"Actor: Nikolai Fadeyechev"

• Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake (Fayer) | DVD | (24/09/2007) from £20.35   |  Saving you £-1.36 (-7.20%)   |  RRP £18.99

  Swan Lake tells the timeless tale of redemption through love. It is probably the best known of all the classical ballets and for the prima ballerina who dances the dual role of Odette and Odile the supreme test of the dancer's craft.Maya Plisetskaya's melting lyricism and superlative technique make her one of the greatest exponents of the dual role since the ballet's first introduction over a century ago. Tchaikovsky's score the first in his triumvirate of great battles is the perfect complement to the imaginative choreography that sets Swan Lake apart from anything that had preceded or followed it. This production filmed live at the Bolshoi Theatre captures a great ballerina in her prime in an eternal classic.

• Bizet-Shchedrin - Carmen Suite Ballet | DVD | (03/01/2005) from £21.59   |  Saving you £1.40 (6.48%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Carmen was first set as a ballet by the famed Russian choreographer Petipa in 1845. It was based on the Merimee novella and premiered in Madrid some thirty years before Bizet's opera was first heard. Subsequent versions followed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries some using and some discarding Bizet's music. In 1949 Roland Petit created a successful vehicle for himself and his wife Zizi Jeanmaire using the Bizet score.Maya Plisetskaya always dreamed of dancing the role of Carmen and had approached Shostakovich for a score. He demurred out of respect for Bizet's celebrated opera. It was eventually Plisetskaya's husband Rodion Shchedrin who agreed to provide the music after seeing his wife and the choreographer Alberto Alonso working on some choreographic ideas. His Carmen Suite ballet based on Bizet and scored only for strings and percussion instruments was a perfect complement to Alonso's choreography and in its theatricality a showcase for Plisetskaya's considerable dramatic gifts. Shchedrin's Carmen Suite one of the darkest settings of Merimee's tragic story deeply symbolic and overtly sensual premiered at the Bolshoi Ballet on April 20 1967.

• Plisetskaya Dances | DVD | (05/04/2004) from £22.89   |  Saving you £0.10 (0.44%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Maya Plisetskaya a prima ballerina of Moscow's Bolshoi Ballet is the subject of this documentary. Containing some rare footage of her as a child it covers the development of her career and shows highlights from some of her greatest roles. Included in this film are scenes from Swan Lake Sleeping Beauty Spartacus The Little Humpbacked Horse Raymonda The Stone Flower Romeo and Juliet Don Quixote and others.A fascinating look at a world famous dancer Plisetskaya Dances chronicles the life and work of a performer who bridged the worlds of strict academic classicism and free expressivity. The wonder and excitement of her work is everywhere evident in this award winning film.