Adam - Giselle / Carla Fracci, Erik Bruhn, John Lanchbery, American Ballet Theatre

Excellent for any ballet lovers collection. This is a collectable item. Beautiful. Also excellent condition and handled in timely manner by seller. Thumbs UP!

I sympathize with reviewers who are put off by the artistic excesses in filming this version. A pity, because Ive owned many Giselles over the years and whenever I come back to this one, Im reminded of all the reasons Fracci remains my favorite. She has an energy and charisma that is not matched by other ballerinas who have performed this. That said, I rate Fracci 5*, the other principals and corps 4*, and the camerawork 2*. That averages somewhere between 3 & 4. For the best overall Giselle, combining youthful freshness, exquisite performances, direction and camerawork, my favorite is the La Scala version with Alessandra Ferri.

I saw the name Carla Fracci and snapped like a salmon at this video.

My daughter loves ballet. Wonderful gift.

The dance performance is good. Video production is VHS quality, muddy and dark. It is too bad they couldnt remaster and clean up the video quality. Disappointing on DVD. No chapter divisions or random access to scenes.

Carla Fracci was magnificent as Giselle and Bruhn a very good partner.

I want my money back! what an awful Giselle! Poor Carlotta Grisi is probably doing turns

Note that this 2005 Deutsche Grammophon release of the 1968 ABT Fracci/Bruhn Giselle conducted by John Lanchbery is the identical production previously available on the now-withdrawn Polygram issue. Amazon reviews shown at either entry pertain equally to both releases. There is no need to pay an inflated price for an out-of-print copy of the earlier Polygram release.

Excellent! This is a great example of why I like the American Ballet better than the Bolshoi. When the Bolshoi makes a movie, they just set up a camera or three in front of the stage, and you get no more than the audience gets. And you listen to the audience applause every so often, to let you know you should admire that particular bit. The American Ballet -- and the British -- make a movie of it, with different camera angles, including close-ups, and sets that could not be contained on a theater stage, and even a few special effects. Theyre still telling a story in music and dance, but they take advantage of what film can do. Also, the costumes are so much better. Again, they tend to go beyond what would be effective on a stage.

How David Blair could allow this insult to the dancers is beyond me. I noted that some people liked the performance, but Im at a loss to know how they actually saw the performance! Trying to watch an artist dance, through the back of huge hats, bad quality glass and anything else the director could find to put in front of them, was, to say the least, distracting. Add to that a camera that was moving so constantly that I almost felt sea-sick and editing that rarely stayed on the same shot for more than a few seconds and constantly interrupted the dance with completely irrelevant and distracting views of everything from a plate of fruit to galloping horses as seen from a galloping horse! Ballet is a theatrical art, but many others have shown that it can be totally cinematic. If you trust it and leave it alone, it will automatically weave its magic spell.