Read it and weep!

[atm711]

I have been going over the 'Live From Lincoln Center' old programs from 1978 to 1983 and I was surprised at the number of ballet programs during that time. Are any of them available commercially?

1/31/78 'Coppelia' (McBride/Helgi Tomasson)

5/17/78 ABT at the Met ('Sylphides' ; 'Don Q PDD, Makarova/

Bujones; 'Theme & Variations, Baryshnikov/Kirkland;

'Firebird', Cyn. Gregory)

5/2/79 ABT 'Sleeping Beauty" (Mary Skeaping), (Gregory/

Bujones)

5/28/80 'La Bayadere' (Makarova/Dowell/Harvey)

Note: Tcherkassky replaced Makarova after Act I.

5/20/80 An Evening with ABT: Raymonda Divertissements

(van Hamel, Alex. Godunov) ; 'Scene from

LeCorsaire' (Jaffe); PDD La Fille Mal Gardee

(Tcherkassky/Bujones); 'Sleeping Beauty Act III'

(Makarova/Baryshnikov)

10/4/82 Stravinsky & Balanchine: A Genius Has A Birthday

Apollo (Martins, Farrell, Nichols); Orpheus (Martins,

Luders, von Aroldingen)

10/10/83 NYCB Tribute to Balanchine

Vienna Waltzes (Farrell, Martins)

Mozartiana (Farrell, Ib Anderson)

[Estelle]

I don't weep, I'm just green with envy (and actually the French TV too did show more dance until the mid-1980s... Now there's almost nothing.)

[Alexandra]

Thank you for posting that, ATM. I love it when people find evidence that the goodolddays isn't a myth

I remember all of those. Every last one.

I'm not clear whether the audience really has fallen off that much, or if PBS's expectations of audience numbers have changed. I think it's a bit of both.

[rg]

alas, tho all of these programs exist in isolated collections around the country, none has been marketed for commercial sale as individual tapes (or DVDs).

it seems everytime one asks about things like this,one is told the permissions/rights needed to put the perfs. out on the commercial market amount to a nearly insurrmountable task. hearing tales of what all it took to get the balanchine library of television shows out on commercial cassette, one wonders that even these few finally got out. (as comparisons between the original telecasts of these shows and commercial releases show, it becomes clear that even after all this concerted effort, some permissions were still denied.)

perhaps the popularity of DVD will do something toward inspiring enterprising individuals to work at these complicated tasks and some of the programs you list will see the light of day as commercial releases.

[dirac]

I remember reading that Suzanne Farrell was particularly upset that permission was denied for excerpts from Mozartiana to be shown in Elusive Muse. It's a crying shame.

[Calliope]

I was looking for a tape and found it on a British website, but it's only for "institutions, libraries..."

to protect the "copyright" of the choregrapher.

While I understand the need for protection, it certainly makes it hard for the general public to see any of this stuff.

[Paquita]

The only one I know that is commercially available is 'ABT at the Met', which you can buy on their website.

[rg]

yes, this ABT at the MET was done after those listed above. this one includes LES SYLPHIDES, SYLIVA, TRIAD, PAQUITA, and may still be available.

[Dale]

I've heard and read those stories too, regarding permission or releases from unions and musicians etc... Yet those problems don't seem to stop opera from releasing videos all the time. Many of the Live from Lincoln Center opera performances are out on video. In fact, the Met put out a whole series of them.

Other times I've heard that the problem stems from the dancers, who don't like the way the performances have turned out and won't give their release.

[atm711]

There's one point in all this I am not clear about. If I own one of these tapes (actually, I have the Makarova/Baryshnikov Giselle from this period) and I want to make a copy for a friend---is that legally permissable---or will the FBI be afer me!.

[Alexandra]

I'm ready to stand corrected on this if someone has more up to date information, but when I researched this awhile back, the law was that you could make one copy for personal use. Period.

Whether the FBI will come after you or not...well, we try to keep political comments off this board, don't we? :)

[rg]

if mem. serves there was a post on this site at some point that seemed knowledgeable and that noted how, with regard, at least, to movies that were no longer on the commercial market, it was legally permissable to make a copy of the discontinued tape so long as one did not sell, or otherwise make commercial, that copy. or something like that.

also some years back the merce cunningham tapes that were offered for sale came w/ a permission for the owner to make ONE copy for his own purposes, i took it to mean this suggestion went toward extending the tape's overall life - i.e. to copy a few years along and thus have the tape for a longer shelf life.

admittedly none of this answers the specific question posted here, but i think it's safe to say that so far there has been no dragnet by the authorities to go after individuals who make copies of their off-the-air tapes for personal, non-commercial use.

maybe someone w/ legal expertise will spell out the actual laws themselves.

[atm711]

KFW----I will answer you as soon as I can figure out how to do it! It doesn't seem to be working.