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I am looking for information about the version of the Cinderella ballet that aired on a&e or it's prior incarnation about 15 or so years ago. It ran repeatedly on New Year's Eve sometime in the early 80's. Can any one help me?

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i can't say for sure what film was telecast w/ any regularity on A&E - or, as you note: Arts & Entertainment as it was formerly called.

a few guesses tho:

The Royal Ballet's Ashton staging, led by Leslie Collier, Anthony Dowell and Monica Mason was telecast first in 1979 around Christmas and was re-run (I think) thereafter on occasion.

Nureyev's staging for the Paris Opera Ballet, was filmed and telecast in 1987, and repeated thereafter. It was led by Sylvie Guillem and Charles Jude, and was set, unlike Ashton's which followed the scenario that initially guided Prokofiev's composition in the early 1940s and that was first produced in Moscow, at the Bolshoi Theater w/ choreography by Rostislav Zakharov, in 1920s Hollywood, complete w/ cigar chomping agents and cloche-hatted starlets.

So if your memory goes to a Hollywood-setting, it was likely Nureyev's version. If it goes to a version w/ a waif in rags at the fireplace, and a dance w/ a broom and fairies in traditional classical tutus it might well have been Ashton's Royal Ballet version.

here are the credits for the Ashton:

Cinderella 1979. 105 min. : sd. color

Telecast by the BBC of the December 22, 1979 performance at Covent Garden, London. Director: Brian Large.

Choreography: Frederick Ashton. Music: Serge Prokofiev. Scenery: Henry Bardon. Costumes: David Walker. Lighting: John Wilson.

Performed by the Royal Ballet. Cast: Lesley Collier (Cinderella), Anthony Dowell (Prince), Derek Rencher and Brian Shaw (Stepsisters), Leslie Edwards (Father), Monica Mason (Fairy Godmother), Christopher Carr (Dancing master), Adrian Reed and Louis Rutland (Fiddlers), Anthony Conway (Tailor), Julie Lincoln and Christine Woodward (Dressmakers), Nicholas Whittle (Shoemaker), Garry Grant (Hairdresser), Anthony Molyneux (Jeweller), Andrew Ward (Coachman), Jennifer Penney (Fairy Spring), Vergie Derman (Fairy Summer), Merle Park (Fairy Autumn), Pippa Wylde (Fairy Winter), Wayne Sleep (Jester), Michael Batchelor, Mark Silver, Derek Deane, Julian Hosking (Prince's friends), David Drew and Graham Fletcher (Stepsisters' suitors).

and the Nureyev version:

Cinderella in association with the BBC ; directed by Colin Nears ; produced for the stage and directed by Rudolf Nureyev ; adaptation and choreography by Rudolf Nureyev ; music by Sergey Prokofiev.

(125 min.) : sd., col. with b&w sequences

Recorded at the SFP Studios in Bry-sur-Marne, France, in November 1987.

Executive producer, Christiane Nowak, SFP ; associate producer, Robin Scott, NVC Arts ; scenario based on Perrault's story ; design, Petrika Ionesco ; costumes, Hanae Mori ; lighting, Jean-Marie Bergis.

Danced by the Paris Opéra Ballet.

Sylvie Guillem (Cinderella), Charles Jude (the film star), Isabelle Guérin (first sister), Monique Loudières (second sister), Georges Piletta (Cinderella's mother), Rudolf Nureyev (film producer), Jean-Pierre Franchetti (dancing instructor), Alain Bogreau (Cinderella's father), Fanny Gaïda (Spring), Élisabeth Maurin (Summer), Fabienne Cerutti (Autumn), Carole Arbo (Winter), Francis Malovik (stage manager), Eric Quilleré (his assistant), and others.

Music performed by the Orchestre National de l'Opéra de Paris, conducted by Michel Quéval.

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indeed, there is this earlier filming, w/ incomparable perfs. of the ugly sisters by FA and RH.

i focused here on the tape/performance mentioned in the initial post. this sibley/dowell 'cinderella' was not released until recently and could not have been the tape recalled from tv some 15 yrs. ago.

ONE reason to check out both these is that in the collier/dowell tape collier's cinderella enters the ball by descending on pointe down the stairs - something i gather palvova did when coming out of her little house in 'the fairy doll' - on the sibley tape she doesn't do the full descent on pointe, i assume because she may have had something of a foot problem at the time of the filming.

needless to remark there are other 'cinderella's on tape, including that w/ raisa struchkova and the bolshoi. however, as in the case of the sibley/dowell 'cindererlla,' this film was not shown on US tv to the best of my knowledge.

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It is def. the 1979 collier/dowell tape, I remember cinderella entering the ball by descending on pointe down the stairs and it was amazing. But, alas, I have not been able to locate it on vhs. Any suggestions where I might be able to locate it?

Edited by rietao
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if by locate you are asking if this television show has been marketed commercially, i'm afraid it has not, to the best of my knowledge.

i thought your post referred to a tape you had made yourself from the telecast.

i can relate though to tapes that one has made and shelved and that then somehow stray and seem lost.

usually though, they turn up, often when one is looking for something else.

sometimes i think of how i might have labeled the cassette. tho' in this case i suppose cinderella would be an automatic way to label this cassette.

good luck.

w/ any luck w/ the popularityof dvds, programs like this collier/dowell cinderella might some day soon find their way to the commerical market.

we can hope.

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Hello,

Does anyone know if there is a video of the Tudor "Romeo & Juliet", either commercially or perhaps owned by someone who might have taped it from a TV broadcast? In a recent thread regarding "revival wishes and requests" for ABT, Tudor's R&J was repeatedly mentioned as being wonderful and often preferred to the current Macmillan that ABT has now. I have never seen the Tudor and would welcome the opportunity to do so. Thanks in advance for any insight.

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