volcanohunter

Well, I think this one's odd. The next Royal Ballet DVD scheduled to be released by Opus Arte is the 1994 film of Mayerling with Irek Mukhamedov, Viviana Durante, Lesley Collier and Darcey Bussell. Odd because it's already available on DVD. If the quality of the transfer is improved - fantastic, but frankly I was hoping for La Fille mal gardée.

http://www.opusarte.com/pages/product.asp?ProductID=231

Thanks to the folks at Dansomanie for the tip.

By way of a follow up, the U.S. release date has been revised to February 12, 2008, and the price presently listed is almost $40 lower than initially posted.

And how about Coppelia - premiered just days before the declaration of the 1870 war, one with hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded, and its young ballerina dead at 17 from cholera contracted during the siege of Paris.

Not to belabour this point, but what has Saint-Léon's generalized east-central Europe to do with the Franco-Prussian War?

The revival btw does not claim to be a realistic representation of life in a collective. That is hinted throughout the ballet and any relation to reality is abandoned when the giant vegetables roll out.

Which, under the historical circumstances, seems to be in bad taste.

joyce cuoco

Funny this was my guess also.

I remember seeing her, in colour, on the Ed Sullivan Show, remarkable turns and all. Apparently that episode dates back to 1966, at which point she would have been about 13.

You can see the adult Joyce Cuoco as "Clara Cratchit" in Youri Vamos' Nutcracker/Christmas Carol hybrid with the Bonn Ballet.

http://estore.websitepros.com/1652646/Detail.bok?no=1107

I'm very happy to see that four of Eleanor Powell's movies will be released as double-feature DVDs in April. Up until now only Broadway Melody of 1940 had been available.

Broadway Melody of 1936/Broadway Melody of 1938

http://www.amazon.com/Broadway-Melody-1936.../dp/B0011FDVA4/

Born to Dance/Lady Be Good

http://www.amazon.com/Born-Dance-Lady-Be-Good/dp/B0011FDV9K/

These films will also be included in Classic Musicals from the Dream Factory, vol. 3, together with Hit the Deck, Deep in My Heart (the Sigmund Romberg biopic), Kismet, Nancy Goes to Rio and Two Weeks with Love.

http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Musicals-Fac.../dp/B0011FDVEK/

I would have guessed Ciaicovski.

How about Ciaicovschi? Seriously, I didn't mean to suggest that Čajkovskij was a remotely Italian spelling, but rather that this transliteration would gladden the hearts of many Slavic linguistics professors. Not that I'm advocating adopting Čajkovskij, Šostakovič or Čexov in the English-speaking world. Most English-speakers are relatively unfamiliar with diacritical marks and would probably be confused by them. (Not to mention the fact that many computers are poorly equipped to deal with them.) I don't know what the most recent edition has to say about it, but the 14th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style states: "Regardless of the system of transliteration, however, well-known Russian names should be given in the form that has become familiar to English-speaking readers" (9.110) and then proceeds to list Tchaikovsky as an example.

Back on topic. I, too, would like to thank you, dancerboy87, for your review. I very much appreciate having eyes and ears from La Scala on this board.

Čajkovskij, if spelled with the "haček" on the C, is the most phonetically correct way of transliterating the name. The Czechs and Slovaks spell it the same way, and it eliminates the frustratingly different ways that the "ch" sound is rendered in Latin-character languages (for example, tch in French, tsch in German, tsj in Dutch and Norwegian, cz in Polish, tj in Danish and Swedish, ch in English and Spanish, cs in Hungarian).

Cajkovskij? I am mystified by this rendering of the composer's name. Is it Milanese dialect or what?

Well why should they spell it the French way, like we do? Wouldn't it make more sense for us to spell it Chaikovskii or Chaykovskiy? What about NYCB's peculiar Franco-German way of spelling it?

I haven't seen it in ages, but when David Bintley's Still Life at the Penguin Café first appeared almost 20 years ago, it was a big hit for the Royal Ballet. Now the 1988 film is being re-issued on DVD by Arthaus Musik.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000Y351ZC/

http://www.arthaus-musik.com/templates/tyC...gue_documentary

As the obituaries note, he can be seen acting and dancing in the movie 'It's Always Fair Weather,' which was not wildly successful when it came out for some pretty good reasons but has fine dancing from Gene Kelly, Dan Dailey, and Kidd.

Perhaps Kidd didn't seek subsequent film roles because he was embittered by the fact that his spectacular "Jack and the Space Giants" number ended up on the cutting room floor at Gene Kelly's insistence.

I wouldn't hesitate for a second to describe Kidd is a great choreographer. In particular, the choreography given to the corps of hoods in the "Girl Hunt" ballet from The Band Wagon anticipated the hyper-physical work of Édouard Lock, Ginette Laurin and the other choreographers of the 1980s Quebec dance boom by some 30 years.

May he rest in peace.

I didn't count the number of people at the movie theatre I was at. There were fewer spectators than at the last Met broadcast I'd attended at the same theatre, but that wasn't exactly packed either. In future there would have to be better advertising. I found out about the show quite by accident, having seen a poster in the multiplex lobby a little more than a week earlier, which is fortunate, because I don't venture out to the movies very often. I also have no idea how many people attended the National Ballet of Canada's broadcast in this city. I would hope that future ballet broadcasts wouldn't conflict with local productions, so that the whole promotional atmosphere could be more cooperative.

As for the production, I really liked the "Meet Me in St. Louis" feel of the party scene, though I agree with tikititatata's point about the insane pace of the children's dances. I liked Drosselmeyer - eccentric rather than creepy, though I can't say that Clara brought much to the story dramatically, either in this scene or during the battle, which may have been the fault of the dancer. I enjoyed Tomasson's dignified characterization of the grandparents, who weren't an object of comedy, as they are in some productions I've seen. Having the Nutcracker perform the soldier's dance was a clever idea, and the extensive use of the trap door turned Drosselmeyer into an accomplished magician.

Like Helene, I admired the dream sequence. It and the ensuing battle didn't quite match the magic of my first exposure to the Balanchine production, but then I don't really expect that experience to be topped. Still, I found the whole thing charming. Davit Karapetyan was excellent. He didn't seem to have any trouble removing his "shell," so I didn't realize this was a problematic costume.

In spite of my apprehensions going in, I didn't dislike Yuan Yuan Tan's Snow Queen, though my date preferred the dancing of her partner, Pierre-François Vilanoba. Full marks to the corps of snowflakes. They were terrific. And I love the the huge quantity of snow. Toward the end I did wonder how well the dancers could see through it, but for once the stage effect actually matched the music. Full high marks to the orchestra also.

I was also surprised by the spareness of the Act 2 set. I wondered whether it had lost something in translation to the two-dimensional screen. I was thoroughly enjoying the national dances, including the dance hall girls, but midway through the dancing bear the theatre's computer froze. I suppose this is a hazard of the new digital entertainment universe, but it's extremely frustrating. (I am greatly relieved that Helene didn't run into this problem, after making a cross-border trip to see the show!) So, not having seen the Waltz of the Flowers, or the grand pas de deux, or the finale, or Maria Kochetkova's dancing, I'm stuck waiting till next Christmas to see the rest of the ballet on television. It's a pity because I was enjoying myself. Still, I suppose that three-quarters of a ballet and a free movie pass is better than no ballet at all, though I'd rather not repeat the experience of ballettus interruptus!

Thank heavens: the pre-order price is a perfectly reasonable $22.99.

Toronto's Sun TV, available Canada-wide via satellite television, will be airing Nutcracker: The Motion Picture, featuring the Pacific Northwest Ballet, on Sunday, December 23, at 8:00 p.m. ET (...just as TFO is airing the POB's Swan Lake, and some PBS affiliates are showing the Royal Ballet's Nutcracker. Does any of this sound familiar?)

http://suntv.canoe.ca/cgi-bin/publish.cgi?...es&s=movies

I did manage to find some cast lists cached on Google. Assuming the casting didn't change, the candidates are:

Wednesday matinee:

Conductor: Martin West

Drosselmeyer: Damian Smith

Queen and King of the Snow: Yuan Yuan Tan, Pierre-François Vilanoba

Sugar Plum Fairy: Vanessa Zahorian

Grand Pas de Deux: Maria Kochetkova, Davit Karapetyan

Wednesday evening:

Conductor: Gary Sheldon

Drosselmeyer: Jorge Esquivel

Queen and King of the Snow: Elizabeth Miner, Pascal Molat

Sugar Plum Fairy: Elana Altman

Grand Pas de Deux: Sarah Van Patten, Pierre-Francois Vilanoba

Friday matinee:

Conductor: Martin West

Drosselmeyer: Damian Smith

Queen and King of the Snow: Yuan Yuan Tan, Pierre-François Vilanoba

Sugar Plum Fairy: Vanessa Zahorian

Grand Pas de Deux: Maria Kochetkova, Davit Karapetyan

Friday evening:

Conductor: Gary Sheldon

Drosselmeyer: Jorge Esquivel

Queen and King of the Snow: Vanessa Zahorian, Garrett Anderson

Sugar Plum Fairy: Rachel Viselli

Grand Pas de Deux: Sarah Van Patten, Pierre-François Vilanoba

So it would seem that the matinee cast was the one filmed.

What remains to be seen is whether this policy lasts. Magazine publishers were losing business because Canadian consumers were angry about having to pay the higher Canadian price listed on covers. Solution: print only one price. Which doesn't mean that the "single" price is actually the same as the American price . I fear that book publishers may yet devise a similar scheme for defrauding Canadian book lovers.

There are other ways of raising prices. When the stronger Canadian dollar made it economical to shop at Amazon.com rather than Amazon.ca, I suspect that the Canadian version began to lose business. So U.S. Amazon promptly increased shipping rates to Canada.

I suppose it would be logical to ask anyone who's been to see the SFB's Nutcracker whether they've seen any film crews at the opera house lately.

Live or not, I'm still encouraged by the prospect of bona fide ballets being shown on a big screen, particularly if this Nutcracker is a harbinger of future "broadcasts" of the Royal Ballet or whatever other companies Opus Arte plans to put on DVD. (Just so long as it isn't La La La Human Steps. )

Digiscreen is a Canadian company based in Montreal that has made a deal to screen Opus Arte content. Apparently Empire Theatres, a Canadian movie chain, has decided to screen the programs. The Digiscreen Channelizer shows tantalizing clips of Alina Cojocaru in The Sleeping Beauty, though I can't find any show dates on the Empire Theatres site as yet. (If this means that Opus Arte is planning to issue the ballet on DVD, I'll be very pleased indeed.) Presumably at this point there are relatively few U.S. movie chains that have Digiscreen delivery systems.

My guess would be that the NBoC/Cineplex Odeon and Opus Arte/Empire deals were being worked out simultaneously. The NBoC press announcement was made on November 20, while Digiscreen made its announcement on December 3. It is a pity that most people won't have an opportunity to see both Nutcracker broadcasts, but I suppose there's only one Saturday matinee before Christmas.

It's interesting that both Cineplex Odeon and Empire Theatres show the Met broadcasts. Last season in my city of residence they split the dates between them. This year Empire is showing the operas in its home base of Atlantic Canada, while Cineplex Odeon has rights to the rest of the country. That's Canada for you. Everything's always one step away from total monopoly.

If this information has already been posted elsewhere on the site, I apologize. There's been some ink spilled over the National Ballet of Canada's decision to broadcast a live performance of The Nutcracker to movie theatres throughout Canada. As it happens, the San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker will also be beamed to movie theatres on the afternoon of December 22, primarily in Canada, but in some U.S. cities as well.

The production will air on PBS a year from now, and judging by the Digiscreen web site, it will also appear on Opus Arte DVD.

U.S. cities

Denver, CO

Austin, TX

Cannery, NV

Carson City, NV

Riverband, CA

Monroe, WA

Novi, MI

Canton, MI

Birch Run, MI

Canadian cities

St. John's, NL

Sydney, NS

Halifax, NS

Moncton, NB

Fredericton, NB

Saint John, NB

Charlottetown, PEI

Montreal, QC

Toronto, ON

Kitchener, ON

North York, ON

Mississauga, ON

Waterloo, ON

Ottawa, ON

St. Catharines, ON

Winnipeg, MB

Saskatoon, SK

Edmonton, AB

Calgary, AB

Vancouver, BC

http://www.digiscreen.ca/nutcracker/digiscreen.html

And the more that Canadians (at least in the west) see of the quality of this company, and its school, the more they will realize that the emperor has no clothes. "top-notch ballet performances"? I don't think so!

Now are my thoughts laid bare... Truth is, the prospect of a National Ballet of Canada simulcast doesn't exactly excite me. I saw the company give a pretty ragged performance of Giselle during its biennial western Canadian tour a few months ago, and not being a great fan of James Kudelka, I'm in no hurry to see his Nutcracker either. For the record, I've seen my local Nutcracker already, so chances are I'll skip the NBoC simulcast at Cineplex Odeon theatres and instead opt for the San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker showing at a local Empire Theatre (same day, more or less same time), because I suspect the quality of dancing will be superior. It'll be interesting to see what happens on the afternoon of December 22 in places like Montreal, Winnipeg and Calgary, where people will have their choice of three Nutcrackers to see.

Helene posted a link to a Montreal Gazette story that addresses your questions exactly, bart:

A Nutcracker for everyone, and controversy on the side

Perhaps this mini-scandal will finally force the Canada Council to confront the apparent conflict of interest of having Karen Kain as its chair while she is also artistic director of the dance company that receives the largest chunk of funding from said Council. It's really beyond me how she can hold both posts. I admire Jean Grand-Maître and Gradimir Pankov for having the guts to criticize her publicly.

In principle I approve of the National Ballet of Canada's initiative. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation stopped broadcasting full-length ballets years ago, so simulcasts are probably the only way Canadian ballet companies can hope to reach broad audiences. But instead of "poaching" Nutcracker audiences, why not broadcast a Sleeping Beauty in October or a Romeo & Juliet in May? As for me, I'm torn over whether to see this Nutcracker broadcast or not.

Amazon.com lists this DVD at an astronomical $60.49. But on Canadian Amazon it's available for pre-order at $21.69 CAD. Now that's more like it.

http://www.amazon.ca/Aragon-E-Bilbao-Symp-.../dp/B000Y9M096/

According to Amazon, the DVD will be released in North America on January 29, 2008. The price isn't listed yet, so let's keep our fingers crossed. Amazon has been posting some nutty prices for ballet DVDs lately.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000WMHTAU/

France 3 television has produced a sort of Advent calendar with a new clip on the POB's production airing every day until Christmas.

http://toowam.france3.fr/test/casse-noisette/

TFO, Ontario's French-language educational network, will be broadcasting the POB's Swan Lake, with Agnès Letestu and José Martinez, on Sunday, December 23, at 8:00 p.m. ET.

Naturally, I'm grateful to TFO for putting some ballet on the air, but why only at Christmastime?

http://www.tfo.org/

On Sunday, December 16, at 8:00 p.m. ET, TFO, Ontario's French-language educational network, will broadcast La Belle, Jean-Christophe Maillot's revisionist take on The Sleeping Beauty, performed by Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo.

http://www.tfo.org