Having been part of the ballet scene many years ago as dance accompnanist to Makarova and Barysnikov, Lynn Seymore and many others, I offer my humble opinion as, I hope, an antedote to Gary Shen's (in my opinion) misguided review. Whatever shortcomings this production has: yes, the lighting is bad but I suggest you turn up the brightness level on your TV as I do each time I watch this video; yes the choreography is not completely the original Petipa (but neither is the Royal Ballet's version whose modern sets I find completely distracting); and a female Carabose is to my mind definitely not a plus...HOWEVER, this video has probably the greatest Aurora you will ever find on commercial video:Altynai Asylmuratova. This great dancer now heads the famous Vanganova School in St. Petersburg and has retired from dancing (since 2001). It is a pity that so little of her glorious work remains on film for posterity. In many ways she is reminiscent of Galina Ulanova, arguably the greatest dancer of the 20th century, especially in the use of her long arms and in her uncanny ability to continue the movement of one step on into the next. The emotional depth of her dancing is in a class by itself and I urge all dancers to study her work. What a pity no one filmed her farewell Aurora in London in 2000 when the Kirov brought their newly-reconstructed original 1890 version to the west. That version (hopefully on film in the not-too-distant future???) will leave all other productions in the dust.