Choreography: Yuri Grigorovich

Sound Formats: DD 5.0 DTS 5.0 PCM-STEREO
Picture Format: 16:9
Subtitles: none
Region Code: 0
Number of Discs: 1
Running Time: 114 minutes
Booklet Languages: English, German, French

TDK presents one of the most fascinating choreographies to have emerged from Russia during the last decades: Yuri Grigorovich’s original ballet dramatizing Ivan the Terrible's reign as Czar of Russia. Choreographed to Sergei Prokofiev's score for Eisenstein's famous film on the same topic, this ballet in two acts was premiered in Moscow in 1975 at the Bolshoi Theatre. Greeted with enthusiasm in New York in the same year, it continued its success with Western audiences when Grigorovich was invited to stage Ivan the Terrible at the Paris Opéra in 1976, making it an essential part of the company’s repertoire.

Recorded at the end of 2003, this production features the amazing star of the Paris Ballet, Nicolas Le Riche, one of the foremost dancers of today, in the title role. Famous all over the world for his elegant strength, the beauty of his expression and the musicality of his movements, he has created leading roles for choreographers such as Rudolf Nureyev, Mats Ek and John Neumeier. As the the Czar Ivan he dances opposite Eleonora Abbagnato, his fellow dancer at the Paris Opera Ballet, whose highly refined dancing in the role of his wife Anastasia gives rise to great hopes for her future. His male counterpart is portrayed by distinguished Paris Opera soloist Karl Paquette, a rising star, much loved by the Paris audience and already on demand as a guest with international companies. The mass scenes, where up to 80 dancers appear on the stage at once, prove the outstanding quality not just of the principals (etoile) and soloists (premier danseur) but also of the corps de Ballet de l’Opéra National de Paris, which has kept its place as one of the leading companies of the world through generations of excellent dancers and choreographers.

The historical personality Ivan IV "the Terrible" (1530 - 1584), Grand Prince of Moscow, who in 1547 took control of Russia with the title "Czar of all the Russians", is a rewarding theme for a dance drama. Torn between compassion and crime, lucidity and madness, this complex individual has inspired artists, historians and politicians alike. While some have condemned him for the frenzied depth of his passions, depicting him as a bloodthirsty monster, others have lauded him for his political genius, exalting the righter of wrongs and the nation builder.

Yuri Grigorovich approached the enigma differently. Using the music composed by Sergei Prokofiev for the celebrated two-part film epic by Sergei Eisenstein entitled “Ivan Grozny” as a starting point, he choreographed a fresco on the life of the Russian people and lent it inspiration with the deadly love story of the tsar and his first wife, Anastasia, beneath the dark gaze of the traitor Kurbsky.

He created a chronicle in eighteen tableaux, in which the seething crowds and the heroes’ impassioned adagios alternate in a work of great dramatic sensitivity. In this work sensitive classical and powerful character dance blend together to create a lyrical epic, rich in the colours of medieval Russia.