Also available on Blu-ray



First time on DVD - George Balanchine's Jewels

Choreography George Balanchine / Ballet de L’Opera national de Paris Music Gabriel Faure, Igor Stravinsky, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Orchestre de L’Opera national de Paris / Paul Connelly
Set and costume design Christian Lacroix

George Balanchine and the Paris Opera always enjoyed a special relationship after Jacques Rouche, the then administrator, offered the young choreographer the post of ballet master in 1929. Balanchine declined the job, but he created several ballets for the company and came to the Palais Garnier regularly to oversee his works. In 2000, seventeen years after his death, a rare and precious ballet arrived at the Paris Opera: Jewels, a work first performed by the New York City Ballet in 1967. This alluring, abstract ballet, a triptych in which each piece sparkles with the brilliance of a precious stone, is a lyric tribute to women and to the capital cities of the great dance schools. Couturier, painter and craftsman Christian Lacroix created the glorious costumes and sets which, together with the outstanding performances of the dancers and the sensitive musical direction of Paul Connelly, results in a celebration of sumptuous splendour.

FEATURING MUSIC by Gabriel Fauré - Pelléas and Mélisande and Shylock Igor Stravinsky - Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - Symphony No.3 in D major

PLUS
George Balanchine forever - A film by Reiner E. Moritz, including interviews with Barbara Horgan, chairman of the Balanchine Foundation, Brigitte Lefèvre, director of Ballet de L’Opéra, designer Christian Lacroix and star dancers Laëtitia Pujol, Clairemarie Osta, Aurélie Dupont, Agnès Letestu and Marie-Agnès Gillot

Picture Format: 16:9 Anamorphic
Sound Format: DTS Surround / LPCM Stereo
Running Time: 155 mins
Region Code: All regions
Menu languages: EN
Subtitle Languages: EN/FR/DE/ES/IT (Extra Feature only)

R E V I E W S:

‘A gem of dazzling brilliance.’ -- The Independent

‘It is open to doubt whether even Balanchine has ever created a work in which the inspiration was so sustained, the invention so imaginative, or the concept so magnificent.’ -- New York Times

‘For Rubies nothing but delight. Aurelie Dupont, Marie-Agnes Gillot, Alessio Carbonne were electric, super charged, at the head of a fizzing cast, hard edged, hard driven, hard to beat.’ -- Financial Times

‘It is crammed with invention and incredible difficulty.’ -- Le Monde

‘Jewels has been an unequivocal and rapturous success since its introduction.’ -- Lincoln Kirstein (founder of New York City Ballet)

‘Jewels is a work of genius both as a work of art and as show business.’ -- Robert Garis