MAB

In Ghent the main attractions are the Van Eyck altarpiece in St Bavo Cathedral and the Castle of the Counts of Flanders, there's a very attractive park too with a little waterfall, but I don't remember what it's called. Lots of interesting old architecture and the food is very good. Yet to get to Bruges.

So much invention and originality, one of the best R&J's I've ever seen = and I've seen quite a few. Loved the Segways.

A year or so ago I got home from work to discover a huge hole had been dug in my road (an A road) and the lights positioned right outside my house, but after having dug the thing they simply went away. Now the generators that fuel the lights are very noisy and holding up the traffic means the guys with the sound systems that make the house shake, don't just drive past but sit outside waiting for the lights to change. However it is one thing the otherwise useless council takes seriously and after I complained the workers returned and eventually finished the work after ten days of seriously disturbed sleep.

If you like his art, then the Gustave Moreau museum is fascinating. Based in his former home at the foot of Monmartre it belies the idea that artists starved in garrets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mus%C3%A9e_national_Gustave_Moreau

It will actually make the Paris trip cheaper, as Eurostar tickets get dearer the closer you book to date of travel and as mentioned casting was previously announced nearer the day. This is a very welcome change.

I was under the impression that the Kirov will be going to the Coliseum immediately before StPBT.

Who else was up for consideration in the categories?

Aren't a lot of jobs stressful though? I think as a primary school teacher he would have fewer problems than teaching seniors. As you live in NI I imagine the he won't have to face the challenges of a lot of inner city schools in England as the real horror stories don't seem to come from rural areas.

Out of interest Jojo, what currency do they deal in these days? It used to be only dollars.

Good for you!

Ashton made it clear that he didn't want Marguerite and Armand to be performed by anyone other than Fonteyn & Nureyev, in spite of that it is now performed regularly, though I'm yet to see a cast that can truly do it justice. Sylvia is another matter as I think theatrical taste works in cycles and what was once seen as camp in the past can be considered fun today. The score is wonderful in my view and deserves the attention of other choreographers too. I also saw the Neumeier version in Paris and found it rather moving, but often this can be as much down to the dancers as the ballet. When I first started going to the opera Massenet was never performed but that has changed now and I think ballets wax and wane in popularity too. Who thought we would ever see revivals of the Flames of Paris or Laurencia?

I note that Kirov women link is wildly out of date, with dancers that left the company or retired years ago.

Plus his choreography is regarded by many as difficult, slowing the tempo makes it easier to dance,

I imagine he meant the 'Awakening' pas de deux, which he created on Sibley and Dowell for the production he staged with Peter Wright in the late 60's.

I've just had an odd experience with a utility bill I paid on line, I received a red notice from Thames Water telling me I hadn't paid, so I rang them and told them I had paid on line and gave them the date and time. They confirmed that I had made a payment but that the payment hadn't gone through and that I should speak to my credit card provider. So off I trot to the bank to be told that they couldn't find the payment, so clearly for some technical reason the payment hadn't worked. When I paid for a second time I paid over the phone, press hash they said for your confirmation number, so I press hash and all I get is some endless spiel about their services and no conformation number. I wonder if I'm about to receive another red notice, grrrrr. By the way my secure bank service deals with 12 digits whereas my password has 9, so every time they ask for my 10th, 11th or 12th digit, I'm in trouble.

I was there on the first night too and I actually challenged one of the booers, seems he was part of some ant-MacMillan claque, he said some vile things about Lynn Seymour (who wasn't even dancing that night) as well. A really nasty individual, However the ballet was an absolute turkey, a real nadir in RB first nights.

I bought a special purchase DVD player in Superdrug for £9.99. On the whole it does the job well but does not like a couple of my DVD's and refuses to play them. Solution is to play them on my laptop - problem solved.

I used to visit Moscow regularly in the early 90's and a friend in the company always gave me tickets. On one occasion he couldn't get me a comp but said if I went to the box office before the performance and gave his name they would sell me one. Because I had always had freebies I had no idea of prices so took a fistful of roubles along. To my astonishment I finished up paying the equivalent of 34p. Things have changed a lot there in twenty years.

ROH staff do seem to be slipping a bit, About a year ago I realised I had come out without my ticket for that evening's show, so in my break I dashed down to the box office for a duplicate. It took a while to sort out as a friend had bought our tickets together, so I had to give his details, post code etc. but was finally given a duplicate in an ROH envelope. As I had to hurry back to the office, I failed to check what was actually in the envelope. That evening I presented my ticket at the front door and again to the usher on the door of the stalls, then saw that someone was sitting in my seat, at the same time I saw my friend waving to me two rows in front. We looked at my duplicate ticket to discover I had been given his ticket for the week before! So two members of ROH staff had waved me through with an invalid ticket.

Couldn't agree more with FLOSS, Ashton's ballets are starting to fall apart from the lack of care, cash-cows for the copyright owners and cynically thrown onto the stage with a contemptuous lack of integrity.

Couldn't agree more.

Yesterday I was desperate for a ticket for tonight, but after actually seeing it, a night at home watching the telly is the more attractive option.

What an amazing story, thank you so much for sharing it. Although I'm not a chat show fan (apart from the spoof ones) I was glad when someone alerted me to Robin Williams on one of these shows, he was naturally screamingly funny leaving me with aching sides. For some reason I always feel he loss of these funny-men acutely perhaps because they do so much to lighten modern stressful lives. My thoughts go out to his family who are no doubt doubly distressed at the nature of his demise. RIP Robin.

Go back further and there were serious reservations about Nureyev in the role too,

Surely both versions remain partial without Hermia's father who provides the reason why those lovers are flitting around the forest in the first place.