Swan Lake ballet. Music by Tchaikovsky. Book by V.P. Begichev and Vasily Geltzer. Choreography by Valery Kovton (1944-2005) after Lev Ivanov, Marius Petipa, and Alexandre Gorski. Performed 2019 by the Ballet Company of the National Opera of Ukraine at the National Opera House in Kiev. Stars Natalia Matsak (Odette/Odile); Denys Nedak (Prince Siegfried); Yaroslav Tkachuck (Rothbart); Ganna Muromtseva, Olga Skripchenko, and Oleksandre Skulkine (Pas de trois); Margarita Alyanakh, Irina Borisova, Ganna Muromtseva, and Svetlana Onipko (The Brides and Big Swans); Elisaveta Goguidze, Katerina Didenko, Inna Chorna, and Katerina Chupina (Little Swans); Oleksandre Skulkine (Venetian Dance); Sergey Litvinenko (The Tutor); Vladislav Ivashchenko (The Knight); and Ludmila Melnik (The Queen). Mykola Dyadura conducts the Orchestra of the National Opera of Ukraine. Stage and costume design by Maria Levitskaya. Directed for TV by Bertrand Normand; produced by François Duplat. Released 2019, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B

Ukraine is a landlocked developing country that is always the innocent bystander getting grievously injured in the age-old struggles between Russia and Western Europe. It’s about the size (in land and population) of Texas and Oklahoma together. Well, there is no ballet company in Texas/Oklahoma remotely able to maintain Swan Lake in repertory, but the Ukrainians do exactly that. Below is

Ghosts ballet, based on the play Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen. Music composed by Nils Petter Molvær. Created and directed 2017 by Marit Moum Aune at the Norwegian National Opera & Ballet in Oslo. Choreography by Cina Espejord. Stars Andreas Heise (Oswald/Captain Alving, Oswald’s Father), Kristoffer Ask Haglund (Oswald as a Child), Camilla Spidsøe (Mrs. Alving, Oswald’s Mother), Sonia Vinograd (Young Mrs. Alving), Ole Willy Falkhaugen (Pastor Manders), Philip Currell (Young Pastor Manders), Grete Sofie Borud Nybakken (Regine, a Maid), Erle Østraat (Regine as a Child), Yoshifumi Inao (Carpenter Engstrand), Nils Petter Molvær (Musician), as well as other dancers from The Norwegian National Ballet (Artistic Director Ingrid Lorentzen) and The Norwegian National Ballet School. Set design by Even Børsum; costume design by Ingrid Nylander; lighting design by Kristin Bredal; video projections by Odd Reinhart Nicolaysen; voice over by Håkon Ramstad. Directed for TV by Tommy Pascal; produced by Xavier Dubois. Released 2019, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A

Because the vocabulary of dance is mostly limited to body movements and facial expressions, it’s daunting to make a ballet from works of literature based on abstract creative elements like writing style, written dialogue, time shifting, changes of voice, and political or philosophical ideas. But it can be done, as we have seen with HDVDs like Woolf Works, 1984, and Hedda Gabler (another Ibsen ballet from the Norwegian National Ballet). Ibsen’s Ghosts presented even greater difficulties than usual because there are only 5 characters (all adults) in the play and almost everything they say has to do with things that happened in the past. The solution was to invent 5 new characters.

Coppélia ballet. Music by Léo Delibes. Libretto by Charles Nuitter and Arthur Saint-Léon after E.T.A. Hoffmann. Choreography by Sergey Vikharev and Vladimir Grigoriev after Marius Petipa and Enrico Cecchetti. Recorded 2018 at the Bolshoi Theater. Stars Margarita Shrayner (Swanilda), Artem Ovcharenko (Frantz), Alexey Loparevich (Coppelius), Xenia Averina, Daria Bochkova, Bruna Cantanhede Gaglianone, Antonina Chapkina, Anastasia Denisova, Elizaveta Kruteleva, Svetlana Pavlova, and Yulia Skvortsova (Eight friends); Nadezhda Blagova (Coppélia [Automaton]), Alexander Fadeyechev (Lord of Manor), Yuri Ostrovsky (Burgomaster), Nikolay Mayorov (Chronos), Oksana Sharova, Alexander Vodopetov, Ekaterina Besedina, and Dmitry Ekaterinin (Mazurka), Kristina Karasyova and Vitali Biktimirov (Czardasz), Anastasia Denisova (Aurora), Antonina Chapkina (Prayer), Daria Bochkova, Ksenia Averina, Maria Mishina, Stanislava Postnova, and Tatiana Tiliguzova (Work), and Elizaveta Kruteleva (Folly). Pavel Sorokin conducts the Orchestra and Chorus of the Bolshoi Theater. Scenography by Boris Kaminsky; costumes by Tatiana Noginova; lighting design by Damir Ismagilov; archive research and coordination by Pavel Gershenzon. Directed for TV by Isabel Julien; produced by François Duplat. Released 2019, disc has 5.1 HD Master Audio sound. Grade: A+

Hedda Gabler ballet. Music composed by Nils Petter Molvær. Choreographed and directed by Marit Moum Aune based on the play of the same name by Henrik Ibsen. Staged 2017 at the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet. Stars Grete Sofie Borud Nybakken (Hedda Gabler) Silas Henriksen (Eilert Løvborg, Hedda’s first lover), Philip Currell (Jørgen Tesman, Hedda’s husband), Eugenie Skilnand (Thea Elvsted, Hedda’s schoolmate), Shane Urton (Assessor or Judge Brack), Samantha Lynch (Aunt Julie), Klara Mårtensson (Diana), Kristian Alm (General Gabler, Hedda’s father), Erle Østraat (Hedda Gabler as child), and Helle Flood (Thea Elvsted as child) supported by other dancers of The Norwegian National Ballet and The Norwegian National Ballet School. Set design by Even Børsum; costume design by Ingrid Nylander; lighting design by Kristin Bredal; assistant direction by Christoper Kettner; group choreography by Kaloyan Boyadjiev. Directed for TV by Tommy Pascal; produced by Xavier Dubois. Released 2019, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: B+

The Nutcracker ballet. Music by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a libretto by Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann and Marius Petipa. Choreographed by Valery Kovtun and filmed at the National Opera of Ukraine in 2018. Stars Oleksiy Kovalenko (Stahlbaum); Liudmyla Melnyk (His Wife); Iuliia Moskalenko (Clara, their Daughter); Ielizaveta Gogidze (Fritz, Clara’s Brother/Chinese Doll); Iaroslav Tkachuk (Drosselmeyer/Russian Doll); Ielizaveta Cherniak (The Nutcracker Doll); Mykyta Sukhorukov (The Nutcracker/The Prince); Ruslan Avramenko (Mouse King); Sergii Kliachin (Harlequin/Indian Doll); Ganna Muromtseva (Columbine); Marjia Nelen (She-Devil/Russian Doll); Volodymyr Kutuzov (He-Devil); Raisa Betancourt and Oleksandr Shapoval (Spanish Dolls); Anastasiia Shevchenko(Indian Doll); Mykyta Hodyna (Chinese Doll); and Lina Volodina, Oksana Sira, Vladyslav Romashchenko, and Maksym Bilorkynytskyi (French Dolls), and dancers from the Ballet Company of the National Opera of Ukraine. Oleksiy Baklan conducts the Orchestra the National Opera of Ukraine. Directed for TV by Bertrand Normand; produced by François Duplat. Released 2018, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound output. [Preliminary information needs confirmation.] Grade: NA