The Bolshoi Ballet: Live From Moscow - The Nutcracker

Very much like the other two Bolshoi versions choreographed by Grigorovich. However, this is the only one of the three versions shot on widescreen and HD, so the colors are far more vivid and the picture practically jumps out at you, despite the fact that it's not in 3-D. The same sets (or exact duplicates of them) are used, but they don't look as shabby as in the earlier Bolshoi versions. The costumes are only very slightly different. Two minor changes have been made to the choreography. In the second act, the Nutcracker Prince and the Mouse King (who does not die onscreen in this production) do not descend through a trap door in the floor. Instead, the Nutcracker Prince chases the Mouse King offstage and returns a few minutes later triumphantly holding the King's crown. The end is also slightly different. As in the usual Bolshoi version, in the dream, Marie marries her Nutcracker Prince, but then abruptly wakes up. However, in this revised production, rather than waking up alone, wandering around the room in a kind of a daze, and then finding her Nutcracker under the tree, Marie wakes up, instantly realizes that her adventures were all a dream, remembers that it is Christmas morning, and runs to embrace her mother. Then, Drosselmeyer and the family butler bring the Nutcracker to Marie, knowing that she will want it, and she runs to the toy and embraces it tenderly. In the other Bolshoi productions, a stuffed doll substituted in the final scene for the dancer who played the Nutcracker Doll. Here, the dancer appears in the final scene. As in the other two Bolshoi versions, Marie and the Prince are played by adults rather than children, turning their story into a romance between the two.