I Just saw a promotional clip on youtube for the long awaited release of the Mariinsky Don Quixote starring Sarafanov and Novikova. I am hoping it will become available on amazon soon!

You'll probably have to wait at least until after the ballet has been screened at cinemas by Emerging Pictures. And if the DVD is being released on Decca, then I wouldn't expect especially speedy turnover.

Future screening dates:
April 26 & 30 in Beverly Hills, Encino, and Pasadena, CA
May 9 in Napa, CA
May 20 in Lake Worth, FL
May 24 & 26 in Rochester, NY
May 26 & 30 in Fort Lauderdale, FL

http://www.emergingpictures.com/opera_dates.htm

Thanks for info!

There are additional dates posted on the Emerging Pictures site.

May 6 & 10 in Cleveland Heights, OH
May 24 in Brooklyn and Kew Gardens, NY
May 31 in Wilmington, DE
June 7 in San Francisco, CA
June 7 & 10 in Cary, NC
June 18 in Campbell, CA
June 22 in Brunswick, ME

The ballet will also be screened in Poland in December.

http://www.emergingpictures.com/opera_dates.htm

The DVD is scheduled for release on July 14. Amazon isn't taking orders yet, but the ASIN is B00274SIA6 for future reference.

(Makes mental note to put this on the Amazon order list along with the Ballerina documentary on DVD. )

Here are a few additional screening dates.

May 23 in Hunter, NY
June 6 in Coral Gables, FL
June 7 & 8 in Albany, NY

A detailed cast list is now posted.

Don Quixote - Vladimir Ponomarev
Sancho Panza - Anton Lukovkin
Lorenzo - Igor Petrov
Kitri - Olesia Novikova
Basil - Leonid Sarafanov
Gamache - Vladimir Lepeev
Espada - Andrei Merkuriev
Street Dancer - Yekaterina Kondaurova
Flower Sellers - Yana Selina, Yana Serebriakova
Queen of the Dryads - Alina Somova
Cupid - Yevgenia Obraztsova
Mercedes - Galina Rakhmanova
Tavern Owner - Alexander Efremov
Gypsy dance - Polina Rassadina, Nikolai Zubkovsky
Oriental dance - Ti Yon Riu
Fandango - Elena Bazhenova, Karen Ioannisyan
Variation - Olga Esina

The trailer that mariinskyfan mentioned is also linked.
http://www.emergingpictures.com/don_quixote_trailer.htm

Ick. The Queen of the Dryads section is a favorite of mine. Is this woman EVERYWHERE????

The one and only Somova.
(just joking. Yes. She seems to be omnipresent)

I have to admit it seriously dampened my enthusiasm for the DVD.

Let's just count our blessings that she isn't Kitri. But, with the leads, and Big Red, I think there are quite a few things that cancel out Alina Somova

Not to mention Yevgenia Obraztsova as Amour, Bazhenova & Ioannisyan in the Fandango and a variation from Olga Esina. When was this performance taped? Isn't Esina the much hyped Vaganova grad who was part of that big Kirov exodus a few years ago? I saw her Lilac Fairy with the Kirov a few months before she left and then saw her and her husband with the Vienna State Ballet about a year later. Wonderful dancers, despite Ms S there's a lot to look forward to on this DVD!

Esina has been long-gone to Vienna for a few years. If memory serves, this DON Q was taped in April 2006, as was a complete JEWELS with Ayupova, Novikova & Lopatkina as the leaders of the three sections. The omission of Vishneva from 'Rubies' caused a big brou-ha-ha, I remember.

Perhaps the JEWELS airing and DVD will soon follow? I had all but given up on the DON Q and it is now coming. So there is also hope for the JEWELS. A chance to see the elusive Ayupova!

The filming of Jewels ran into some problems with the Balanchine Trust as far as I remember. Good to hear the Don Q is due for release, though, now that the featured dancers are still active.

The DON Q and SACRE/FIREBIRD DVDs are now both available for pre-order at the French amazon.com. (Available mid-June, with ETA delivery to USA on June 16.) For folks without multi-regional equipment, hopefully the other amazon countries will follow soon. Link to the DON Q DVD on the French site:

http://www.amazon.fr/Don-Quixote-Minkus/dp...1020&sr=1-4

Are we in the midst of a Golden Age for new ballet DVDs or what??? I remember not so long ago, when we were lucky to get one or two new classical titles of full-length works a year. What's more, the 'Dark Ages' of ballet DVDs happened during the economic boom years. Now we're in a recession and we have scads of new classical ballet DVDs available. Go figure!

The DVD can now be pre-ordered at Amazon.com.

http://www.deccaclassics.com/music/dvd/0743235.htm

Volcanohunter, that link is to the manufacturer, Decca...and the description within -- that this "was filmed in Vienna" -- cannot be right, as this was filmed at the Mariinsky in early April 2006. On the other hand, the French amazon site DOES continue to list this + the new Firebird/Sacre from the Mariinsky. Both are due for release next week.

I just checked the US amazon.com site and the DVD is not yet listed, although the Berlin Caravaggio and the POB Lady of the Camelias are shown, for release at the end of June/beginning of July '09.

My DVD just arrived yesterday from presto classical. You can order it here:
http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Decca/0743235

You can also pre-order it on amazon.

I've watched it twice already! I absolutely love it. The camera shots are very good with only a few annoying close-ups at inappropriate times. Novikova and Sarafanov are as spectacular as one would expect. All of the soloists are beautiful (Kondaurova, Esina, Selina, and Somova). However, Obraztsova is the stand-out as Amour. Everything about her is remarkable. Her feet look especially nice. I anxiously await a starring role for her in a full-length ballet on film.

Natalia, if you type 'Don Quixote' into the Amazon search box and narrow the results to the 46 DVDs with that title, it should pop up. I just tried it and the DVD turns up in 13th position, in other words, the first title on the second page of results. The ASIN is B00274SIA6, but apparently plugging this number into the box won't give BT a commission, so better to search by title.

Natalia,

I've already pre-ordered this DVD and the official DVD release of Bertrand Normand's documentary Ballerina from Amazon.com.

(A little off-topic: Mind you, I would LOVE to see Normand do a follow-up documentary, but also add in Viktoria Tereshkina and Ekaterina Kondaurova as subjects for that follow-up documentary. The reason is simple: Tereshkina is already one of the most prominent stars right now at the Mariinsky ballet troupe (with a lot of major roles lately) and Kondaurova is one of the fast-rising stars in the troupe, especially after her triumphant debut as Odette/Odile at the end of October 2008. )

I may be decades away from my government pension, but I guess you can now officially classify me as an old fogey.

If this is the direction ballet is headed, I don't particularly care for it. I guess you really can be too thin, too long-legged and too banana-arched. What I saw was a group of women so preoccupied with the point of their feet and height their extensions, regardless of how they distort their torsos, that they've lost the ability to jump or connect steps. Novikova did nothing for me in any of her solos, and in the grand pas de deux in particular there seemed to be no build-up to anything; her solo just petered out. In fairness, she wasn't helped by torso-up close-ups, or the camera angles. There were altogether too many from the downstage diagonals. Admittedly, this is what people in boxes close to the stage see, but the croisés and effacés in the choreography were lost. Sarafanov is a technical wiz, but there wasn't much personality on display.

Sadly, the whole performance struck me as flat, and it wasn't helped by the overexposed lighting.

What a pity. I expected a lot from this disc.