volcanohunter

I love the photo, and I love the vast quantity of snow. I wouldn't care to dance on it, but as a viewer, I think it's worth every flake.

Don't despair. Apparently, some U.S. cinemas carry this stuff too. No updates as of yet. http://digiscreen.ca/splash/index_en_US.html Look at it this way. Right now it's -24°C outside (-11°F, wind chill: -24). We need some sort of compensation for putting up with this.

Empire Theatres has posted the next batch of Opus Arte offerings. Screenings take place at 1:00 p.m. local time. http://www.empiretheatres.com/opusarte January 17 & 18 - Tamerlano (Teatro Real) January 31 - La Fille mal gardée (Royal Ballet w/Nuñez & Acosta) February 14 & 15 - La Bohème (Teatro Real) February 28 - Manon (Royal Ballet w/Rojo, Acosta, Martin, Morera, Saunders) http://www.roh.org.uk/cinemas/manon/index.aspx March 14 & 15 - Un ballo in maschera (Teatro Real) March 28 & 29 - La Dame aux camélias (Paris Opera Ballet w/Letestu, Bullion, Moussin, Martinez, Gilbert, Paquette, Grinsztajn, Denard) April 11 - Messiah (Choir of King's College) April 25 & 26 - Castor et Pollux (Nederlandse Opera) May 2 - La Bayadère (Royal Ballet) (probably Rojo, Acosta, Nuñez) May 31 & 31 - La Fille du régiment (Royal Opera) I'm glad to see that the series is continuing. It's also encouraging that the POB's Lady of the Camellias is getting two showings; it's the first time for a ballet. I can only assume that the screening of the POB's Cinderella in September was well attended. I believe that the participating cities for ballets are the same: Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton, St. John's, Halifax, Sydney, Charlottetown, Bolton, Burlington, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Mississauga, North York, Ottawa, Richmond Hill, St. Catharines, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, North Vancouver and Victoria. The operas aren't screened in the Atlantic provinces, where Empire Theatres is in the business of showing the Met. The Digiscreen web site hasn't been updated yet, so I don't know about other theatres.

Some upcoming broadcasts: Monday, December 29, on Bravo Canada at 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. PT Thursday, January 15, on CBC Bold at 10:00 a.m. ET / 7:00 a.m. PT and 5:00 p.m. ET / 2:00 p.m. PT

The Tale of the Magic Flute, an abbreviated version of Mark Godden's The Magic Flute, will air on CBC Bold on Wednesday, December 31, at 10:00 a.m. ET/7:00 a.m. PT and 2:00 p.m. ET/11:00 a.m. PT, and also on Saturday, January 3, at 10:00 a.m. ET/7:00 a.m. PT. CBC Bold: where all the cancelled CBC shows go. (Please excuse my cynicism.) http://www.cbc.ca/bold

Previously Heinz Spoerli's Cinderella had only been available as a Region 2 disc. It's now scheduled to be released in North America on January 13. The Zurich Ballet production features Karine Seneca as Cinderella, Stanislav Jermakov as the star dancer, Jozef Varga as the stepmother and Nicolas Blanc and François Petit as the stepsisters. A PDF of the booklet is posted online, and a trailer is available in the catalogue section of the Bel Air Classiques web site. The Amazon product number is B001O5LVXK.

It wasn't exactly a ballet, but the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation produced a film of Roxana set in the swinging '60s in which the title role was played by the National Ballet of Canada's Greta Hodgkinson. Rex Harrington, retired by then, and Christopher Body also appeared. http://www.roxanathemovie.com/

Indeed, so am I. Though I hope that someday the 1983 performance will be re-issued as well. By then Nureyev was certainly past his prime, but think of the rest of the cast: Noëlla Pontois as Raymonda, Manuel Legris and Laurent Hilaire as Bernard and Béranger, Monique Loudières as Clémence, Claude de Vulpian (!) as Henriette, Jean Guizerix (!!) as Abderam, Yvette Chauviré (!!!) as the Countess, plus Isabelle Guérin and Frédéric Olivieri in the Saracen dance, Françoise Legrée and Patrick Dupond in the Spanish dance and Marie-Claude Pietragalla and Fabrice Bourgeois in the Csardas. Talk about luxury casting.

The broadcast has certainly helped DVD sales. The DVD was selling well to begin with, but now on Amazon it's leapfrogged over Balanchine and is giving Baryshnikov a run for his money. I first saw the performance on a movie screen a year ago, or at least three-quarters of it before the digital transmission stalled, and I've since watched it on DVD and television. I liked it immediately, but it's really grown on me since, especially in comparison with two other productions I've seen this year, James Kudelka's for the National Ballet of Canada and Edmund Stripe's for Alberta Ballet, neither of which I like in the slightest and both of which make Helgi Tomasson look like an unqualified genius in comparison. I'm usually wary of productions that alter the choreography of the grand pas de deux, but when it's danced as well as it is here, I can't complain. The whole company dances beautifully, but I tip my hat especially to Maria Kochetkova, Davit Karapetyan, Yuan Yuan Tan, Pierre-Francois Vilanoba, Nicolas Blanc and Pascal Molat. The only thing I'd rap the knucles of the SFB for would be its faux choir in the snow scene. My parents, former San Franciscans, were both mildly scandalized by this. ("Honestly, in a city like San Francisco, couldn't they find a real choir?") I'd like to pose a question to those who watched it on WGBH Boston. I admit that I don't always have a complete grasp of my television settings, but I had the impression that the initial showing was formatted in a 4:3 configuration and not the 16:9 ratio in which it was shot, whereas the second showing, which would have been after midnight Eastern Time, had the proper widescreen formatting. Was I imagining this?

If you haven't visited it lately, check out the 'culturebox' for Raymonda. New clips are being added, and I counted 16 in total today.

Thanks for the clarification. Height-wise Yoshida and Kobborg would have been a much better fit.

This recent television film has come up in passing, so it's worth noting that a number of PBS affiliates--I noticed WNET New York and KCTS Seattle--will be showing it on Christmas Day.

The Royal Ballet is obviously eager to showcase the Cojocaru/Kobborg partnership. As you pointed out, they were scheduled to be filmed together in The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty as well. They're still sitting in the vaults, but I was thinking of the Cojocaru/Kobborg Cinderella and the Rojo/Kobborg Don Quixote. I do wish that the Royal Ballet would film a broader range of its leading dancers. Putrov and Bonelli shouldn't have to wait for someone's injury. There is another strange aspect to filming the Royal Ballet, namely that Carlos Acosta has a separate contract with Decca, which released his Spartacus with the Bolshoi. I can't find the exact link, but the press release for that DVD stated: Does this mean that RB performances without Acosta will be released on its home label, while those with him will be released on Decca? Does this undermine the rationale for purchasing Opus Arte in the first place? (Will we see rival RB R&Js and Manons from Opus Arte and Decca?)

The contest is back this year and you still have two days to vote, your choices being Bourne, Grigorovich, Balanchine, Stowell, Bejart and Morris. http://www.ovationtv.com/Programs/battleofthenutcrackers/

I hope so, though, unlike the POB, the Royal Ballet seems unconcerned about showcasing its principal roster to the broader public. On DVD you nearly always get the same dancers: Cojocaru and Nuñez on the women's side, with a couple of Rojo performances in the pipeline, Acosta and Kobborg on the men's. Bonelli managed to sneak in when Kobborg was injured. Appearances by the others are fleeting at best.

It is the Lacotte/POB version, and it will also air on Christmas Day at 9:30 pm ET.

TFO will give the program a repeat broadcast on Christmas Day at 8 pm ET.

The National Ballet of Canada's Nutcracker, which was beamed to cinemas last Saturday, will air on Canadian Bravo on Thursday, December 18, at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT. http://www.bravo.ca/television/ I have to say there hasn't been a great deal of advance advertising on this. Perhaps those involved were worried about potential viewers staying away from movie theatres if they'd known they'd be able to see it on television five days later.

The Great Performances web site doesn't say a great deal about the ballet component of the concert, only that the 'Blue Danube Waltz' will be performed by students of the Ballet School of the Vienna State Opera. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/fro...troduction/430/

Here's the original thread on the ROH purchase of Opus Arte. http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=24909 Some of the questions raised then have since been answered, though the ROH has yet to produce a DVD independently of the BBC. As has already been pointed out, the purchase of a distribution company doesn't pay for the production costs of filming a ballet or opera.

They've taken their sweet time about it, but Great Performances has finally updated its web site. Here's the page for The Nutcracker. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/episodes/dan...troduction/428/

Two clips from Rite of Spring: http://www.operadeparis.fr/Saison-2008-200...775&IdS=538

I'm curious about the orthography. I wonder which case it's supposed to be. Nom. Lopukhov Acc. Lopukhova Gen. Lopukhova Dat. Lopukhovu Instr. Lopukhovym Prep. Lopukhove

Is anyone familiar with a piece called Mediterranea choreographed by Mauro Bigonzetti? A Hardy Classics DVD, via VAI, featuring Massimo Murru and the La Scala Ballet is listed on Amazon under number B001NGZYF6 and is scheduled for release on December 30.

The program is scheduled to air on Friday, December 19 at 8:00 p.m. local time and 8:30 p.m. in Newfoundland. The CBC promises "limited interruptions." Although it's primarily a drama, dance is prominent in several scenes. As for pure dance, there are two sequences: a sort of 'dream ballet' in which Galien Johnston and Kelley McKinlay step in for the heroine's parents, and a solo for the Nutcracker, performed by Christopher Gray to the music of the Spanish dance. I rather liked the film, though the opening sequence is inexplicably choppy. I would've thought that the scene in which the heroine dreams she is being pursued by ravenous wolves/Nazis would be far too frightening for children, but I suppose the filmmakers' rationale for including it is that kids these days see far scarier things in Harry Potter films. The film doesn't appear to be available through Canadian Amazon any longer, though it can be purchased through the CBC shop: http://www.cbcshop.ca/CBC/shopping/product...〈=en-CA