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Amazon is taking pre-orders for the DVD and Blu-Ray. The release date is October 26.

Unfortunately for our contributors from the U.K., the notice on the Medici site reads: "The webcast of the opera is not available from the United Kingdom." I guess that things are free except when they're not.

I notice that this DVD is available on the American market with the double-decker title Illusionen wie Schwanensee - Illusions like Swan Lake. (I'd thought it was available only in Europe.) Like the European pressing, the box features a generic Swan Lake photograph, which does not come from the Neumeier production.

Rather than the Ansanelli Nutcracker, Opus Arte is planning to release a performance filmed the following year with Miyako Yoshida and Steven McRae. That would make Yoshida's third SPF on video and the third video of Wright's RB production. http://www.opusarte....-live-2009.html http://www.opusarte....09-blu-ray.html

Not to mention the fact that this is a great way to fill seats. Even the Martha Graham company is wise to this fact. During its recent season at the Joyce, it had city high school students dance Graham's Panorama. Before the show the woman I was sitting next to asked me whom I'd come to see. I'm sure I looked puzzled when I told her I'd come to see the ballets, but it turned out that she and her sister had come to watch her daughter in Panorama. (They stayed for Appalachian Spring but left during the intermission; I don't know whether this was disinterest in Graham's work or, more likely, a need to get those teenagers out of the backstage area.) In any case, it was a canny move to get those parents to come because otherwise the show, which was sold out, would have had an audience made up primarily of septua- and octogenarians.

They are, as little circles with black dots inside, exactly like the Met or Royal Opera House systems, and the BAM system indicates whether the offending obstacle is a lighting platform or a pole. The system will also give you a photo preview of the sight lines from various locations, and unlike the ROH system, the stage is shot with the curtain open, so you can get a pretty clear idea of how much of it is visible. Just for reference, this seems to be the only show at the opera house for which tickets are currently on sale, which allows for a test drive of the seat selection system. http://tickets.bam.o...anceNumber=4927

It will certainly be an interesting experiment. There will be eight performances of The Hard Nut, followed by 16 of Ratmansky's Nutcracker. Is BAM counting on attracting completely different audiences for the two productions? I wonder whether this juxtaposition will affect Ratmansky's approach. There is a single column of boxes on either side of the stage, but I don't think they're used often, and tickets for them can't be purchased online. Here's a view of the auditorium. http://www.bam.org/view.aspx?pid=10 The BAM auditorium is a good deal smaller than the Met's and seats half as many people. The distance from the front of the stage to the back of the balcony is not nearly as long as the distance to the back of the Family Circle. Last month I saw two performances at BAM and in both cases I sat on the top level, once in the second row and once in the fourth. From there I could see the dancers' faces perfectly without binoculars, and my eyesight is quite poor. On the other hand, when I sit on the Met's Balcony, I can't make out the faces very clearly.

Medici TV will stream Mozart's Don Giovanni live from the Glyndebourne Festival on Friday, July 23, starting at 17.00 local time, or 12:00 p.m. ET. It would appear that the performance itself will begin 15 minutes later. Don Gionanni: Gerald Finley Leporello: Luca Pisaroni Donna Anna: Anna Samuil Donna Elvira: Kate Royal Zerlina: Anna Virovlansky Don Ottavio: William Burden Masetto: Guido Loconsolo Commendatore: Brindley Sherratt Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski http://www.medici.tv.../607/the-opera/ Medici TV requires viewers to log in to an account, but these are free and easy to set up. Golly. Does the intermission really last an hour and 20 minutes? http://www.glyndebou...s/don_giovanni/

Much better than at the Met, I think. I usually sit high up, and at the Met that means not being able to see much of the backdrop. This should be much less of a problem at BAM. The orchestra level and balconies all have steep inclines, and the online ticketing system will indicate which seats have partially blocked views because of the lighting arrays, and that's basically the first row of the balconies. I'm no expert on the subject, but there are tons of restaurants in the area, all along Fulton Street.

I've never understood this reaction; I wish I did. A grand space promises a grand experience, doesn't it? Surely all these people don't lack curiosity and a hunger for new cultural experiences? Surely in this age when the schools preach self-esteem, they don't fear they can't learn the lingo? Perhaps it's not the spaces themselves but the smart-looking and smart-sounding people inside. Being a shy person by nature, I can understand how some people could feel intimidated by the connoisseurs, afraid that at any moment one could be asked for the secret password and, failing to produce it, be exposed as a know-nothing neophyte. But it varies. Certainly there's nothing intimidating about going to an Ailey show. During the recent Ailey season at BAM, New York City Ballet advertised its "Architecture of Dance" season in the program. I'd be very curious to know how many first-timers that ad attracted.

Mathias Heymann does the pop thing, sort of. http://culturebox.france3.fr/#/opera/25390/sous-le-soleil-les-etoiles-l_union-originale-heymann-babx

Oh, gosh, it was very beautiful indeed. I believe this production was first presented by the Canadian Opera Company last autumn, and the opera house in Toronto is a good deal larger than the one used in Aix. I actually wondered how well those marionettes worked in a theatre. The production almost seems made for television, the closeups allowing the viewer to delight in every detail. I'm really dying to know: how does one flood an orchestra pit? And how can the singers be persuaded to sing in the water?

The reaction of the audience was pretty typical: cheers for the performers (except for Skovhus, who got some boos) and a hail of disapproval for the director. That seems to happen a lot these days.

A TV report about the production http://culturebox.france3.fr/#/opera/25153/le-rossignol-seduit-au-festival-d_aix-en-provence

I'm tempted to add: "and on radio and recording, too.." I can't argue with that. He was the only Don Giovanni I found completely persuasive, and the Verdi he recorded, of which there was inexplicably little, was sublime. A very great singer. May he rest in peace.

Here's a recent performance of Merce Cunningham's Roaratorio performed by his company at the Montpellier Dance Festival. http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Roaratorio_de_Merce_Cunningham_au_festival_Montpellier_Danse/

Arte will be streaming Stravinsky's Le Rossignol, Renard and Petites Pieces from Aix-en-Provence on Wednesday, July 7, at 19:55 local time (1:55 p.m. ET). The Nightingale: Olga Peretyatko The Cook: Elena Semenova Death: Svetlana Shilova The Fisherman: Edgaras Montvidas The Emperor of China: Ilya Bannik Chamberlain: Nabil Suliman The Bonze: Yuri Vorobiev Renard cast: Marat Gali, Edgaras Montvidas, Nabil Suliman, Ilya Bannik Trois pièces pour clarinette seule: Jean-Michel Bertelli Pribaoutki: Svetlana Shilova Berceuses du chat: Svetlana Shilova Deux poèmes de Constantin Balmont: Elena Semenova The staging is by Robert Lepage, and the conductor is Kazushi Ono. http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Le_Rossignol_et_autres_fables_au_Festival_d_Aix-en-Provence

Everyone lives in the big house. The staging seems to be concerned primarily with turning the piece into a family soap opera. Obviously the idea of Don Giovanni trying to seduce his wife's niece is pretty creepy.

The opera's just started. I'm often surpised by the revisionist takes directors take with operas, particularly when you'd think the libretto wouldn't allow it. From what I gather, in this production the Commendatore is the father of Donna Anna and Don Ottavio is her fiancé. So far so good. But Donna Anna is a middle-aged woman and Zerlina is her daughter; Masetto is still her fiancé. Donna Elvira is Donna Anna's cousin, and she's married to... Don Giovanni.

http://www.roh.org.uk/uploadedFiles/Press_and_Media/Press_Releases/IvanPutrovtoleaveTRB.pdf

Here are a couple of TV reports about the production. I'm only slightly familiar with the work of director Dmitri Tcherniakov, namely the Bolshoi production of Evgeniy Onegin that Galina Vishnevskaya hated so much, but from what little I've seen, he sure seems to have a thing for setting operas in wood-paneled interiors. http://videos.tf1.fr/jt-20h/don-giovanni-revisite-a-aix-en-provence-5904578.html http://culturebox.france3.fr/#/opera/25033/le-don-giovanni-de-tcherniakov-ouvre-aix-en-provence http://culturebox.france3.fr/#/opera/24907/aix-en-provence-s_ouvre-sur-don-giovanni

If anyone is flying via Air Canada in the near future, the film is available on the airline's entertainment system. It's located in the 'Franco-Cinema' folder in the movie section. I just watched it again returning home from New York.

As of now, Dorothée Gilbert has replaced Delphine Moussin as the ballerina. http://www.operadeparis.fr/cns11/live/onp/actualites/index.php?lang=en#news2345 According to the distributor, the Lady of the Camellias and Swan Lake screenings will of the existing performances already available on DVD. The other ballets will be beamed live. http://www.cielecran.com/assets/files/font..._BALLET_BAT.pdf There's also something of a trailer about the series, along with a list of participating French cinemas and stuff available for download at the bottom of the page linked below. http://www.cielecran.com/index.php?id=16&fiche=96

Arte Live Web will stream Mozart's Don Giovanni live from the Aix-en-Provence Festival on Monday, July 5, at 21.25 local time, or 3:25 p.m. ET. Don Gionanni: Bo Skovhus Leporello: Kyle Ketelsen Donna Anna: Marlis Petersen Donna Elvira: Kristine Opolais Zerlina: Kerstin Avemo Don Ottavio: Colin Balzer Masetto: David Bizic Commendatore: Anatoli Kotscherga Conductor: Louis Langrée http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Don_Giovan...ix-en-Provence/ If you're unable to watch it live, Arte streams are usually available on demand within 24 hours of being broadcast.

In anticipation of tomorrow's broadcast, PBS has posted some excerpts from the film. Paquita rehearsal Genus rehearsal Lefèvre/Gat meeting