I've heard that Maris Liepa's Albrecht in Giselle was as phenomenal as his portrayal of Crassus in Spartacus. Does anyone know if the Russians ever videotaped it?

Quite likely that it got filmed ... but no sign of it on a commercial DVD.

If there is one, there's more chance of seeing it than with most 'Western' companies, most of which will only feature 'current' stars on their new releases.

Did he feature as Albrecht, albeit briefly, on the deliciously overpriced "The Glory of The Bolshoi DVD Video"? I've not found a complete listing of those snippets.

i can't recall if the recently released russian 2-set dvd celebrating Maris Liepa's career - one disc is a gala the other a documentary - includes any clips of his Albrecht.
to be sure there has been no word i've heard of any film of GISELLE, complete, w/ Liepa's Albrecht.

here meanwhile are the credits for THE GLORY OF THE BOLSOI:

The glory of the Bolshoi/ NVC Arts in association with M.P. "MIRIS," St. Petersburg ; produced by Julia Matheson and Carl Simons. Warner Music Vision, c1995. (90 min.) : sd., b&w and col. Executive producer, John Kelleher.
Danced by the Bolshoi Ballet.
Compilation of dance excerpts from films, television and stage performances.
Les sylphides: Waltz (1952 ; ca. 3 min. ; col.) / choreography, Michel Fokine ; music, Chopin ; danced by Galina Ulanova and Vladimir Preobrazhensky.
Moment musical: pas de deux (1913 ; ca. 6 min. ; b&w) / choreography, unknown ; music, Schubert ; danced by Ekaterina Geltzer and Vasili Tikhomirov.
Moszkowski waltz (1940 ; ca. 3 min. ; b&w) / choreography, Vasili Vainonen ; music, Moritz Moszkowski ; danced by Olga Lepeshinskaya and Pyotr Gusev.
Swan lake: white swan pas de deux (1946 ; ca. 5 min. ; b&w) / choreography, Lev Ivanov ; music, Tchaikovsky ; danced by Marina Semenova and Yuri Kondratov.
Swan lake: black swan pas de deux (excerpts) (1947 ; ca. 3 min. ; b&w) / choreography, Marius Petipa ; music, Tchaikovsky ; danced by Maya Plisetskaya. Entrée and Odile's variation, recorded onstage at her debut performance.
Ribbon dance (1940 ; ca. 2 min. ; b&w) / choreography, Asaf Messerer and Lev Lashchulin ; music, Glière ; danced by Asaf Messerer.
Boston waltz, from the film Nastenka Ustinova (1934 ; ca. 4 min. ; b&w) / choreography and music, unknown ; danced by Marina Semenova.
The nutcracker: pas de trois (1953 ; ca. 1 min. ; b&w) / choreography, Vasili Vainonen ; music, Tchaikovsky ; danced by Alla Mankevich, Ekaterina Maximova, Vladimir Vasiliev. Studio performance by dancers then in their teens ; voiceover in Russian.
The nutcracker: Sugar Plum Fairy solo (1958 ; ca. 2 min. ; b&w) / choreography, Lev Ivanov ; music, Tchaikovsky ; danced by Ekaterina Maximova.
Selection of solos [from] Le corsaire, Laurencia, Don Quixote (1960s ; ca. 4 min. total ; b&w) / choreography, Marius Petipa (Le corsaire, Don Quixote), Vakhtang Chabukiani (Laurencia) ; music, Drigo (Le corsaire), Krein (Laurencia), Minkus (Don Quixote) ; danced by Ekaterina Maximova and Vladimir Vasiliev. Includes: male variation from Le corsaire -- male variation from Laurencia -- Kitri's variation from Don Quixote, Act I -- male variation from grand pas de deux, Don Quixote -- female variation from grand pas de deux, Don Quixote.
Spartacus (excerpts) (1968, 1984 ; ca. 21 min. total ; col. and b&w) / choreography, Yuri Grigorovich ; music, Khachaturian ; 1968 premiere performance danced by Ekaterina Maximova, Maris Liepa, Vladimir Vasiliev ; 1984 performance danced by Natalia Bessmertnova, Mikhail Gabovich, Irek Mukhamedov. Alternating footage from the two performances.
Shuraleh: pas de deux (1955 ; ca. 4 min. ; b&w) / choreography, Leonid Yakobson ; music, Farid Yarullin ; danced by Maya Plisetskaya and Yuri Kondratov.
Etude (1951 ; ca. 2 min. ; b&w) / choreography, unknown ; music, Schumann ; danced by Galina Ulanova and Yuri Kondratov.
The fountain of Bakchiserai (excerpts) (1953 ; ca. 11 min. ; col.) / choreography, Rostislav Zakharov ; music, Boris Asafiev ; danced by Galina Ulanova (Maria), Yuri Zhdanov (Vaclav), Maya Plisetskaya (Zarema), Pyotr Gusev (Khan Girei).
The flames of Paris: pas de deux (1953 ; ca. 4 min. ; col.) / choreography, Vasili Vainonen ; music, Boris Asafiev ; danced by Musa Gottlieb, Vakhtang Chabukiani.
Ravel waltzes (1964 ; ca. 4 min. ; col.) / choreography, Leonid Lavrovsky ; music, Ravel ; danced by Natalia Bessmertnova, Mikhail Lavrovsky.
Paganini (excerpt) (1964 ; ca. 2 min. ; col.) / choreography, Leonid Lavrovsky ; music, Rachmaninov ; danced by Ekaterina Maximova, Yaroslav Sekh.
The little humpbacked horse (1964 ; ca. 9 min. ; col.) / choreography, Aleksandr Radunsky ; music, Shchedrin ; danced by Maya Plisetskaya, Vladimir Vasiliev.

I checked and he isn't there as Albrecht. Funny but I just picked up a Dance Horizons pamphlet that had photos of him dancing Giselle at the... Metropolitan Opera House in NY in spring 1975! Nothing in the pamphlet indicates any of his performances that New York spring was ever filmed.

RQ, this is news to me. I haven't seen the Russian 2-set DVD offered anywhere. Can you provide purchase details?

my copy was a gift from a friend who'd come from moscow. i don't know if it's widely available.
it's not readily at hand, when i locate it, i'll check to see if has any distributor, etc.
have you tried google, with dvd and liepa in the seach line? something might come up.

One may write to the Maris Liepa Fund through the contacts page of their website:

http://www.liepa.ru/eng/contact.shtml

They would know whether or not the boxed set of DVDs is still available and, if so, its price. It was a Liepa Fund production.

There is a very short clip of his Albrecht on Youtube, in a video about Giselle with Nina Ananiashvili and Natalia Bessmertnova. If you search for "Ananiashvili Bessmertnova Giselle" you will find it, it is in the middle of this video.
It is very short, so I don't know if it will be of any use for you, but still..

RQ, thanks for the tip, but unfortunately, Google did not have anything to show on the Liepa DVD.

Natalia, I've emailed the Foundation asking about the DVD set and will share their response on Ballet Talk.

Lidewij, I appreciate the You Tube clip. There must be fuller video records from which these clips were culled--for example, his Don Quixote with Plesitskaya. Perhaps the new documentary will offer up more.