DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906-1975): The Bolt.

Description: This live taping from last year at the Bolshoi is a riot of color and constructivist sets. Using the constructivist Soviet art of the period (the ballet had one performance in 1931), the designers created a workplace set with huge anthropomorphic robots and lots of steel girders, rivets and cogs-and-wheels. The costumes in the factory scenes are either all white or all red, with "normal life" visible only in the seedy bar of Act One, Scene Two (a dream sequence in Act Two offers a few splashes of primary colors). The booklet gives a lot of information about the Soviets' cancellation of the ballet (basically, Shostakovich and his scenarist were satirizing the deadly boring but earnest proletarian factory plays of the time), its various stages before reaching the version of the premiere (some scenes of which are not in this brand-new version). The ballet lasts 82 minutes. A 12-minute film "Avant-garde and Kitsch" has some priceless footage of kitschy Red Square parades from the early 30s. A 45-minute interview with the choreographer, set designer and conductor is also included. The Bolshoi Ballet and Orchestra; Pavel Sorokin. 16:9 widescreen. DD 5.1; DTS 5.1; PCM Stereo. 145 min.