4/5 Worth it for the Sleeping Beauty excerpts alone!
  by Eric Henwood-Greer (Victoria, BC CANADA)
This is a good docuemntary. It's sadly all too short, and seems to gloss over some of the most interesting aspects it brings up. However it's still a welcome glimpse into this great company. A special surprise are all the clips we get of the so far unfilmed, gorgeous reconstruction of the original 1890 Sleeping Beauty ballet. In fact we get on the DVD as a bonus the complete Nereid scene of Act II--the only place to see it, which made me bumpt his up a star in itself. For fans of the ballet, that reconstruction's Act III is filmed and available on the excellent DVD New Year's Eve in St Petersburg. If only the whole ballet would get a release...

4/5 CURTAIN UP! BACK TO THE USSR? GLADLY!
  by Alan W. Petrucelli (THE ENTERTAINMENT REPORT (ALAN W. PETRUCELLI))
Ex-Waltonite Richard Thomas narrates the story of the famed Russian theater set against the backdrop of the magical White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg --- a documentary as revealing as it is riveting. This is as much the story of the survival of the space held so dear for so many decades to a nation as it is a study of the collapse of Communism and a candid look at the life and work of Valery Gergiev, the Mariinsky's artistic director, a mighty, magical maestro whose life is populated with artists, politicians, financiers and socialites. The perfect recipe for those who think Soviet culture is colder than a bowl of borscht