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Beautiful release!:Cuban National Ballet's Don Quijote. (2007)


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Posted

On Amazon this DVD costs nearly $50, which, perhaps, is why it hasn't been selling particularly well. However, at Berkshire Record Outlet it's available for $14. If you're interested, search for 'Don Quixote' under DVDs or enter product number 140741 under BRO code. This appears to be the actual Bel Air Classiques DVD rather than a pirate thereof.

Posted
On Amazon this DVD costs nearly $50, which, perhaps, is why it hasn't been selling particularly well. However, at Berkshire Record Outlet it's available for $14. If you're interested, search for 'Don Quixote' under DVDs or enter product number 140741 under BRO code. This appears to be the actual Bel Air Classiques DVD rather than a pirate thereof.

Berkshire's bargains are usually on the up-and-up. The specialize in overstocks and cutouts. So if the Don Quixote isn't selling well at that rather high price

without real internationally known names, there may well be a lot of inventory hanging around. Therefore we have a "buyer's opportunity".

You do have to read the details because they sometimes do have pirates, but they are pretty good about the descriptions and if they say that the DVD is a Bel Air Classiques release, it most probably is. If it was a knock off, the pirate's ( and they DO sometimes have these) name would usually be listed as the release company.

Note, although I've never seen this on DVDs, occasionally CDs have a hole or notch punched in the case, not affecting the actual media itself. These are discountinued items, or "cutouts", hence the name.

I've spent $$$$$$$$$$$$$ over the years with this outfit and have usually been satisfied.

Posted
without real internationally known names...

...arguable-(If I may...). I would go more for the "relative nationally unknown" title-( in reference to the lack of reciprocal relationship Cuban company/American audience. (E.g- the constant European/South American touring fact etc...)

Posted
without real internationally known names...

...arguable-(If I may...). I would go more for the "relative nationally unknown" title-( in reference to the lack of reciprocal relationship Cuban company/American audience. (E.g- the constant European/South American touring fact etc...)

Well, I guess it's all on your point of view.

Let me add another factor here. Personally, having seen a lot of clips with Valdes, I wouldn't buy this disc even a cheap price. It's possible a lot of other potential buyers are turned off not only by the hefty list price but also her way of performing. Again this is also very much matter of both individual taste and expectations

Posted
It's possible a lot of other potential buyers are turned off not only by the hefty list price but also her way of performing.

...or "On"

it's all on your point of view.

...right.

Posted
Berkshire's bargains are usually on the up-and-up. The specialize in overstocks and cutouts. So if the Don Quixote isn't selling well at that rather high price

without real internationally known names, there may well be a lot of inventory hanging around. Therefore we have a "buyer's opportunity".

You do have to be prepared, though, to find that the disk for which you paid $25-40 is selling there for $13.99, and is the first disk on the search results list.

Posted
It's possible a lot of other potential buyers are turned off not only by the hefty list price but also her way of performing.

...or "On"

it's all on your point of view.

...right.

(Edited to add: I was actually trying to focus more on the "international" concept rather than personal tastes on particular dancers). In the latter, of course well all know how wide can the spectrum be, ranging from divergences about Maria Tallchief-(as we've seen recently)- to Miss Valdes-(or Somova),

Posted
In the latter, of course well all know how wide can the spectrum be, ranging from divergences about Maria Tallchief-(as we've seen recently)- to Miss Valdes-(or Somova),

Cristian, you may have hit on something here. Maybe Valdes is the cuban Somova...one shows off her extensions whenever she can and the other shows off her balances!

Posted
You do have to be prepared, though, to find that the disk for which you paid $25-40 is selling there for $13.99, and is the first disk on the search results list.

That's true. That has an "ouch" factor built into it.

I didn't think of this until this morning but with consumer spending down so significantly, I would guess there may be a lot more in the way of overstocks and so Berkshire may have a lot more bargains in the coming months. Those that have the cash may see a lot of great deals.

But there are always bargains on this site. I've shopped there for many years, even going back to the pre-Interent days

where they would mail out a paper catalog. I never really had the patience to sift through several hundred pages of small type, the online version with all those handy search options has proved MUCH more damaging to my budget.

Posted
Cristian, you may have hit on something here. Maybe Valdes is the cuban Somova...one shows off her extensions whenever she can and the other shows off her balances!

I'll take Valdes' balances over Somova's extensions. Just based on the few clips I've seen of Viengsay, she is certainly lacking in some areas and it's easy to understand how someone wouldn't like her performance style, but I can't help but be amazed by what she's capable of. :(

Posted
Cristian, you may have hit on something here. Maybe Valdes is the cuban Somova...one shows off her extensions whenever she can and the other shows off her balances!

Oh, no...ha,ha :( ...nooo...not at all, Richard! . Somova is ALL about extensions...Valdes, on the contrary, has extensions, AND ballon, AND a powerful jump, AND those sissonnes cambres, AND the fouetees, AND DUENDE, and, and, and...

Posted
You do have to be prepared, though, to find that the disk for which you paid $25-40 is selling there for $13.99

Then perhaps this isn't the best time to mention that the DVDs of Roland Petit's Proust [140747] and Pique Dame [140746], and the Mariinsky New Year's gala that features the third act of the reconstructed Sleeping Beauty [140748] are available through BRO as well.

Bel Air Classiques really ought to reconsider their sky-high prices to prevent their disks from ending up among the overstocks, especially, as richard53dog points out, in this day and age.

Posted
and the Mariinsky New Year's gala that features the third act of the reconstructed Sleeping Beauty [140748] are available through BRO as well.

I would advise anyone who is interested in seeing the reconstruction to get this DVD from BRO while it is available. (Even if I did pay retail :( )

Posted

On Berkshire Record Outlet if it says "Limited-pressing DVD-R) does that mean it is a pirate copy? In your experience is the quality usually there? Some of the ballets available here are not available elsewhere on dvd. For example:

Label: Encore

Shostakovich, 'The Age of Gold' Ballet. (Natalya Bessmernova, Irek Mukhanedrov, Gediminas Taranda, Tatyana Golikova. Bolshoi Ballet/ Alexander Lavrenyuk. Choreographed by Yuri Grigorovich. PLEASE NOTE: Limited-pressing DVD-R)

Posted
On Berkshire Record Outlet if it says "Limited-pressing DVD-R) does that mean it is a pirate copy? In your experience is the quality usually there?

Yes, those are the pirates, and I expect their quality can vary greatly.

Posted
On Berkshire Record Outlet if it says "Limited-pressing DVD-R) does that mean it is a pirate copy? In your experience is the quality usually there?

Yes, those are the pirates, and I expect their quality can vary greatly.

The Encore DVDs are definitely pirates. Not in the sense that they are knockoffs of the commercially released discs of the Scala SL or the POB Bayadere but they are derived from a recording made of what was possibly a telecast of those (or similar) performances.

And yes, "Limited-pressing DVD-R" is a good flag, as is the corresponding CD-R tag for audio recordings. Those DVDR and CDR recordings are just SO temperamental.

I bought a number of Encore discs (mostly opera but also the odd ballet disc such as the Paquita pas) and the quality is generally not too good. Where there is an alternative on another label, I would go with that even at a higher cost. Where Encore is the only source, well I guess you just have to take your chances . A few of the recordings I bought later came out in MUCH better commercial release but on the other hand, some of the others never did and I'm still glad I have the scrappy Encore versions.

Posted
I bought a number of Encore discs (mostly opera but also the odd ballet disc such as the Paquita pas) and the quality is generally not too good. Where there is an alternative on another label, I would go with that even at a higher cost. Where Encore is the only source, well I guess you just have to take your chances . A few of the recordings I bought later came out in MUCH better commercial release but on the other hand, some of the others never did and I'm still glad I have the scrappy Encore versions.

The Paquita with Zelensky doesn't seem to be available anywhere else. What is on the disk? I presume it isn't the whole ballet.

Thanks so much for the information about this site!

Posted
The Paquita with Zelensky doesn't seem to be available anywhere else.

I believe this refers to the grand pas, led by Makhalina and Zelensky, which is included on the Kirov Classics DVD. The Amazon product number is B00006G8HI.

http://estore.websitepros.com/1652646/Detail.bok?no=578

Yes, you are correct. I had the Kirov Classic disc at one time and was a bit frustrated when I bought the Encore DVD and found that it was the same sequence

I had on the earlier disc (which also had much more material). So for anyone that wants the Paquita, go for the disc in the link above. I was hoping, maybe unrealistically, that the Encore disc was somehow the full-length ballet.

I have to admit I sold that Kirov Classic disc though. It has a lot of material on it but it was filmed without an audience and has an odd, sort of floaty, disconnected atmosphere about it. And the picture is rather soft grained, a bit gauzy almost.

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