Anyone any ideas?

This Christmas's ballet offerings were the Kirov's Scheherazade and Firebird, plus Royal Swedish Ballet in Swan Lake.

Does anyone have any idea if/when they are going to show Manon?

As for Manon, do we even know for sure that they recorded it?

>Isn't there something being shown in
>June on BBC2 about Carlos
>Acosta at Covent Garden??There was
>an article about more dance
>being shown on the station,so
>i think they are starting
>with the documentary about Carlos.
>

I think it's an "Omnibus" documentary (or whatever the BBC has renamed "Omnibus" these days). But as I remember it, when the ROH reopened there was a commitment to showing one ballet and one opera a year - part of that token idea to open up the Royal Ballet to all the UK public. It just suddenly struck me that there had been two operas and no ballet so far . . .

And this is what Tony Hall was quoted as saying when he joined the ROH in 2001:

"As a result, increased television presence is another one of Hall's objectives for the new year. He is hoping to install equipment that will make broadcasting productions a little easier. Following talks with former BBC colleagues, BBC4 will be carrying a greater number of ROH productions."

Has anyone seen any ballet on BBC4? Does the channel show opera braodcasts? I don't have digital TV anymore but if BBC4 started showing some decent arts programming I'd have a Freeview box by the end of the day.

"NEW ARTS PROGRAMME ON BBC PROFILES ACOSTA.

'Imagine', the new arts strand for BBC One, presented by Alan Yentob, starts in June and provides "a regular look at the people and topics making waves in galleries and concert halls, on catwalks and in theatre, in opera houses and museums". Among the opening selection of programmes is one called Carlos Acosta: The Reluctant Ballet Dancer, in which the young Cuban star is profiled for the first time by filmmaker Lucy Blaksted. It follows the preparation for his first show which will be given at Sadlers Wells in July and its premiere in Havana."

Well, it's a start and it's BBC1!

Thanks, Ann. This is the revamped Omnibus, the BBC's tick the box that says they must have mainstream arts programming. But as you say, it's a start.

I reckon the only thing Channel 4 has put out was the Billy & Mike show - Ballet Boyz. But great entertainment nevertheless and a great insight into backstage shennanigans(?sp).

7.00pm / Friday 30th May 2003 / 300th Anniversary Gala Mariinsky Theater Concert of Opera and Ballet, directed by Gergiev, BBC World Wide Live Telecast, ( tape delay to some countries).

It further mentions that Lopatkina is down to perform on that evening , and if so , well worth a look at just for her alone.

This is part of the White Nights Festival , but also in conjuntion with the Internional summit to be held in the citi that day .

Regards

David

Do you know why the BBC has decided to abandon its earlier plans?

So much for improved access. Another slap in the face for ballet fans.

Are you saying, Brendan, that it's the ROH management that chooses which performances are televised?

Whether productions make it to air or not is bound up with many different interests: the broadcasters, the ROH, a ballet's rights-holders and the performers themselves. It can be complicated to get everyone in line.

There is a great wish to get more dance on television. But it is rarely as simple as saying "Let's do x" and then doing it.

Sorry, but I think if there really WAS a great wish, more would appear. Of course there are rights issues to be dealt with but they should not be insurmountable.

Rights issues seem to have been dealt with for the opening gala which had a huge number of productions included in excerpt form. I was working at the BBC at that time and I remember the only controversial issue was when it realised that the original plan to have the first half of the performance given over to ballet meant that the National Anthem would be conducted by Anthony Twiner. That would not do, hence opera took the first half and Bernard Haitink conducted the National Anthem.

And as I remember it National Lottery cash was given under the proviso of increased access. I currently work in the public funding sector and it is entirely normal that money granted via the Lottery - or the EU or SRB or any such public funding for that matter - is only done so on condition that the wider community benefit, not just the accountable body.

In this case the wider community seemed to be defined as that beyond the Opera House's normal clientele, and one straightforward way to do that is to televise performances. I recall Coppelia attracting an audience of about 1.2 million (not great for peak-time BBC2 but excellent for a ballet company trying to share their work with more people).

Now of course ballet is not scheduled into peak-time - or in this case isn't scheduled at all. I'm sure people sitting in their front rooms all over the country will find it of little consolation when exactly DonQ and the Stravinsky ballets were recorded - what ballet fans who are not fortunate or rich enough or close enough to attend RB live RB performances want is British ballet on their TV screens, as expected under the vast and controversial grant the ROH received to pretty-up the theatre.

>>I'm sure people
>sitting in their front rooms
>all over the country will
>find it of little consolation
>when exactly DonQ and the
>Stravinsky ballets were recorded -
>what ballet fans who are
>not fortunate or rich enough
>or close enough to attend
>RB live RB performances want
>is British ballet on their
>TV screens, as expected under
>the vast and controversial grant
>the ROH received to pretty-up
>the theatre.

Perfectly reasonable comment Claire - and I don't disagree - but I only mentioned 'Don Q' and 'Stravinsky Staged' in answer to your earlier 'million to one' point. The deal was always two performances a year, divided between opera and ballet, so no change there. You may find interesting a rather good piece in yesterday's FT Creative Business Supplement that addressed some of the wider issues of placing the arts on television, and this piece from last Saturday's Guardian by the independent producer David Herman.

On Claire's point about rights issues, there is nothing that can be done when the rights holder refuses to license performance for television, as happened with Onegin.