45 replies to this topic

[DEMCAD]

As a fan of ballet, I'm shocked by how few ballet performances are on DV and Blu-ray. With amazing performances from dancers such as Gillian Murphy, Ethan Steifel, Julie Kent, Marcelo Gomes, and Veronika Part, why can't we have more performances on DVD and Blu-ray.

I was born in 1981, but thanks to DVD technology, I am able to enjoy the amazing performances of Vivien Leigh and Audrey Hepburn.

So why aren't there more (recent) ballet performances on DVD?

[stinger784]

I would have to say that it really comes down to money.

When you think about it, you have to pay the crew, dancers and orchestra all those residual checks and whatnot because of the union agreements, as well as production companies, finding a distributor and so on and so on and so on.

But I do agree with you with dancers like Marcelo Gomes wandering around, it is a bit upsetting. Also, look at PBS, we are lucky if we get one or two programs a year that are new or even related to dance. The audience for dance is growing, I believe, but not at the rate to spend 10s of thousand to hundreds of thousands of dollars to put on DVD.

It stinks, but money is money.

[Andrew73]

DEMCAD, on Dec 11 2008, 11:58 PM, said:

So why aren't there more (recent) ballet performances on DVD?

For that matter, why aren't there more vintage ballet performances on DVD?

Many have been televised over the years, but few have reached the market.  Once the production has been filmed, the costs of producing DVDs is fairly small - and at the prices ballet DVDs sell for, it would not take huge sales to more than pay for themselves.

I think the problem is more a small-minded marketing issue; they don't want to bring out older performances, as they may be favourably compared to new ones, and they don't want to release new ones, in case they undermine attendance at the theatre.

Both arguments, in my view, being false, and a missed opportunity to widen the interest in ballet, and serve those who cannot attend current live ballet (for whatever reason) plus those who want to enjoy the best of the past.

Just think - it would only take one major company to break with accepted wisdom to shake up the whole market.

[Natalia]

stinger784, on Dec 12 2008, 01:02 AM, said:

I would have to say that it really comes down to money.

When you think about it, you have to pay the crew, dancers and orchestra all those residual checks and whatnot because of the union agreements, as well as production companies, finding a distributor and so on and so on and so on.....

Dumb Questions:  Why do France (POB) and England (Royal Ballet) have the money and the USA does not? Don't the French and British companies also have to pay crew, orchestra, dressers, etc.? Even with the notorious French syndicates/unions, France manages to put-out fantastic POB DVDs on what seems to be a monthly basis!!!

This is a crying shame for Herrera, Wiles, Bouder, etc. How many commercial recordings exist of, say, Damien Woetzel or Nicolai Hubbe or Kyra Nichols? They're gone - retired from dancing. How sad that they were of the generation that just missed the Glory Days of PBS' Dance in America and have just retired, before any correction to this problem could take place.

[stinger784]

Not a dumb question at all, but when you go into the european market, those companies are government subsidies. Here in the US, ballet companies are lucky to get an endowment through private parties.

[cubanmiamiboy]

Sad.   If it wasn't for private collectors and Youtube we would be unaware of many dancers performances.  Even in Cuba, where ballet is government patronized there is a total lack of recordings,-(i think the only one being the 1964 Alonso's Giselle.  The recent 2007 D.Q was french produced)

[volcanohunter]

Natalia, on Dec 12 2008, 08:13 AM, said:

Dumb Questions:  Why do France (POB) and England (Royal Ballet) have the money and the USA does not? Don't the French and British companies also have to pay crew, orchestra, dressers, etc.? Even with the notorious French syndicates/unions, France manages to put-out fantastic POB DVDs on what seems to be a monthly basis!!!

The matter of producing DVDs is still closely tied to the issue of television broadcasts. To date the POB and the RB haven't issued any recent performances that weren't taped for television first. As long as PBS limits itself to a single ballet broadcast per year, which will be the San Francisco Ballet this Christmas, you won't get more than a single DVD out of the bargain. And to further complicate things, PBS often relies on foreign broadcasters to help do its work, hence Jewels from the Paris Opera aired under the "Dance in America" banner. The "Dance in America" series also showcases other forms on dance, leading to a very paltry presence for ballet. DEMCAD may not like my opinion, but relatively speaking I think that ABT is overrepresented on PBS. When was the last time you saw PNB, Miami City Ballet, Houston Ballet or Boston Ballet on "Great Performances"? It's supposed to be "Dance in America," not "Dance in New York." The fact that PBS tapes ABT performances in D.C. or Costa Mesa is a cosmetic fudge.

The Metropolitan Opera managed to circumvent the problem of reduced PBS broadcasts by going directly into movie theatres. I don't know who pays the production costs of those simulcasts, but PBS has certainly been happy to air the programs subsequently. Strangely enough, there are now more Met broadcasts on PBS than ever before, and these broadcasts are making their way to DVD. Potentially, ballet companies could do the same. Unfortunately, the Met broadcasts have been so successful, that no one else can elbow their way in. Between the live broadcasts and their repeat showings, most weekends are already booked. Still, the fact that ABT's Met season starts after the opera season's finished creates a window of opportunity, if movie theatres could be convinced that there's an audience for ballet out there, and I'm not sure that's the case.

For two seasons now, primarily during the Met's hiatus, one of the movie chains in Canada has been showing opera and ballet performances from the Opus Arte catalogue of (mostly) future releases, predominantly from the Royal Opera in London. What's telling is that while the opera screenings are shown on both Saturdays and Sundays, the ballet screenings show on Saturdays only, suggesting that their audience is smaller. Given that track record, I don't know that movie theatres would be willing to take a chance on live ABT broadcasts from the Met, much less live NYCB broadcasts from the State Theater or any other American ballet company.

[Jack Reed]

Good question(s), and some thoughtful answers, according to the principle, "Follow the Money", which explains so much in contemporary life.

While it's true that when the production is finshed, production costs stop, but many, many people, their heirs in some cases, and surviving organizations need to grant permission for the film or video to be shown or distributed.  (Otherwise it's piracy.)  

For example, I recently saw the premiere of a good, amateur black and white film shot in 1965, and I was awed by length of the list of "permitters" who gave permission for the showing, and for continued showings at the Dance Collection of the New York Public Library and, as far as I can remember, nowhere else.  Had there been any prospect of commercial distribution, either on DVD or for admission in theatres (the premiere was a free event), wouldn't we expect the rights holders to be more interested in selling some of their permission?  Or am I an old cynic?

Then there was another good point, the relative sizes of the opera and ballet audiences.  Why?  

The thing that dampens my enthusiasm for ballet on screen is that sometimes it's well done and we can enjoy the dance, and sometimes it's very intrusively done, and our enjoyment is constantly interfered with.  

I'm not much of a fan of opera on screen, just because of the unnaturalness of what I'm often shown, in contrast to what I'm hearing.  (Maybe someday we will have televisions smart enough to show the translation subtitles without the closeups of the vibrating tonsils, if I may be permitted a slight exaggeration, or views of the sometimes-confusing staging.)  

But I may not be typical, and careful market research, to find out what people really like, costs money, too.  Everything does.  But if opera is more heavily subsidized than ballet, whether privately, as here now, or publicly, as elsewhere, I'd like to undertand the reasons for that too.

[carbro]

volcanohunter, on Dec 12 2008, 12:54 PM, said:

The fact that PBS tapes ABT performances in D.C. or Costa Mesa is a cosmetic fudge.

I think it's more practical than mere "cosmetic fudge."  The structures of those SoCal houses may permit better camera angles with less intrusion into audience sight lines.   Also, the dimensions of the stages (which appear more compact than the Met's), allow to get more detail in shots of the whole stage.

The Met must be a very difficult place to film ballet.

[volcanohunter]

carbro, on Dec 12 2008, 06:09 PM, said:

volcanohunter, on Dec 12 2008, 12:54 PM, said:

The fact that PBS tapes ABT performances in D.C. or Costa Mesa is a cosmetic fudge.

I think it's more practical than mere "cosmetic fudge."

Sorry if I chose a poor illustration. I just meant that filming a New York company outside New York doesn't change the New York-centric nature of Dance in America. I don't doubt that the other houses may be easier to film in.

Jack Reed, on Dec 12 2008, 06:22 PM, said:

Then there was another good point, the relative sizes of the opera and ballet audiences.  Why?

Undoubtedly the Met has been able to capitalize on the decades-old habit of tuning in to an opera on Saturday afternoons. For regular listeners, being able to see what they'd been listening to all these years was obviously very exciting and a natural progression. The fact that star singers are also familiar to audiences because of radio is something choreographers and dancers can't hope to compete with.

[Sacto1654]

You're right--there aren't that many recent ballet performances on DVD. The only good ones I've seen with my own eyes are the 2006 performance of Swan Lake filmed at the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia (available on DVD and now Blu-Ray disc), which is probably the ONLY officially-released film in the West we'll see of many of the current Kirov/Mariinsky Ballet stars and the 2007 (?) performance of Sleeping Beauty by the Royal Ballet, which became available on DVD earlier this year.

But if you're talking performances on TV, you're in far better luck. If you have a DirecTV subscription and can get access to the international feed of VGTRK's RTR Planeta channel, they frequently show a lot of the programming from VGTRK's Kultura channel, and that has a HUGE number of ballet performances from the Mariinsky Theatre in St. Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. (I have a neighbor who has taped a number of programs off the RTR Planeta international channel and I was able to see the 50th anniversary gala for Bolshoi Ballet legends Vladimir Vasiliev and Ekaterina Maximova that happened a few months ago and even the special gala performance of Don Quixote honoring Maya Plisetskaya from October 2005. )

[4mrdncr]

Ah yes, why there aren't any recent ballet performances broadcast on PBS, or past/present performances released on DVD...

The first reason of course is MONEY.  To create a program or production costs money. But to get money, you have to prove you will make money; an unfortunate truism even if you can show the arts enhance lives in other ways. So...Is there proof of a sizeable enough audience for ballet performers, performances, broadcasts or theatrical showings to entice funders to support the production, or provide them with a return on their investment?  Or is there possibly a benevolant philanthropist (is that a redundancy?) willing to give without receiving a large return?  Often there is not, so many projects are CO-PRODUCTIONS between organizations, venues, and/or distributors, with numerous funders listed in the credits.  Gone are the days of single sponsors.

FYI:
1) The original proposal for the "Jewels" project was for a production to be performed by the respective companies of each musical source: eg. FRANCE-Emeralds, USA-Rubies, RUSSIA-Diamonds.  But the money, timing, negotiations fell through, and so we have POB alone, distributed to USA by PBS.
2) ABT's performances of "Corsaire" and "Swan Lake" were filmed at, respectively, the OCPAC  or Kennedy Center, because ABT had a CO-PRODUCTION deal with each venue to help finance their production(s). PBS-DiA just picked the least expensive place to do it of the choices given them, not because one or the other venue had better camera placements or sight-lines.

Money is also needed for...RESEARCH, PRE-PRODUCTION, PRODUCTION, POST-PRODUCTION, MARKETING & DISTRIBUTION of a program or dvd.  Seven words that leave out my four attempts to list the details in less than a 50 page document. But all or either of which can cost, at the least, several hundred-thousands of dollars, and at most, many millions.  Meanwhile, no one outside those directly involved, has even seen a frame of film yet.

FYI: Why there are no PBS dvds of all those DiA performances of the past: They don't own the rights anymore.  PBS usually gets a 3-year broadcast window, sometimes renewed, more often not. (A case in point--not an arts program, but a major problem & subsequent achievement--was securing the various rights necessary to re-broadcast "Eyes on the Prize" which took over 10years to get again.)
No rights, means no broadcast or other distribution method allowed. Currently, PBS does not have the time, incliniation, or money to research and re-purchase the rights to the various ballet performances in its archives, unless it is shown they will get a good return on their investment, which leads us back to that money issue again.  

(In the interest of full-disclosure...I am currently producing a documentary, that's taken untold amounts of time and money to film, partially because I wanted to demonstrate that it was possible to create a classical company in this day and age, AND that the audience existed for such a company or video program.)

[sejacko]

I guess my "home team", the Royal Opera House have a distinct advantage here, having bought Opus Arte, and are in a stronger position than most to get their filmed productions (both past and current) out on DVD. Still, as far as I can tell, on recent releases, even they are still dependant on an initial TV broadcast, which would presumably cover a big chunk of the costs. At the end of the day, being a publicly subsidised company (although not as heavily subsidised as some in mainland Europe), they do still need to balance the books.

On a related note, it saddens me that after more than 20 years, the current (A.Dowell) RB production of Swan Lake has not been filmed. And now that we're heading into crunch-times for the arts, it seems less likely than ever.

[Helene]

Many thanks 4mrdncr.  It's good to have the facts about production and PBS rights.  This topic comes up repeatedly, and we've been guessing from the outside each time.

Speight Jenkins, General Director of Seattle Opera, is frequently asked at post-performance Q&A's why productions like the Seattle Ring are never made into DVD's, and he always says "Money" and moves on, but he's never explained what costs so much or how much would needed to be raised.  (Which would, unless a major new outside donor was found or an old was willing to up the ante, scavange funds from the General Ring Fund or the General Fund.)

PNB tapes all performances, none at production quality.  Francia Russell used to make no bones about it at post-performance Q&A's:  the camera was dying and they needed 10K for it.  Needless to say, not many people expected PNB DVD's, if the company couldn't replace its video camera.

[Natalia]

Thank you, 4mrdncr. So the bottom line as to why France has so many productions on DVD:  State Support of the Arts.

Next Two Questions:  When will the USG support the arts on the French level? When will ballet get its 'Bail-out Package'? (...running for cover!!!!)