volcanohunter

What does the back of the box say? If it's region-free and NTSC, it should play on any American or Japanese player. There was a time when Opus Arte produced separate PAL and NTSC versions for different markets, but the Region 0 NTSC format has become standard for them. I don't shop at Amazon.co.uk that often because the prices are generally much higher than they are in North America, but once in a while they do offer very deep discounts, and if you're ordering from North America, the VAT is deducted. I've found that if I order five items, the deducted VAT usually covers the shipping costs. If I order six items or more, the discount is even greater, so I end up paying less than the listed price. There's always a risk of getting zapped with customs fees on arrival, but it happens to me infrequently.

The opera is now available on the Arte site also, Emmanuelle Gaume's slightly giddy commentary included. http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Werther_a_l_Opera_Bastille/

Arte will be streaming the final of the Prix de Lausanne online on Sunday, January 31. The final is scheduled to begin at 15.00 CET (9:00 a.m. ET), so I'm not sure why the Arte timer is counting down to 23.05. http://liveweb.arte.tv/fr/video/Finale_du_...ix_de_Lausanne/

Knowledge Network, British Columbia's educational channel, will air the Royal Ballet's Giselle, starring Alina Cojocaru, Johan Kobborg, Marianela Nuñez and Martin Harvey, on Wednesday, February 3, at 9:00 p.m. PT, with a repeat broadcast at 1:00 a.m. PT. Additional Opus Arte titles are set to follow, including Swan Lake and Wayne McGregor's staging of Dido and Aeneas. Canada-wide, Knowledge Network airs on ch. 268 on Bell and ch. 354 on Shaw Direct. http://www.knowledge...program/giselle

The opera is now accessible on Medici TV. In order to watch it, you need to set up an account, which is free. http://www.medici.tv/#/performance/690/

Today, Tuesday, January 26, the Paris Opera will be streaming a live video feed of Massenet's Werther, with Jonas Kaufmann and Sophie Koch, starting at 20.35 Paris time (or 2:35 p.m. ET). Sorry for the short notice! http://www.operadeparis.fr

The set has probably been delayed rather than discontinued. It happens quite frequently with Bel Air and can be very frustrating when attempting to pre-order a DVD. I wouldn't be surprised if the set were to re-appear on Amazon in a week or two, though perhaps under a different catalogue number. A number of titles originally released by Image Entertainment have reappeared on Arthaus Musik. To illustrate with a non-balletic example: http://www.amazon.com/Puccini-Madama-Butte.../dp/B00005R5HG/ http://www.amazon.com/Madama-Butterfly-Yas.../dp/B000GNOTZI/ Arthaus Musik owns the European distribution rights to the Giselle, Le Corsaire and Sleeping Beauty you mentioned, and I wouldn't be surpised if eventually the company were to issue region-free versions of those ballets in North America. They do seem to be taking their time, though. About a year and a half ago Arthaus Musik purchased TDK Music DVD, which had been releasing lots of stuff from the POB and La Scala. Since then, TDK releases have been reduced to a trickle, which is unfortunate, and Arthaus has been re-issuing many TDK titles on the Arthaus label. Perhaps this is slowing down the re-issue of the old Image Entertainment titles. http://www.arthaus-musik.com/templates/tyC...n&limit=all

As far as I know, there isn't one available. Somewhere deep in the archives of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation there is a film from the mid-1970s of the Royal Winnipeg Ballet dancing it, with Violette Verdy as Louise, if I'm not mistaken. I doubt it was ever available commercially.

I'm very pleased to hear it. I thought he was wonderful, but his situation in Toronto was madness. He was already a principal in Warsaw, but the National Ballet of Canada hired him as a member of the corps de ballet. I remember watching him as Benvolio in Cranko's Romeo and Juliet and thinking: No, no, no, he should be dancing Romeo. He was by far the best male dancer on the stage.

I'm also very sorry to hear about Philips Neal's retirement. Not only did I never come away from his performances disappointed, I made a point of seeking them out whenever I returned to New York. I always found his dancing extremely satisfying and particularly admired how he combined the classic virtues of the American dancer with an Old World elegance. I wish him the best of luck in his next career.

Here's a video report on the company coinciding with its recent engagement at the Paris Opera. http://culturebox.france3.fr/#/danse/18511..._opera-de-paris

CTV, which is broadcasting the games in Canada, has been promoting the Cultural Olympiad on its networks pretty heavily these past few days. Wouldn't it be something if it decided to broadcast some of the stuff? I mean, CTV-owned Bravo is supposed to be an arts channel... (That's the sound of me not holding my breath.)

The film will soon be airing on PBS. Most affiliates appear to have it scheduled for Wednesday, January 20.

Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm so sorry he did it. Though I think it's actually Wright's fault. It reflects what he did in his production for the BRB. A couple of years ago Alastair Macaulay reviewed both the Wright production and the Nureyev production for the POB. Having recently seen films of both with the same casts Macaulay saw, I have to say he was right on the money. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/arts/dan...7nutc.html?_r=1

He also changed Benno into a female "Friend." You get the feeling that the hero is suffocated by a gaggle of females. Why Bruhn didn't transform the Tutor into a domineering School Marm is beyond me. It's been years since I've seen the production, so I may be fuzzy on some of the details. The characters all had generic titles rather than names: Prince, Swan Queen, Black Swan, Black Queen, Prince's Friend. There was a brooding solo for the Prince toward the end of Act 1. Bruhn used Tchaikovsky's oom-pah ending to the White Swan pas de deux, but otherwise the choreography of the adagio was pretty standard. The Black Swan pas de deux was rechoreographed significantly. He used Tchaikovsky's original adagio (the one used in Balanchine's Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux), and for the Black Swan's variation he used the same oboe-themed music as Grigorovich. The Prince's variation and the coda used the usual music and choreography, so the pas de deux was a strange hybrid. The national dances were pretty standard, except for a Neapolitan pas de deux à la Ashton. In the final act the Prince committed suicide on his own, leaving the Swan Queen permanently trapped in her avian body. This struck me as particularly ungallant. Somewhere in the CBC archives there is a film of the production, apparently abridged, starring Lois Smith, Bruhn and Celia Franca, but it was made before my time, and the CBC never airs stuff from its archives, so I've only seen clips of it in documentaries about the National Ballet of Canada. The company replaced Bruhn's production with James Kudelka's in 1999, and for all the flaws of Bruhn's version, I think Kudelka's is infinitely worse.

If it's going to be a Bel Air DVD, that price will likely be quite steep.

These video links were posted in the Ballet History forum, but there's no reason not to collect them here as well. http://culturebox.france3.fr/#/Danse/18388...p%E9ra_de_Paris http://culturebox.france3.fr/#/Danse/18406...p%E9ra_de_Paris http://culturebox.france3.fr/#/Danse/18157...er_sur_France_3 http://info.francetelevisions.fr/video-inf...200912171059_F2 http://videos.tf1.fr/jt-20h/les-ballets-ru...is-5598773.html

A few more reports on the Ballets Russes from French television http://culturebox.france3.fr/#/Danse/18388...p%E9ra_de_Paris http://culturebox.france3.fr/#/Danse/18406...p%E9ra_de_Paris http://culturebox.france3.fr/#/danse/16057...-ballets-russes

Indeed. He's danced so many roles and filled in for so many injured dancers that he's certainly earned it. Congratulations to him.

I neglected to post this a couple of months ago, but here is a video report about the POB's French tour of Jewels. It features interviews with Mathieu Ganio, who's seen rehearsing 'Emeralds' with Laëtitia Pujol, and Clairemarie Osta, also seen rehearsing 'Rubies' with Mathias Heymann. http://culturebox.france3.fr/#/Danse/15415...ne_%E0_Grenoble

Video of another Ballets Russes triple bill http://culturebox.france3.fr/#/Danse/18298..._de_Monte-Carlo

I doubt it. This week I watched a film of the ballet from two years ago, and Jérémie Bélingard was undone by the same lift.

A video report on the children dancing in The Nutcracker http://info.francetelevisions.fr/video-inf...S_13H_LES_BONUS

I have to agree. When you compare Balanchine's version with the traditional text as it's performed by English companies, you realize that he wasn't choreographing in a vacuum. Balanchine's pas de deux is like a commentary on the original. A year ago Alastair Macaulay wrote: "Actually, though Balanchine did take considerable liberties with music and scenario, his proves closer to the original 1892 conception than almost any other." http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/01/arts/dance/01nutc.html Here's the other thing I love. Apparently Hanya Holm would say that once a movement was initiated, it would continue in space along its trajectory to infinity. This idea is most clearly visualized in Alwin Nikolais' Tensile Involvement, but I also can't help think of it when watching the intersecting limbs in Balanchine's Nutcracker adagio.

I watched the same broadcast. This morning the Paris Opera Ballet's performance of Nureyev's production aired for the third time, and in comparison Tomasson's waltz and pas de deux positively gush and flow.