I wonder whether anyone is familiar with live recordings of Maya Plisetskaya's The Seagull. On November 10 VAI is scheduled to release it on DVD, and Arthaus Musik is set to release its own DVD a week later. Supposedly the VAI version was filmed in 1982, while the Arthaus version was filmed in 1980. However, since both performances star Plisetskaya and Alexander Bogatyrev, and both were conducted by Alexander Lazarev, I'm inclined to think it's actually the same performance. I've known Arthaus Musik to be a little sloppy with its jackets, booklets and sometimes even its subtitles, though I haven't had reason to complain about their video quality. Any clues?

I'm actually surpised that Amazon.com has the Arthaus version listed. Presumably VAI would have secured the North American rights to the video rather than compete directly against a less expensive rival.

http://www.vaimusic.com/VIDEO/DVD_4497_Seagull.htm
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B0...8418&sr=1-1

Is this it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdiv6BNCTbo

Plisetskaya is ... remarkable bird. (I will not soon forget those images. ) She is also Nina, seen at the end of the clip discovering the body of ... a dead seagull.

The Info text says "Bolshoi Theater 1980". I'd love to read people's thoughts. I know the Bolshoi toured this to the U.S. and probably elsewhere in the late 80s.