Royal Ballet: Asphodel Meadows / The Two Pigeons / RBS: The Cunning Little Vixen, 2019

[SheilaC]

One of my all time favourite ballets is Bruce's Intimate Pages, to Janacek's Second String  Quartet, which was also used by Lynn Seymour, Kylian and Mark Baldwin, among others.

 

Re last night's Two Pigeons I thought Hay was profoundly moving, a totally convincing portrayal of the Young Man's feelings and development. I have liked all the casts a lot but not all the Young Girls have demonstrated the stroppiness of Lynn Seymour, who created the part, it shouldn't just be humorous, in my view..

[LinMM]

Well I loved loved loved the show last night. I would like to see Asphodel Meadows more as this was only my second time with a large gap in between  so don't know the work that well. I thought Magri and Dyer were especially good but enjoyed the final lively movement with Meghan Grace Hinkis and Luca Acri.....he seems to be definitely growing in stature as a dancer .....had to look up the music afterwards to discover it was Poulenc! 

I just don't know how to express the joy of watching James Hay Akane Takada and Mayara Magri in Two Pigeons.

Hay and Takada just suit each other so well and I really loved seeing the more feisty side of Takada in this ballet. I loved the gypsy scene forgotten how dancey the music is in this Act with a Hungarian feel to it ....must be great to actually dance it ....everyone really looked good and I've started noticing some of the younger dancers ....need to look a couple up ....but if you weren't in a theatre in some other scenario  this  "troupe" would have got everybody up dancing I feel!! Magri and Zuchetti were terrific in this scene. 

The tissue came out as soon as Hay started coming down the stairs with the pigeon perched happily on his shoulder .....and to that music almost hymn like.... just so romantic......From the Amphi his  body movements said it all but would have loved to have been close enough to see those eyes of his ...so expressive when you are close enough. Takada too danced with her eyes yesterday ....completely convincing. An added touching moment was as Hay placed the pigeon delicately on the chair he went to give it a final stroke and the pigeon looked as if he gave him a bit of a parting peck ....which suited the scenario quite well I thought! The following pas de deux was just a moving and sublime piece of dancing by these two.....it's very unusual for me but I was gone completely and had to faff around for another tissue and when they thrust through the chair finally joyfully  reunited again and the second pigeon flew to the chair and perched next to the other one just as it was supposed to ....well...somebody else said here why is that second pigeon is just so moving and I don't know either but it is!! The brilliance of an Ashton ballet I suppose. 

Would love to have Two pigeons at least every other year.....last nights performance was my best of this season so far for me. 

 

 

 

 

[JohnS]

I meant to say how spoiled we were over the weekend with the Gypsy boys of Joseph Sissens in the matinee and David Yudes in the evening.  And Harrison Lee was a late replacement in Asphodel Meadows for both performances - he was stunning as the Blue Boy in Les Partineurs at the Royal Ballet School’s Annual Performance a couple of years ago and looked incredibly accomplished on stage yesterday.  We really do have fabulously talented dancers throughout the Royal Ballet.

[Richard LH]

36 minutes ago, LinMM said:

I just don't know how to express the joy of watching James Hay Akane Takada and Mayara Magri in Two Pigeons

Lin I have to disagree... your great review expresses the joy beautifully!

[LinMM]

Thankyou Richard LH!! 

It is such a pleasure to see young dancers really developing in all aspects. 

I wouldn't have necessarily thought that Akane Takada was a natural for Two Pigeons but she completely surprised me yesterday and definitely is now!! I think others have seen her recently in other roles demanding more acting and have noticed this change. 

She has always been exquisite in the technical sense but is rapidly becoming the one to book for!! 

Ive always thought James Hay had an engaging stage personality ( I have seen him from a better seat than last night) but his dancing is  clean and expressive and been more powerful recently. 

So a win win situation!! 

I didn't realise I was such an Ashton fan but do seem to be drawn to his ballets and they are the ones I would most liked to have danced in myself....in a parallel universe that is! 

There are so many good combinations in this run of Two Pigeons ......I think Choe is particularly suited to the role ....and must have been great with Campbell yesterday too but would love to have seen Hayward in the role....next time.

I still have another chance to wallow with Nagdhi in the role.....should officially be with Bracewell but he was injured yesterday so hopefully not too serious .....but if he hasn't recovered was just wondering who might partner her ....would love to see Muntagirov or Ball or of course even Hay again!! 

[Riva]

SUCH a joy to have James Hay back on stage last night, he really was superb at conveying the frustrations and emotions of the young man. The expression on his face during the pas de deux in act 1 just after the pigeons have flown by was absolutely priceless - it conveyed so much. Elegant line and a passionate conviction of storytelling through his movement. 

 

I love The Two Pigeons. The music, the choreography, the story, the designs, it all works for me. Yesterday evening benefitted from a great cast - I was really pleased to see David Yudes cast as the gypsy boy - what a brilliant dancer he is. Another strong performance from Mayara Magri and I am enjoying seeing Akane Takada perform so well and in such varied roles over the last year or so.

 

Unfortunately my view from row D of the central stalls was severely restricted - I have no idea why these seats are placed in the higher price category, I have hugely regretted choosing them as a treat this booking period! Visibility seemed much worse during Asphodel Meadows, so I don’t feel I can pass significant comment on it. I really enjoyed the music, and thought the supporting artists were brilliant. What I could see of the choreography I enjoyed - felt that the second movement pas de deux performed by Mayara Magri and Tristan Dyer felt a little more polished and synchronised than the others. 

 

Really looking forward to seeing Yuhui Choe/Alexander Campbell and Yasmine Naghdi/William Bracewell (hoping he is fully recovered) in The Two Pigeons - as another poster said above, I could happily book for this every other year. 

 

Edited February 3, 2019 by Riva
Typo

[LinMM]

Was the restriction in view because it's not raked enough eg: heads etc in the way?

Otherwise as it was central stalls you wouldn't expect any view restriction .....though I rarely sit in the stalls.

[alison]

On ‎02‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 20:48, ninamargaret said:

Takes a lot to produce tears in my case but this performance certainly did. And I hadn't noticed the hand to the head befi; must watch out for it when I go on Tuesday. 

 

Mmm, my left eye was somewhat moist yesterday, too   Last time around, I only noticed the hand bit I think first in the Campbell cast, and later in the Hay one, but it certainly works well.

 

16 hours ago, Jan McNulty said:

I'd never seen Asphodel Meadows before and I have to say I was absolutely bowled over by it.  I loved the music and I think Liam Scarlett used it to perfection.

 

My only complaint, as I think I may have mentioned last time around, is that it's also the music used for Christopher Hampson's Double Concerto for ENB, which I think I perhaps like even more.

 

Quote

As with the performances last time around the stage in the crowd scenes looked empty to me compared to the smaller stages on which I have seen BRB perform the ballet.  That is the only minor quibble about this RB production that I could come up with!

 

I'm afraid I have another one, which is that the staging is really unsuited to the physical environment of the Royal Opera House   There are a fairly considerable number of seats from which the artist's easel and his chair more or less can't be seen, which rather tends to dull one's appreciation of Act I.  That may have been a contributing factor to why I preferred the evening performance.  Not only that, but after his escape from the gypsy encampment Campbell's acquiring of the dove was unseen, and his body somehow managed (was the bird misbehaving a little?) to block my view of it as he went off stage at the opposite side.  Had I not known it was happening, I'm sure I'd have been completely unaware of how he ended up in the final scene with a pigeon on one shoulder!

 

15 hours ago, ninamargaret said:

And I agree with Jan there were an awful lot of teary eyes where I was sitting!

 

I heard a lot of sniffing from the amphi and slips from quite early on!

 

13 hours ago, Richard LH said:

We loved the exuberant gypsy dances and were pleased that the boys and girls in the corps deserved, and received,  much praise for their fabulous skiils.  

 

I do feel, though, that - as in La Fille Mal Gardée - the 8 main supporting men do enough work to be credited in the cast list along with the women (the Girl's friends).

[alison]

On ‎02‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 19:38, bridiem said:

The Two Pigeons - overcome all over again by its brilliance. So full of beauty, symbolism, and the most profound of human feelings and behaviours. Lightweight rom com this ain't (or at least only at one of its countless levels). [...]  It has echoes of so many familiar themes (love, betrayal, weakness, attraction to evil, attraction to the unknown, discontent with the familiar, loss, reconciliation, forgiveness etc), all packaged in a work of incredible beauty and apparent simplicity.

 

Quite.  And then you get people criticising it for being outmoded, I think largely because the girl is so passive and just sits moping around in their garret after her boyfriend abandons her.  I can't help thinking they're missing the point somewhat.

[alison]

On ‎02‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 23:20, capybara said:

 

And why (especially on the basis of tonight's performance) is he not being given a shot at Basilio in Don Q or Romeo or Belaiev? 

 

On ‎02‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 23:51, annamk said:

Surely he deserved a Romeo, after all it's a long run and a number of other Romeos have multiple performances. It would have been amazing if he could have been Takada's Romeo, ever since their first Two Pigeons and then their stellar Sleeping Beauty I have thought how much they complement each other. They seem to hear the music at the same time and their styles are similar. 

 

16 hours ago, capybara said:

I recall a time, way back, when there were doubts that James would be strong enough to dance Hans Peter (with Sabine Westcombe) but, since then, with a partner physically suited to him, his partnering has been fine, to my eyes at least.

 

17 hours ago, Bruce Wall said:

[Hay] is one of my favourite dancers with the Company just now.  [...]  You could feel the full force of that floor bump after the chair had been pulled from under him - courtesy of those brilliantine Chaplinesque eyes of his.  (Last night I had only wished he might have made even more use of those stunning assets.  Had he been about in the 20's I'm certain he'd be a silent film star by now.)  Such a fine dance actor - one entirely fulsome and yet always delivering through the simplest of means.  [...]

 

I can understand perhaps the Company's reticence over a Romeo for Hay.  More Mercutio methinks.  I have a feeling that Hay is not a MacMillan 'heavy lifter' - and IMHO we are all perhaps better for that.  [...]  That said his demi-character MacMillian portrayals are blazing.  Who could forget his Lescault or Bratfisch .... He is a special artist and  deserves to be cherished as such. 

 

I totally agree with Bruce's comment about the eyes, which spoke volumes last night, even to me in the Balcony.  And I suspect he has hit the nail on the head here in relation to casting - Romeo requires quite a lot of heavy-duty partnering, Basilio involves bum lifts and so on, Belaiev is usually given to tall, rather leggy dancers (and doesn't Hay dance Kolia, or am I imagining it? (none of which explains, I think, why Hay couldn't have been cast as Albrecht).  Alternatively, could it just be that he's at a similar stage in his career to where Edward Watson was 15 years ago (gulp!), where he was being given a lot of good roles which made great use of his skills, but mostly ones not requiring much partnering input because he was underpowered in that department back then?  We all know what happened after that ... 

 

Quote

 It is so nice to have Hay back - and he looked so endearingly emotional at the initial curtain calls. 

 

I thought I detected perhaps a bit more of a glitter in his eye than I might have expected ...

 

9 hours ago, SheilaC said:

Re last night's Two Pigeons I thought Hay was profoundly moving, a totally convincing portrayal of the Young Man's feelings and development.

 

2 hours ago, Riva said:

SUCH a joy to have James Hay back on stage last night, he really was superb at conveying the frustrations and emotions of the young man. The expression on his face during the pas de deux in act 1 just after the pigeons have flown by was absolutely priceless - it conveyed so much. Elegant line and a passionate conviction of storytelling through his movement. 

 

I very much agree - with both of these.

 

6 hours ago, LinMM said:

An added touching moment was as Hay placed the pigeon delicately on the chair he went to give it a final stroke and the pigeon looked as if he gave him a bit of a parting peck ....which suited the scenario quite well I thought!

 

I thought so too - on both counts.

 

[Riva]

7 hours ago, LinMM said:

Was the restriction in view because it's not raked enough eg: heads etc in the way?

Otherwise as it was central stalls you wouldn't expect any view restriction .....though I rarely sit in the stalls.

 

Yes LinMM heads right in the way blocking fairly chunky parts of the stage. I now know that the rake doesn’t start until further back (I think I heard somewhere around K) but that being the case, why are the ‘unraked’ seats charged at top price when you have a fairly high chance of not being able to see large swathes of the stage? 

[Richard LH]

A lovely   picture of this trio from James Hay's instagram page.

Edited February 4, 2019 by Richard LH

[Jan McNulty]

7 hours ago, alison said:

  Not only that, but after his escape from the gypsy encampment Campbell's acquiring of the dove was unseen, and his body somehow managed (was the bird misbehaving a little?) to block my view of it as he went off stage at the opposite side.  Had I not known it was happening, I'm sure I'd have been completely unaware of how he ended up in the final scene with a pigeon on one shoulder!

 

 

 

The pigeon behaved magnificently.  Sorry Alison, I had a wonderful view!

[RuthE]

2 hours ago, Riva said:

 

Yes LinMM heads right in the way blocking fairly chunky parts of the stage. I now know that the rake doesn’t start until further back (I think I heard somewhere around K) but that being the case, why are the ‘unraked’ seats charged at top price when you have a fairly high chance of not being able to see large swathes of the stage? 

 

The rake starts at F.  And you may have seen much discussion here in the past about the idiocy of some of the recent seat re-pricing.

[LinMM]

It's outrageous high prices should be charged for unraked seats.....even if they are in the stalls. Some concession should at least be made and some info that views could be impaired.....especially for smaller people.....but won't spoil the Two Pigeons thread with this downer.

 

Love the piccie RichardLH!!

 

[Sarah langfield]

Mayara Magri mesmeric in both performances, I found it hard to watch anyone else! Enjoyed James Hay and David Yudes too.

 

[FLOSS]

The one mystery about Asphodel Meadows is why, after its very successful first outing it took the company so long to revive it ? The score is Poulenc at his quirky best and Scarlett's choreography certainly rises to the challenges which the music presents to the dance-maker. In addition the choreography is actually memorable and I can't say that of much of the new choreography which the company has staged of late. It might be a bit early for a full evening of Scarlett but a programme which included Viscera,Asphodel Meadows  plus something of a real contrast in the form of a neglected Ashton work, of which there are far too many, would be welcome. Having said that I should rather like to see what Symphonic Dances looks like a couple of seasons after its premiere.

 

As far as Two Pigeons is concerned it is good to see it back and to discover that all of the casts are making far more of it than they did when it was first revived. It is sad that it has been selling so slowly and that the Marketing Department is doing so little to boost ticket sales. I hope that it sells well enough to guarantee  it will be revived in future seasons. I assume that marketing is far too busy re-categorising seats and playing jiggery-pokery with seat prices to actually try to persuade people to buy tickets for this and other slow selling programmes.

 

 So what of the Two Pigeons or, as the database insists you must call it if you want to read the incomplete account of who has danced in it on the Covent Garden stage," Les Deux Pigeons" ? It may owe it origins and its music to Merante's balletic account of de la Fontaine's allegorical poem but what is being danced is pure Ashton with its narrative elements pared down to the essentials. It may not be "realistic" in the way that MacMillan claims for his characters and their narrative experiences which seem far closer to the big emotions of verismo opera than  anything that people experience in every day life. Ashton's approach is smaller scale and I think more emotionally truthful than is generally served up in a MacMillan dram-ballet. Ashton's relies on the audiences' recognition of characters their emotional states and situations. None of his characters are ever going to end up dying in a Louisiana swamp or in a suicide pact and his Romeo and Juliet is far more concerned with the personal tragedy of the young lovers  than presenting the narrative as an epic opera house-scale tragedy.

 

In this revival no one has presented us with a generic portrayal of a young girl which might be pressed into service by someone asked to dance the lead role in Coppelia but I have quibbles about some casting choices. Cuthbertson has managed to make her Young Girl seem less grand and emotionally mature than she appeared when she first tackled the role but to me she is still too sophisticated and a bit too much like Aurora having an off-day to be totally convincing in the role. She is not sufficiently irritating and lacking in self knowledge to be convincing however beautifully she reproduces the steps. She is a wonderful Sylvia and perhaps Kevin should accept that she is more suited to ballerina roles than ingenue ones. We need to see the girl's immaturity; that she lacks insight; is incapable of understanding the emotional situation in which she finds herself; that she is tiresome and that she is totally impotent when it comes to dealing with the threat which the Gipsy poses.It is a comedy about immaturity and recognition of the mistakes everyone makes when they are young. The point at which she removes the chair which the young man is about to sit on is not a simple piece of slapstick, as some would see it, but an action which encapsulates the state of the couple's relationship.

 

Of the casts I have seen so far the one which has given me greatest pleasure, and I think, has come closet  to capturing the couple who Ashton created was Stix-Brunnell and Clarke largely because she makes the girl really irritating. Again I can only express regret that the pair have only been given a single show.. Morera is the best thing about the Cuthbertson, Muntigirov cast. Although  he is far less princely than he was when he first danced the role being an ordinary young man does not come as easily to Muntigirov as it does to dancers like  Clarke and Ball. I thought that Campbell was wonderful as the young man but Choe is still a bit too grand and does not do frustration and impotence convincingly.If I can't have another performance by Stix-Brunell and Clarke then the next best thing is a performance by Hay, Takada and Magri  who get the characterisation absolutely right. Magri's Gipsy revels in her allure and her power over men and comes closer to Morera's account of the role than anyone else I have seen in the role in the last twenty years. I look forward to the rest of the run and in particular Naghdi's debut.

 

There was a discussion further up the thread of Hay's suitability for other roles and his appearance with Naghdi in the classical pas de deux in MacMillan's Anastasia. I will simply say that I found their account of the choreography far more convincing than any of the other casts who appeared in it during the run as it was only their performance which came close to Andrew Porter's description of it as looking like a piece of choreography from a long forgotten Petipa orientalist ballet. It certainly looked that way in the ballet's early days when it was performed by Sibley and Dowell for whom it was made but current performance practice and in particular freeze framing breaks up its flow and seems to emphasise its technical challenges. There was one lift that did not come off that well when Hay and Naghdi performed the pas de deux and that is where the man holds his partner pressed to his chest as she makes a curved poisson shape but I would not swear that anyone else made a much better job of it. The great thing about the Naghdi, Hay performance which I only saw by chance was that they performed the pas de deux as  a  continuous flow of movement and the choreography looked all the better for that approach. Their performance was very impressive given the amount of time they must have had to prepare it. The more senior casts' indulgence in modern performance practices such as  freeze framing at regular intervals made the choreography look choppy and awkward in performance.

[bangorballetboy]

4 minutes ago, FLOSS said:

The one mystery about Asphodel Meadows is why, after its very successful first outing it took the company so long to revive it ? The score is Poulenc at his quirky best and Scarlett's choreography certainly rises to the challenges which the music presents to the dance-maker. In addition the choreography is actually memorable and I can't say that of much of the new choreography which the company has staged of late. It might be a bit early for a full evening of Scarlett but a programme which included Viscera,Asphodel Meadows  plus something of a real contrast in the form of a neglected Ashton work, of which there are far too many, would be welcome. Having said that I should rather like to see what Symphonic Dances looks like a couple of seasons after its premiere.

 

Asphodel Meadows was revived the season following its premiere run, but I assume the gap since then has been more to do with allowing Scarlett to create new works on the company than anything else.  Controversial I know, but I'd rather fancy a triple bill of Viscera, Sweet Violets and Asphodel Meadows (in that order).

[zxDaveM]

5 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

Asphodel Meadows was revived the season following its premiere run, but I assume the gap since then has been more to do with allowing Scarlett to create new works on the company than anything else.  Controversial I know, but I'd rather fancy a triple bill of Viscera, Sweet Violets and Asphodel Meadows (in that order).

 

swop Sweet Violets for Symphonic Dances, and I'm there!

[bridiem]

15 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

Asphodel Meadows was revived the season following its premiere run, but I assume the gap since then has been more to do with allowing Scarlett to create new works on the company than anything else.  Controversial I know, but I'd rather fancy a triple bill of Viscera, Sweet Violets and Asphodel Meadows (in that order).

 

I would only want to see Sweet Violets again it if it's been reviewed/pruned/revised so that there isn't just so much (too much) of everything in it. (Related to which, I understand Frankenstein has been looked at again, which I'm glad to hear.) But with that proviso that could be a pretty good bill.

[JohnS]

20 minutes ago, bridiem said:

I would only want to see Sweet Violets again it if it's been reviewed/pruned/revised so that there isn't just so much (too much) of everything in it.

 

I do hope you’re not suggesting cutting any of the music - that would be sacrilege.

[ElleC]

1 hour ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

Asphodel Meadows was revived the season following its premiere run, but I assume the gap since then has been more to do with allowing Scarlett to create new works on the company than anything else.  Controversial I know, but I'd rather fancy a triple bill of Viscera, Sweet Violets and Asphodel Meadows (in that order).

Give me Asphodel Meadows, Sweet Violets and Symphonic Dances, and I'd not only be at pretty much every performance, but I'd also want a DVD!!!

[Tony Newcombe]

Sweet Violets with Leanne Cope guesting

[bangorballetboy]

And certainly Sweet Violets before Laura Morera has notions of retirement!

[bridiem]

1 hour ago, JohnS said:

 

I do hope you’re not suggesting cutting any of the music - that would be sacrilege.

 

No, not the music! I just remember it being so crowded with scenery and plot and characters that it was like watching a full-length work squashed into a one-acter. (And no, I wouldn't want it expanded to a full-length...).

[ElleC]

9 minutes ago, bangorballetboy said:

And certainly Sweet Violets before Laura Morera has notions of retirement!

 

That also applies to Symphonic Dances …

[Fonty]

3 hours ago, FLOSS said:

As far as Two Pigeons is concerned it is good to see it back and to discover that all of the casts are making far more of it than they did when it was first revived. It is sad that it has been selling so slowly and that the Marketing Department is doing so little to boost ticket sales. I hope that it sells well enough to guarantee  it will be revived in future seasons. I assume that marketing is far too busy re-categorising seats and playing jiggery-pokery with seat prices to actually try to persuade people to buy tickets for this and other slow selling programmes.

 

 

 

I haven't seen a single poster for anything at the Royal Opera House on the tube.  Might just the route I take, but I have seen several for Victoria by Northern Ballet.  And a splendid poster it is too, by the way. 

 

Edited to add there a loads of cheap seats left in the amphitheatre for the last performance.  Exactly the sort of prices that should attract newcomers to the ballet. If only they knew about it.....

Edited February 4, 2019 by Fonty

[Lizbie1]

13 minutes ago, Fonty said:

I haven't seen a single poster for anything at the Royal Opera House on the tube. 

 

That’ll be because they’re channelling their marketing budget towards Facebook ads. Remember that “£1,000 of tickets sold for every £1” spent claim?

 

Sadlers Wells/NB obviously need to get with the times.

[Mary]

8 hours ago, FLOSS said:

It may not be "realistic" in the way that MacMillan claims for his characters and their narrative experiences which seem far closer to the big emotions of verismo opera than  anything that people experience in every day life. Ashton's approach is smaller scale and I think more emotionally truthful than is generally served up in a MacMillan dram-ballet. Ashton's relies on the audiences' recognition of characters their emotional states and situations. None of his characters are ever going to end up dying in a Louisiana swamp or in a suicide pact and his Romeo and Juliet is far more concerned with the personal tragedy of the young lovers  than presenting the narrative as an epic opera house-scale tragedy.

Absolutely agree.

I feel very sorry for anyone who finds Macmillan 'realistic' in that sense- their lives must be so terrible I am surprised they would have time or energy to go to the ballet...

 

The reason so many people report weeping in Two Pigeons is precisely because the ballet speaks to the ordinary emotional experience of normal people, and that is what Ashton does so well in my view.

[Jan McNulty]

2 minutes ago, Mary said:

The reason so many people report weeping in Two Pigeons is precisely because the ballet speaks to the ordinary emotional experience of normal people, and that is what Ashton does so well in my view.

 

Totally agree Mary.  Ashton makes characters we care about.

[Sim]

So here's the irony:  the new marketeers at the ROH are trying to elbow out the regulars by raising prices to attract a new and younger audience.  Said audience doesn't transpire, and tickets are left unsold.  Who are the ones who have been buying tickets to see multiple casts of this double bill?  Hey, you guessed it!  The regulars!!  As I have said elsewhere, it is WE who continue buying tickets over the years to every production, whether it is new or old, good or not so good (well, within reason;  I am skipping Frankenstein altogether this time).  So when there is a glut of tickets, you can bet that the regulars have already bought theirs, or will fill in the gaps by buying more.  There would be a lot fewer tickets sold for these more unpopular/unknown productions if we weren't buying them.  So yes, we clearly deserve to be elbowed out.  I just wonder where the replacements will come from....especially if they have no idea what they are missing.

[zxDaveM]

rather than 'attract' I'd have said 'replaced with' (a new and younger audience). That newer audience (whether or not younger) not knowing that tickets used to be cheaper when regulars bought them, and so still see them as a 'bargain' compared to Stalls seat prices, for example. I would naturally assume that the audience already attracted (to look at ticket purchase), so its a case of making way from the old guard using the old economic supply and demand graph, manipulated by price increases. 

As for the attracting a newer audience in the first place - I'm slightly puzzled why they focus on the young so much - they have lots of other attractions, and once starting a home, no spare cash. I would have thought a better target audience would be found at a higher age group - those that no longer find gigs fun, but have spare cash now the offspring left home, and still have the vigour and curiosity to find something to do with their time and cash. Just my 2p worth! 🙂

[Scheherezade]

4 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

As for the attracting a newer audience in the first place - I'm slightly puzzled why they focus on the young so much - they have lots of other attractions, and once starting a home, no spare cash. I would have thought a better target audience would be found at a higher age group - those that no longer find gigs fun, but have spare cash now the offspring left home, and still have the vigour and curiosity to find something to do with their time and cash. Just my 2p worth! 🙂

That’s because you are able to exercise common sense and apply rudimentary principles of logic, zxDaveM. Those attributes are clearly way beyond the capabilities of the ROH marketers.