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Lizbie1

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  1. I suspect the £4 is a fair reflection of the cost of (manually) processing refund requests so I'd be very surprised if this were the case.
  2. Except that at Glyndebourne if you want a table and haven't brought your own you pay a charge for one of theirs.
  3. Maybe the number of people unaware of what might previously have been considered well-understood etiquette has made them feel a "rule" was needed? There are plenty of unspoken rules when going theatres like ROH, such as keeping coughing and unnecessary noise to a minimum. People here often lament that ROH doesn't work hard enough to promote good behaviour and police bad. I don't think it's such a bad thing that patrons of the bars and café should now stand a better chance of getting a table.
  4. I'd suggest that the "rules" haven't changed and their understanding of them was imperfect. It does seem a bit heavy handed but I've always taken it as read that you should only use the tables if you have bought food and drink there. If I'm eating something I bought elsewhere I'll just perch on a chair or bench that doesn't have a table - it's perfectly doable. Tables are in quite short supply at ROH and are clearly positioned so as to be associated with the bars and café - it seems reasonable that people who've bought from them take precedence over those who haven't.
  5. I had only the RBS show to book for this morning and was all done and paid by the time 0902 clicked around on my laptop. I think that's a record for me!
  6. Flexible rates tend to get significantly more expensive than non-refundable as you get closer to the date, at least in my experience.
  7. Comparable stature. I use them for comparison because planning the ROH season should be of roughly similar complexity. I don't know if you're being facetious about Paris etc. announcements affecting London hotel prices, but in case you aren't I meant simply that they go up the longer I have to delay booking.
  8. My experience - which is extensive - of booking the cheaper hotel rooms in London is that prices generally only move in one direction. Over a month after other comparable houses (Paris, Munich and the Met have all announced) is not "a little later". It is also later than ROH typically announces.
  9. But Eurostar doesn't work that well for people outside the South East (sorry, long running gripe against travel journalists who assume everyone is London based).
  10. From my POV, I need to plan early. Not everyone lives within easy reach of London: hotel rooms get more expensive the later you leave it, and people have other companies to fit in. This year I'll be taking out a Paris subscription: booking for that opens soon and the later you leave it the less likely you are to get a decent seat. I have dates in mind but if, say, ROH were to announce some kind of Ashton festival along the lines of "Sarasota week" that would be something I'd have to work around. (Paris subscribers can change dates, but EasyJet won't be issuing me any refunds!) I know people like me are in a minority, but - somewhat strangely - within the last month or so I've fallen into casual conversation with two other people (neither anywhere near an opera house!) who do exactly the same as me but in reverse. Opera and ballet tourism is a real thing. BTW I don't think the Proms' notoriously late announcement date is something anyone should seek to emulate! (And in their defence, they have many visiting orchestras to juggle.)
  11. Agreed - very late! And they don't have an ACE funding announcement to blame for it this year.
  12. @Timmie - if you like bel canto and are up for a trip to Paris next year, you might like to consider I Puritani at the Paris Opera - the ugly Bastille "conference centre" alas, not the more scenic Garnier. It's a lovely opera and very well cast. I don't know anything about the production but I think there are video clips out there as it's not new. There's been something of a Bellini drought at ROH for some years so I don't know when we'll next see it there. https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/season-24-25/opera/i-puritani The most famous arias are probably Qui la voce (for the soprano) and A te o cara (quite possibly my favourite aria of all) for the tenor.
  13. I'll be trying to get there for Paquita.
  14. Since nobody else has posted it yet: https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/programme/season-24-25/shows-ballet
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