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Ashton Mixed Bill Summer 2017


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The Royal Opera House has just announced that Sambe will be making his debut as Oberon in the Dream dancing with Hayward and that Campbell will dance Oberon with Morera. In addition Polunin will be dancing in Marguerite and Armand. The latter piece of information may shift some more tickets.

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1 hour ago, FLOSS said:

The Royal Opera House has just announced that Sambe will be making his debut as Oberon in the Dream dancing with Hayward and that Campbell will dance Oberon with Morera. In addition Polunin will be dancing in Marguerite and Armand. The latter piece of information may shift some more tickets.

 

Funny it would definitely be Sambe and Campbell that would the greater sell for me .... (but then I already have a place to ALL the performances of this bill.  Wouldn't dream of missing it.  Luscious.)

Edited by Bruce Wall
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I think I would have booked for all the performances if the last ballet was Daphnis and Chloe, but the M and A casts are enticing, and who knows, they might be able to recreate some of the Fonteyn/Nureyev magic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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I am very much looking forward to this triple and would have liked to see it more than once with different casts, but am content with my one ticket. It has certainly sold quickly, despite questions over casting now answered. I am fully expecting it to be wonderful, along with Mayerling next month. Having seen what's on offer for  2017/18 it will be a while before I darken the ROH door again.

Edited by Jacqueline
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1 hour ago, Mary said:

Looking forward very much to Campbell as Oberon- perfect- and with Morera- will be one of the season's highlights I feel sure. Did he dance the role with BRB? (surely?)

 

 

No, but he did dance Puck with BRB ... and very wonderful he was too!

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I am happy to see the casting information now complete, really I am. I already have a ticket to 1 performance by each cast so the new information doesn't change much for me. What I would really like to know, however, is the additional cast for Symphonic Variations. Why only list the lead couple when the other two couples are on stage  for the entire piece? Surely they must have selected the other couples by now? This is one of my favourite ballets and I am looking forward to it, perhaps more so than the other pieces on the programme.

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Booked to see Haywood as she has been ill last two times I went to see her. Sorry to miss Osipova, Polonin and Hayward but won't stretch for another ticket. Looking forward to Sambe and excited to know who the lovers will be.

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3 hours ago, Jam Dancer said:

I am happy to see the casting information now complete, really I am. I already have a ticket to 1 performance by each cast so the new information doesn't change much for me. What I would really like to know, however, is the additional cast for Symphonic Variations. Why only list the lead couple when the other two couples are on stage  for the entire piece? Surely they must have selected the other couples by now? This is one of my favourite ballets and I am looking forward to it, perhaps more so than the other pieces on the programme.

Yes! All 6  important in Symphonic Variations- that's the whole point isn't it?

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I wish I could sell my ticket for M & A (at a third of the face value, naturally).  I've never liked it and Polunin is not on my must-see list.

 

If only the ROH would consider selling tickets for individual parts of their mixed bills, I'm sure they would never have empty seats again!

 

Linda

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1 hour ago, loveclassics said:

I wish I could sell my ticket for M & A (at a third of the face value, naturally).  I've never liked it and Polunin is not on my must-see list.

 

If only the ROH would consider selling tickets for individual parts of their mixed bills, I'm sure they would never have empty seats again!

 

Linda

I am wondering if they have a lot of empty seats in Jewels which does not appear to be selling well.

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31 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

I am wondering if they have a lot of empty seats in Jewels which does not appear to be selling well.

I have been to three different performances of Jewels and I haven't seen a lot of empty seats. I'm just on my way home from this evening's performance and although it didn't appear to be completely full like last evening's performance, It was well attended.

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49 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

I am wondering if they have a lot of empty seats in Jewels which does not appear to be selling well.

 

I've just had a quick look at some of the remaining performances.  While not sold out it still looks pretty full to me.

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1 hour ago, aileen said:

There was a Time Out offer for Jewels which offered generous discounts. There were quite a few empty seats at tonight's performance which was not covered by the offer for some reason.

Just checked.  It really does not seem to be selling well. Too soon or/and perhaps it is the we are narrative animals and stories are generally more popular with the general public.

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They may look hilarious to our eyes but they are like that for a reason - each one of the men is dressed to resemble a fashionable 'celebrity' of the time - I can't remember who they all are except that one is Liszt.  (And incidentally I saw a young man in London this week who had exactly the hairstyle and moustache of one of them, worn for stylishness rather than irony by the look of him!)

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Why so many performances for Jewels and yet so few for Ashton? It doesn't even make commercial sense as Ashton is so popular and always sells well.  Does this reflect management's current position to Ashton? Paying lip service to the great founder choreographer yet seldom reviving old works and staging the same few over and over again. Next season for example, yes Sylvia is being revived at last but it is not being filmed whereas Alice and Winters Tale are. Both have been filmed far more recently than Sylvia and Alice has already been filmed twice. I realise Alice can be seen as a 'family' ballet but my idea of a Christmas Ashton double of Les Patineurs and 2 Pigeons would I'm sure sell well and be a welcome change to zillions of Nutcrackers. Also no Ashton mixed bill next season. I'd hoped that would have been a regular part of programming as they always sell well and provide the welcome change of a mixed bill I actually want to see; not something I can say of any of the next season's mixed bills on offer with the possible exception of the Concerto one but that is only being performed mid-week making access very difficult for those of us living at a distance.

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7 hours ago, Alice Shortcake said:

Am I alone in thinking that the costumes and wigs for some of the supporting characters in M&A are hilariously awful?

What makes them look so odd is that most of the men wear trousers but Armand is in the classic tights, due, I believe to Nureyev's insistence.  He also trimmed the length of the tailcoat because he said it made him look like a head waiter.

 

Incidentally, the addition of the riding crop in one scene is (unintentially, I trust) hilariously camp.  And Armand's exit in that scene was mimicked by Morecambe and Wise in many of their shows.  No wonder I can't take it seriously anymore.

 

Linda

Edited by loveclassics
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2 hours ago, jmhopton said:

Why so many performances for Jewels and yet so few for Ashton? It doesn't even make commercial sense as Ashton is so popular and always sells well.  Does this reflect management's current position to Ashton? Paying lip service to the great founder choreographer yet seldom reviving old works and staging the same few over and over again. Next season for example, yes Sylvia is being revived at last but it is not being filmed whereas Alice and Winters Tale are. Both have been filmed far more recently than Sylvia and Alice has already been filmed twice. I realise Alice can be seen as a 'family' ballet but my idea of a Christmas Ashton double of Les Patineurs and 2 Pigeons would I'm sure sell well and be a welcome change to zillions of Nutcrackers. Also no Ashton mixed bill next season. I'd hoped that would have been a regular part of programming as they always sell well and provide the welcome change of a mixed bill I actually want to see; not something I can say of any of the next season's mixed bills on offer with the possible exception of the Concerto one but that is only being performed mid-week making access very difficult for those of us living at a distance.

I haven't yet commented on next season's programming as I am still recovering from a mixture of slight disappointment and shock....(Age of Anxiety)! I must point out that its the first season of K O'Hare's tenure that I have felt quite this way, so credit to him, 1 out of 7 isn't bad! Like JMHopton, I was also hoping for a Patineurs/Pigeons double bill at Christmas, possibly followed by a Rendezvous/Pigeons double bill in the spring. Maybe I should stick to the wish of the Patineurs bill as 6 or 7 shows wouldn't give enough performances to all the wonderful Blue Boys there could be: McRae, Campbell, Sambé, Hay, Kay, Yudes. I am really enjoying this run of Jewels and, as others here have commented themselves, I have never enjoyed this ballet quite so much before: which makes me sad that it has sold slowly, as did (it pains me to point out) Fille and both Pigeons' bills. I believe the ticket sales picked up during those runs and certainly the audiences gave both ballets an extremely warm reception at the many performances that I attended. I am looking forward to this current Ashton triple bill. I can never see Symphonic Variations too many times, I love The Dream although not quite as much as I used to. Maybe the company will be able to polish it to shine anew as they have done with Beauty and Jewels this season. The casting for The Dream is very tantalizing, also for Marguerite and Armand. Even if the latter is not my favourite Ashton ballet, its a fitting piece for Zenaida Yanowsky's retirement from the company at the Garden. (I wish Yanowsky wasn't retiring - such a wonderful artist). Like BerylH though, I would have much preferred Daphnis and Chlöe on this programme. Francesca Hayward is Chlöe!!!   Its easy to picture Vadim Muntagirov looking stunning in Daphnis' beautiful variation with the crook; Alexander Campbell would be great in any male role in this ballet! Beatrix Stix-Brunell; Chlöe or Lykanion? Maybe the former as there are still two beautiful Lykanions with Nunez and Morera. Arestis, Storm-Jensen and Roscoe for the Nymphs of Pan! I'll be glad to see Sylvia again next season (Iike others here, I also see Tierney Heap in this role). I hope we will be offered a larger and more varied diet of Ashton in the 2018/2019 season and not just the predictable pieces such as La Valse (tick the box for company Ashton piece) and A Month in the Country (tick the box for great story ballet and star vehicle) as much as I love both these ballets. As someone else on this forum pointed out it will be Fonteyn's centenary year: let's hope for Ondine and a Margot triple bill. What with that and my previous wish for Patineurs and Pigeons it would be a reasonable year for Ashton! Ohhh...and then there's the question of Cinderella...

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Just noticed a block of tickets have gone on sale for the Osipova M and A performance on Monday 5th June. there are 54 tickets listed, mainly in stalls blocks but there are a couple of £44 ones in side stalls circle, quite good ones. None in amphi.  Also 35 tickets for the Sat. matinee June 3rd which I thought had been sold our for ages; 22 in amphi (mainly slips) and some side stalls circle.  Now only the last performance seems sold out so I don't know if other performances have also had 'returned' tickets.

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These ticket sales seem to be getting ridiculous.  I don't remember it being like this in the past. 

 

I am not sure I agree with people who think that Les Patineurs would be great on a bill with the 2 Pigeons at Christmas.  I see the latter as more of a summery ballet for some reason, not quite sure why.  There is nothing about the gypsy dancers that suggests a certain time of year, is there?  Maybe it is all the costumes for the ladies seem more appropriate to lovely hot days rather than chilly winter ones.  I would prefer to see Les Patineurs as the last ballet on a triple bill, possibly with two other plotless ballets by very different choreographers.  

 

I would be very happy not to see Month in the Country for the next 10 years, I feel I have seen it so many times.  

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1 hour ago, penelopesimpson said:

Wish I understood what gives with ROH box office.  First the two Polunun performances are like gold dust so friend snaps up some from ticket agency at horrid price.  Now, apparently. About 50 people who had tickets for the 5th have all decided to wash their hair.

 

sigh

 

It is called dynamic pricing. In addition to many other aspects, companies hold back tickets so they are not purchased by those broker / ticket agencies selling to your friend and the ROH itself can make more of a profit.

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1 hour ago, lull said:

 

It is called dynamic pricing. In addition to many other aspects, companies hold back tickets so they are not purchased by those broker / ticket agencies selling to your friend and the ROH itself can make more of a profit.

I'd like to think you were right, but I doubt it.  Whether ROH sells its tickets straightaway or holds back to a later date, theprice to ROH remains the same.  The only people being 'robbed' are thosepTrons who believe e ROH when they say Sold Out and then go elsewhere at an inflated price.  I am annoyed for my friend who has now paid over the odds for tickets becaus she believed RO H when they said they were sold out.

 

i may be missing something here, but it almost seems like the Box Office is colluding with the ticket agencies (probably unwittingly) to drive prices up.  I am going to investigate this one.

 

 

 

 

 

ieved ar

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1 hour ago, lull said:

 

It is called dynamic pricing. In addition to many other aspects, companies hold back tickets so they are not purchased by those broker / ticket agencies selling to your friend and the ROH itself can make more of a profit.

Could you explain, please, how they 'make more of a profit?'

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