The true story of Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who, in 1995 at the age of 43, suffered a stroke that paralyzed his entire body, except his left eye. Using that eye to blink out his memoir, Bauby eloquently described the aspects of his interior world, from the psychological torment of...
Young and extremely talented dancer Yulya Olshanskaya from a small mining town draws a “happy ticket”: she is noticed by a former ballet dancer Pototsky and he promises her a future of great ballerina, worthy of the main stage of the country. However, in order to become a diamond, anyone, even...
Billie and Louis have the good fortune of loving each other passionately and of having a family. But then one day terrible news turns their existence and that of their friends' upside down. Marie, a famous actress who is Billie's friend and confidant, redoubles her determination to give life, while...
Inspired by Goethe's early romantic play Clavigo, Roland Petit's ballet recounts the agonies of a weak-willed lover torn between the contradictory promptings of his heart and his evil spirit, which urges him to serve his own interests and forsake true love in favor of a life of debauchery. Recorded...
In 2008, the Opéra national de Paris honored the legendary Jerome Robbins. Though the general public may remember him primarily for his staging and choreography of Bernstein’s West Side Story, Robbins was also a brilliant ballet choreographer. In this production, we discover three of his works...
Once upon a time there was a kingdom where dancing was forbidden by a tyrant king. Defying the edict of her father, the Princess Aurore continues to dance, for the amusement of herself and brother, Solal. With the kingdom virtually bankrupt, the King has no choice but to marry his daughter to a...
Raymonda is an emotional three-act ballet with music by Alexandre Glazunov. Premiered at the Mariinsky Theater in 1898 featuring choreography by Marius Petipa, the ballet is performed here with Rudolf Nureyev's adapted choreography for his 2008 production at the Opéra de Paris, starring the great...
ETOILES: DANCERS OF THE PARIS OPERA BALLET celebrates the legacy one of the best ballet companies in the world by weaving together rehearsals, tour snapshots and performances of classical ballets such as Swan Lake and La Sylphide, as well as contemporary works such as Maurice Bejart's Ninth...
Nicolas Le Riche and Marie-Agnès Gillot star in the legendary Roland Petit and Jean Cocteau's pioneering one-act ballet Le Jeune homme et la Mort. This 2005 production at the Opéra de Paris stays true to Petit’s original scenic and choreographic conception, from the dark, dingy apartment of the...
Roland Petit’s ballet Carmen was a smash hit at its premiere at London’s Prince’s Theatre in 1949. Structured in five scenes, the work reimagines the classic opera, using an innovative mixture of modern and classical ballet, mime, and Spanish-style movement to create a contemporary...
Giselle, the Romantic ballet par excellence! Relive the story of a young country girl's innocent love for the Duke Albrecht. When she learns that he is already engaged to marry a princess, Giselle suffers violent hallucinations and then dies. In vengeance, the Queen of the Wilis—the ghosts of...
Sergei Eisenstein's grand unfinished 1940s-50s film trilogy 'Ivan the Terrible' had elaborate incidental music by Sergei Prokofiev. In 1975 Yuri Grigorovich, for thirty years the chief choreographer of Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet, made a ballet on the same subject and used a conflation of Prokofiev's...
