Lebedinoe ozero

This production of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake by the Ballet of the Kirov Theatre in St. Petersburg is superb. Yelena Yevteyeva's Odette and Odile perfectly capture the white and black of the two personalities. From her first magical entrance to her last moments she is wonderful. She *is* Odette; she *is* Odile. Makhmud Esambayev's Rothbart is brilliantly evil. The chorus work and the solo dancers (especially in the astonishing Spanish dance) are everything one could wish for. I can watch this performance over and over and over again and never tire of it.

(I wish IMDb would list it first and foremost under Swan Lake, with 'aka Lebedinoe ozero' so that English-speaking people will find it easily on that search. To make matters more confusing it has been issued by a German DVD production company under 'Swan Lake'.)