I was delighted to find that Kultur is releasing Napoli by the Royal Danish Ballet on July 25th, 2006, in NTSC format!

Napoli at Amazon.com

Quoting the DVD description from Amazon.com:

Product Description:
The dramatic tradition of the remarkable dancer and choreographer, August Bournonville, is the keystone of the continuing excellence of the Royal Danish Ballet, and Napoli is his happiest masterpiece. Persuaded by his friend Hans Christian Andersen to travel to Italy, Bournonville was inspired by his stay in Naples to create this romantic ballet, which tells the story of the young fisherman Gennaro and his beloved Teresina.

From The Royal Theatre, Copenhagen; The Royal Danish Ballet. Music By E Helsted, G Rossini, Niels W Gade, H S Paulli, H C Lumbye.
Gennaro, a fisherman: Arne Villumsen
Veronica, a widow: Mona Jensen
Teresina, her daughter: Linda Hindberg
Fra Ambrosio, a monk: Tommy Frishøi
Giacomo, a macaroni seller: Fredbjørn Bjørnson
Peppo, a lemonade seller: Flemming Ryberg
Giovanina: Annemarie Dybdal
Pascarillo, a street singer: Michael Bastian

Yay!!!

My video is just about threadbare..thanks for the heads-up! I have a recollection of a different casting, but doubtless my memory errs....

Many thanks for the heads up, Lady Rosa

Does anyone know when and where this performance was recorded? Was it shown on TV originally?

the following comes from the NYPL dance coll. cat. listing the film as a videocassette:

Napoli / a National Video Corporation production in association with Danmarks Radio and ZDF, Germany ; directed for television by Preben Montell ; choreography by Kirsten Ralov after August Bournonville ; music by Edvard Helsted, Gioacchino Rossini, Niels Wilhelm Gade, Holger Simon Paulli, and Hans Christian Lumbye.
c1986 ; Chicago, Ill. : Home Vision, 1987. (98 min.) : sd., col.
Released as a videotape in 1987 by Home Vision, a Films Inc. Company, Chicago, Illinois.
Videotaped in performance at the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen.
Scenery, Ove Christian Pedersen ; costumes, Soren Frandsen ; lighting, Erik Bremer Sorensen and Jorn Melin ; [video] executive producer, Robin Scott.
Performed by members of the Royal Danish Ballet.
Arne Villumsen (Gennaro, a fisherman) ; Mona Jensen (Veronica, a widow) ; Linda Hindberg (Teresina, her daughter) ; Flemming Ryberg (Peppo, a lemonade seller) ; Fredbjorn Bjornsson (Giacomo, a macaroni seller) ; Tommy Frishoi (Fra Ambrosio) ; Annemarie Dybdal (Giovanina) ; Michael Bastian (Pascarillo, a street singer) ; Thomas Berentzen (Carlino, a puppeteer) ; Aage Poulsen (a drummer) ; Palle Jacobsen (Golfo, a sea demon) ; Marianne Rindholt (Coralia, a naiad) ; Kit Dyring (Argentina, a naiad). Act I Ballabile: Anne Adair, Mette Bodtcher, Marisa Luther, Henriette Muus, Christina Nilsson, Benedikte Paaske, Peter Bo Bendixen, Bjarne Hecht, Ib Jeppesen, Alexander Kolpin, Morten Munksdorf, and Kim Thonsgaard. Act III Pas de six: Lis Jeppesen, Mette-Ida Kirk, Benedikte Paaske, Heidi Ryom, Mogens Boesen, Bjarne Hecht. Variations (in order of appearance): Kolpin ; Paaske and Ryom ; Lis Jeppesen ; Kirk, Paaske, and Ryom ; Hecht ; Ingrid Glindemann, Marianne Rindholt, and Anita Soby ; Villumsen ; Hindberg ; Ryom ; Kirk. Tarantella: Anne-Marie Vessel, Johnny Eliasen, Hindberg, Villumsen, Rindholt, Ib Jeppesen, Soby, Claus Schroder, Lise Stripp, Peter Bo Bendixen, and others.
Music played by the Royal Danish Orchestra conducted by Peter Ernst Lassen.

There were some discussions about that video in the following thread, back in 2002:

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...wtopic=4340&hl=

and also a post by Alexandra in December 1998:

http://ballettalk.invisionzone.com/index.p...pic=1817&st=15#

Thank you, rg and Estelle!

Alexandra--I started watching this last night, unfortunately could get only VHS with poor quality in several ways compared to DVD, but thought maybe I should put my thoughts on this thread. FORTUNATELY--I copied your pointers to Word so I could use them, as that has disappeared from the Sylphide thread. I might not have known that the Streetsinger was miming an aria, for example, as well as I'm sure many other things.

Have now remembered that 'Flower Festival of Genzano' is on 'Art of the Classical Pas de Deux' tape, which I watched a few years ago, and also has Villumsen and Hindberg. I think that is a different performance, though, because all of them had that not terribly attractive backdrop and it was made with the old LA Ballet, there was Patricia McBride and a Los Angeles dancer doing Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, etc. May be also where I saw Denard/Thesmar do Sylphide. Wiki mentions the composer of this part, so I guess I will get to it in one of the succeeding acts. I remember lime-green on Villumsen with white shirt, thus far the girls wear dresses and the boys these clever shorts in the first act. This one is easier than 'Sylphide' for me, I think. And I guess that first act is the 'sunshine' you mentioned, you can almost taste the gelato in such a setting. Wiki mentions 4 composers of the music here, but the tape also mentioned Rossini, which is the only name with which I am familiar. I wonder if there is a piece of an opera piece in there somewhere...

May have something to say after finishing this, but thanks for the 'guidebook', as it really helps, even though I find this one more accessible.

That Tarantella is just wonderful, irresistible. And the sets--mountain and sky in the distance--give this one a certain miniature kinship with 'La Sylphide' too. I believe there is a Bournonville thing in Cuban Nacional Ballet that I saw several times when I was a student usher at the Met--yes, there has to be, but what that was I don't know. I didn't even know Bournonville was someone's name at the time, thought it was some term for a style that came from anywhere. That and this, with this knicker-costumes (please correct), always remind me of Fragonard and Boucher, which nobody has every been able to turn me against--and many homely people have tried...they can't take that much prettiness.

Continuing, I did find the Second Act until Gennaro enters the weakest part--as you'd mentioned, the 'too much dancing' and the '20th century corps dancing' is too tame not in the gentle sense I've been noting, and getting something of an eye for, in Sylphide and the rest of what I see here, but just too long and unfortunately suggesting other Demons and Monsters with more energetic and interesting dancing and dancer-creatures around them. That part of Act II doesn't seem to work.

I also don't know if the Flower Festival of Genzano from 'The Art of the Classical Pas de Deux' is any of this, even though that definitely was also Hindberg and Villumsen--I'm pretty sure I remember lime-green on Villumsen in that, but these white, black and reds do look pretty. Was it? She's very beautiful, but his dancing is very sharp and magnetic. Also, still don't know when there is change of composers, although it all sounded nice, I just didn't know when the Rossini was happening. Toward the climax of the 3rd Act, it is this wonderfully elegant but what I imagine country-Danish to have been once--that positive kind of provincialism that gives a style this folk-classical charm. The Hans Beck variations in Act III were okay, I thought, much better than the first part of Act II (I don't know if that was Beck too.)

Input from anyone appreciated on some of these questions I have, plus other enlightenment welcomed too.

Papeetepatrick, NBC has had "Napoli" and "Flower Festival..." in its repertoire for a long long time now...I saw fragments of them several times during the Havana Ballet Festivals. They are favorites among Havana's audience.