Ashton Celebration: The Royal Ballet Dances Frederick Ashton

The premier British choreographer of the 20th century, Frederick Ashton (1904-1988) served as the artistic director of the Royal Ballet from 1963 to 1970 (the company's golden age). Filmed at the Royal Opera House, this 2013 program celebrating Ashton's prodigious talent features five of his short ballets, which not only demonstrate his variety and creativity over a two-decade span—from 1958 to 1977—but also underscore his enduring influence on the Royal Ballet and English ballet in general. The first piece, set to Ravel's increasingly corrosive La Valse, features the full company ensemble. Next up is a rapturous pas de deux for Leanne Benjamin and Valeri Hristov based on the Méditation from Massenet's opera Thaïs, followed by a lighthearted pairing for Yuhui Choe and Alexander Campbell drawing on Johann Strauss II's Voices of Spring. The fourth segment, set to music by Erik Satie, is Monotones I and II, featuring two groups of three dancers who ultimately join together. The fifth and longest piece is Marguerite and Armand, a mini-romantic-tragedy set to Liszt that was originally danced by Fonteyn and Nureyev, and is performed here by Sergei Polunin and Tamara Rojo, the latter in one of her final performances as the company's principal dancer before taking over the artistic directorship of the English National Ballet. All of the music is expertly conducted by Emmanuel Plasson. Presented in DTS 5.0 (DTS-HD 5.0 on Blu-ray) and LPCM stereo, extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette. Highly recommended. (F. Swietek)