Adolphe Adam’s 1856 final ballet may be today eclipsed in popularity by his earlier Giselle, but it was a huge success in its time, and recently has enjoyed a renaissance, with this 2016 Wiener Staatsballett production joining recent mountings from Toulouse (VL-5/14) and the English National Ballet (VL-7/15). The libretto remains quite silly, centering on a pirate named Conrad who is determined to rescue Médora, a noblewoman who has been abducted and placed in a pasha’s harem. And even Luisa Spinatelli’s opulent sets here cannot do complete justice to the final shipwreck sequence that so thrilled the premiere audience. But Manuel Legris (using a score augmented with music by Delibes and Pugni among others and choreographic hints from Petipa and his successors) stages the piece brilliantly, and the dancers not only exhibit élan in their solos, duets, and ensembles, but also skill in the pantomime that was an essential part of French ballet in the mid-19th century. Robert Gabdullin is an athletic Conrad and Maria Yakovleva an elegant, if rather cool, Médora, and both are admirably supported, especially by Davide Dato, as the disloyal Birbanto, and Kirill Kourlaev as the villainous bazaar operator Lanquedem. And the Wiener Staatsoper delivers fine orchestral playing under the baton of Valery Ovsianikov. Presented in DTS 5.0 (DTS-HD 5.0 on the Blu-ray edition) and PCM stereo, this is highly recommended. (F. Swietek)
Le Corsaire
(2016) 120 min. DVD or Blu-ray: $24.99. Naxos (avail. from most distributors). Volume 34, Issue 5
Le Corsaire
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