Aruna S

I did hesitate over Flashdance, but decided it wasn't strictly speaking a ballet film. If it's to be widened to dance in general, apart from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers I think almost anything with Fred Astaire would count including the one in which he danced with a hatstand. Was it Royal Wedding? There's no way I can keep this down to 5!

I'm very happy to post an update on the online booking system for the Rome Teatro dell'Opera: after many complaints and a long, long wait since ticket sales were switched to Listicket in 2011, it is finally again possible to choose one's seat

Any list which includes Black Swan - let alone putting it at the top - is garbage-bin worthy IMO. However it does include three of my all time faves, Red Shoes, Turning Point and Billy Elliot so it redeems itself. I would also have included Centre Stage and Waterloo Bridge. Ashamed to admit I haven't seen either White Nights or Mao's Last Dancer but they're on my to do list.

Alison, I'm glad we don't seem to have missed much. I'm sorry to have missed the overture, DQ is one I particularly like. There must have been some sort of presentation, I assume, since just before the start of acts 2 and 3 there was a brief synopsis of what was to come, with shots of rehearsals and snippets of interviews with Carlos Acosta, Christopher Saunders and Martin (?) Yeats speaking about the music. All those bits were subtitled so I don't think that was the problem, the Bolshoi's interval material is never subtitled in Italian anyway. Thank you for the casting details Grand Tier Left. So that was Melissa Hamilton. Quite lovely, I must say, look forward to seeing more of her.

Our cinema had some technical problems so we missed about half an hour, and came in just as Sancho Panza was giving Don Quixote his metal bowl to use as a helmet. Most annoying. Overall a splendid performance, Nunez and Acosta were brilliant of course but also Hirano and Morera, and the dryad queen. No cast lists for us so I don't know who she was. The gypsy scene dragged a little, IMO, and I found the violent red backdrop quite distracting. Not enough light at the end of that scene either, we could barely make out that Sancho Panza was being carried off by someone/something. I like the white costumes of the final pdd, Kitri's friends could have had a change of clothes though, poor things! Strangely, while the Bolshoi screenings have always attracted a very small audience, never more than 10, tonight I counted at least 45 people, many of whom were British expats. This made me wonder whether love for ballet can be limited to one's "home team", I find that rather odd TBH. One area in which I think the ROH could definitely improve is what to do during the intervals. Taking a leaf out of the Bolshoi's book they could (and should) have interviews, backstage shots, promotion of the season, anything other than a boring view of the auditorium. They have a captive audience and should make the most of it. Oh, how I miss the charming Katerina Novikova!

On the issue of technical brilliance but lacking in that essential spark, I (somewhat hesitatingly since I'm not an expert at all, nor have I had the luxury of seeing as many dancers as many of you have) would offer the name of Svetlana Zakharova. I have seen Zakharova live in Swan Lake and La Bayadere, as well as often on dvd and at the cinema, and while she is a wonderful dancer she seems very cold and detached to me. Another dancer I thought of in this context, but with the caveat that I have only seen her live once, is Poilna Semionova. She danced beautifully in Sylvia but without the, for want of a better word, warmth which I sensed when I saw Marianela Nunez in the same role a few months later. I have since seen some recordings of Semionova and think I may have just caught her on an off-day. Or, as another far wiser forum member told me, should see her live again before I form an opinion.

And from outside the UK too!

An interview in today's Telegraph sheds some more light : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/dance/10371161/Alina-Cojocaru-interview-Ill-always-be-grateful-even-for-the-lies.html

That's a lot of performances! I wonder if the further roles might include Onegin (going down on my knees and begging smiley required here).

Or, instead of a grand tour, lots of little tours :-)

I'm getting even more excited about seeing this at the cinema on the 16th

It's a pitiful ballet season, unfortunately, and while some great guests have been announced experience has taught us to take such casting with a pinch of salt. Swan Lake is the version by Patrice Bart, although the company has an excellent production by Galina Samsova in its repertoire, while Beauty is a production created by Paul Chalmer in 2003 for the Rome company. The presence of Jurgita Dronina, if she does actually perform, will make that one to watch. A heads up for anyone interested in seeing a performance: the system of online ticket sales is really, really poor. Until 2011 it was handled by Charta/Vivaticket, a very efficient system which let you pick your seat ( and which La Scala still uses). Then sales were switched to Listicket, a company which also handles bookings for football matches, rock concerts and other events for which there are a lot of spectators. This means that the website is often overwhelmed. When it does work, you can't pick your seat, and the "best available option" offered, unlike at the Paris Opera which also doesn't let you choose, is definitely *not* the best available. This I've been able to verify more than once by checking with the seating plan at the box office. It gets worse. A few months ago another company which is probably an offshoot of Listicket given the name, Lisclick, took over. You still have to take the seat the system picks, but unlike the earlier system where you were shown the seat on the seating plan and could opt not to purchase, you now have to complete payment before they deign to tell you what your seat is. I know plenty of people who have complained to the theatre that this is not good customer service but to no avail. I have decided to go only if I happen to be in Rome in time to go to the box office, but for anyone booking from overseas, just be prepared that this is how it is.

This is a fun topic! I agree about Jean Simmons and Tamara Rojo, OTOH my son insists that Tamara and Audrey Hepburn look like identical twins. I see a resemblance between Aurelie Dupont and Mariel Hemingway (as she was in "Manhattan"). David Hallberg reminds me a lot of Erik Bruhn.

I know he dances there Julie, I remember reading about that :-) And it didn't sound abrupt at all anyway! Thanks for your suggestions. I was having second thoughts about booking by email after looking at the link Angela posted about the Opera Festival where it mentioned that online sales would start on 29th March, but if tickets are selling so fast I'm not going to take any chances. I am really looking forward to seeing two different companies in back-to-back performances and visiting Hamburg and Munich.

It helps a lot! Thanks so much, Angela.

That's useful to know! I'll try for the front row then. I've been looking at some photographs of the auditorium, it has to be one of the most beautiful (if not THE most beautiful) theatres around.

Thank you, Janet. I'm leaning towards email booking to be safe. What was your impression of the rake? Front row would be too close for me but I could ask for, say, row 5 onwards and see how that works.

It's me again, this time looking for advice for booking at the Nationaltheater in Munich. There's a performance of Neumeier's Dream on 5th July, the day after my Hamburg performance, that has got to be a sign! My questions are: - Is it necessary to send in an email order or is there a fair chance of getting a ticket when online sales open? According to the website postal orders are usually processed 3 months before the performance while online sales start 2 months before the performance. BUT for this specific performance they'll start processing email orders on 1st February which is 5 months ahead. I don't know if that means there's something special about the performance and therefore there's likely to be greater demand for tickets. There's no mention of when online sales will start so perhaps the 2 month rule will apply. I would like to be able to choose my own seat, the one in Stuttgart with an email request was just fine but I always prefer to choose for myself unless that means there's a strong risk of not getting a ticket. Since saver train fares go on sale 3 months ahead, I would be booking travel before online sales open so I have to be reasonably certain of getting a seat! - Assuming I can choose my seat, what is the rake like? I seem to have nailed it with Hamburg where I have a seat in Row 11 of the stalls, what would be a similar option in Munich? I'm thinking the first row of the Balcony might be better for this particular ballet. I would be most grateful for any advice, I know many of you have been to Munich and have experience of how the system works. How did you book your tickets, and is it any use requesting a specific row in an email order?

Thank you for your review annamicro, it made very interesting reading. However wonderful the individual performers are, if the overall production is disappointing - to put it mildly considering the coarse details you mention - it certainly detracts from the audience's experience. I found your comments about the presentation of Anbeta Toromani very telling about the attitude towards ballet dancers. I remember seeing a video of one of the shining stars of the Rome Opera ballet (in terms of performance although her official position remains corps de ballet despite having danced principal roles for years), Alessandra Amato, receiving a prize. She came on in a tutu and the person presenting the prize, who is probably some TV personality but I don't know since I don't watch, said "Look how well she walks!" which for stupid and condescending comments takes the cake. To be unfazed by a bat is impressive! The only time I saw Alina live, when she danced Juliet at La Scala, someone in my row of the orchestra stalls collapsed in the aisle just as the balcony pdd was starting, at the moment when Romeo and Juliet are standing holding hands and looking directly at the audience. There was a bit of commotion, emergency service personnel swooped in and removed her very efficiently (the story has a happy ending, she came back seemingly full recovered for Act 3), but neither Alina nor her partner Antonino Sutera batted an eyelid. I do apologise for the bad pun!

Interesting that ROH is showing casting for Giselle as TBA while Empire Cinemas has Osipova/Acosta.

If they're just going to offer the productions available on dvd (at the moment Swan Lake and Sylvia) which I already own this won't be useful for me. I'm hoping they'll include material which is not available on dvd such as performances which were broadcast (and therefore recorded), like the McRae-Marquez Fille.

Just wondering if anyone saw this?

I just read this whole thread. I lost my own parents a while back, my father quite suddenly many years ago and my mother after a long period of ill-health and mental disorientation which was never actually diagnosed but involved a lot of very hurtful behaviour. After many years of being the sole support for my parents I was devastated to be attacked and pushed away. I can completely relate to the friction with siblings which such situations create, I don't think our relationship will ever recover from that. It made me very glad that my son is an only child! Fiz, it's wonderful that your brother is being so helpful. I will remember your family in my prayers.

I was absolutely thrilled to discover from the ROH's website some time back that several cinemas in Italy, including the one where I live, would be screening the RB's live transmissions this season. Previously we'd just had Giselle, I think in early 2011, and the occasional opera, seeing all the ballets will be a real treat. The downside is that these are the same cinemas which were earlier showing the Bolshoi broadcasts, and it looks as if they have decided not to screen both. This Bolshoi season has a lot of repeats so I don't mind that much but it's a pity. I know these things are dictated by commercial concerns and the audiences for ballet are small, so I am trying to focus on the positive side. Being able to see, for instance, The Winter's Tale fresh off the presses, so to speak, and the new DQ which I'm very much looking forward to.

I saw the Dowell-Park one last month when it was broadcast on Sky Arte. Other than the ABT version, there are snippets on YouTube of Ashton rehearsing the final Oberon-Titania pdd with Dowell and Sibley which you might find interesting, loveclassics. Alessandra Ferri is awfully good, but Sibley has a quality which Ferri doesn't. Who was in the live ROH broadcast? Cojocaru? Now that she's no longer at ROH my next person on the wishlist for Titania would be Sarah Lamb. She looks the part, IMO.