This season's final installment of The Royal Opera in HD is The Sleeping Beauty, getting the big-screen treatment at Empire Theatres across Canada on Saturday, June 21, at 1:00 p.m. local time, before coming out on DVD.

Princess Aurora: Alina Cojocaru
Prince Florimund: Federico Bonelli
King Florestan XXIV: Christopher Saunders
His Queen: Elizabeth McGorian
Cattalabutte: Alastair Marriott
Carabosse: Genesia Rosato
Lilac Fairy: Marianela Nuñez
Princess Florine: Sarah Lamb
Bluebird: Yohei Sasaki

Participating cities: St. John's, Halifax, Sydney, Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton, Charlottetown, St. Catharines, Kitchener, North York, Mississauga, Ottawa, London, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. The Digiscreen site also lists showings at Ultra Star Theaters in California and Arizona, and the Ex-Centris Theatre in Montreal.

http://www.empiretheatres.com/promotions/opusArte2007.asp
Trailer: http://centralsystem.digiscreen.ca/ShowPag...resentation=213
Opus Arte channel on the Digiscreen channelizer: http://www.digiscreenmovienetwork.com/Channelizer.html

Having recently seen this production in London, I must confess to being underwhelmed by Alexandra Ansanelli and David Makhateli in the leads, so I'm hoping for better. Salient excerpts from this telecast have been floating around on You Tube for some time, and they look promising.

The audiences at these broadcasts, at least where I've been attending, also seem to be growing, albeit very gradually, so I hope that Empire Theatres will bring them back next season. I would hate to think that only wrestling, boxing and hockey are capable of drawing audiences to the multiplexes.

An insert in the program for today's screening indicated with Opus Arte productions would be shown next season. Most of the ballets will have been filmed on Parisian stages. (It's comforting to know that the Royal Opera House isn't shutting other companies out of Opus Arte.) Presumably all of these performances will be released on DVD eventually.

ballets:
Spartacus (Carlos Acosta & the Bolshoi Ballet)
Cinderella (Paris Opera Ballet)
Don Quixote (National Ballet of Cuba)
Giselle (Royal Ballet)

operas:
Le nozze di Figaro (Royal Opera)
Aida (Teatre del Liceu)
Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci (Teatro Real)
Don Giovanni (Royal Opera)
Don Carlo (Royal Opera)
The Adventures of Pinocchio (Opera North)

Just came back from The Sleeping Beauty, really enjoyed it and can't wait until next year's program. Opus Arte has cut back from 2 studios to 1 in my city but thankfully they're still committed for next year.

Thanks for posting that volcanohunter. Next years line-up looks fantastic! Did they happen to include which dates the screenings will be? I've been looking online but with no luck.

I don't see any dates on the insert from my program. But it does say the Fall season starts on July 26. Maybe try www.digiscreen.ca.

Though tickets are not yet available, the flyer notes that Le nozze di Figaro will be shown on July 26, as binklemom pointed out. It's one of the operas already available on DVD, as is Aida. What's encouraging is that the performances are identified as being part of a "fall season." Hopefully this means that more screenings will follow in spring.

I enjoyed today's performance tremendously. I don't think that any number of repeat viewings will make me warm to Wheeldon's stilted garland dance, and I still don't like the idea of turning the Lilac Fairy into a dancing role, but the production is very solid, and I appreciate the fact that the dances for the hunting party have been shortened, since I have always found them to be the least interesting part of the ballet.

I think that the POB's corps is better, that Benjamin Pech's Bluebird soars far above Yohei Sasaki's, and wish that Marianela Nuñez's Lilac Fairy were a bit taller (though the smile could win anyone over). But the prologue fairies are excellent (so it's a pity that there were so many waist-up shots during their variations), Sarah Lamb is radiant, Genesia Rosato's mime is admirably lucid, and Federico Bonelli is very fine. He doesn't quite nail Ashton's Act 2 solo, but then I've seen only Anthony Dowell do that. As for Alina Cojocaru, she is pure magic. Perhaps she doesn't turn quite as well as Aurélie Dupont or Sofiane Sylve, but she's magnificent.

The crowd in my city was larger than at previous screenings and applauded the dancers straight through the curtain calls. The children present seemed to enjoy it especially. Hopefully that's an investment for the future.

The Empire Theatres web site now states that Spartacus, filmed during the Bolshoi's visit to Paris, will be screened on August 9.

http://www.empiretheatres.com/promotions/opusArte2007.asp