1/5 Shame, shame, shame!
  by H. A. J. Martens
Shame on manufacturer, partly also on Amazon.com!
Remove, eradicate this non-product!!
Poor, very poor sound: MONO, can you believe that???
Poor image quality: one-to-one copying from tape to DVD!!!
And: this isn't the complete 'Sleeping Beauty', as meant by the composer.
I feel cheated!!!!!!
Shame, shame, shame!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(I only filled in one rating star because this strange system doesn't accept zero's!!!!!!!)

1/5 Save your money for a complete version-
  by Todd Nolan (Seattle, WA USA)
I can understand a few minutes duration of cuts for both ballets & operas, but 50 to 60 minutes worth ? VAI should have labeled this as "highlights" of the Sleeping Beauty since its so heavily abridged. And they have the unmitigated audacity to charge full price for this (even Amazon's discounted price does not make this a worthwhile purchase). Even considering the slight difference in tempos that conductors will take, this ballet should not come in at less than 130 minutes. The Paris Opera complete DVD is 148 minutes, the Royal Ballet is 132, one of the Kirov's is 170 and the Bolshoi version of Grigorivich comes in at 145. I can't fathom why any studio/distributor would think ballet fans would settle for almost an hour of cuts. Did they hedge their bets that Nureyev's presence would suffice ? (This DVD was a gift. While I know from experience to check the 'total running time' on the back of ballet DVDs, someone who has no way of knowing better will take it for what it purports to be: a complete production. I'll do my venting here in this forum; the gift was, of course, very thoughtful LOL).

Besides the ridiculous chop-job, there are other reasons to choose another version. While the Princess Aurora, Veronica Tennant, is a very good dancer, she's too tall and not young enough to pull the role off. And while apparently no expense was spared on the costumes and sets, they lack color. Aside from a flash of green in the Awakening Scene in Act 2, much of the staging and sets are also colorless. The fairy-tale setting deserves splashes of color.

Until someone underwrites a DVD recording of Pacific Northwest Ballet's staging of Beauty by Ronald & Ann Hynd (with either Louise Nadeau or Noelani Pantastico as Aurora, or even Mara Vinson & Kaori Nakamura), the Sleeping Beautys to have are the Dutch National Ballet, the Royal Ballet with Viviana Durante, the Paris Opera Ballet with Aurelie Dupont (despite Nureyev's bizarre decision to substitute a pointless solo by the Prince in place of the Lilac Fairy's usual steps in Act 2), and traditional settings by the Kirov & Bolshoi. Don't waste your time or money on this particular production.

5/5 A Very Special Sleeping Beauty!
  by J. M WILINSKY (teaneck, NJ United States)
This performance is quite interesting. First of all, everybody in this dances fantastically. More to the point, Nureyev does some solos in this that you will not see performed in any other version. The prologue is full of interesting choreography, and as a result some of the fairy solos are cut. The bluebird variation is one of the best around in this performance, performed by none other than Karen Kain and Frank Augustyn. If you are a Nureyev fan(if not, why are you reading this?)and a fan of the Canadian Ballet you will not be disappointed with this dvd.

2/5 One thumb down
  by
This DVD is very heavily cut. The prologue and Act I take 30 minutes. The entire ballet takes about 1:20. This video represents and abridged performance and should be labeled as such. Further, Ms Tennant does not dance well. Strictly for Nureyev fans.