palliser

Serenade in its entirety with Kistler, Calegari and Nichols was broadcast on PBS in 1990 in the Balanchine in America program.

Does anyone have Bayadere casting for the Kennedy Center?

Several months ago I posted a question regarding the process of converting tape libraries to DVD. The concensus then among those techhnophiles who came to my rescue was that it might be better to wait a bit. To follow, up, in today's Times, the following Q & A appeared.

"Q. I know you can transfer video from camcorder tapes to the PC to make DVD's from the footage, but how do you do it with VCR tapes?

A. The process for transferring video to the computer from VHS tapes is similar to importing the video from a camcorder: you connect the videocassette recorder to the computer with a video cable and play the tape while recording the signal with video capture software.

Most VCR's produce analog signals instead of the digital signals that modern camcorders can send directly to your computer. You will need an analog video-capture card or device to translate the VCR's analog data into digital data.

Analog capture cards, cost as little as $50 and can be installed in a spare PCI slot inside the computer (AVerDVD EZMaker is one such product). If you do not have an empty expansion slot or do not want to open your computer, you can buy an external device to connect the computer and the VCR. AVerMedia makes an external connector called the DVD EZMaker USB 2.0 ($90) that connects the VCR to the computer's U.S.B. 2.0 port to copy video data onto the hard drive. Both products are available at www.aver.com.

PCTV Deluxe from Pinnacle Systems ($199; www.pinnaclesys.com) connects the VCR to the computer's U.S.B. port and converts the video data as well. Mac-compatible capture cards and external video-capture devices like EyeTV ($199; www.elgato.com) are available, too.

Once you have recorded the video from your tapes into digital files on the PC, you can record them to blank DVD's with a DVD-creation program. You might notice a slight loss in picture quality after converting analog tapes to digital files, but DVD's have a much longer life span than VHS videocassettes."

Thank you, Bayadere. That sounds like prudent advice. Perhaps next year . . .

It is set to Granados' Poetic Waltzes, I believe.

Thank you, RG. I have heard of a kind of wireless connectivity called "bluetooth". Is that perhaps what you have heard of? The available recorders are in the $800 range, so there is reason enough to wait a while, as these prices always drop. I am really in the information-gathering stage and grateful for you input.

From the ads on television, it appears that home DVD recorders which will permit one to copy analog VHS tapes to DVD are now available. Since tape is such an unstable medium and those of us who collect ballet tapes have some over twenty years old, I am wondering if anyone else has been tempted and if so, has any information to share regarding the best DVD recorder to buy.

Has anyone else seen the new Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel show now in previews on Broadway? It is quite marvellous. The dancing (by John Selya, Ashley Tuttle, Elizabeth Parkinson, and Keith Roberts) is nothing less than sensational. The audience was more Billy Joel than dance, and it didn't hurt that the Piano Man himself was in the audience Tuesday night, but the loud buzz from people leaving the theater was all about John Selya, who gives an absolutely breathtaking performance in the leading role. What fun! I'm going back to see it again.

Ashley Tuttle is taking the City Center season off; she will be appearing instead on Broadway in the Twyla Tharp-Billy Joel show due to open in New York next month after a run in Chicago.

Yes, casting has been announced, but apart from typing the whole schedule, I do not know how to post it. Any suggestions?

I was at the Met last night and one of the ushers told me that the Bayadere that the Kirov is bringing in has three intermissions and runs to 11:37 PM, provided that they start on time and keep the intermissions to 22 minutes - which rarely happens. Can anyone verify? How does the ballet break down into four acts?

There have been some alterations to this casting on account of injury. The updated casting for the first half of the season appeared in the New York Times ad on Sunday, May 5.

I believe that contributions made with ticket orders are split between ABT and the Metropolitan Opera House. If one wishes to make a contribution to ABT alone, a check to the company at 890 Broadway would do the trick.

How were the houses? Did it sell?

While it is probably true that some of the international rage over the trade center destruction was fueled by the deaths of some foreign nationals, I think that Britain deserves to be acknowledged as the nation that is always there for us, upon which we can always rely for support, both moral and practical, in every crisis. God save the Brits!

There is also what looks like the grand pas (24 minutes, entree, adagio, seven variations and the coda) on a Pilz CD, part of a six cd package of ballet music recorded by the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra.

He is on the roster as a guest artist for the upcoming season. The Royal Opera House has mailed out casting for the period between September 19 and November 20, but he is not scheduled to dance during that time.

Eleaanor does the coda of Etudes with Ivan Nagy and Ted Kivitt in a commercial tape called ABT: A Closeup in Time and appears in Les Sylphides in an ABT program broadcast Live from Lincoln Center in 1978. I don't think this last was ever issued commercially.

Back to the other swans: Alexandra (or anyone), do the other swans revert to human form at night, as does Odette? Or are there different rules governing their enchantment? It seems as if they must remain swans, else why would Siegfried have to be told not to shoot them, but it hardly seems logical. This question was just posed by an analytical twelve year old seeing her first Swan Lake

There is also a film (sorry, I have forgotten the name) with three separate stories, one of which stars Shearer with James Mason. She is a dancer with a heart condition who, despite dire warnings, dances one last time and dies. One of the other stories in the film stars Leslie Caron, but in a non-dancing role.

Chapeau? Is that like "hats off?"