David

Indeed - I was really looking forward to that. I've no idea where and when I shall get my next Ring fix now.

And Lo - it has appeared on Freesat - but I'm still tryingto find it on Freeview!

Yes me too - the same problem, the same frustration. Not too bothered coz I have the Ashton pairing on blu-ray and, as Janine says, nothing now on the dance front till the Australian Ballet's Cinderella. Meanwhile we have 112 episodes of Tales of the Unexpected from the 80s to look forward to as part of their "dedication to highbrow arts" (!!!!!) which I shall probably dip into, if only to re-visit familiar faces. To be fair, they are airing the ENO open-air Boheme and a couple of orchestral concerts that I wouldn't want to miss. Also horray, hooray, the BBC has promised an airing of Bourne's Red Shoes as part of their Culture in Quarantine programmme which really pleases me as I've been waiting for yonks to see it again. Not till after the re-scheduled cinema showing on 30th Sept though - so I'm thinking could this be the BBC Xmas Day ballet offering?

I don't see anything here that isn't on the recording I took of the BBC4 airing. I suppose the extracts might be longer on the disk. Hopefully, as Alison suggesed above, someonewill report back in due course.

Sorry oncnp - I missed that you had already responded fully!

"Essential Royal Ballet" is the BBC programme introduced by Katie Derham, aired not so long ago. Basically, it was a compilataion of extracts taken from recordings already available on DVD/Blu-Ray and I guess many of us will have recorded it? This from the blurb: "A SPECIAL FEATURE-LENGTH PROGRAMME TAKING YOU TO THE HEART OF THE ROYAL BALLET. Katie Derham introduces highlights from the past ten years at the Royal Ballet, weaving the history of ballet through carefully curated excerpts from the past decade, and goes behind the scenes to see what it takes to be a dancer in the company of The Royal Ballet as they prepare to take to the stage. With stunning solos, passionate pas de deux and jaw-dropping numbers for the corps de ballet, it is a chance to see your favourite dancers up close, including Carlos Acosta, Marianela Nuñez, Natalia Osipova and Steven McRae, alongside rising stars like Francesca Hayward and Matthew Ball, who will introduce their favourite ballets and share stories of their life on the stage. The ballets featured include the classics Giselle, La Bayadere, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker while the 20th-century heritage of The Royal Ballet is explored in works by Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan. The contemporary life of the company is showcased in works by Christopher Wheeldon and Wayne McGregor. This one has now been. listed on Amazon

I had exactly the same problem with Opus Arte’s release of the Glyndebourne revival of Melly Still’s wonderful production of Rusalka a couple of weeks back. It wasn’t shown on Amazon and in fact still isn’t – I had to go elsewhere to get my blu-ray copy. I saw the Opus Arte issue of Coppelia listed on Presto Classical and have ordered my copy there: https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/8815710--delibes-coppelia They have both the DVD and Blu-Ray – and also the Opus Arte release of Essential Royal Ballet.

I see Opus Arte will be releasing the Nunez/Muntagirov Coppelia on 23rd Oct; also the Essential Ballet programme originally shown on BBC on 25th Sept.

Hopefully, thereafter we may expect the long-awaited DVD & Blu-ray releases!

Thank you for this - I would not have picked it up if you had not pointed me to it. I really enjoyed the opening night and am looking forward to the other programmes.

There is still hope that the three-week Mariinsky Residency at the ROH this time next year can still go ahead?

And the Mariinsky production of The Little Humpbacked Horse with Alina Somova and Vladimir Shklyarov came back up on You Tube yest. and is still available. I'm watching it now.

I see a new production of Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake is due for release in a couple of days time. Hadn't seen that coming. But still no news of a release for The Red Shoes!!!

During the past four months I have regularly watched ballet and opera streamingsof productions by the three main Russian companies - Bolshoi ((20), Mariinsky (20), Perm (8) all high quality transmissions, described as HD, apparently by the companies concerned. If not released officially, I guess they must have been uploaded from TV transmissions?

I've just seen that the Old Vic is streaming its production by the McOnie Company of 'Jekyll and Hyde' free from 5th August. I caught this back in 2016 and as I remember it was up-dated to the fifties and set largely in a flower shop with a lot of sex and violence, but some fine dancing, particularly by the guys in the titular roles, Daniel Collins and Tim Hodges as they switched too and fro and by Rachel Collins as Dahlia, the shop assistant caught up in their shenannigans. It was a fun production and a good evening out. I shall certainly want to catch it again.

I was saddened by the thought that people might "want to skip all the other bits" - the quality of singing was certainly equal to that of the dance and alongside some of our finest singers also highlighted young people wih extraordinary talent at an early stage in their careers. For those of us who love the performing arts in all their glory this entire program was an absolute delight. I long for greater integration in the performing arts, not separation and IMHO, despite the problems, this melding of the incredible talents in the House got it just right.

"Anyway I have just found this DonQ tonight on YouTube - Brooklyn Mack and Lali Kandelaki not sure which company but the writing looks Georgian." It's the State Ballet of Georgia.

I was less than impressed that they mounted an huge and presumably costly survey to check out responses to the idea of a pay to watch service at the same time as they were already anticipating the results with an actual pay to watch service on Vimeo - but hopefully, if the latter was merely a test run, the overall responses taken together will inform their future actions. I wonder if the actual takeup has supported the findings in the analysis of the survey. We shall probably never know but it will be fascinating to see what they do next.

Very true. I'm a blu-ray fan but I really value the older DVDs and the way they show the progression of key dancers through the ranks. I mentioned Marianela as Swanilda's friend in 2000; eight years later she was dancing the lead in Fille mal Garde with Lauren Cuthbertson, Sarah Lamb and Laura Morera as her friends - another lovely disk - and so it goes on. Now we are hoping for her in Coppelia with a new set of friends, the next generation. I do so hope the company find a way to release it, even if there are problems. After all, what else do they have? A record company without new material to release will fall. And if that means we may get a release of Jewels from 2017 as Stevie suggests, that would be great. It was a brilliant cast and I loved every minute of it. And if they're worried about the quality I'll happily forego the blu-ray and settle for a DVD!

I was told by the shop some time back that it was listed for release in October so I'm not giving up hope entirely. Meanwhile it's worth saying that IMHO the RB's DVD from 2000 with Leanne Benjamin and Carlos Acosta and with Mariane Nunez as one of Swanilda's friends is very fine.

Fascinating - thank you Bruce. The dearth of commercial recordings by the NYCB and Peter Martin's decision not to tour to the UK has long been a sadness for me and I have found enormous pleasure in their streaming over the past few months, along with that of their performances with other US companies. Over the years I have acquired many of their old dvds including the Balanchine Essays and of course the recent recording of their Paris tour and I am hoping very much that it will not stop there - that under new management they might one day give us another chance with another UK tour. Meanwhile, we can only hope that they will continue to share their incredible archive and I look every day for an announcement of an Autumn Digital Series. They are one of the finest world dance companies and we so need to see them.

And Lo and Behold, there it is!

Point taken - but does this mean that if one pays the £4.99 a legal download is availabe via vimeo?

Well worth it thank you - and of course Roderick Williams with Joseph Middleton today. A welcome break from all this palaver about vimeo!