One of the most prestigious ballet companies in the world and arguably the most prominent in Russia, the Bolshoi Ballet began its illustrious history as a dancing school for the Moscow Orphanage in 1773. Opened in 1856, the Bolshoi Theatre in its early decades competed for ascendance with the Maryinsky Theatre of St. Petersburg, which was later renamed the Kirov Ballet in 1935.

Alexander Gorsky introduced a new dramatic realism to the classical ballets in the early twentieth century, which single-handedly reinvigorated the Bolshoi company. Its dancers' techniques were further enhanced with the introduction of Igor Moiseyev's experiments with folk-dance ballets at the Bolshoi in the 1930s. Recognised for its superb ensemble skills and for the dramatic realism of both its scenery and costumes, the company has amassed international acclaim.

Throughout the 1960s, Maya Plisetskaya, who represented the embodiment of Bolshoi dramatic dancing, was considered to be the company's prima ballerina. In 1964, Y. N. Grigorovich became the Bolshoi's chief choreographer and later, artistic director. His productions reached their pinnacle with the extremely successful rendition of Khachaturian's Spartacus.

MIRIS, a documentary film company based in St. Petersburg, had dedicated five years to an intensive search through state archives, museums, and private collections. In the process, they had uncovered several previously unseen performances. Enlisting the help of international distributor, NVC Arts, the footage was then subjected to the latest video and audio re-mastering techniques.

The Glory of the Bolshoi is compiled from that footage, and features extracts from several classic ballets - including the Boston Waltz, The Nutcracker, Ribbon Dance, and The Flames of Paris. This title serves as a companion piece to NVC Arts' other release, The Glory of the Kirov.

The Glory of the Bolshoi is presented in a 4:3 screen aspect ratio and is full frame.

Visually, The Glory of the Kirov is slightly more problematic than its sister title - although most of its inherent troubles stem from the fact that most of the archival material featured here has been stored in less than favourable circumstances. Despite this, foreground details are often sharp.

Considering the age of the film, blacks are often quite solid. I detected what seemed to be a slight veil of MPEG artefacts in the opening performance of Les Sylphides, which probably would not even be noticeable on a standard size screen. Other than manifesting itself in this footage, I did not notice any artefacts of this sort anywhere else.

There is an abundance of film artefacts present in some of the material, consisting mainly of hairs, scratches, and lines. When discussing material of this vintage - for instance, the Moment Musical was supposedly filmed as early as 1911 - film deterioration of some description is to be anticipated. However, a particularly nasty scratch occurs in Spartacus during the thirty-eighth minute.

Grain is also noticeably present during Le Corsaire and the 1984 presentation of Spartacus.

There is only one audio selection, that of the Dolby Digital 2.0. Although the classical soundtrack is always clear, low-level noise is often present, comprised mainly of slight hiss and sound crackle. There is also a notable sound drop in the Mozokowski Waltz, and a sharp audio pop in Shuraleh. Both of these anomalies are respectively located in the twelfth and fifty-fourth minute.

There are no extras, other than a web link to the NVC Arts website.

The Glory of the Bolshoi should be recommended to those who appreciate the ballet and finer arts. While I found most of the archival film fascinating - particularly the Moment Musical - I preferred The Glory of the Kirov to this effort, solely for the reason that I most enjoy the dynamism of the Kirov dancers as opposed to the more classical Bolshoi.