The Flames of Paris

The Flames of Paris ballet. Music by Boris Asafiev. Book by Alexander Belinsky and Alexei Ratmansky on basis of libretto by Nikolai Volkov and Vladimir Dmitriev. Directed and choreographed 2010 by Alexei Ratmansky (after Vasily Vaynonen) at the Bolshoi Ballet. Stars Natalia Osipova, Denis Savin, Ivan Vasiliev, Yuri Klevtsov, Nina Kaptsova, Anna Antonicheva, and Ruslan Skvortsov. Pavel Sorokin conducts the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra. Scenography by Ilya Utkin and Evgeny Monakhov; costumes by Yelena Markovskaya; lighting by Damir Ismagilov, directed for TV and video by Vincent Bataillon. Released 2010, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A

The French Revolution in ballet! Gets an A+ for enthusiasm and tons of great dancing, especially by Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev, the grin leaper. Vivid sound and bass drum; fun music and costumes. Good video framing, but PQ not so hot with motion artifacts and jerky credits. Staging is interesting; but a prop malfunction (involving a large curtain) in Act 1, Scene 2 interferes with the illusion and must have caused agony for the video editor. In the 1930s, this ballet was an icon of Soviet Union art, i.e., a propaganda ballet. With his update, Ratmansky wanted to honor the hoards of Bolshoi dancers who danced this during the Communist era, but was he successful in purging the Joe Stalin influence? He did for sure add elements to the story that would have earned Ratmansky a trip to the Lubyanka in 1933. But we need an expert with deep knowledge of Russian ballet to thoroughly answer my question.