MAB

The bloodstains are usually because she's just committed murder. The director has imposed her own story line onto the plot.

As Lucia is based on The Bride of Lammermore by Walter Scott, clearly Scottish literature wasn't part of the syllabus.. I'm not against imagination in opera productions. I recently saw a Guilio Cesare inspired by Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile. At one point Cesare, in a white tuxedo, steps up to a 1929's style microphone to deliver a major aria. It was an evening of total joy, the producer did something entirely original without alienating his audience. I find fewer monstrosities on my European Opera jaunts. Perhaps the new opera boss will make wiser production choices than we see in London at present. My fingers are crossed.

Sorry. but what kind of mind comes up with this stuff? On a brighter note I thoroughly enjoyed Handel's Arianna in Creta at St George's, Hanover Square at the weekend. I'm starting to find concert performances of operas more and more attractive, which is strange as in the past I never cared much for them.

Had the late Clement Crisp made such a remark would you have accepted it? Buru seems familiar with the ballet and has seen other productions and is therefore not an SL novice. Surely it is best to be honest about what you see, after all it's only by experiencing the less good that you recognize the exceptional when you finally see it.

You're unlucky, we Londoners see the back catalogue. it's strictly rationed though.

I don't know of any other major house that operates in the same way. I'm getting sick to the back teeth with clambering over push chairs and competing with non opera goers for a seat on the amphi terrace. Even San Carlo with a huge refreshment area and adjoining garden is strictly for patrons. A shame ROH didn't have the imagination to follow the Monte Carlo model and build a casino to subsidise tickets.

Yes, I know, I'm becoming increasingly familiar with them.

A reason why so many opera goers I know are refusing to go. Opera directors! Put them in Room 101.

There was no fight. It was a mental health incident. I was sitting close beneath the slips and a friend was sitting in the slips who saw what I could only hear. Eventually the police sent for an ambulance. Hopefully the man is receiving the care he so obviously needs. A word of thanks to the ROH security staff who had to deal with a difficult situation and were subject to some dreadful verbal abuse. Thankfully these incidents are very rare and I hope those in the vicinity that were badly scared won't be put off from returning to ROH.

Of course the above discussion about New Orleans set me thinking. Wasn't New Orleans Spanish not long before? And wasn't it part of the Spanish Main? So surely to be truly authentic shouldn't it be peopled with Jack Sparrow lookalikes and men with wooden legs and parrots on their shoulders?

I remember it well, I saw all those companies that year and in February I made my first of many trips to Russia. I would give a lot to have a season like that again. Trips abroad will eventually bankrupt me.

Okay, if this is to turn into 'nominate a foreign star' If it is not too arrogant a suggestion. Giorgi Potskhishvili

If the director wanted a foreign star he could probably have secured Jacobo Tissi and/or David Motta Soares when they left Russia,. He didn't. With the RB's unique repertoire, dancers coming up the ranks would be a better fit for leading roles than those from different backgrounds. I've no objection to an occasional guest, but it would have to be someone very special.

I would have no objection to a dancer from outside who has danced with the company previously (e.g. Shklyarov) but at this point I would have the most strenuous objections to an outsider being parachuted in as it would block the progress of some very talented RB dancers. Can this subject for discussion please be a separate thread? This one should be solely about Alexander Campbell.

Yes.