REMINDER..Royal Ballet broadcast on Sun mar 30th at pm

[gracey]

Reminder that Royal Ballet will be broadcasting their production of Sylvia with Darcey Bussells in Empire Theatres on SUn March 30th at 1pm.

CBC article

[bart]

Thanks for that news, gracey.

From the article --

The inaugural performance series will feature one opera and four ballet performances:

The Royal Ballet's Sylvia, starring English ballerina Darcey Bussell, who retired from the Covent Garden stage in 2007 (March 30).

The Royal Opera's production of Carmen, starring Italian soprano Anna Caterina Antonacci as the doomed heroine (April 19).

The Royal Ballet's Romeo & Juliet, starring Montreal-born, Spanish ballerina Tamara Rojo and Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta as the lovers (May 24).

The Royal Ballet's The Tales of Beatrix Potter (June 7).

The Royal Ballet's The Sleeping Beauty, featuring Romanian ballerina Alina Cojocaru and Italian dancer Federico Bonelli (June 21).

[ ... ]

Unlike the Met's live simulcasts, however, the U.K. series features performances pre-recorded at London's Royal Opera House.

Given the time differences, I can understand why they are showing videos of earlier performances. It's a bit sad, however, because one of the real thrills of the Met HD-Live project is that you are watching the performance in the theater at the same time the audiences is watching it at the Met . There's also a large radio audience it listening to exactly the same performance from their homes.

Simultaneity (is this a word?) creates a powerful sensation of being part of something truly alive. Not to quibble, however. Canadian audiencs are lucky to be able to sit in a darkened theater, surrounded by fellow ballet lovers, watching Bussell, Rojo, Acosta, Cojocaru and Bonelli on the big screen. Much more fun than sitting alone at home with a dvd, despite the impossibility of rewinding, repeating, skipping ahead, and freezing the frame .

[Jack Reed]

But no distribution at all south of the border, eh? O Canada!

This appears to be the story:

Based in Montreal, DigiScreen Corp. delivers alternative content directly to digital projectors from a server containing multiple compressed high-definition presentations. DigiScreen servers are currently installed across Canada and are in the process of being deployed in the USA, United Kingdom, Austria, Switzerland and Germany.

Here's a link to the page where I found it:

http://www.scena.org/blog/2008/03/royal-op...nces-on-hd.html

(This page bears the date March 10, 2008, too. Thanks yet again, Google.)

And thank you, gracey.

[Dale]

But no distribution at all south of the border, eh? O Canada!

The Sylvia DVD is available here in the US - try on Amazon or any other DVD seller.

[Jack Reed]

I hadn't realized it was the same 1996 performance. I had thought it was a more recent one, shot in HD. I suspect that year was a little early for that. Thanks, Dale.

[gracey]

It is the same performance but as the saying goes...beggars can't be choooooosey....

[mom2]

I will be in Montreal this weekend - NOT one of the chosen venues.

[mmded]

Just got back from the Royal Ballet showing of Sylvia. It was actually filmed in December 2005. It was the first time I have seen Sylvia from beginning to end. It does not in any way replace seeing ballet live IMHO but it is certainly worth an afternoon. It was not well promoted locally so there was only a handful of people in the audience. They did a 20 minute intermission before the third act which was a little odd in a movie theatre. I am planning on going to the rest if possible.