MAB

Not so sacrosanct as I'd like. All the alterations to sets. costumes and lighting plots have diminished the ballet over the years in my opinion. I'd give a lot to see Romeo back in the original turquoise tunic.

I would like someone respectful of the Bournonville heritage.

I've never got used to Mariinsky.

Ashton is strictly rationed now. We are having some this year so must go without next year.

That always makes my blood run cold.

The Barry Kay set for Raymonda is always applauded, I wonder if we'll ever see it again.

Referring back to Paco's post, I imagine fewer opera performances during the pandemic were down to Covid restrictions. I had to jump through hoops to get to Salzburg, I succeeded on that occasion but was later turned away from the check in desk in Rome because the country I was travelling to had changed its entry requirements over night. I imagine entry rules to the UK were just as difficult. I am hoping a change at the top will make a difference to both the opera rep and artists. Perhaps I'm over optimistic and I've heard awful tenors elsewhere too so it isn't just a problem here. Dreadful productions won't lure me to the opera without a stellar cast. The list of productions I avoid is growing year by year. And can we have some better conductors too please? Also uncancel Grigolo and Domingo. Is the RB such a draw? Great dancers of course but terrible unimaginative rep. With an AD who loves classical ballet now installed in Paris that will lure the fans in the future, after all if it's Fille you want Paris has got it.. A rebranding is all well and good but how about an improved product in both companies to match.

I'm genuinely touched by the sincere tributes I'm reading here. i had heard Linda had taken a turn for the worse but hadn't had further news until yesterday. Despite her own health problems she contacted me a couple of weeks ago to wish me well after a recent operation, she was always so kind and thoughtful. We met at the ballet of course, the Bolshoi in Paris in 1991. We shared a love of Gediminas Taranda. Whenever I went out of town to watch ENB, Linda and Michael were always there, they lived in Wales then so ballet going was more of an effort than it was for me, but they were completely dedicated to the company. I always loved reading Capybara's posts, always thoroughly informed and always sympathetic to the artists she wrote about. She is a great loss to dancers and fellow fans alike. Her passion for ballet was profound and that's what I'll always remember about her. Sleep peacefully Linda. Mary B.

If the ROH still publishes its annual accounts that should be easy to find out.

My first RB Swan Lake had a prologue, it was a very handsome production by Robert Helpmann. Thinking about it makes me very nostalgic.

The bloodstains are usually because she's just committed murder. The director has imposed her own story line onto the plot.

As Lucia is based on The Bride of Lammermore by Walter Scott, clearly Scottish literature wasn't part of the syllabus.. I'm not against imagination in opera productions. I recently saw a Guilio Cesare inspired by Agatha Christie's Death on the Nile. At one point Cesare, in a white tuxedo, steps up to a 1929's style microphone to deliver a major aria. It was an evening of total joy, the producer did something entirely original without alienating his audience. I find fewer monstrosities on my European Opera jaunts. Perhaps the new opera boss will make wiser production choices than we see in London at present. My fingers are crossed.

Sorry. but what kind of mind comes up with this stuff? On a brighter note I thoroughly enjoyed Handel's Arianna in Creta at St George's, Hanover Square at the weekend. I'm starting to find concert performances of operas more and more attractive, which is strange as in the past I never cared much for them.

Had the late Clement Crisp made such a remark would you have accepted it? Buru seems familiar with the ballet and has seen other productions and is therefore not an SL novice. Surely it is best to be honest about what you see, after all it's only by experiencing the less good that you recognize the exceptional when you finally see it.

You're unlucky, we Londoners see the back catalogue. it's strictly rationed though.

I don't know of any other major house that operates in the same way. I'm getting sick to the back teeth with clambering over push chairs and competing with non opera goers for a seat on the amphi terrace. Even San Carlo with a huge refreshment area and adjoining garden is strictly for patrons. A shame ROH didn't have the imagination to follow the Monte Carlo model and build a casino to subsidise tickets.

Yes, I know, I'm becoming increasingly familiar with them.

A reason why so many opera goers I know are refusing to go. Opera directors! Put them in Room 101.

There was no fight. It was a mental health incident. I was sitting close beneath the slips and a friend was sitting in the slips who saw what I could only hear. Eventually the police sent for an ambulance. Hopefully the man is receiving the care he so obviously needs. A word of thanks to the ROH security staff who had to deal with a difficult situation and were subject to some dreadful verbal abuse. Thankfully these incidents are very rare and I hope those in the vicinity that were badly scared won't be put off from returning to ROH.

Of course the above discussion about New Orleans set me thinking. Wasn't New Orleans Spanish not long before? And wasn't it part of the Spanish Main? So surely to be truly authentic shouldn't it be peopled with Jack Sparrow lookalikes and men with wooden legs and parrots on their shoulders?

I remember it well, I saw all those companies that year and in February I made my first of many trips to Russia. I would give a lot to have a season like that again. Trips abroad will eventually bankrupt me.

Okay, if this is to turn into 'nominate a foreign star' If it is not too arrogant a suggestion. Giorgi Potskhishvili

If the director wanted a foreign star he could probably have secured Jacobo Tissi and/or David Motta Soares when they left Russia,. He didn't. With the RB's unique repertoire, dancers coming up the ranks would be a better fit for leading roles than those from different backgrounds. I've no objection to an occasional guest, but it would have to be someone very special.

I would have no objection to a dancer from outside who has danced with the company previously (e.g. Shklyarov) but at this point I would have the most strenuous objections to an outsider being parachuted in as it would block the progress of some very talented RB dancers. Can this subject for discussion please be a separate thread? This one should be solely about Alexander Campbell.

Yes.