Aruna S

Now that the ROH season is out and there's definitely no Fille (I know, I know, but I kept hoping till the last minute!) I'm going ahead with booking for Birmingham. Flight options from Italy are fairly limited, so I'm considering flying to Stansted and taking the train from there. My question is about Cross Country trains, I know strikes can occur but apart from that how reliable are they? Is there a better alternative (apart, of course, from flying directly to Birmingham)?

Thank you!

I went for La Sylphide in Prague last week. It was a lovely production, and beautifully danced. I'm very hopeful that they'll bring it on tour to Italy.

The State Opera is a very pretty theatre, with an intimate feel, and a completely non-intrusive security rail (Italian theatres please take note!) The only slight caveat is that the front row of the balcony has rather limited legroom, in future I'd book from the second row onwards. The rake is excellent. 

I read the extract. I thought it started off a bit painting-by-numbers-y, and yes, the name of the school is cringeworthy, but I liked the way the class was described, with all the details of arms and feet positions, and the warming up and cooling down. I think the target audience will enjoy it. 

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned anywhere, but the Kaneko-Muntagirov combination is performing in Swan Lake in Rome in June, on the 22nd, 25th and 27th. Just in case no tickets turn up for their performances at ROH!

47 minutes ago, Buru said:

Thank you so much. I had a look at Fumi and Yasmine and somehow feel that Fumi’s lines may be more swan like. And then again, there is the phenomenal Vadim who is my absolute favorite in the company now. I just wished he had more solos. Classical ballets are really prejudiced on the female side) Will try to  get tickets for Fumi and Vadim. I couldn’t find resales on Forum, unfortunately. Can you please help me to look for them?

32 minutes ago, zxDaveM said:

 

Well, there are still loads of tickets left - so it is really only us hard core fans who love Ashton (as can be seen by the tickets that have been sold - 'fans' tickets!) that go for these triple bills, sadly.

This has actually worked out well for me! I hadn't planned on going, but when I saw the casting I couldn't resist seeing Cuthbertson-Muntagirov in The Dream. 

32 minutes ago, Tattin said:

stucha, I have tried to create an account on France.tv but failed as, among other details, it asks for your post code and as mine is Spanish it won't accept it. I have thought of putting in a French one!!! I wonder whether that would work?!!

It doesn't work, Tattin. I tried that but the site detected that I was logging in from Italy...

Hamburg Ballet is also returning to Venice in January 2025, with Neumeier's R&J. Looking forward to it!

4 hours ago, Angela said:

Bavarian State Ballet season 2024/25:

 

Premieres:

„La Sylphide“ by Pierre Lacotte

 

Triple Bill „Wings of Memory” with

Jiří Kylián, Bella Figura

Sidi Larbi Cherkoaui, The Faun

Pina Bausch, The Rite of Spring

the third edition of “Spheres”

curated by Sol Leon and Paul Lightfoot

with one piece by them and three young choreographers they chose

 

Revivals:

Peter Wright's Giselle

Illusions – Like Swan Lake by John Neumeier

 

Guest Company at the ballet week in spring:

Lucia Lacarra's company with  “Lost Letter”, choreography by Matthew Golding

I'm delighted to see Illusions returning to the repertoire, it's my absolute favourite ballet.

Since I'm subject to the Big Head/Tall person curse wherever I go, I avoid the Stalls and always try to be in the balcony front row, or where there's a good rake like the ROH amphitheatre. Looking at BRB's prices for Sleeping Beauty I think I'd probably go for the Circle, where I see currently available seats in Row Q are £67. That's about as high as I would go, hopefully there will be cheaper seats available.

3 hours ago, Emeralds said:

That's very impressive that you are willing to travel for BRB, @Aruna S! I like both venues. For me it would come down to which city/theatre had the casts I like. But if both sets of casts are equally good, these are my considerations....

 

1) Theatre buildings and sightlines- both are fairly modern buildings, not "luxury" or "plush" type venues like ROH but efficient and clean, they do the job. Both have lots of good seats with good sightlines. So very similar.

 

2) Location and convenience- for me Birmingham wins thus category. If you are not a local but travelling in by train, the Birmingham New Street station is about 5-8 mins walk away from the Hippodrome, 3 good hotels (Holiday Inn, Radisson, Premier Inn) and an impressive range of restaurants literally opposite the theatre - from Chinese to burgers to Greek to Japanese etc. It is so convenient! (Although ROH for example is near restaurants, most of the restaurants are more than 10mins away, some are further and only a tiny number are within 5mins' walk.) The Hippodrome has the best restaurant layout out of all the ballet companies' home theatres around the world I've attended! It feels like the restaurants are an extension of the theatre!

 

Sadler's Wells has about 5-6 restaurants nearby (1-6 mins walk) which is great if you like them (vegan, gluten free, Southeast Asian, fish and chips, pub..I do like the first three). For more choices it would have to be Upper Street or Exmouth Market (give yourself 20-35 minutes depending on whether you're taking taxi, bus or walking). Nearest hotels for Sadler's Wells are very far away. But it you have already reserved a hotel for the operas, then that's not an issue.

 

Sadler's Wells of course has the history of being the theatre which is the "parent theatre" of both RB and BRB- their creators (de Valois, Ashton, Wright) and dancers started out there before settling into ROH & Birmingham Hippodrome respectively. If any dance fan has never watched a dance performance at Sadler's Wells they should do so at least once. I've even spotted Natalia Makarova watching performances there. 

 

With BRB at either venue/city you would have a great time. Hope that helps you choose!

Thank you so much for this detailed response, Emeralds, and thank you also, Sim and Tango Dancer. This is such a wonderful and helpful forum! I've been to Sadler's Wells, for Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake a few years ago, but have completely forgotten what the theatre was like. The Hippodrome looks like it's worth a visit, and it's an opportunity to venture out of London.

I'll be flying to Birmingham, probably from Milan where Die Kameliendame is on at La Scala the day before, but New Street station will be useful for the airport train. I've booked Premier Inn which had a very good rate, and hope I can get a ticket when sales open. 

Thank you, Sim and Alison.

I'm very excited to see that Fille is scheduled for the next season, it's one of my favourite ballets. It'll have to be a flying visit since I already have a lengthy stay in London in November when Regent's Opera is staging the Ring. Currently pondering whether to go to Birmingham, which I've never visited, or stick to Sadler's Wells. Any advice on the Hippodrome vs Sadler's Wells, and on possible accomodation in Birmingham would be very much appreciated.

Thanks again, Silver Capricorn, booking opened for La Sylphide today and I was able to book in the first row of the first balcony. There's even a 50% discount for over-65s, so a friend will be coming along for only €24!

I missed seeing this thread earlier, art_enthusiast I hope you found seats for Coppelia if you *are* interested. It's getting more and more difficult to find cheap seats at La Scala, when booking opened for Coppelia the second gallery, which is my chosen area for good but reasonably priced seats, was practically sold out at 10 a.m., when online sales started! I go quite often to La Scala, which means I have to look for cheaper seats, and I find that the first or second galleries are fine. The front row has the usual annoying security rail, but the second row has the possibility of obstructed views if there's a tall person in front of you (this *always* happens to me) or a leaner. 

The corps de ballet has improved tremendously under Legris, its Swan Lake was a joy to behold. I'm looking forward to seeing Onegin in a couple of weeks. I'm a fan of the Nureyev Bayadere, as opposed to the Makarova one, although June is likely to be extremely hot if this year is anything to go by, maybe a better option would be Kameliendame in September? 

Edited to add this link to a useful website (although you can also see seating on the Scala website when you're choosing your tickets) : https://sitzplatzvorschau.de/teatro_alla_scala_milano/index.html#id=8121

Many thanks for the seating advice. Johann Kobborg's staging of La Sylphide will be on in Prague in April, and I'm planning to go for that. 

Delighted to say that I was able to book for Tristan, having made the agonising choice between ballet and Wagner - Copenhagen is just too expensive for me to go twice. Thanks so much again, Jane, and thank you Blossom for starting the discussion!

Thank you Jane! 

This thread encouraged me to take a look at the Danish Opera website, and I'm very keen on the Balanchine/Bournonville productions in September. However it appears impossible to book tickets, or even pre-order beyond 8th September. Could they already be sold out? I'm also very interested in Tristan und Isolde with the wonderful Elisabeth Strid in June, but faced the same situation. No sign of a booking calendar, as far as I could see.

1 hour ago, Angela said:

 

Is it his last year? How do you know, Jane? 😳

I was wondering that too!

I'm so sorry to read this. I only met Katherine once, in Stuttgart in 2016, but enjoyed reading her posts here and her blog.

Apart from ballet we had a love of cats in common. My deepest condolences to her family and friends.

The Guardian's obituary mentions that he'd created a Midsummer Night's Dream for Queensland Ballet. I'd love to see that.

Terrible news, he was so brilliant. I loved the bits of Sweet Violets that the RB streamed. and of course his glorious Swan Lake. 

Sadly I have just received an email from the Southbank Centre saying that the complete Ring Cycle scheduled for early 2021 has been cancelled due to the coronavirus crisis.

Of course I'm absolutely gutted by the news. This was the statement issued by the London Philharmonic Orchestra 

I remember a very old film called The Blue Bird in which Nadezhda Pavlova danced. Wikipedia  helped me to identify it as a film made by George Cukor in 1976  The story of the two children who search for the bird was also mentioned in Noel Streatfeild's Dancing Shoes.

On 11/06/2020 at 19:42, Bruce Wall said:

If you are going to do restorative work/renovations this surely is the perfect period to do it.  Both the Garnier and Bastille will be closed through the winter for such programmes ...

 

https://www.operadeparis.fr/en/news/stage-renovation-work-at-the-paris-opera-from-july-2020

Woe, woe woe! I hadn't seen anything about this, and have tickets for the Ring Cycle in November which is clearly not going to proceed as scheduled.