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Brexit and ballet/dance companies


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I posted before FLOSS's very detailed explanation as to why the seats had been removed and was therefore unaware of the complex reasoning behind the decision.  I stated truthfully that continental houses of the same horseshoe configuration don't leave empty blocks close to the stage.

 

Perhaps you got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning, but calling a poster "disgusting" is beyond the pale in my book and I think you should apologize.

I will not apologise. Your final sentence was completely out of order, no matter how I rose this morning.

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Colman.

The EU has been a very useful excuse for everything that has gone wrong here for the last forty years. I just wonder what our politicians will do when they no longer have the EU to hide behind when it comes to explaining away their inaction and failures over things like building enough schools and affordable housing and training enough doctors. It's always easier to blame someone else for your own shortcomings than be forced to admit that you have been incompetent and failed to notice something as obvious as an increase in the birth rate and failed to plan for the foreseeable increased demand on services such as schools and hospital beds. But then this is the country which only noticed the appalling conditions in its fast growing towns and cities in the 1840's when the Irish Potato Famine brought large numbers of poor Irish to these shores. Then everyone fixated on the starving Irish blaming them for the squalor in which they were living rather than noticing that the government had failure to create organisation with the power to control  the development of urban areas and the ability to provide decent sanitary conditions in them.

Edited by FLOSS
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I just wonder what our politicians will do when they no longer have the EU to hide behind when it comes to explaining away their inaction and failures over things like building enough schools and affordable housing and training enough doctors.

That's easy: blame remainers, immigrants, Scots, fifth columnists and EU machinations. Eventually lefties, Muslims, Jews and the not quite English enough.

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I know several people who play/dep at the ROH and all of the above is true. At the time of the last closure around the millennium the decision was taken not to extend the pit and it is now one of the smallest in Europe relative to the size of orchestra regularly used. Removing the side seats releases some the 'trapped' sound, and though I was a frequent purchaser of those seats I would rather give them up and have musicians avoid permanent hearing damage.

 

This information is very useful, Lindsay, and, as John PW has said, helps to explain what, for me at least, was previously a benefit that was far from apparent. Why, however, was a decision taken not to extend the orchestra pit during the last closure? It was not all that long ago and the dangers to the musicians must surely have been known.

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The musicians were considered less important than extra income from another couple of rows of seats? Or maybe just bad planning. The orchestra have been asking for an extension as part of the latest round of 'development' but no joy.

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Bearing in mind how long the redevelopment plans had been in the works for, I'm not sure the problem would have been recognised back then?  Plus, my impression is that it has to some extent been a 21st-century problem: the increased use of loud percussion and instrumentation appears to have made things rather worse.

 

I think this part of the discussion may need to be filleted out into a separate thread so that we can get back on track with the Brexit theme.

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When Gergiev brought the Mariinsky to the ROH with the Ring a few years back I was sitting near enough to the pit  to notice that musicians near the brass and timpani sections and indeed some of the brass players themselves were routinely fitting ear plugs at regular points in anticipation of various climaxes in each of the four operas. Exciting but I wouldn't have wanted to be sitting amongst them!

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Any unmuted brass in enclosed space is phenomenally loud. A friend in one of the northern orchestras drives his estate car out to the country when he wants to practice late in order to maintain neighbourly relations. Has occasionally led to interesting conversations with passing policeman. Thankfully practice doesn't happen too often in line with the great tradition of British orchestras being the best sightreaders in the world :)

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.....  the great tradition of British orchestras being the best sightreaders in the world :)

It's a reputation that dates back to the bad old days when, prior to the fifties orchestras in this country were created for specific occasions, with players brought together performing pretty well without rehearsal. Orchestral players in those days had to be good sight readers! We owe so much to the likes of Beecham and Boult and of course the BBC for the development of our great orchestras and the orchestral tradition that we take for granted now. Twasn't always thus!  

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That's really what I meant David.  Sightreading skills have evolved by necessity.  Many British orchestras still have considerably shorter rehearsal periods than top bands on the continent and it is still not wholly unheard of for a player to send a dep to rehearsals and appear in person for the first time at the performance.  Players moving here from Europe are often a little bemused.

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Reminds me of the rehearsal pianist we had when I was in a ballet company in France.  While he was training at a Conservatoire, he had a job playing in a bar at night.  He said he never had time to prepare his pieces for the Conservatoire, so became an excellent sight reader.  On one occasion when there was not a piano reduction available for our rehearsal of a ballet, the Chef d'Orchestre brought in the full score.  Our pianist looked at it for a couple of minutes and then proceeded to play a perfect version for us to dance to! 

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Article 50 is to be triggered by Theresa May on Wednesday 29th March.

 

I feel as though I have been waiting for this for about 5 years.  Is it really less than a year?  I can now sit back, relax, and let our well-informed and capable government handle a smooth, easy withdrawal from the EU with the minimum of fuss, and with the maximum benefit to everyone in the UK.  In just 2 years, Britain will be transformed into a country where everyone is happy, and the sun always shines.

 

Sorry, got to dash, a pig just flew past and splattered my nice clean windows.....

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Sorry, got to dash, a pig just flew past and splattered my nice clean windows.....

 

Which is, obviously, the fault of EU pig catapult regulations. It's not like in the old days when we were allowed use cannons. Not to mention the advantages of bendy pigs.

Edited by Colman
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