volcanohunter

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

I probably ordered the tickets in English because both the e-mail and the questionnaire itself were in English. Mine arrived last Friday. Perhaps not all the questionnaires were sent out at once and yours is still forthcoming.

Unfortunately, I didn't write them down as I was filling them out online because the system is rigged to prevent ballot stuffing, so I couldn't go back to reread the questions. They concerned both opera and ballet programming, asking, more or less on a scale of one to five, what sort of programming I preferred. I was asked about 19th-century ballet, neo-classical ballet, modern choreography and modern opera-ballet productions (Bausch, Waltz, etc.). In addition, the questions concerned the relative preference for 19th-century narrative ballet, 20th-century narrative ballet, abstract ballet, mixed bills and visiting companies. I'm sure the perceived bias of the POB management was an issue, though who can tell whether the results of a survey would have any sort of influence over it. On the operatic side, the choices offered were Italian, French, German/Austrian, Wagner, and Slavic opera. There didn't seem to be as much emphasis on period as I would've expected. The questionnaire also asked whether I attended symphonic concerts, how many Paris Opera performances I attended in the last year, which other Parisian musical theatres I'd visited, which media sources I used for concert information (not particularly relevant in my case), my occupation and where I lived. I'm assuming that the questionnaire was sent to those who purchased tickets to the Paris Opera in the last year. Obviously, I wouldn't be a typical patron. In my case a relevant question would have been something like: what would you be willing to cross the Atlantic for to see?

This may be an aside, but I think it's important to remember that the National Ballet of Canada was never founded with any sort of 'national' mandate, inasmuch as it was not the initiative of the federal government but the private enterprise of some very determined ballet lovers in Toronto. It was actually a bit presumptuous on the part of the Celia Franca and the original board to call it 'National,' and many resentful Canadians (well, Winnipeggers) would have taken it as proof of a Torontonian delusion that their city lies at the centre of the universe, and so forth. In the television biography that Veronica Tennant completed just before Franca died, the great lady explained that the frequent touring the company did in its early days was necessitated by its inability to mount extensive Toronto seasons, which suggests that she would have preferred to stay put. The older Winnipeg company was the one that ultimately received the Royal Charter (before the Royal Ballet received it!), and at the inaugural Governor General's Performing Arts Awards in 1992 RWB founder Gweneth Lloyd was among the recipients (Betty Farrally was already deceased). Celia Franca received it two years later. Ludmilla Chiriaeff, founder of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, was squeezed in in between the two to prevent Quebec from feeling slighted. Evidently these were some of the 'censures' Franca had to endure for grabbing the title 'National' without asking anyone's permission. The RWB has always been a touring company, though perhaps it tours a little less now than 4-5 years ago. Ballet Jorgen and Atlantic Ballet Theatre are quintessentially touring companies, playing smaller venues that the bigger companies are never likely to visit. What's really interesting to me, and this is surely a topic for another forum, is that Canadian ballet companies never visit Winnipeg. The National Ballet visits Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia every other year, Alberta Ballet tours B.C. and Saskatchewan, Ballet BC tours Western Canada periodically, Atlantic Ballet visits smaller cities in Quebec, Alberta and B.C. in addition to playing the Atlantic provinces, and Ballet Jorgen plays smaller venues throughout Canada, but the RWB seems to have some sort of quarantine wall around Winnipeg that prevents the others from visiting. This can't be a good thing for students of its school, who only ever see their parent company live. And no, you're not likely to see many of them on television. The last one to get an airing on the CBC before it gave up on the performing arts was Alberta Ballet, which has managed to produce two DVDs in the last year, just under the wire, I think. As for the others, most of their programs are sitting in CBC vaults, not likely to be released commerically in the near future and likely to pop up on Bravo or Artv only when Canadian Content quotas need to be met.

The other day I received an audience questionnaire from the Paris Opera. It was very nice of them to ask, though in light of the fact that I'm not likely to visit Paris all that frequently, I can't pretend to be a typical patron. Still, it got me to thinking about the audience questionnaires I've filled out in recent years, and I'm curious about the experiences of other BTers. For example: Do you think audience surveys are worthwhile, or do they lead to pandering on the part of arts organizations? Do you think that arts institutions actually pay attention to the results of such surveys, or do other factors predominate in programming? Put it another way: do some companies choose repertoire in spite of what surveys and box office receipts tell them; is this a good thing? Have your requests or suggestions been heeded? Do theatres really need to ask whether audiences prefer Italian opera to German opera?

Another report on the same program: http://tf1.lci.fr/infos/culture/0,,4194542...t-sa-mort-.html Much the same, including sound bites from Pech and Bélingard, though this report shows a bit more of Clairemarie Osta in Sacre.

The France 2 link up top no longer leads to the Raymonda report, but you can still pull it up here.

I think it's more practical than mere "cosmetic fudge." Sorry if I chose a poor illustration. I just meant that filming a New York company outside New York doesn't change the New York-centric nature of Dance in America. I don't doubt that the other houses may be easier to film in. Undoubtedly the Met has been able to capitalize on the decades-old habit of tuning in to an opera on Saturday afternoons. For regular listeners, being able to see what they'd been listening to all these years was obviously very exciting and a natural progression. The fact that star singers are also familiar to audiences because of radio is something choreographers and dancers can't hope to compete with.

The Hamburg Ballet recently mounted Pierre Lacotte's La Sylphide. The following clips feature Hélène Bouchet as the Sylph, Thiago Bordin as James, Sébastien Thill as Madge and Carolina Agüero as Effie. http://www.hamburgballett.de/video/sylphide.html