Moscow’s Bolshoi Ballet outdoes itself with this absolutely charming 2018 performance of Léo Delibes’s 1870 ballet, based on a story by E.T.A. Hoffmann about Swanilda, a village girl who rescues her fiancé Frantz when he becomes besotted with Coppélia, the beautiful life-sized doll that Dr. Coppélius has created and hopes to bring to life by infusing it with the poor lad’s spirit. To foil the inventor’s plan, Swanilda dresses up as Coppélia and fools Coppélius into thinking that he has succeeded, and after escaping, she and Frantz are happily wed. This production uses the full three-act score of the 1870 Paris premiere, with Sergey Vikharev’s choreography based on Marius Petipa and Enrico Cecchetti’s for the 1894 St. Petersburg revival. Such reverence would hardly matter, however, if the performance lacked the necessary effervescence. Happily, conductor Pavel Sorokin conducts a sparkling reading of Delibes’s delightful score, and the dancing is superb. Margarita Shrayner is a spunky, strong-willed Swanilda, and Artem Ovcharenko a droll and dopey Frantz, and even though Alexey Loparevich is a less sinister Coppélius than some, he catches the character’s desperation nicely. The mounting is bright and colorful, with lovely costumes by Tatiana Noginova and sumptuous sets by Boris Kaminsky, including a roomful of highly animated automata in Coppélius’s study. While there are other good versions of Coppélia available, this one is among the best. Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM stereo on DVD, and DTS-HD 5.1 and PCM stereo on Blu-ray, this is highly recommended. Editor’s Choice. (F. Swietek)
Coppélia
(2018) 100 min. DVD: $24.99, Blu-ray: $29.99. Bel Air Classiques (dist. by Naxos of America). Volume 34, Issue 5
Coppélia
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
Order From Your Favorite Distributor Today: