11 replies to this topic

[Marcmomus]

Information from Opus Arte website:

Frederick Ashton: Triple Bill (Les Patineurs • Divertissements • Scenes de Ballet) (Royal Ballet)

Expected release date: 01/11/2011
Opus Arte/Royal Opera House


Founder choreographer of The Royal Ballet, Frederick Ashton created more than 100 ballets over a 60 year career. Showcasing three of his shorter works, this disc reflects the breadth of his sophisticated, elegant and widely popular style.

Les Patineurs evokes the Edwardian skating rink, with all its youthful charm and humour, in contrast to Scènes de Ballet where sharp geometric shapes and the music of Igor Stravinsky are combined to create perhaps Ashton’s most modernist work. Divertissements, a collection of eight short dances, features some of Ashton’s most lyrical choreography, including pas de deux set to Romantic masterpieces by Tchaikovsky and Massenet.

Les Patineurs
Laura Morera, Samantha Raine, Steven McRae, Sarah Lamb, Rupert Pennefather, Christina Arestis, Francesca Filpi, Ryoichi Hirano, Kenta Kura, Liam Scarlett, Andrej Uspenski
Music Giacomo Meyerbeer Conductor Paul Murphy

Divertissement
Tchaikovsky: Awakening Pas de deux (1968)
Darcey Bussell & Jonathan Cope
Massenet: Thaïs Pas de deux (1971)
Mara Galeazzi & Thiago Soares
Paganini: Devil’s Holiday Variation (1939)
Viacheslav Samodurov
Brahms: Five Brahms Waltzes in the manner of Isadora Duncan (1975)
Tamara Rojo
Strauss: Voices of Spring Pas de deux (1977)
Leanne Benjamin & Carlos Acosta
Tommasini after Paganini: Devil’s Holiday Pas de deux (1939)
Laura Morera & Ricardo Cervera
Conductor Barry Wordsworth

Scènes de ballet
Miyako Yoshida, Ivan Putrov, Edward Watson, Lauren Cuthbertson
Music Igor Stravinsky   Conductor Barry Wordsworth

Pre-order is available only on amazon.co.uk at the moment.

[nicolezly]

I wish they release "Rhapsody" with McRae in DVD...more Ashton please!

[sandik]

This is great news!

[Natalia]

Received my copy over the long weekend. RUN - don't walk - to get this!!!  Absolutely extraordinary PATINEURS - great cast, beautifully shot, well lit, etc, etc.  Soloists include several British female dancers who could have been 100-times more convincing than Cuthbertson in the earlier Alice DVD, e.g., the pretty & technically brilliant Samantha Raine (as the fouette girl among the 2 'blue girls' here). Top honors, though, go to Steven McRae as the zippy Blue Boy who comes close to attaining my 'gold standard' in that role -- Mark Goldweber of the Joffrey ca 1982.

The rest of the DVD contains excepts from the 2004 'Ashton 100th' BBC telecast, which many of us have via copies from UK friends. Nonetheless, it's good to now have it in pristene high-def.

THE finest commercial DVD of ballet in a LONG time!!! I cannot praise it highly enough.

[bingham]

Natalia, on 14 November 2011 - 07:28 AM, said:

Received my copy over the long weekend. RUN - don't walk - to get this!!!  Absolutely extraordinary PATINEURS - great cast, beautifully shot, well lit, etc, etc.  Soloists include several British female dancers who could have been 100-times more convincing than Cuthbertson in the earlier Alice DVD, e.g., the pretty & technically brilliant Samantha Raine (as the fouette girl among the 2 'blue girls' here). Top honors, though, go to Steven McRae as the zippy Blue Boy who comes close to attaining my 'gold standard' in that role -- Mark Goldweber of the Joffrey ca 1982.

The rest of the DVD contains excepts from the 2004 'Ashton 100th' BBC telecast, which many of us have via copies from UK friends. Nonetheless, it's good to now have it in pristene high-def.

THE finest commercial DVD of ballet in a LONG time!!! I cannot praise it highly enough.

Now, i have to get it.

[sandik]

Can anyone tell me what format this is in?  And if it's planned to release it in the US?

[Natalia]

Link to the item on UK's Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co...duct/B005THVW88

It seems to be NTSC - All Regions.  Offerings in the UK normally make their way to the American Amazon a month or two after the UK.

Even if it were in PAL and/or region-specific, anybody with an all-regions DVD player could see it.

[sandik]

Natalia, on 14 November 2011 - 09:53 AM, said:

Even if it were in PAL and/or region-specific, anybody with an all-regions DVD player could see it.

Every year I put an all-regions player on my Christmas list, but somehow it has not happened yet!

Many thanks for the update.

[emilienne]

Natalia, on 14 November 2011 - 09:53 AM, said:

Even if it were in PAL and/or region-specific, anybody with an all-regions DVD player could see it.

There's a difference between a 'region-free' DVD player and one that is able to display PAL video on an NTSC screen.

Most generic brand DVD players sold in the US in fact have a secret mode in their menus that allows for the playing foreign DVDs (US is '1', UK is '2'). However, if that DVD is encoded in PAL format, then you need a DVD player that has been 'modified' with an additional conversion chip so that the DVD then become viewable on our NTSC televisions.

[Natalia]

I have an oldish NTSC TV in one room (& plasma TV in bedroom). I've never had a problem seeing PAL or any other DVDs. The entire 'PAL vs NTSC vs Whatever' excuse went out the window years ago, with this:
http://www.world-imp...layer_Black.htm

This one plays like a dream. There isn't a commercial or private ballet DVD on earth that I haven't been able to see on this, hooked up to my 10-yr-old 'tube TV' or to a new plasma tv:
(http://www.world-imp...layer_Black.htm  is just one example; there are many others available online - all legit businesses)

Sandik, as you see from the price, there's no need to wait for the holidays for this.

p.s. You will NOT find this in Best Buy or other 'mainstream' stores which are beholden to Madison Avenue & Wall Street. Liberation Time has come!

[Helene]

This is available at amazon.com.  Lead time for shipping is 1-3 weeks.

[Birdsall]

I have had trouble playing Royal Opera Ballet videos on my mac (only 1 year old at the most). The Acosta Bayadere and the newest ROB Nutcracker would not play at all on my mac computer.

My partner has the television downstairs sets up for video games and all sorts of strange things that I do not understand, so I don't even try to play my dvds on the tv down there. I mainly watch ballet on my mac, and it is very frustrating to get one that won't play on a practically brand new computer.

This is my only hesitation in buying anything from the Royal Opera Ballet or maybe it is Opus Arte. I never had any problems with any other videos. Does anyone know why an "All regions" dvd won't play on a mac?