volcanohunter

The March 6 performance of Don Quixote is scheduled to star Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev. http://www.bolshoi.r...ynid26=2519#dyn A listing of U.S. and Canadian screening sites is on the Ballet in Cinema web site. Enter your location in the top right-hand corner. http://www.emergingp...e-live-bolshoi/

OT: Generally speaking, Canada is not culturally enlightened. There happen to be two provincial educational channels, British Columbia's and the Franco-Ontario one, which have a weekly slot, dedicated to classical music, and where ballet gets an airing from time to time. (The Anglo-Ontario network pays no attention to the arts, but it does a fair job with everything else.) Today they are what PBS used to be, and certainly BC's Knowledge Network actively seeks the financial support of its viewers. But neither network can afford to produce its own arts content apart from a few shorts. However, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is a proof that a massive government subsidy guarantees nothing. What the CBC spends its money on these days is Coronation Street imports, several painful sitcoms, Hockey Night in Canada, a late-night chat show hosted by a former VJ and absolutely no arts programming. This, evidently, is what the public wants. It pains me to see PBS gradually going down the same route, because in the CBC's case it's been a road of no return.

That's my feeling, too. Is PBS worth saving? I just searched for 'Great Performances' on the schedule of my PBS station and what it yielded, in addition to a couple of (not new) classical music programs, was Rod Stewart, Michael Bublé, Paul McCartney, James Taylor, David Foster, The Police and Harry Connick Jr. (Only two Americans in that group, I notice.) I thought VH1 was invented for the likes of these. Each year PBS gives me 2 hours (perhaps 4 with repeats) of dance out of 8,760, and now they'd like me to go to bat for them? I just looked over my notes about classical concerts, operas and ballets I intended to watch on TV in January and February. There were 23 programs in total, three of which aired on PBS. (For the other 20 I'm duly grateful to British, French, German, Swiss, Italian and Polish taxpayers.) So what has Great Performances done for me lately? Not a whole lot, unfortunately. Of course, without PBS American dance companies would most probably be left without any sort television venue, but how would that be any different from the situation in which 99% of them find themselves today? I know that there have been noises from PBS about raising the profile of performing arts and even dedicating one evening a week to them, but you'll pardon me for being skeptical. I've been jilted for too long. By way of disclaimer, I am an American living north of the border, so I don't have access to secondary or tertiary PBS stations, nor any related radio stations, just the main network, which I hardly ever watch and probably wouldn't miss.

Here is a brief report from French TV about young dancers auditioning for jobs in Monaco. http://videos.tf1.fr...co-6285123.html

The ballet is also accessible on the Paris Opera site. No sign-in required. http://www.operadeparis.fr/Newsletter/videos/

Anita Doron's film The End of Silence, about an immigrant ballerina (Ekaterina Chtchelkanova), struggling to adapt to life in Canada, will air on CBC Bold on Tuesday, February 15, at 10 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT, with a repeat showing at 3:00 a.m. ET/12:00 a.m. PT http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450140/

CBC will air the program again on Wednesday, February 16, at 1:00 p.m. local time. I have to admit I'm ambivalent about the film. It was made toward the end of Hart's performing career, and by then her body was such a wreck, and her psyche comes across as so fragile and obsessive, that the program could persuade parents that sending their daughters to ballet class may be a very bad idea, never mind Black Swan.

The ballet can be viewed on demand on Medici TV for the next three months or so. http://www.medici.tv/#/performance/904/

Arte Live Web will stream the Prix de Lausanne final live on Sunday, February 6, starting at 9:10 a.m. ET. http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Finale_du_39eme_Prix_de_Lausanne/

Thanks for those details. Amazon.com is taking pre-orders, but the listing isn't at all detailed, so it's easiest to look for "Cinderella" or "ballet" by release date. "David Bintley" or "Birmingham Royal Ballet" won't get you anywhere.

Amazon is taking pre-orders for the U.S. release on February 22. Mind you, to find it, the title has to be spelled Siddharta.

The North American release date is February 22, and Amazon is taking orders.

Kultur will be releasing a DVD and Blu-ray of David Bintley's Cinderella on April 26. I'm very glad to hear it because it's been an awfully long time since Kultur released a new ballet video. http://www.kultur.com/Cinderella-Birmingham-DVD-p/d4712.htm http://www.kultur.com/Cinderella-Birmingham-Blu-ray-p/bd4712.htm

Giselle returns to Knowledge Network on Wednesday, March 16, at 9 pm PT, repeating at 1 am. http://www.knowledge.ca/program/giselle

Here's the link for the stream with the updated casting. http://www.medici.tv...896/the-ballet/

The DVD, already on sale in Canada, will be selling in the U.S. as of March 29. Amazon is taking orders.

I know you won't agree with me, Cristian, but this example only confirms for me why Tchaikovsky didn't make Tommasini's list. I can't imagine any of his preferred composers writing anything so bombastic (not even Wagner) or crass.

A Paris Opera Ballet performance of Nicolas Le Riche's Caligula will be beamed live to cinemas on Tuesday, February 8, at 19.30 Paris time, or 1:30 p.m. ET. Participating locations in the U.S. can be found on the Ballet in Cinema site by typing in your ZIP code. http://www.balletinc...ra-ballet-live/ encore screenings: http://www.balletinc...-ballet-encore/ scheduled cast: CALIGULA - Jérémie Belingard THE MOON - Clairemarie Osta MNESTER - Stéphane Bullion CHAEREA - Aurelien Houette INCITATUS - Mathias Heymann CAESONIA - Eleonora Abbagnato http://www.operadepa...ON=SELECT_EVENT If, like me, you don't live close to a participating cinema, Medici TV is also planning to stream the performance live. However, if there are any geographical blackouts, the web site isn't listing them yet. To the best of my knowledge, this would be the first dance performance streamed on the site. Finally. Watching Medici streams requires logging into an account, but these are free and quick to set up. http://www.medici.tv...uture-concerts/

Personally, I would have put Beethoven first, Brahms higher up and ditched Wagner and Bartok for a pair a pre-Baroque composers. I'm partial to Tallis and Lassus, but I certainly wouldn't object to the inclusion of Palestrina, Victoria or Byrd. I understand the exclusion of Tchaikovsky. His music is too uneven for him to qualify for the top ten. For every moment of unadulterated genius like the White Swan adagio or Letter Scene, there are demerits like the 1812 Overture, most of the Fourth Symphony, the "Uzhel' teper'" chorus from Eugene Onegin (I always burst out in giggles when it starts) or that absurd number from Swan Lake Ashton used for his pas de quatre coda. The last barely qualifies as music at all. (Skip ahead to 5:42 .) I happily concede that Tchaikovsky is the greatest ever composer for winds.

Opus Arte will be releasing a disc of the Royal Ballet performing three ballets by Wayne McGregor. The UK release date is March1, 2011, so the American release will probably follow a couple of months later. Chroma Federico Bonelli, Ricardo Cervera, Tamara Rojo, Mara GaleazzI, Sarah Lamb, Steven Mcrae, Laura Morera, Ludovic Ondiviela, Eric Underwood, Jonathan Watkins, Edward Watson filmed June 2010 Infra Leanne Benjamin, Ricardo Cervera, Yuhui Choe, Lauren Cuthbertson, Mara Galeazzi, Melissa Hamilton, Ryoichi Hirano, Paul Kay, Marianela Nuñez, Eric Underwood, Jonathan Watkins, Edward Watson filmed November 2008 Limen Leanne Benjamin, Yuhui Choe, Mara Galeazzi,Melissa Hamilton, Sarah Lamb, Marianela Nuñez, Leticia Stock, Akane Takada, Tristan Dyer, Paul Kay, Brian Maloney, Steven Mcrae, Ludovic Ondiviela, Eric Underwood, Edward Watson filmed November 2009 DVD: http://www.opusarte....ee-ballets.html Blu-ray: http://www.opusarte....ts-blu-ray.html

No American release date yet, but the DVD will be on the British market on January 29. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mantovani-Siddharta-DVD-Angelin-Preljocaj/dp/B004GX921A/

This DVD should hit the North American market in March. I'm still undecided about buying it. I saw this performance at the movies and had reservations about it and the way it was filmed. http://balletalert.invisionzone.com/index.php?/topic/29406-royal-ballet-la-bayadere-in-canadian-cinemas-may-2/ If I were to buy it, it would be because of Nuñez. Otherwise the performance didn't really grab me.

The Royal Ballet will be beaming Giselle live to cinemas on Wednesday, January 19. The performance is scheduled to star Marianela Nuñez and Rupert Pennefather. http://cinema.opusar...content/giselle Screenings in the United States can also be found by visiting the Ballet in Cinema web site. http://emergingpictu...llet-in-cinema/ In New York City, for example, the ballet will be beamed live to Big Cinemas Manhattan at 2:00 p.m. http://us.bigcinemas...tSessionId=3178 In the meantime, Symphony Space is opting for a "delayed live" transmission at 7:00 p.m. http://www.symphonys...e-ballet-london

A recent performance from the Opera Bastille of Giorgio Strehler's classic production of Le nozze di Figaro can be viewed on demand at the Paris Opera web site. It will be available until December 31. Figaro: Luca Pisaroni Susanna: Ekaterina Siurina Countess: Barbara Frittoli Count: Ludovic Tézier Cherubino: Karine Deshayes Bartolo: Robert Lloyd Marcellina: Ann Murray Don Basilio: Robin Leggate Barbarina: Maria Virginia Savastano Antonio: Christian Tréguier Don Curzio: Antoine Normand Conductor: Philippe Jordan http://www.operadepa...Noces_de_Figaro Give the pop-up window a minute to appear.

The Canadian movie chains Cineplex, Ciné Enterprise (in Quebec) and Empire Theatres (in Atlantic Canada) will carry four performances by the Bolshoi Ballet beamed live from Moscow. Sunday, December 19: The Nutcracker Sunday, January 23: Class Concert & Giselle Sunday, March 6: Don Quixote Sunday, May 29: Coppelia Near as I can tell, the performances will be shown live in Atlantic and eastern Canada at 11:00 a.m. ET/12:00 p.m. AT (12:30 in Newfoundland) and with a time delay further west. I only wish with POB series were included as well. Thus far ballet performances at Canadian multiplexes haven't really caught on, but hopefully the Bolshoi will have better luck. http://www.cineplex....allet/Home.aspx