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Gordon from Viewers Relations has replied to me to assure me my comments are receiving their attention and I  will receive a further reply shortly. I have asked if Sky intends to broadcast the RB production and, if so, when - I won’t hold my breath! 

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I actually recorded a Tales of the Unexpected yesterday, and the voiceover at the end says, "There never was a tale of more woe, or more drama and romance, especially when choreographed by Kenneth Macmillan, and performed by the Royal Ballet. Romeo and Juliet, new tonight at 9 on Sky Arts."

 

We've been had! :)

 

Thank you for the welcome. I'm a long-time lurker. There is another Romeo and Juliet scheduled for Friday morning on Sky Arts at 6.55am, also apparently Naghdi, so fingers crossed 

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3 minutes ago, Justkeepsmiling said:

I emailed Sky about last night’s mix up. They told me that programming was ‘subject to change’ and apparently the RB one is available to download from Sky OnDemand. Might be helpful for those who aren’t watching on Freeview.

 

That doesn't explain why their announcers don't appear to know what they're announcing or whether it's what was scheduled.

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32 minutes ago, Justkeepsmiling said:

I emailed Sky about last night’s mix up. They told me that programming was ‘subject to change’ and apparently the RB one is available to download from Sky OnDemand. Might be helpful for those who aren’t watching on Freeview.

Thank you I do have Sky and just tried to download it from On Demand. It says it's Macmillan/Naghdi/ 2019 but when you play it it's just the Urals one from last night. I feel a thunderous email coming on.

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6 minutes ago, Rob S said:

I didn't see the start or finish or any of the middle but didn't the announcer say that the programme differed to some listings?

 

I didn't either - my comment reflected what has been said above. If they did acknowledge it was a change, I withdraw it!

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17 minutes ago, Justkeepsmiling said:

I emailed Sky about last night’s mix up. They told me that programming was ‘subject to change’ and apparently the RB one is available to download from Sky OnDemand. Might be helpful for those who aren’t watching on Freeview.

 

But only for those who have Sky anyway, isn't it? 

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40 minutes ago, nzballetfan said:
1 hour ago, Justkeepsmiling said:

 

Thank you I do have Sky and just tried to download it from On Demand. It says it's Macmillan/Naghdi/ 2019 but when you play it it's just the Urals one from last night. I feel a thunderous email coming on.

That’s interesting! I will reply to their email stating that. Thank you.

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43 minutes ago, bridiem said:

 

I didn't either - my comment reflected what has been said above. If they did acknowledge it was a change, I withdraw it!

I’m pretty sure they announced it as the ‘Royal Ballet at its finest…’ but I wasn’t paying too much attention to the announcer to be honest.

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21 hours ago, Justkeepsmiling said:

Just got this reply from Sky

35400EE5-3E8D-4B43-BEEE-5824B7DBBB5C.jpeg

Thank you! It's still saying Naghdi for Friday, but clearly that's not correct and I won't hope for it.

 

Sky Arts also claim they will show Giselle (Cojocaru/Martin Harvey/Nuñez) on February 2nd at 7am, but they say it's 2016, which if it were that cast, it clearly would not be, sigh.

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I have long thought that Sky Arts has a huge disrespect and disdain for the art of ballet.  The fact that they can almost never even get a listing or announcement right, and that they constantly show ballet at ridiculous times of the morning, shows what they really think.  They can't be bothered with it and are paying a bit of lip service to it....we're an arts channel so we'd better make some kind of attempt to show some ballet.  Who cares when, or even whether we get it right.  Let's just chuck the ballet fans under the chin with a few morsels here and there and they will be grateful for anything...gggrrrrr!

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Not just ballet, but dance in general, if their recent insertion of advert breaks in the middle of dance works by the Alvin Ailey company is anything to go by :(   The only one that missed out was a 5-minute solo.

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Yet, it wasn’t always so. A few years back they did show what were then recent recordings of RB productions. I recall being pleasantly surprised that Osipova’s  Giselle was shown less that 12 months after the original cinema streaming. I think the timing of those showings was also more reasonable. Presumably they failed to do a deal with the ROH that suited them.

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1 hour ago, Odyssey said:

Yet, it wasn’t always so. A few years back they did show what were then recent recordings of RB productions. I recall being pleasantly surprised that Osipova’s  Giselle was shown less that 12 months after the original cinema streaming. I think the timing of those showings was also more reasonable. Presumably they failed to do a deal with the ROH that suited them.

 

Presumably once they get hold of a newer version of a ballet the older one(s) is discarded?  I'd love to see some other versions, particularly those which aren't available on DVD.

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Sky Arts said they did a deal with either ROH or Opus Arte (you could argue they’re almost the same!) about 9 to 11 years ago where they could broadcast some of the cinema relay performances hence they aired the Osipova/Acosta Giselle, the Yanowsky/Kish Swan Lake, the Lamb/Bonelli/Watson/McRae/Yanowsky Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Cuthbertson/Bonelli R&J, the Cuthbertson/Polunin Sleeping Beauty, the Yoshida/McRae/Loots/Cervera/Avis  Nutcracker, the  Osipova/McRae Rhapsody with Cuthbertson/Munragirov/Kaneko Two Pigeons etc.  They repeat some of them from time to time but there seems to be no pattern or order as to what gets aired. Maybe it’s based on previous revenue from ads? 

 

When the replies started appearing in response to forum members emailing them, I had visions of the following dialogue at Sky Arts:- 

 

Complaints junior clerk: There are some angry emails from customers saying they’re unhappy that the Royal Opera House Romeo and Juliet ballet turned out to be from Ural Opera House.

Sky Arts boss:  Royal, Ural, is there a difference? Isn’t ballet just ballet? 

Complaints clerk: They are unhappy that they were promised the choreography of MacMillan, but they got Samodurov. (Peers at screen). This lady says Samodurov is not terrible, but she was promised MacMillan. 

Sky Arts boss: Again, is there a difference? Isn’t it all ballet? 

Complaints clerk: Several customers  have threatened to end their subscriptions. 

Sky Arts boss: Get Kelly to go and say sorry to them. 

Complaints clerk: You mean Kerry.

Sky Arts boss: Is there a diff.....I mean, umm, yes. Kerry. Tell Kerry to do it urgently.

 

(Any resemblance of the above hypothetical dialogue to real life people or events is purely coincidental.). 😉

 

I quite enjoyed some of the crowd scenes from Samodurov’s version, and their Juliet was very good, but will go on to YouTube or Facebook to watch some excerpts of the promised Naghdi/Ball performance that I didn’t get. Still shopping around for the DVD recording. 😋

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I am watching Sky Arts and the announcer just advertised Kenneth MacMillan’s R&J available on catch up, whilst showing clips of the Samodurov version. Clearly the message still hasn’t got through. 🤦🏻‍♀️

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Summing up, since we've got rather distracted by the non-MacMillan-ness of the scheduled offering, here's what's coming up this weekend, or rather, this Sunday 23rd:

 

As if a solid night of dance on BBC4 wasn't enough, Sky Arts are showing:

6 am: The Australian Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty

8.20 am: Arts Uncovered: Candoco Dance Company

 

Then this is the evening's entertainment on BBC4:

 

7 pm: Danceworks: Ballet Black: The Waiting Game

7.30 pm: Carlos Acosta: This Cultural Life

8 pm: Ballrooms and Ballerinas: Dance at the BBC - this had some nice snippets, I seem to recall, although I've deleted it now

9 pm: The Royal Ballet: The Dante Project - looks stunning, and, thankfully, appears from its running time to include the introduction included on the streaming

10.50 pm: Betroffenheit from Sadler's Wells (not to be missed if you haven't already seen it)

12.40 am: Dancing Nation

1.40 am: Carlos Acosta: This Cultural Life

2.10 am: Ballrooms and Ballerinas: Dance at the BBC

 

Then, on Monday, Sky Arts again:

7.15 am: English National Ballet in Paris (their tour of Le Corsaire to the Opera Garnier)

 

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13 hours ago, Sim said:

I am watching Sky Arts and the announcer just advertised Kenneth MacMillan’s R&J available on catch up, whilst showing clips of the Samodurov version. Clearly the message still hasn’t got through. 🤦🏻‍♀️

 

If you went to their studios and gave the announcer the proverbial clip across the ear, they still wouldn't get it!

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The Ashton triple is scheduled for Wed 26th Jan on SkyArts at the usual user friendly time of 6.45am! it appears to be the usual one with the Dream and marguerite and Armand.

SkyArts are also showing a RB Giselle Wed 2nd Feb at 7am. it SAYS it's Acosta/Osipova but who knows.

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SkyArts Sat 5th Feb 7am-8.30am a repeat of Ballet Lorent Rumpelstiltskin.

Talking Pictures Monday 7th Feb 12am-2.20am Nijinsky biopic film starring George de la Pena and Alan Bates.

Edited by jmhopton
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I know I  have mentioned it previously, when it was last aired’ but I highly recommend the Nijinsky biopic. Carefully recreated extracts of the repertoire from the Diaghilev Ballets Russes, some lovely cameo appearances from the likes of Carla Fracci and Anton Dolin. And a wonderful stellar cast.

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As you all predicted, the Sky Arts Giselle this morning starred Marianela and Vadim, to my daughter's utter delight (we usually alternate our recordings of Osipova/Acosta and Seymour/Nureyev, so she's thrilled to have another recording to contrast these with). Muntagirov, being the dancer and actor he is, is a treat, isn't he? I wish he paired with Osipova in this occasionally. I'd remortgage the house to get down to London to see it. 

 

(But if technologically-minded people could splice in ultra-naive Osipova and mega-cad Nureyev together, that would be the ultimate.)

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