California Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 This is likely to get yanked by a certain Trust almost immediately. Take a look before it's gone: PS: As I've said many times before, I'd happily pay a fair price to buy this one commercially, or perhaps as a download from ITunes. Link to comment
GianninaM Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 What a treat indeed! Thanks so much for the heads-up, California. Giannina Link to comment
aurora Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 thank you! this is one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. It's really stupendous Link to comment
Ray Posted October 17, 2011 Share Posted October 17, 2011 It's criminal that there's not a remastered version of this commercially available. THANK YOU for posting the link! Link to comment
atm711 Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 It is truly a crime it has not been cleaned up and released commercially. There is so much more on that tape----Sylphides with D'Antuono and Nagy, Don Q with Makarova and Bujones and Firebird with Cynthia Gregory, plus interviews with Bruhn, Makarova, Bujones and Kirkland. At the very least ABT could revive T&V in place of a "new" ballet---they certainly have the dancers for it. Link to comment
bart Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Wow. Wow. Wow. This unnamed work, which I did not see, is such a gift. As is the interview with GK. My favorite part of that is K's response to the question: Is there a difference in dancing a pure dance ballet like this and a ballet with a plot.: The steps become the character. They have to speak for the character. A couple of times she loses her breath while talking (I would have been gasping on the floor after such a performance) but her grace, intelligence and way with words are impressive. I happen to remember watching this this performance on tv, though I seem to have lost the videotape that I am almost certain I made at the time. The clarity of what the camera allows us to see -- and the willingness of the director to allow it to stay still so that those remarkable patterns become etched against the black background -- make up for the fuzziness of the print. Link to comment
vipa Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Thank you. I love that ballet - always a treat to see. Kirkland did some wonderful things with phrasing but for me it a performance to be appreciated more than loved. The is a certain lack of joy to the performance that leaves me cold. Link to comment
vrsfanatic Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Thank you. So inspirational and lovely! Link to comment
Jayne Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 yum! Like eating a box of gourmet chocolate truffles. !Delicioso! Link to comment
Paul Parish Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 o THANK YOU, California. This is a red-letter day, Christmas and easter and Pentecost rolled into one., This is one of the great performances of all time. There is WAY too little Kirkland on video. I love the interview: How do you feel after dancing something like that? So relieved that it's over!. Honestly, she's being honest. There are SO MANY STEPS! It is SO HARD!!!!! Lorena Feijoo once told me that dancing Ballo della Regina, she could not say why she danced it. "Why not SHOOT myself?" It is SO hard to move like that and breathe. As she says, she now (in 1971) dances it "more naturally" -- for "even a princess is just a princess" Link to comment
sandik Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Thank you so much for posting this -- I haven't seen it in quite awhile and this was such a treat! Link to comment
MakarovaFan Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Wow, what a treat! Dance in America back in the good old days. Thanks so much for sharing this prized clip with us. Gelsey was gorgeous. Link to comment
Mme. Hermine Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Original broadcast date May 17, 1978. Link to comment
Natalia Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 What a TREAT to see the interview portion at the end! The dancing portion has been "around" -- and, yes, I too would love a pristene commercial DVD someday -- but I'd never seen the intermission interview since '78. What a beauty is Ms Kirkland; everyone's visual image of the perfect Ballerina Face! Link to comment
bart Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Wow, what a treat! Dance in America back in the good old days. I share your feelings about the "good old days." Just wanted to make a minor correction -- this was a Live from Lincoln Center presentation. Link to comment
EricHG31 Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 Wonderful! And back when they didn't try to film ballet with as many cuts and weird angles as possible (well some of those Soviet theatrical ballet films have some odd camerawork, but...) Sadly, because of how Live from Lincoln Center works, a DVD release is extremely unlikely. The contracts they do with the performers and producers only allows one or two repeat airings within a certain time frame, and no DVD/Video release (I knwo there are a lot of things, includinga lot of great musical theatre productions, I'd love to have). A few years back for a Live from Lincoln Center anniversary, PBS released a press statement that they WERE working around this and many of the most classic performances would be released on DVD--but I've heard absolutely nothing else about that. (I believe the old Dance in America series and Gret Performances performances *can* be released on DVD, though only some seem to get a release). Link to comment
California Posted October 18, 2011 Author Share Posted October 18, 2011 Sadly, because of how Live from Lincoln Center works, a DVD release is extremely unlikely. The contracts they do with the performers and producers only allows one or two repeat airings within a certain time frame, and no DVD/Video release (I knwo there are a lot of things, includinga lot of great musical theatre productions, I'd love to have). A few years back for a Live from Lincoln Center anniversary, PBS released a press statement that they WERE working around this and many of the most classic performances would be released on DVD--but I've heard absolutely nothing else about that. (I believe the old Dance in America series and Gret Performances performances *can* be released on DVD, though only some seem to get a release). A good example of a release from an old Live from Lincoln Center is the ABT Giselle with Baryshnikov and Makarova. The original broadcast was on June 2, 1977 (rebroadcast just once a few days later). I'm looking at my VHS tape and it has a 1988 copyright by Lincoln Center; that seems about when it was finally released. I don't believe it was ever released on DVD, but at least they got the VHS out. It must have taken a lot of time to go back and get all the needed releases, but this shows it can be done. I had always understood that the original contracts with performers in that era didn't anticipate the resale market. I've just assumed that the program that included T&V in 1978 wasn't as promising commercially. But it could be released alone as an iTunes download, once they got the releases. I still hope they manage that some day. Link to comment
EricHG31 Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 I think you're right--and obviously as you say, it *can* be done, but I suppose PBS and whoever they did the release with would have to decide that it was worth the effort. I know more about the lagalities around musical theatre, bu for instqance the other year they filmed live the recent Broadway revival of South pacific, and a few years before that A Light in the Piazza. There was some interest in getting these released on DVD (the way past PBS live tapings of musicals--like several Sondheim shows--) but apparently it would have made the actual filming cost significantly more. But I do hope more of this stuff does get a release--that press release implying a bunch of "classic" broadcasts would, gave me hope, even if nothing more has been said. Link to comment
Kathleen O'Connell Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Sadly, because of how Live from Lincoln Center works, a DVD release is extremely unlikely. The contracts they do with the performers and producers only allows one or two repeat airings within a certain time frame, and no DVD/Video release (I knwo there are a lot of things, includinga lot of great musical theatre productions, I'd love to have). A few years back for a Live from Lincoln Center anniversary, PBS released a press statement that they WERE working around this and many of the most classic performances would be released on DVD--but I've heard absolutely nothing else about that. (I believe the old Dance in America series and Gret Performances performances *can* be released on DVD, though only some seem to get a release). A good example of a release from an old Live from Lincoln Center is the ABT Giselle with Baryshnikov and Makarova. The original broadcast was on June 2, 1977 (rebroadcast just once a few days later). I'm looking at my VHS tape and it has a 1988 copyright by Lincoln Center; that seems about when it was finally released. I don't believe it was ever released on DVD, but at least they got the VHS out. It must have taken a lot of time to go back and get all the needed releases, but this shows it can be done. I had always understood that the original contracts with performers in that era didn't anticipate the resale market. I've just assumed that the program that included T&V in 1978 wasn't as promising commercially. But it could be released alone as an iTunes download, once they got the releases. I still hope they manage that some day. Sigh. No one makes any money when stuff moulders in the vaults. I can understand the reluctance to go through the effort and expense of digitizing and releasing analog media when physical distribution is involved -- I assume that there's the real risk that the costs involved wouldn't be recouped. But it seems to me that digital distribution changes the value proposition. For one (obvious) thing, the cost of making, storing, and shipping disks can be eliminated. But equally as important, programs can be sold on a pay-per-view basis (via iTunes, Amazon, Google, whatever) and thus priced more attractively. Many members of this list might be willing to pony up $20+ for a DVD of Kirkland dancing T&V, but a lot of people wouldn't be. They might be willing to pay $2.99 however to check it out once, however. I know I'd pay $2.99 to check out a choreographer, company, or dancer I didn't know, but I probably wouldn't part with $20 for the privilege. Also, when it's easier to steal something than it is to buy it at a fair price, people are going to steal it. If they haven't done so already, dance and opera fans are going to start making their hoards of VCR'd and DVR'd performances available via torrent sites like The Pirate Bay where take-down notices can be cheerfully ignored. It would be preposterously easy to download that T&V performance from YouTube (where take-down notices do mean something) and get it out there via a peer-to-peer file sharing protocol like BitTorrent. As iTunes, Amazon, and NetFlix have demonstrated, people will pay to stream stuff if it's easy and (relatively) inexpensive to do so, even if they can find it for free elsewhere. Link to comment
California Posted October 19, 2011 Author Share Posted October 19, 2011 I do think it's important for all the artists (and the companies and other support personnel) to get fair compensation for their work. Maximmizing distribution and revenue streams through new technologies (whether iTunes downloads or other techniques) needs to be pursued aggressively to make financing of the arts sustainable in the future. In countries that respect our copyright treaties, companies like YouTube actually seem to try to respect requests to remove copyrighted material. But not all countries honor those copyright laws. This Chinese site has had this one posted for at least six months now, and I just have to assume that the Trust has tried and failed to get it taken down: http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/AnusOmR8-UM/#. This is yet another classic work I'd gladly pay a fair price to own legitimately. I wish rights owners would try harder to move into the digital age to sell their wares for a fair price than just trying (and failing) to get all the illegal postings removed. It's worth remembering that the Hollywood film industry in the 70s tried hard to block videotape technology, as they feared it would destroy their business. Then they woke up and realized that they could actually sell their libraries of films, old and new, and make money through VHS sales. They created a major new revenue stream, even with the piracy that goes on in that industry. The performing arts need to wake up to exploiting new technologies, too. Some of that is happening, but the most precious libraries of classic performances are still locked up in a different mindset. Link to comment
EricHG31 Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Kathleen, I completely agree with you--and with digital distribution now such a strong option, it's particularly frustrating. I think the main concern with Live from Lincoln Center is that they are filmed with the specific deal that they'll have limited repeats (I read an article that at least for current titles, eahch PBS could air an encore showing once only, and only during a certain frame of time from the recording), and artist compenasation. I know more about the concerns when they've filmed plays or musicals, where it all is connected to the unions (for a while there was a DVD release series that would collect all the musical number performances from the Tony Awards together--they got to about three volumes and then a group of actors, together with the union, protested saying when they originally were paid to perform on the award show, they were told it was a one showing only thing, and demanding some sort of agreement would be made where they'd get some money from the DVDs. Which is fair enough, but really just killed the whole project as the small label handling them didn't have close to the right budget--it became quite a fiasco). I didn't realize that the Balanchine Trust was so careful to look for his work online and remove it--interesting, although not all that surprising. As per the announcement of them working out how to get some of these things released, I found the original message I had saved from back in 2009, but only seemed to btoehr saving this brief bit: [the following comes from the 8 page release of about Lincoln Center's 50th Anniversay celebrations]: <<Additional 50th Anniversary Initiatives Live From Lincoln Center May 2009-May 2010 Performances by Leontyne Price, Joan Sutherland, Beverly Sills, and hundreds of other artists who appeared on the country’s only live performing arts series, Live From Lincoln Center, will now be available to the public through a worldwide licensing arrangement with EuroArts/Medici. Over the next decade, these ‘hidden treasures’ from Live From Lincoln Center’s vast programming library, will be offered globally on DVDs, downloads, streaming video, broadcast, and other digital media. The nationally televised series in 2009-2010 will change its name to Live From “the 50th Anniversary of” Lincoln Center to highlight the anniversary.>> Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 I have that video... Link to comment
Bradan Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 Thanks for this! Hopefully there will be some footage of Kirkland dancing with Baryshnikov among the 650 tapes he has just donated to the NYPL ... Link to comment
Anthony_NYC Posted October 19, 2011 Share Posted October 19, 2011 I didn't remember how fast this performance is! Years ago, I watched this in New York Public's Dance Collection. After Kirkland's variation before the pas de deux, there was a live ovation--seven or eight young dance students (I assume) had congregated behind me and were applauding. One of them couldn't restrain himself: "That was gorgeous!" he cried, prompting a shush from the librarian. Link to comment
cubanmiamiboy Posted October 20, 2011 Share Posted October 20, 2011 Can we compare...? I just wish the ballet could be danced again with the right speed, attack and sharpness. I would love to see either Valdes or Osipova in the role. Jeanette Delgado from here was very close to the ideal. Miami City Ballet Tulsa Ballet Semperoper Ballet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGDC5ZA0vRI&NR=1 Het Nationale Ballet Link to comment
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