Dawnstar

This is rather confusing to read. I was able to take curtain call photos on Wednesday without being stopped, as was the woman sat next to me (I was using a compact camera, she was using a phone), and as I was sat front row stalls I was hardly inconspicuous. Then I posted the same photos on Twitter yesterday that I'd posted on here tagging in BRB & they have "liked" my posts.

They seem to not be bothering to try to make the doubles look like the proper Odettes unless they happen to do so already. On Saturday evening Madison Bailey doubled for Sarah Lamb in the Prologue, which given how few blonde dancers there are in the RB is about as good at match as you can get, but as she was then dancing one of the Cygnets the double at the end of Act IV had brown hair rather than blonde! I agree with the comments about bows in Act II, especially @Fonty's post.

I see the better curtain call photographers were at Swan Lake tonight so I'm afraid you'll have to make do with mine! Some labelling because I for one wouldn't know who all either the dancers or characters were if I hadn't been there tonight. As it is now ten to three I will save my comments until tomorrow. The company Yu Kurihara (Aurora), Lachlan Monaghan (Florimund) & Daria Stanciulescu (Carabosse) If anyone can identify the fairytale character on the left then I'd love to know the answer because he baffled me. (It's not the Wolf, who's on the right.) Behind Monaghan's arm is Alisa Garkavenko, who danced the Fairy of Song. Eilis Small (Lilac Fairy), Yu Kurihara & Lachlan Monaghan Yu Kurihara & Lachlan Monaghan with conductor Philip Ellis. Yuki Sugiura (White Cat) & Gus Payne (Puss-in-Boots) Sofia Linares, Ryan Felix, Rachele Pizzillo & Shuailun Wu (Pas de Quatre) Enrique Bejarano Vidal (Bluebird) & Beatrice Parma (Florine) Eilis Small Lachlan Monaghan & Yu Kurihara

@alison It's amazing how good they are at just coming in under the delay repay thresholds. I didn't bother claiming for the delay I had at the beginning of the month because the train I had to switch onto ended up getting in to Liverpool Street just under half an hour late (never mind that I had to bail at Tottenham Hale & pay for the tube to make sure I got to the ROH in time) so I would only have got one quarter of half of £15 (Bank Holiday Monday so cheaper fares) which wouldn't even cover my extra tube fare.

An impressive line up of fairies, with 3 Principals. I suppose Mizutani & Gittens can leave after the Prologue & get an early night before their Auroras. A query: are the fairy variations danced in the same order as in the RB production? With all the fairies having different names I can't tell from the cast list.

Another day, another train problem. At about twenty to four this afternoon I checked if the train I was planning to get at 16.55 was running on time. It wasn't, and as I refreshed the minutes delayed kept on ticking up. So I scrambled to leave in time to get the one half an hour earlier, and it's fortunate I did as in the time it took me to get ready the 16.55 went from delayed to cancelled. So now I'm going to be in London far too early but at least that's better than being too late. I didn't say at the time but on Saturday my train home after Swan Lake managed to be as inconvenient as it could by getting into Cambridge 14 minutes late, so 1 minute before delay repay kicks in. Sometimes it feel like they're doing it on purpose! No explanation for the delay either, it left Kings Cross on time & wasn't stationery for any prolonged periods en route.

I was waiting for Friday rush, as 7th didn't have availability in the area I was after when public booking opened, so I'll just be doing rush for a different date. At least that saves me the ticket return fee.

My trains are stopping slightly earlier on 9th anyway, due to overnight engineering, so the 23.09 is the last one before rail replacement buses kick in. It's last minute cancellations due to staff shortages that I'm most nervous about as if the 23.09 got cancelled & I had to get the rail replacement buses I'd not get home until 2am. I feel exactly the same. I've already got 3 weekends in May with no trains due to engineering & now a week of strikes on top of that.

I'm very hacked off at the latest strike dates as I was planning to see Winter's Tale on 7th May, which I now definitely won't be able to get to, and Swan Lake on 9th May, which might now be problematic. I suppose I'll have to see that Winter's Tale cast on 13th May instead but I can't reschedule SL as on the other date that cast are performing I have no trains due to engineering. (I'm also worrying because with there being strikes on similar dates in April & May if it's the same in June then that'll be just when Sarasota Ballet is visiting the ROH & if I can't get to their performances that I have booked I will be extremely upset.)

No, she first danced it on 1st April & has done it several times since. I think last night was the first time she was partnered with Acri though. There seems to be a lot of mixing up of pairings in the Neopolitan this season. I think both pieces of fabric were ribbons from the Neopolitan costumes but while Acri removed one as he left the stage the other one stayed there until Harris Bell retrieved it after the Czardas. Sorry, I don't currently have the mental energy to comment properly on last night's performance but I just want to say that, given I regrettably don't usually find Swan Lake moving, last night I was pleasantly surprised to find that towards the end of Act IV Odette's gesture that she had to now die & Siegfried's reaction to it made tears spring to my eyes. Further to the quite extensive discussions on the ending of the RB's production & how the sidelining of Siegfried is problematic, it occurred to me after watching it again last night that it could possibly be improved by making the relatively small change of, rather than Siegfried be knocked out by Von Rothbart before Odette runs to the rock & throws herself off, have Siegfried struggle desparately with Von Rothbart as Odette runs to the rock so he sees what she is doing, then Von Rothbart knocks him out as Odette jumps off. That way it would, at least for me, I think be more moving because we would get more emotion from Siegfried, plus it would make more sense as to how he knows where to go to retrive Odette's body.

Yesterday evening someone near me, though I wasn't certain who, did a bit of humming during Siegfried's solo at the start of Act II & Odette's solo later in the same act. I found myself thinking that there's a distinct advantage to less well-known ballet scores, given some people seem to hum along when they recognise music.

For me the difference in sound is not enough to justify the difference in cost & travel time. But then I'm not an audiophile. For productions I do want to see I abandond the amphitheatre years ago in favour of the side stalls circle because I prioritise being able to see the acting over the sound quality.

There is a Royal Ballet Twitter account but the last time anything was posted was nearly a year ago. Now it's only the Royal Opera House account that posts regularly. So they definitely seem to be pushing the venue as a whole rather than either of the two artforms that share it. Well, I say two artforms but based on their posts they seem to think they also host a third artform: catering!

I'm puzzled by the description of the house as "crumbling". I thought that the reason the family took in boarders was because a decent house was their only asset at the time. I can't believe they would have attracted several boarders of professional social standing if the house had been falling to bits! I've always imagined it as a solid, probably Victorian, townhouse.

Teo Dubreuil as Benno tonight. I think his debut? It'll make a change from seeing him doubling Von Rothbart anyway! (I'd hoped I might get to see one of the new Von Rothbarts tonight, but no.)