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Does anyone know if the 1983 Der Rosenkavalier with Suzanne Farrell is available for viewing at the NY Public Library at Lincoln Center?

And just in general, is there a way to access their video database without going there?

The NYPL has their catalogue online here, but the system (I find) is idiosyncratic in the keywords offered for different videos. I often have to do 2-3 different searches before being satisfied with the coverage offered.

The record for the Vienna Waltzes broadcast on WNET is here and seems to be available for viewing on videotape.

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The link to the NYPL catalog is here:

http://www.nypl.org/collections

You can use it to search for any item.

The results page for a search on "Rosenkavalier Farrell" is:

http://catalog.nypl.org/iii/encore/search/C|Srosenkavalier+farrell;jsessionid=81742E979A2AD67AD68FC0F780EFAAC1?lang=eng

All available without permit are for in use at the library.

The NYPL often has many performances of ballets that were made for archival purposes and never shown on PBS or made available for commercial use, including several of Farrell in "Vienna Waltzes". They are dated 25 and 28 May 1983, and 9 June 1983. The performance used for the broadcast was taped in October 1983. The principal casting is the same, except that in one of the May performances, Daniel Duell danced "Explosion Polka", and in the others and the broadcast, Bart Cook did.

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I was very impressed by Agon with Darcey Bussell

Yes indeed. I can never understand those who dismiss the work of this beautiful dancer as facile. I saw -- and and actually remember -- Diana Adams in the part, dancing with Arthur Mitchell. Bussell had much the same look, I think. And a similar body type.

{Bussell] had also done an Emeralds and/or Diamonds a week or so before.

Would love to have seen her in Diamonds.

I was also impressed by Bussell's Agon pas on the tape. I haven't seen it in a long time but I thought it was missing a crucial factor - in Mitchell's words, quoted from memory, "It's not the difficulty of the steps or how flexible you are, it's the precariousness." Bussell didn't have that tension. Seconded about "Diamonds," definitely.....

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San Francisco Ballet's Elizabeth Loscavio did a killer job on that solo on the Balanchine Celebration DVD's,


jsmu:

Ms. Loscavio is one of perhaps three ballerinas (including Marnee Morris, on whom the role was made) who have ever done all of Balanchine's original steps in the notorious turning variation-- the role is usually simplified beyond recognition now. The especially egregious Heather Watts omitted quantities of difficulty when she was slaughtering this and so many other roles during her Eighties rampage, but even Merrill Ashley changed some steps in this role. Ms. Loscavio was a paragon.

Ashley writes of her struggles with this number in "Dancing for Balanchine." She did change steps in the variation, but not before manfully, or womanfully, trying to meet its challenges. (She couldn't do repeated double fouettes.) Watts, well......

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I got to see Loscavio many times when I was traveling to work in the Bay Area in the mid-'90's, and it was always a pleasure to see her dance.

What I loved was how she got a "meh" reception compared to the POB, Mariinsky, and Royal Ballet dancers, but after her solo, she got one of the biggest ovations of the day.

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