Esmeralda

A beautiful production of the classic ballet 'Esmeralda,' from a great Russian ballet company: the Mussorgsky State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre of St. Petersburg. At once steeped in tradition and amazingly fresh, this 1994 production - vibrantly documented in a tasteful video presentation - presents the company's lively, graceful lead ballerina Elvira Khabibullina in the role of the doomed gypsy dancer Esmeralda, first created by the nineteenth-century novelist Victor Hugo for his classic work 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame.' The production benefits from colorful, storybook set-design and costume, as well as from the ballet's romantic music of 1844, composed by Cesare Pugni and deftly played by the Mussorgsky's symphony orchestra. Under the direction of the company's director Nikolai Boyarchikov, the great Russian ballerina Tatyana Vecheslova - who danced Esmeralda to great acclaim in the early- and mid-twentieth century - provided her own memories of nineteenth-century realizations of the ballet. The program also includes an evocative documentary introduction, covering Esmeralda's history, featuring an interview with the company's artistic director and reminiscences from the great nineteenthcentury ballerina Matilda Kschesinkaya.