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Canada's Empire Theatres chain has posted the Opus Arte offerings that will be screening this fall at its multiplexes. Most productions will be screened at 1:00 p.m. local time, and, obviously, they've been scheduled not to conflict with the Met's simulcasts.

http://www.empiretheatres.com/opusArte

The good news includes an increase in the number of participating cities, particularly in Ontario, and sufficient demand for opera to warrant double showings. The bad news is that ballet audiences aren't large enough to merit similar treatment. (:)) On the other hand, Atlantic Canada won't get to see the operas. Odd indeed.

July 26 - Le nozze di Figaro (Royal Opera)

August 9 - Spartacus (Bolshoi Ballet w/Nina Kaptsova & Carlos Acosta)

August 16 & 17 - Aïda (Teatre del Liceu) - 12 p.m.

September 13 - Cinderella (Paris Opera Ballet w/Agnès Letestu & José Martinez)

September 27 & 28 - Cav/Pag (Teatro Real)

October 4 - Don Quixote (National Ballet of Cuba w/Viengsay Valdés & Romel Frómeta)

October 25 & 26 - Don Giovanni (Royal Opera) - 12 p.m.

November 1 - Giselle (Royal Ballet w/Alina Cojocaru, Johan Kobborg & Marianela Nuñez)

November 29 & 30 - Don Carlo (Royal Opera)

December 6 & 7 - The Adventures of Pinocchio (Opera North)

December 13 - The Nutcracker (San Francisco Ballet) - presumably a repeat from last year, w/Maria Kochetkova, Davit Karapetyan, Yuan Yuan Tan & Pierre-François Vilanoba

Participating cities for ballets: St. John's, Halifax, Sydney, Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton, Charlottetown, St. Catharines, Kitchener, North York, Mississauga, Ottawa, London, Richmond Hill, Burlington, Kingston, Bolton, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, North Vancouver and Victoria. The Digiscreen site also lists showings at the Ex-Centris Theatre in Montreal, the Princess Twin in Waterloo and the Ridge Theatre in Vancouver.

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Empire Theatres has posted the next batch of Opus Arte offerings. Screenings take place at 1:00 p.m. local time.

http://www.empiretheatres.com/opusarte

January 17 & 18 - Tamerlano (Teatro Real)

January 31 - La Fille mal gardée (Royal Ballet w/Nuñez & Acosta)

February 14 & 15 - La Bohème (Teatro Real)

February 28 - Manon (Royal Ballet w/Rojo, Acosta, Martin, Morera, Saunders) http://www.roh.org.uk/cinemas/manon/index.aspx

March 14 & 15 - Un ballo in maschera (Teatro Real)

March 28 & 29 - La Dame aux camélias (Paris Opera Ballet w/Letestu, Bullion, Moussin, Martinez, Gilbert, Paquette, Grinsztajn, Denard)

April 11 - Messiah (Choir of King's College)

April 25 & 26 - Castor et Pollux (Nederlandse Opera)

May 2 - La Bayadère (Royal Ballet) (probably Rojo, Acosta, Nuñez)

May 31 & 31 - La Fille du régiment (Royal Opera)

I'm glad to see that the series is continuing. It's also encouraging that the POB's Lady of the Camellias is getting two showings; it's the first time for a ballet. I can only assume that the screening of the POB's Cinderella in September was well attended.

I believe that the participating cities for ballets are the same: Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton, St. John's, Halifax, Sydney, Charlottetown, Bolton, Burlington, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Mississauga, North York, Ottawa, Richmond Hill, St. Catharines, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, North Vancouver and Victoria. The operas aren't screened in the Atlantic provinces, where Empire Theatres is in the business of showing the Met. The Digiscreen web site hasn't been updated yet, so I don't know about other theatres.

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It's hardly new, but the Pacific Northwest Ballet's A Midsummer Night's Dream will be screening at Canadian cinemas on Saturday, August 15.

It will screen at Empire Theatres in Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton, St. John's, Halifax, Sydney, Charlottetown, Bolton, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Mississauga, North York, Ottawa, Richmond Hill, St. Catharines, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, North Vancouver and Victoria at 11:00 a.m. local time.

It will also be screened at Landmark Cinemas in Winnipeg, Calgary, Kelowna and Nanaimo at 11:00 a.m. local time, at the Princess Twin in Waterloo at 1:00 p.m., and at the Ridge Theatre in Vancouver at 10:00 a.m.

July 25 & 26 - The Last Night of the Proms 2008 (BBC Symphony Orchestra)

August 15 - A Midsummer Night's Dream (Pacific Northwest Ballet)

August 29 & 30 - La traviata (Royal Opera)

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Landmark Cinemas (in Winnipeg, Calgary, Nanaimo, Kelowna) and Vancouver's Ridge Theatre have announced their Opus Arte line-ups for the season, and there is distressingly little ballet on offer.

September 19, 2009 - Verdi: La traviata (Royal Opera)

October 3, 2009 - Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia (Teatro Real) - Landmark Cinemas

October 17, 2009 - John Caird: Twin Spirits (Sting & Trudie Styler)

November 14, 2009 - Verdi: Falstaff (Glyndebourne Festival)

November 28, 2009 - Shakespreare: Romeo and Juliet (Globe Theatre)

December 5, 2009 - Ivanov/Wright: The Nutcracker (Royal Ballet w/Alexandra Ansanelli & Valeri Hristov?)

December 12, 2009 - Handel: Messiah (Choir of King's College)

January 23, 2010 - Petipa/Ivanov: Swan Lake (Royal Ballet w/Marianela Nuñez & Thiago Soares)

January 30, 2010 - Shakespeare: As You Like It (Globe Theatre)

February 13, 2010 - Donizetti: L'elisir d'amore (Glyndebourne Festival)

February 27, 2010 - Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost (Globe Theatre)

March 13, 2010 - Puccini: La Bohème (Royal Opera)

April 3, 2010 - Massenet: Manon (Gran Teatre del Liceu)

April 17, 2010 - Ashton: Tales of Beatrix Potter (Royal Ballet)

May 7, 2010 - Tchaikovsky: Cherevichki (Royal Opera)

I have no objection to the screenings expanding to include Shakespeare, but I hate to see it happen at the expense of ballet. According to the NEA, ballet is more popular than opera. Is Canada so different from the United States? Will no Royal Ballet productions be filmed in the coming season?

I am also sorry to see no productions from the POB this time around. That may be beyong the control of Opus Arte, but in the past it hasn't stopped the distributor from "borrowing" ballets from other producers.

It also strikes me as decidedly strange to screen Swan Lake after its DVD release. If previous patterns hold, the DVD should hit the North American market on October 27. Granted, two of the opera productions are already available on DVD, but screening them strikes me as equally illogical. Why a repeat of Tales of Beatrix Potter and not a repeat of Giselle or Sleeping Beauty?

Given that ballet used to enjoy some sort of parity with opera screenings in the past, this schedule is not at all encouraging. In my experience, audiences at ballet screenings are no smaller than audiences at their operatic counterparts. I'm also sorry to say that since these screenings began, I haven't seen many bun-heads attending them in my city. Perhaps they're all in class on Saturdays, but surely occasional field trips to ballet screenings would be beneficial to them, and undoubtedly the schools could get a group ticket discount to do it.

Oh, dear, dear, dear...

P.S. Interesting to see that Opus Arte is pitting As You Like It against the National Theatre's Nation on the same afternoon.

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Once again, lucky Canada! In my neighborhood we get the Met in High Def and the National Theatre Live, but nothing like this feast. :)

...

December 5, 2009 - Ivanov/Wright: The Nutcracker (Royal Ballet w/Alexandra Ansanelli & Valeri Hristov?) ...

An Ansanelli Nutcracker? I checked the OpusArte and Amazon US/UK websites and don't see anything about it; can we hope it's a DVD to look forward to in the future?

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An Ansanelli Nutcracker? I checked the OpusArte and Amazon US/UK websites and don't see anything about it; can we hope it's a DVD to look forward to in the future?

Apparently the performance was filmed in December 2008. When the Royal Ballet beamed its Nutcracker into British cinemas last December, the SPF and her Cavalier were danced by Ansanelli and Hristov. There are clips of the performance on You Tube. Whether the market can sustain a third DVD of this production is another matter. But I must say that Ansanelli and Hristov are a better-matched pair than Yoshida and Cope.

An incomplete video of the pas de deux is here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBc_uVevnkY

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An Ansanelli Nutcracker? I checked the OpusArte and Amazon US/UK websites and don't see anything about it; can we hope it's a DVD to look forward to in the future?

Rather than the Ansanelli Nutcracker, Opus Arte is planning to release a performance filmed the following year with Miyako Yoshida and Steven McRae. That would make Yoshida's third SPF on video and the third video of Wright's RB production.

http://www.opusarte....-live-2009.html

http://www.opusarte....09-blu-ray.html

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