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The "new" Royal Opera House, Covent Garden


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I agree with bridiem - it's only since Richard LH's and bangorballetboy's posts that I appreciated that 'menu' was a link.  It's a great shame because I think there's a cleaner webdesign that complements Open Up somewhere in the ether.  Hopefully it will soon be fully available and functioning.

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Have just ordered snacks for the intervals in The Ring and am slightly alarmed to see that they are called 'takeaways'! Not sure where I'm supposed to eat them - probably no space in the PH bar, can't take them into the theatre, too old and creaky to sit on  the floor. Seems as though the new idea of openness will exclude those attending performances.

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13 hours ago, ninamargaret said:

Have just ordered snacks for the intervals in The Ring and am slightly alarmed to see that they are called 'takeaways'! Not sure where I'm supposed to eat them - probably no space in the PH bar, can't take them into the theatre, too old and creaky to sit on  the floor. Seems as though the new idea of openness will exclude those attending performances.

Likewise struggling with Mayerling.  Ah, the joys of inclusivity...

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36 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

Likewise struggling with Mayerling.  Ah, the joys of inclusivity...

 

What are you struggling with?

 

The "theatre" areas, including the Paul Hamlyn Hall, the Crush Room and the Amphi Bar (and Level 5 Restaurant, as it now called) will not be open to non-ticket-holders when there's a performance on.

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56 minutes ago, penelopesimpson said:

Likewise struggling with Mayerling.  Ah, the joys of inclusivity...

 

Perhaps, just perhaps, inclusivity may persuade non-ballet/opera goers to give it a whirl and go to a performance.

 

Long live inclusivity!!!!

 

I am sure the ROH will be more than aware of the needs of the people who are going to watch a performance.

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Yesterday between 5.00pm and 7.00pm, while bridging there between ENB and the Mayerling Insight, the Foyer was occupied mainly by familiar faces sitting chatting. There were two business meetings in progress and several people on their PCs. Very few were buying anything.

 

The range of snacks available was very poor. Whereas the Amphi Bar had sandwiches at the weekend, no such luck in the Foyer. Instead, no surprise (!), people were eating sandwiches from Pret and EAT. Also, the servery is so hidden away that several people were asking for directions to it. A bit of tweaking needed, I think.

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6 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

Perhaps, just perhaps, inclusivity may persuade non-ballet/opera goers to give it a whirl and go to a performance.

 

Long live inclusivity!!!!

 

I am sure the ROH will be more than aware of the needs of the people who are going to watch a performance.

Oh guys, do stop jumping all over me because I take a contrary view.  I can take it but it is noticeable...and somewhat tedious.

 

Yes, newcomers may decide to sample the wares but is ROH desperately in need of more visitors?  It is always full when I am there.  I am extremely pro new people cottoning on to ballet and opera and, in my modest way, do my best by bringing friends who haven't had the experience before.  Equally, however, given the enormous prices and general cost of a trip to ROH by us out-of-towners, I have no problem saying I don't want my experience diluted by even bigger crowds.  Totally un-PC, I know, but... Not aware of finding football stadiums flinging open their doors to attract a non-ticket audience other than for their shops.

 

I think Capybara's post above rather makes my point.  Shouldn't you jump in.....?

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7 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

What are you struggling with?

 

The "theatre" areas, including the Paul Hamlyn Hall, the Crush Room and the Amphi Bar (and Level 5 Restaurant, as it now called) will not be open to non-ticket-holders when there's a performance on.

I refer the honourable Box Office Member to NinaMargaret's post above.

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The things I'm most looking forward to are entering and exiting by the Piazza door again, and being able to sit down somewhere as soon as I arrive!

Does anyone know when "daytime" ends and "evening"  menus start at the Level 5 amphi bar? I suppose I'm going to have to buy a drink in order to get out onto the terrace the first time at least, in this case I will be going on to SW in the evening.

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1 hour ago, penelopesimpson said:

Oh guys, do stop jumping all over me because I take a contrary view.  I can take it but it is noticeable...and somewhat tedious.

 

Yes, newcomers may decide to sample the wares but is ROH desperately in need of more visitors?  It is always full when I am there.  I am extremely pro new people cottoning on to ballet and opera and, in my modest way, do my best by bringing friends who haven't had the experience before.  Equally, however, given the enormous prices and general cost of a trip to ROH by us out-of-towners, I have no problem saying I don't want my experience diluted by even bigger crowds.  Totally un-PC, I know, but... Not aware of finding football stadiums flinging open their doors to attract a non-ticket audience other than for their shops.

 

I think Capybara's post above rather makes my point.  Shouldn't you jump in.....?

 

I'm an out-of-towner too.  If I come for a matinee, as well as the train fare it costs me 2 nights kennelling for my dog.  The same but with the extra cost of a hotel for an evening performance.

 

I absolutely love the buzz of a full theatre, including public areas!  What I don't like is people making it sound that the ROH is an elite venue when it is anything but!

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Just come across another glitch on the ROH website. If you are looking at the People page for some background information about a member of the Royal Ballet, you had better just be looking for a Principal or a Jett Parker Young Artists because there are no other levels of dancers listed! http://www.roh.org.uk/people

 

Instead, you have to go to the 'old' Royal Ballet pages and follow the link in the menu for Dancers to find everyone else.

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1 hour ago, Anna C said:

 

Why the Jette Parker and not the Aud Jebsen young dancers??  How bizarre.

I think they just missed out the whole of the middle sections when they were updating the new pages. I imagine there are more glitches around and someone will have a very red face once  they get round to following up the various complaints.

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Notification of a possible small improvement in searching the online shop...new Art Form and Format filters.

 

Dear Richard,

The filters are now online, so you can browse the recordings by Opera / Ballet and also by format. Our developers will be looking into the functionality in more detail including the search facility but for now I hope this helps:

https://shop.roh.org.uk/collections/recordings

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I'm sorry to report some very negative comments from friends who have been sitting in the Amphi for The Ring Cycle:

  • toilet areas not cleaned/tidied before performance time, with wastepaper baskets overflowing, paper towels on the floor and some toilets blocked
  • general mess from eating not cleared away from tables
  • nowhere to sit/stand comfortably before curtain up or  in the intervals because non-ticket holders are occupying all the spaces
  • audible signals re. the end of an interval not clear out on the terrace (and visual signals missing as most occupants are not attending the opera)
  • more audience members than usual opting to stay in their seats during intervals because of the above issues.

I have also heard many expressions of concern about safety and security and that the toilets seem to have become the 'public' ones for the whole Covent Garden area.

 

But, a nice touch..................... Dancers using the foyer as a place to join up with friends/family and have business meetings.

 

 

 

Edited by capybara
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22 minutes ago, toursenlair said:

"vulgarism"? give me a break! do we really need this snobbish, gratuitous anti (North) American attitude on balletcoforum?

 

I have no problem with the word being used by North American but do find it a bit weird from a British speaker, so maybe that's what was meant. (Just as a North American might find certain primarily British words or pronunciations pretentious coming from a fellow Canadian or American.)

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2 hours ago, capybara said:

I'm sorry to report some very negative comments from friends who have been sitting in the Amphi for The Ring Cycle:

  • toilet areas not cleaned/tidied before performance time, with wastepaper baskets overflowing, paper towels on the floor and some toilets blocked
  • general mess from eating not cleared away from tables
  • nowhere to sit/stand comfortably before curtain up or  in the intervals because non-ticket holders are occupying all the spaces
  • audible signals re. the end of an interval not clear out on the terrace (and visual signals missing as most occupants are not attending the opera)
  • more audience members than usual opting to stay in their seats during intervals because of the above issues.

I have also heard many expressions of concern about safety and security and that the toilets seem to have become the 'public' ones for the whole Covent Garden area.

 

But, a nice touch..................... Dancers using the foyer as a place to join up with friends/family and have business meetings.

 

 

 

Does this refer to the downstairs new foyer? I thought we had been reassured that the amphi bar - and all the other bars -were for ticket holders only in the intervals?

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There were no bag checks at all for the Clore event yesterday, and tickets only had to be shown on entry to the studio itself. Is more public access is going to mean less security, and less comfort for paying customers outside the auditorium? The reports from opera goers are troubling.

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1 hour ago, Mary said:

Does this refer to the downstairs new foyer? I thought we had been reassured that the amphi bar - and all the other bars -were for ticket holders only in the intervals?

 

Not according to my friends. They have been telling me how it was for them in the Amphi area. Apparently, the terraces and other areas were occupied before, during and after the interval(s) by groups of drinkers.

 

Come 8th October, all of us ballet-goers will be able to see how it works for us. Fingers crossed.

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I was there both last night ( for the Clore event) and today and didn't  experience any problems as described above.

However in my longer exploratory day time visit today after a lovely drink up in the "new" Amphi terrace area.....I really like it I have to say....I did have a chat there with one of the "ushers" ...not sure what to call the staff on duty in the day time now....and I did ask what would happen if there was a performance on in the evening....would the Amphi area close to non ticket holders and he didn't think it would and said to me " well that's a good question....maybe they will ask people to move to the new downstairs bar area at performance times" But he wasn't that convinced that this would happen! He seemed keen to point out that there were not that many computer plug in points to discourage people from sitting there all day on their computers though.

Im sure someone has thought about all the extra work required to check the toilets etc once it's open all the time ....it was certainly fine on Thursday evening and this afternoon ....perhaps just a blip the other day then? 

On the whole I really like the new set up. I'd probably never eat there still but it's really nice being able to pop in and sit up in the Amphi area just for a cuppa if passing by. 

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Just to add I was surprised too that there seemed to be no bag checks on Thursday evening as such a lot has been made of this recently....with warnings not to bring big bags etc but absolutely nothing at all now!! 

I did only have a handbag though a bit of a luxury for me but in fact nobody wanted to even glance in this!! 

But then it's the same at the National Theatre and Festival Hall it seems .....are theatres everywhere relaxing a bit at the moment? 

 

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9 hours ago, Richard LH said:

There were no bag checks at all for the Clore event yesterday, and tickets only had to be shown on entry to the studio itself. Is more public access is going to mean less security, and less comfort for paying customers outside the auditorium? The reports from opera goers are troubling.

 

I had my bag checked (entering through the foyer doors of the main theatre) and had to show my ticket to get up the stairs from the “new” foyer.

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2 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

I had my bag checked (entering through the foyer doors of the main theatre) and had to show my ticket to get up the stairs from the “new” foyer.

 

We entered through the new door off Bow Street, into the new foyer/cafe area under the PH Hall. From what we could see, there were no bag checks from the Covent Garden piazza entrance either. It seems daft  to check bags at one entrance but not another.

We went up the stairs from the foyer/cafe area to the escalator and up to Level 5 and the Amphi terrace, display area etc. with no checks of tickets (or bags).  

To clarify, the place where our tickets were  checked was at the door from the Level 5 area leading to the stairs (two flights) up to the Clore studio, not the  actual studio door. Did you have your ticket checked there as well BBB?

 

But thinking back, all the new publicly accessible areas we saw (ground floor foyer/cafe and shop, lower ground floor next to Linbury, and Level 5 ) were very sparsely populated on Thursday evening, so it is surprising to hear that opera goers have found nowhere to sit/stand comfortably before curtain up or  in the intervals, because non-ticket holders were  occupying all the spaces. Are we sure these people were all non-ticket holders?

Edited by Richard LH
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2 hours ago, Richard LH said:

But thinking back, all the new publicly accessible areas we saw (ground floor foyer/cafe and shop, lower ground floor next to Linbury, and Level 5 ) were very sparsely populated on Thursday evening, so it is surprising to hear that opera goers have found nowhere to sit/stand comfortably before curtain up or  in the intervals, because non-ticket holders were  occupying all the spaces. Are we sure these people were all non-ticket holders?

 

On Thursday evening I arrived early at the ROH (around 5:30 pm) The outdoor terrace was almost full when I arrived but had thinned out by 7 pm. 

This might possibly explain the problems during Die Walküre as the performance will have started mid-afternoon. I sincerely hope this is the case as the amphitheatre bar and terraces were crowded enough during intervals before the House was opened up  to the general public.

Re Capybara's earlier post, the overflowing wastepaper baskets in the toilets were very much in evidence Thursday evening.  I visited the amphitheatre toilets just before the Insight was due to start and the baskets had not yet been emptied.

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19 minutes ago, John Mallinson said:

Is anyone feeding these problems back to ROH? They should.

 

Yes - in person to staff on duty and in writing - all in the spirit of helping the ROH to 'get it right'. 

Maybe it would help if more of us used the comments option  on the ROH news page?

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I got a rather nicely produced booklet through the post today, 'Linbury Theatre + Daytime OPEN'. It features all that's occurring in the new spaces for the season (with the photos that are already online in the 'What's On' listing), plus Insights and joining in type events. Nice 🙂

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