DanJL

I thought this was really wonderful 😊 lovely dancing from both sets of leads and it felt surprisingly seamless switching over in Act 2. The two Giselles had been coached by Carla Fracci - she was interviewed in the interval and on La Scala's YouTube channel there are two masterclasses showing her teaching them. All in Italian of course, but there's plenty of dancing in the masterclasses. The ballet stream is not geo-blocked, but only available until Monday I think.

Me too! This was a lovely surprise, can't wait to see the other cast 😊

I've found a bit more information now on the La Scala Giselle (in English!). Looks like it will also be streamed on their own website - hopefully not geo-blocked 🤞🏻 https://www.teatroallascala.org/en/season/2020-2021/ballet/giselle.html

I found I had to set a password first, after clicking on the link in an email I was sent. On the login I clicked the set new password button. Once I'd done all that and signed in, I was directed to a page with the stream (think I had to scroll down a bit to get to it). This is all assuming you watch on a laptop, I didn't try the other options.

Lovely review! Yes, I watched it this afternoon and also thought this was a beautiful production. A very enjoyable start to the digital season 🙂

La Scala are streaming a new performance of Giselle on 30th January at 8pm Italian time. Not clear at the moment whether it will be geo-blocked, but some of their internal streams last year were put on YouTube shortly after so fingers crossed! There are different leads in the two acts - Martina Arduino and Claudio Coviello in Act 1, Nicoletta Manni and Timofej Andrijashenko in Act 2. More here (in Italian) https://www.danzon.it/fracci-madrina-con-legris/

Some tantalising news from Norwegian National Ballet. They are going to stream two separate performances of Onegin, as far as I understand from google translate with different casts. Sadly the text says this is only available in Norway, but in case anyone reading this is based there, more info here https://operaen.no/en/Productions/onegin/ Just to add apparently this is a production with newly designed costumes.

Fair point. The DVDs are available worldwide I think. Purely selfishly I'd love to see more streams that aren't already available (there were a few last year in fairness). But perhaps from the point of view of reaching out to wider and new audiences, the existing broadcasts are good and convenient options.

That's a shame, but does explain things. Thanks for the info Jan. I remember being disappointed that they weren't due to visit Bristol last season. Not sure how often they used to come to Cardiff, but seeing their Sleeping Beauty at the Millennium Centre was a particularly enjoyable early ballet going memory. Having said that, one of my post Covid resolutions is to make the effort to see them in Birmingham more often than my annual Nutcracker trip 🙂

There seems to be a bit of a hidden goldmine of ROH cinema broadcasts that didn't make it onto DVD. If ROH or someone else was able to show / stream them all that's certainly a service I'd be happy to pay for!

There were also some great performances of Sleeping Beauty in 2020 - including the cinema relay of course. But my personal highlight of 2020 was the Nuñez and Muntagirov performance I attended. Their dancing really blew me away. I also greatly enjoyed two Onegin casts, but sadly missed the various performances I'd booked for late Feb / early March due to illness combined with a little reticence already to travel to London. For the rest of the year, my mind was opened significantly to other companies around the world, thanks to the streaming. Personal highlights included the programmes from ENB, San Francisco Ballet, NYCB, Royal Danish Ballet and Stuttgart Ballet. Then in late Spring, the Royal Ballet streams began and I was reminded again how much I love that company. I spent much of the summer re-visiting RB DVDs and acquiring a few new ones. Then of course the shows in autumn, back on stage, gave great pleasure. And this time widened my horizons in terms of seeing dancers I was less familiar with - Akane Takada and Melissa Hamilton particularly standing out of those. Finally, I've spent an incredibly enjoyable few weeks watching Nutcrackers from around the world - streamed and on DVD. The Birmingham Royal Ballet stream was my favourite - incredibly well filmed and performed. And it was great to revisit a couple of the Royal Ballet performances. But versions from Denmark, Norway, NYCB and Pacific Northwest were also amongst my favourites. Here's hoping for much more live ballet in 2021. And thanks to all those on the forum who have posted links and information for the majority of what I saw in 2020.

Sounds interesting - I'll see if I can find it anywhere!

I've just got as far as the start of the third episode and realised that some of the children they follow end up in the NYCB Nutcracker stream currently available to buy. A nice end to the story if you have access to both 🙂

That's wonderful, thank you Dawnstar and now voyager 🙂

Thanks Sim, I think it said December 2018. I was wondering if it was a farewell initially, but she seemed surprised and overwhelmed. Perhaps she just wasn't expecting to be the centre of attention! Well, any more than she would expect after dancing the lead role!

Thanks Dawnstar, I just watched this and thought Natascha Mair was wonderful in it. An unusual production though, by Nureyev - is this the same version as in the recent Royal Ballet DVD reissue? There was lots of excitement at the end, following a speech in German that I'm afraid I didn't understand. Was Mair receiving a promotion?

Thanks JohnS, your views on the Royal Ballet Nutcracker are very similar to my own and much more eloquently described than I could've done! Just to add, in Act 1 for me there is the perfect balance between the charm of including the younger dancers whilst still including some great dancing - due partly to Clara being played by an adult from the company. This is in contrast to the Balanchine version for example, where Act 1 is full of much younger children. It's very warm and charming, but there's much less scope for interesting dancing and no pas de deux after the fight with the Mouse King. So I really appreciate that the Royal Ballet gets the best of both worlds in that respect. I would strongly recommend going to see the BRB Nutcracker in the Hippodrome when it's possible (hopefully next year!). It's a wonderful experience 🙂

Yes, I watched and also really enjoyed. Was hoping for the full Elite Syncopations, but given the time they had to fit in so many great performances I guess it wasn't possible, in the end I think they did a really great job! Most of my favourites made the cut too 🙂 Would've loved to see Akane Takada's Odette again, but we did see her twice so can't really complain 🙂

All the performances mentioned above are available on DVD if that helps?

Thank you Naomi M! I'd seen this advertised a lot on their Instagram and mailing list, but had the impression it would only be on Norwegian TV. Very grateful they've uploaded it and to you for sharing 🙂

Yes, I love both SPW versions for different reasons, but there is something I find very satisfying about the narrative in the RB version. Especially in contrast to some of the other versions I've seen. As an example, I just watched the San Francisco Ballet version on DVD for the first time and couldn't quite work out why the sugar plum fairy danced with the flowers (like the Rose Fairy in the RB version) and Clara transformed into a third ballerina for the grand pas de deux. Perhaps this is an extreme example, but the RB story seems very neat in comparison!

Ooh that's interesting, thanks I'll give it a try. I wonder how long it will stay available for free.

Yes, I really like this version as it happens - it's the main reason I have marquee tv (since I have most of their other ballets on DVD). A bit frustrating to have to keep paying to be able to watch it, but it doesn't seem to be available anywhere else. As well as being a really nice cast and a ballet I enjoy, it's the only filmed ballet so far where I've been in the audience. And it was effectively the performance that started my regular trips to the ROH!

There was a comment on the Royal Opera House Instagram page a week or so ago asking if it would be streamed and the reply was positive. I think that's the closest there's been to an announcement. Sounds promising but it's always possible this reply came before details were worked through. I also recommend watching the BRB streaming, but I'm greedy enough to be crossing fingers for a streaming of the wonderful cast on the filmed ROH performance too!

This is great news 😊 I'm a big fan of the BRB production and very interested to see the adapted version. Will definitely be streaming this!