The Bolshoi Ballet II [DVD]

Sergei Prokofiev's legendary three-act ballet The Stone Flower arrives in a home video release from ArtHaus Musik, a film of the 1990 stage production performed by The Bolshoi Ballet and The Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. The basic story, which Prokofiev adapted from a Ural fable, involves Danila (here played by Nikolai Dorokhov), a stone carver who - while he is accomplished enough technically - wishes to push himself ever further, harnessing the creative secrets of the gods to fashion a vase as ascetic and as elegant as one of nature's flowers. Led into the caverns of the Mistress of the Copper Mountain (Nina Semizorova in this production), Danila obtains the secret, but The Mistress wishes to possess him and holds him captive, until she observes his undying love for the lovely Katerina (Lyudmilla Semenyaka) and finally sets him free. Yuri Grigorovich choreographs this production, while Motoko Sakaguchi directs the film of it.~Nathan Southern