame, I thought I'd purchase it on DVD. Horrendous decision! DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHONE, the company responsible for the transfer to DVD, destroyed what was once a beautiful ballet and turned it into CHARLIE CHAPLIN meets cheap Kung-fu. The technology used for the transfer sped up the whole film making it void of any emotion that was present before their tampering.

The video quality is great and the audio quality is vastly superior than the VHS version but it does NOT justify what they did to the ballet! Kudos to the choreographer, dancers, and musicians! Shame on the DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHONE company for ruining this artistic treasure! April 30, 2008

Good dancing and music, poorly integrated

Chopin's beautifully performed music was not composed for ballet and one has the sense that it is being drafted against its will into storytelling. Neumeier says he considered using the music Verdi composed for this story (La Traviata), but rejected the idea for some unexplained reason. Balanchine once said that Verdi is "dansant"--dance-able-- from beginning to end. My feeling was that Chopin's music here is too rich and complex to serve the purposes of narration. Why don't these wonderful dancers sit down and listen to the Chopin concert and then perform a ballet? I felt I was attending two separate performances simultaneously. October 5, 2007

A Ballet Movie Classic Of Intense Romantic And Dramatic Emotion.

This story is based on an autobiographical novel by Dumas and has been performed under many names: Lady of the Camellias,Armand and Marguerite, and La Traviata, to mention a few. This ballet version was done as a movie back in 1987 by John Neumeier and was previously released on VHS. This DVD transfer by Deutsche Grammophon is fantastic! Both the sound and picture are as good as it gets. The choreography is purely classical and is very complex and ambitious. The dancing is almost nonstop for two solid hours! The pas de deux are some of the most romantic in the repertoire, and many intense solos are included. The quality of the dancing is unbelievable and some of the best the Hamburg Ballet has ever come up with. There are some lighter moments, with delightful comic elements, including some with a cabaret flavor. But the overall feeling is that of 19th century gothic gloom.
The sound also includes intentional stage noises, like the flowing of fabric and footsteps and other incidental sounds, which adds to the sense of realism. There is also some creative use of lighting.
The music in this version consists entirely of various pieces by Chopin, both solo piano and piano and full orchestra. The music is also flawlessly performed.
This is a very moving ballet experience and should appeal to all lovers of classical ballet. August 25, 2007

I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THIS!

Elsewhere, I have praised the Kultur VHS of John Neumeier's beautiful ballet film of the Lady of the Camelias, but was unhappy that the copy used for the tape was a beat-up master of the film. I do hope that the good people at DG have obtained a pristine master, in superb sound and hopefully letterboxed. Nonetheless, the dancing and dramatic interpretation of Marcia Haydee and Ivan Liska is superb, and the music of Chopin provides a perfect score. June 18, 2007

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