Tchaikovsky Gala

Tchaikovsky Gala. On December 31, 2007 the ballet troupe of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan threw its New Year's Eve Gala. The program consisted of excepts from Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and the Nutcracker ‎ ballets under direction of  Elisabetta Terabust. The Swan Lake stars are Polina Semionova, Roberto Bolle, Maurizio Licitra, Gianni Ghisleni, and Flavia Vallone. The Sleeping Beauty stars are Marta Romagna, Alessandro Grillo, Mick Zeni, Matteo Buongiorno, Bryan Hewison, Antonio Sutera, and Daniela Cavalleri. The Nutcracker stars are Nadja Saidakova and Ronald Savkovic. David Coleman conducts the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala; directed for TV by Denis Caïozzi. Released 2008, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: C

This disc is froth, not broth. Prince Siegfried and the Queen are intrigued when Baron Rothbart arrives to be Master of Ceremonies at Siegfried's party. The ceremonies will consist of about 75 minutes of highlights from Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, and the Nutcracker. Still, the party will end badly with Siegfried blownfused and it's curtains. (Stated differently, try imagining Swan Lake without Odette or the white acts.) Now, there's some refined and athletic dancing here, especially by local deity Roberto Bolle and Polina Semionava, an import from Berlin. But what this disc does for us is to show just how hard it is to have a ballet without a libretto.

Because a gala is a convention of insiders celebrating each other, anything can happen and outsiders have no gripe. But even by this low standard, this disc disappoints. The camera work is poor with soft images and motion blur throughout. There is a bonus with rehearsal shots, etc. that could have been OK, but it's in SD and looks like student work. So unless you are crazy about La Scala or Semionava, we suggest you save your booty for some broth, not froth.