Digital seasons and pay per view 2022-23

[volcanohunter]

I will be grateful to everyone who posts information about digital ballet seasons and pay-per-view offerings. Unfortunately I tend to miss many of them.

The recent Nureyev gala from London is available on Marquee TV until September 26th for £/€/$9.99. (Not a great deal for Britons, I must say.)

https://www.marquee.tv/nureyev

On October 18th the Australian Ballet will livestream Cranko's Romeo and Juliet. This is remarkable in itself because for decades the Cranky Boys didn't allow any company other than the Stuttgart Ballet to broadcast Cranko's works or tour them internationally.

7:15 pm AEST isn't a convenient start time for many abroad, but the stream will be available for 48 hours and costs $25 AUD, a little less than $17 USD.

https://my.australianballet.com.au/15409/15410

Edited September 17, 2022 by volcanohunter

[Helene]

Pacific Northwest Ballet is offering both digital-only subscriptions and single digital tickets for each rep for season and also an add-on Nutcracker digital ticket.  The streams are available after the rep closes, from Thursday to the following Monday on demand.

For digital-only subs -- not including Nutcracker

https://www.pnb.org/season/subscriptions/

For single digital tickets for the reps:

Rep 1: Allegro Brilliante (Balanchine), Wartime Elegie (Ratmansky, World Premiere), Carmina Burana (K. Stowell)

https://www.pnb.org/season/carmina-burana/

Rep 2: Rhoden World Premiere, Duo Concertante (Balanchine), The Seasons' Canon (Pite)

https://www.pnb.org/season/seasons-canon/

Nutcracker:

https://www.pnb.org/nutcracker/

Rep 3: Giselle

https://www.pnb.org/season/giselle/

Rep 4: Wonderland (Saunders), Alejandro Cerrudo World Premiere, Jessica Lang World Premiere

https://www.pnb.org/season/boundless/

Rep 5: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Balanchine)

https://www.pnb.org/season/midsummer-nights-dream/

Rep 6: Annabelle Lopez Ochoa World Premiere, The Veil Between Worlds (Liang), Kiyon Ross World Premiere

https://www.pnb.org/season/worlds-to-come/

 

[pherank]

Hooray for PNB. I wish certain other companies would get their collective acts together and offer the same.

[volcanohunter]

8 hours ago, Helene said:

Pacific Northwest Ballet is offering both digital-only subscriptions and single digital tickets for each rep for season and also an add-on Nutcracker digital ticket.  The streams are available after the rep closes, from Thursday to the following Monday on demand.

Thank you! I've been hoping to see PNB's Giselle for years.

[California]

8 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

On October 18th the Australian Ballet will livestream Cranko's Romeo and Juliet. This is remarkable in itself because for decades the Cranky Boys didn't allow any company other than the Stuttgart Ballet to broadcast Cranko's works or tour them internationally.

7:15 pm AEST isn't a convenient start time for many abroad, but the stream will be available for 48 hours and costs $25 AUD, a little less than $17 USD.

https://my.australianballet.com.au/15409/15410

If you follow Hallberg on Twitter, you'll remember that last year he was looking for a recording of the Cranko R&J, which had just been released on DVD (as was Onegin). Perhaps he just wanted something different from the MacMillan version most companies use.

Edited September 18, 2022 by California

[California]

8 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

The recent Nureyev gala from London is available on Marquee TV until September 26th for £/€/$9.99. (Not a great deal for Britons, I must say.)

https://www.marquee.tv/nureyev

Not a great deal in the US either and I'm really annoyed that it is not included in my annual subscription to Marquee. I have to pay extra, too.

Having seen this in the theater last Monday, I can't really recommend it. 

[volcanohunter]

3 minutes ago, California said:

Not a great deal in the US either and I'm really annoyed that it is not included in my annual subscription to Marquee. I have to pay extra, too.

That really is a shabby way to treat subscribers.

8 minutes ago, California said:

If you follow Hallberg on Twitter, you'll remember that last year he was looking for a recording of the Cranko R&J, which had just been released on DVD (as was Onegin). Perhaps he just wanted something different from the MacMillan version most companies use.

Australian Ballet has a long history with Cranko's version, and it's infinitely preferable to the Graeme Murphy version it performed for a while. 

The appearance of those two DVDs (neither of which I think is very good) does seem to have changed the position of the Cranko estate and taken the chains off other companies. In 2020 both the Bolshoi and La Scala were scheduled to take Onegin on foreign tours, but the Sultan of Oman died, and then came Covid-19, so neither of those tours took place.

[Helene]

Doug Fullington completed his PhD and doesn't work full time for PNB now, but I hope they bring him back for "Giselle".  I also don't see an audit trail for whether the Giselle Symposium at the University of Washington, which was scheduled for the 2020 Giselle revival, sadly cancelled because of Covid, ever took place, whether live or via Zoom, and I don't see mention of a February 2023 Symposium.

Dancers who performed name roles in 2014 (per the published cast lists from the time) and who are still in the company aren't that many:  

• Giselle-Lesley Rausch
• Hilarion-James Yoichi Moore
• Berthe-Elle Macy
• Peasant Pas (not with each other)-Leta Biasucci, James Moore
• Moyna-Elizabeth Murphy
• An Old Man-Ezra Thomson, Ryan Cardea

Also, Lucien Postlewaite danced Albrecht in 2011.   

Only two corps members, Christian Poppe and Ryan Cardea, were in the company in 2014, the second and last time the ballet was performed here, although there may be corps women who were in the school and danced Wilis then.  I'm not sure how much the company rehearsed or coached it for the cancelled April 2020 performances, since there was a (cancelled) mixed rep program in between Romeo et Juliette (February) and Giselle (April), but unlike Swan Lake or A Midsummer Night's Dream, I don't know how much institutional memory there is, and it would be sad if the details were lost.

[doug]

I'll be involved with PNB's revival of Giselle in February. Although we aren't able to present the symposium we had planned in 2020, Marian Smith and I will join Peter Boal for a public interview before dress rehearsal. Marian and I have written a book (titled Five Ballets from Paris and St. Petersburg) that includes two chapters on Giselle and will be published by Oxford University Press next year. We also are completing a critical edition of the score of Giselle, which will be published by Barenreiter in 2023 in both print and digital versions.

[Helene]

    

[volcanohunter]

On 9/17/2022 at 5:12 PM, volcanohunter said:

On October 18th the Australian Ballet will livestream Cranko's Romeo and Juliet. This is remarkable in itself because for decades the Cranky Boys didn't allow any company other than the Stuttgart Ballet to broadcast Cranko's works or tour them internationally.

7:15 pm AEST isn't a convenient start time for many abroad, but the stream will be available for 48 hours and costs $25 AUD, a little less than $17 USD.

https://my.australianballet.com.au/15409/15410

The cast of Australian Ballet's Romeo and Juliet is scheduled to include Sharni Spencer as Juliet, Callum Linnane as Romeo, Brett Chynoweth as Mercutio, Adam Bull as Tybalt and Cameron Holmes as Benvolio.

[volcanohunter]

On 9/17/2022 at 5:12 PM, volcanohunter said:

On October 18th the Australian Ballet will livestream Cranko's Romeo and Juliet. This is remarkable in itself because for decades the Cranky Boys didn't allow any company other than the Stuttgart Ballet to broadcast Cranko's works or tour them internationally.

7:15 pm AEST isn't a convenient start time for many abroad, but the stream will be available for 48 hours and costs $25 AUD, a little less than $17 USD.

https://my.australianballet.com.au/15409/15410

This is a very fine performance, certainly superior to the Stuttgart DVD (which was a big disappointment).

The only thing I'd note is that there were a lot of wide shots, which probably would have worked better on a movie screen or if I'd been sitting at a computer. But watching on a decent-sized TV set about 15 feet away, I wished there had been more of the closer shots.

[volcanohunter]

A reminder that the Pacific Northwest Ballet stream of Giselle is available until 20 February. The cost is $35.

https://order.pnb.org/23-digital/giselle

[volcanohunter]

Today, March 1st, at 19:45 CET (1:45 pm Eastern), La Scala Ballet will stream Manuel Legris' production of Le Corsaire. The cost is €9.90 for HD and €11.90 for Ultra HD. The stream will be available for a week, and each rental has a 72-hour viewing window.

https://lascala.tv/en

Streams of Giselle, Mauro Bigonzetti's Madina and Legris' Sylvia are also available to rent for €4.90.

P.S. I have to wonder how Legris is spending the company's money. He replaced the Makarova Bayadère with the Nureyev production. Now he has replaced the (imperfect) Holmes Corsaire with his own (imperfect) production. There's no compelling reason to do this, but I suppose he earns staging and choreographer fees. 

Edited March 2, 2023 by volcanohunter

[volcanohunter]

The Australian Ballet will livestream the Nureyev production of Don Quixote on Friday, March 24th at 7:15 pm AEST (4:15 am Eastern). The price is $29 AUD (about $19 USD), and the viewing window lasts 14 days. The scheduled cast includes Ako Kondo and Chengwu Guo.

https://my.australianballet.com.au/17991/17992 

https://australianballet.com.au/performances/don-quixote/melbourne

[California]

13 hours ago, volcanohunter said:

The Australian Ballet will livestream the Nureyev production of Don Quixote on Friday, March 24th at 7:15 pm AEST (4:15 am Eastern). The price is $29 AUD (about $19 USD), and the viewing window lasts 14 days. The scheduled cast includes Ako Kondo and Chengwu Guo.

https://my.australianballet.com.au/17991/17992 

https://australianballet.com.au/performances/don-quixote/melbourne

I would be much more interested in this livestream if it included Daniil Simkin, who is doing three performances in Australia. He was interviewed on Australian TV (as per his Instagram) and talked about how different it is from the other versions he has performed. I doubt we'll have another opportunity to see him in the Nureyev version. I'm guessing, though, that Australian audiences might have resented using the livestream opportunity to showcase a visitor instead of their own talents. 

[volcanohunter]

I probably would have boycotted a livestream featuring a guest artist, to be honest. It's a common enough practice in the provinces, in Italy and in Japan (although Covid-19 seems to have imposed self-sufficiency on Japanese troupes). But if a company's own dancers are capable of performing principal roles, I take a dim view of guest stars.

But for what it's worth, I've watched Guo during World Ballet Day streams and in a cinema screening of Coppélia, and he is no slouch technically. He can do 540s with the best of them. (I also saw him in Ratmansky's Cinderella, but the he couldn't have done anything especially spectacular in Jérôme Kaplan's boxy suit and voluminous trench coat.)

Edited March 22, 2023 by volcanohunter

[volcanohunter]

Since April 29th is International Dance Day, it seems a good time to watch Pacific Northwest Ballet's stream of Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which will be available until May 1st. The cost is $35.

https://www.pnb.org/season/midsummer-nights-dream/

[Helene]

If you scroll to the bottom of the link, casting is up, and the stream cast shoudl be the one from Opening Night, Friday, April 14 at 7:30 PM.

Lesley Rausch, who dances the Divertissement with Dylan Wald, is retiring at the end of this season.

[sandik]

On 9/17/2022 at 4:12 PM, volcanohunter said:

On October 18th the Australian Ballet will livestream Cranko's Romeo and Juliet. This is remarkable in itself because for decades the Cranky Boys didn't allow any company other than the Stuttgart Ballet to broadcast Cranko's works or tour them internationally.

7:15 pm AEST isn't a convenient start time for many abroad, but the stream will be available for 48 hours and costs $25 AUD, a little less than $17 USD.

https://my.australianballet.com.au/15409/15410

The impression I get is that many companies and rights holders were justifiably worried at the beginning of the pandemic shutdowns -- no one knew how long those restrictions would be in force, and if audiences would drift away to other interests.  Vaults all over the place that had previously been shut tight were opened up, and all kinds of content was streamed, often for free.  I saw things I had only ever read about -- not to quote a popular movie, but I saw a lot of dead people dance.  And I was thrilled.

People who held the rights to work were willing to let things go in order to keep some kind of dance available to audiences -- a very generous response as well as a smart understanding of the issues involved.  My concerns now are that many of these people and institutions are moving back to the old "be here or don't see it" model -- I can understand their desire to work in an environment they understand, but I think they are missing the larger lesson.  At a recent Q&A, Peter Boal at Pacific Northwest Ballet said that while they originally offered streaming in order to keep contact with their local audiences, they realized later how much broader that digital audience would become -- right now, they have digital subscribers in all 50 states, and in multiple other countries.  I think that's a really good thing for the company, and in the long run, a really good thing for the art form.

One anecdote -- at that Q&A, I sat next to a young woman who is originally from the UK, and had become interested in PNB after seeing a YouTube video of Carrie Imler (I think probably the infamous fouette video!), and so managed to watch the livestream of her retirement performance from her home in Brighton.  Since then, she's come to the US for grad school, and flew from Vermont to Seattle in order to see the recent performances of Midsummer Night's Dream.  Not everyone in the digital audience has such an impressive story, but there we are, you just don't know who's going to see your work.

[volcanohunter]

On 4/29/2023 at 11:38 AM, sandik said:

At a recent Q&A, Peter Boal at Pacific Northwest Ballet said that while they originally offered streaming in order to keep contact with their local audiences, they realized later how much broader that digital audience would become -- right now, they have digital subscribers in all 50 states, and in multiple other countries.  I think that's a really good thing for the company, and in the long run, a really good thing for the art form.

I hope Pacific Northwest Ballet sticks with streamed seasons, because as far as I can tell, it and Australian Ballet are among the few companies still offering PPV streams. La Scala periodically offers PPV streams, but ballets are few and far between. The Paris Opera offers live PPVs, but its archive is available only by subscription.

The Paris Opera and the Royal Opera House have created their own streaming sites, but the libraries aren't deep enough to warrant a monthly subscription. ROH Stream includes "over 45" opera and ballet streams, Paris Opera Play has a catalogue of 24 ballets, 28 operas and 27 concerts (but the concert repertoire in particular is readily available in HD on YouTube by other orchestras). The POP subscription includes the livestreams. If they were to post their entire archive, I'd be there in a second.

I fault myself for not always being aware of the digital seasons that were being offered a couple of years ago, because it was a question of using it or losing it.

Edited April 30, 2023 by volcanohunter

[Helene]

PNB is continuing for at least one more year.  For 2023-24, full season subscribers can add on the digital subscription for $30.  (I'm not sure about partial season subscribers.)  There is also a stand-alone digital subscription and per performance streams.

For me the 99GBP yearly subscription to the Royal Opera House is worth it for the operas.  (I wouldn't do it just for the Royal Ballet.) I know the catalog is not very deep, but 99GPB is like 4-5 Met Live in HD tickets, and I'm not going into movie theaters any time soon.

[volcanohunter]

It occurred to me that I ought to have posted those links.

ROH Stream: https://www.roh.org.uk/stream/

Paris Opera Play: https://play.operadeparis.fr/en

La Scala TV: https://lascala.tv/en/

Although I am not a frequent Met Live in HD viewer, the screenings I attended within the last year had tiny audiences compared to what they were a decade ago. Now they're like the ballet-in-cinema audiences of yore.  

[volcanohunter]

23 hours ago, Helene said:

For me the 99GBP yearly subscription to the Royal Opera House is worth it for the operas.  (I wouldn't do it just for the Royal Ballet.)

Is a list of the complete catalog available? A list of the most popular streams doesn't necessarily reveal a lot, especially for a contrarian like me.

[Helene]

I signed up because of a specific opera I wanted to see, so I didn't really look for a complete catalog.   Once I was in, I was prompted with a list of performances.  They're in categories, but can appear in more than one category.