Josephine

11 hours ago, Odyssey said:

This is a query that has been raised previously on several forums. It appears the book was never published other than as an online photo essay available on Keith Money’s website which is sadly no longer available. It would be lovely if someone could host it and make it available again as Money’s four books on Fonteyn and the Royal Ballet are exquisite. It strikes me how little is published in the way of ballet titles these days - other than hugely expensive volumes such as the recent Ed Watson title. 

In case of interest, there is a reference copy of the text only in a biography file on Christopher Gable held at Waltham Forest Local Studies Library. Access is by prior appointment. Email: vhm.enquiries@walthamforest.gov.uk

23 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

Tagging on to this thread so as not to start another one, as my query is sort of about Friends membership. I gather that if Friends rehearsals are on the same day as the first public performance of a ballet then the rehearsal won't have the same cast as the first performance but if the rehearsal is the day before then can anyone give any idea if it's likely that the cast of the first performance might do the rehearsal or are performances two days running considered too much? I'm musing on Manon. As Hamilton & Clarke are only doing the school matinee while all the other casts are down for 2 performances I'm wondering if they might do the Friends rehearsal & wondering if it's worth forking out for Friends membership just to try to get a ticket to the Manon rehearsal in case they do it. I realise there's a lot of uncertainty in this but I would really like to see Hamilton's Manon & this is the only remote possiblity I can think of!

I think it unlikely that Melissa Hamilton's cast will perform at the Friends' General Rehesrsal since the Schools' matinée is the very next day I believe. I agree that she is a memorable Manon, and regret that she has no public performance in the role in this run.

I can help with the text, but sadly not with all the images. I'll message you this evening. No spare time at the moment!

8 hours ago, Sim said:

It was very nice, but a shame Helen Crawford didn’t get a mention after so many years of dedication to the company.  I guess only Principals get the full treatment.  

Was she given a special curtain call after The Firebird on Thu 13 June? This is assuming that she danced a principal role in that cast as she did when I saw their earlier performance.

I'm sure I remember an onstage presentation for Hikaru Kobayashi (by Federico Bonelli) and also a special solo curtain call for Deirdre Chapman, at their respective final performances as First Soloists.

But I presume it is always possible that any dancer may prefer to have a low key farewell in public?

A wonderful radio feature on Australian dancer and choreographer Eileen Kramer, now 104 years old:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005msv

24 minutes ago, Geoff said:

 

Friends are given access only to (some of) what ROH refers to as the General rehearsal, ie the dress rehearsal. This is as near as possible simply a full run through of the whole show, exactly like the first night (in the theatre world this might be labelled a “preview”).

 

So for the opera you (usually) get the first night stars who, although one is alerted to them possibly not “singing out”, they almost invariably do, giving their all. Which they can manage as the final opera rehearsal is always scheduled at least a couple of days before the first night.

 

For ballet it can be different, in that the final rehearsal will often be on the day of the first night and so at least some different dancers tend to appear (meaning that dedicated types can see two different casts on the same day, just like booking a matinee and an evening performance).

I would add that at Friends General Rehearsals:

 - the conductor and orchestra stay in their ordinary daytime clothes

- the front central stalls are allocated to approved photographers, and in quieter moments you do hear a little background noise from camera shutters clicking

- for ballet rehearsals the dancers very occasionally mark some sections, rather than dancing fully as they would in an actual performance

- on very rare occasions I've seen a ballet rehearsal halted so that a particular sequence can be repeated onstage

- also very occasionally I've seen a ballet rehearsal of a full length work scheduled to showcase a different principal cast in different acts, e.g. I hope I am correct in remembering a Swan Lake FGR with Sarah Lamb as Odette and Zenaida Yanowsky as Odile

It seems worth mentioning these points just to indicate that a FGR may not always be the exact equivalent of an actual performance. But I have enjoyed numerous FGRs over the years, and for me this opportunity remains a major reason for retaining Friends' membership.

1 hour ago, JohnS said:

Many thanks Josephine

 

The information by season means I can now see booking dates for each season which I hadn’t managed to find earlier in the week  - and I’m not sure why the season guide doesn’t give the booking periods as 9:00 on the appropriate booking day is pretty crucial information.  But if I then look at a production from the season menu, I don’t see the pricing charts.  

 

Using the Tickets and events route to select a production, the pricing chart is available, albeit the charts don’t seem to be working but at least it’s easy to see the range of prices by production. 

At the moment I can view pricing charts only for productions in the Autumn booking period (this includes viewing Autumn booking period productions via the season menu). But currently I cannot view the specific seating areas to which the various pricing levels relate.

Perhaps my browser format (Firefox) is limiting the information I see?

1 hour ago, bangorballetboy said:

 

Yes, it's in booking period 2 (confirmed if you click through to see the booking dates).

Thank you for confirming. I'd thought that the booking dates were evidence for Winter booking, and hoped so in terms of personal budget! Still it seems odd that the individual production pages for Onegin and La traviata both feature this statement:
'These events are part of the Autumn 2019 and Winter 2019/20 seasons.'

There is now a web page for the 2019/20 season. I hope it's correct to assume that Onegin will be in the Winter booking period? This page places it in both Autumn and Winter periods:  http://www.roh.org.uk/seasons/2019-20

29 minutes ago, JohnS said:

 

Isn't this Alice Opera?

https://www.roh.org.uk/events/4fxcy

 

 

I only looked at calendar when you’d posted a link to mixed bills and the programme was being loaded.  I’ve got calendar bookmarked as it’s so useful and I just hope the website eventually provides a direct link.

I think the website lists productions here (with thanks to RichardLH who provided this weblink in another thread):

http://www.roh.org.uk/productions?_ga=2.139804410.835951387.1553237162-1432497339.1553237162

18 hours ago, Darlex said:

Thank goodness I still have a cheque book. Not everyone does!

I still have a cheque book, but sadly no carriage for 9.30pm! 😊

For sale:

RB Ballet Studio Live Rehearsal
Fri 10 May 1.35pm
ROH Paul Hamlyn Hall
Stage Level B48 (side block)
£15

This is a paper ticket. I will need to post it to purchaser, and request payment by bank transfer please.

For sale:

RB Ballet Studio Live Rehearsal
Fri 10 May 12.15pm
ROH Paul Hamlyn Hall
Stage Level B45 (side block)

£15

This is a paper ticket. I will need to post it to purchaser, and request payment by bank transfer please.

1 hour ago, Bluebird said:

 

It must depend on the browser as I am able to access the individual dates from the old calendar page.  I'm using Chrome on my PC and Safari on my iPad.  Both lead me straight to the individual date event list.

Thank you very much for confirming this! I have been baffled by the links not working for me, and will follow your suggestions later today.

2 hours ago, Richard LH said:

 

The only way I have found to get to the old  display of everything happening on a particular day is to manually change the link details eg  11 March 2019 = https://www.roh.org.uk/events/calendar/2019/03/11?_ga=2.210123029.1694789846.1552744106-235432184.1552744106

Thanks very much for this link. It has helped me greatly!

15 hours ago, Bluebird said:

 

The old pages are currently still there, although I suppose they may eventually delete them.

 

Here's the page for April:

https://www.roh.org.uk/events/calendar/2019/04

 

You can get to earlier or later months by clicking in the top left hand corner (immediately under 'April 2019')

 

 

Is there a way please to access the event list for an individual date from the bookmarked old website calendar page?

I can do this using the separate link and instructions which I believe RichardLH provided in an earlier post.

However when I click on any date from the bookmarked old website calendar page (link as in Bluebird's post above) it takes me to the tickets and events listing on the new website. Could the page view result depend on which browser is used??

The Natalia Goncharova exhibition opens at Tate Modern, London on 6 June. One room will focus on her work with the Ballets Russes, featuring costume designs and examples of ballet costumes.

https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/natalia-goncharova

https://ca.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/3619528/uks-first-ever-retrospective-of-russian-avant-garde-artist

38 minutes ago, alison said:

I was just having a nose around on the ROH website (looking for the Cinemas link, which doesn't appear as a separate item) when I discovered that the "Students" scheme has now been renamed "Young ROH".  This is disgustingly ageist of the ROH - have they never heard of mature students?!

There is a separate page link for Cinemas on the new website. It's the page  I've referred to in my posts above:

https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/all?event-type=cinema-broadcasts

But a further check on the 'Find a showing' link for La forza del destino is now taking me straight back to Faust again!!

6 minutes ago, Bluebird said:

If you go to the link below and click on 'recorded' at the top of the list, it gives the option to look for future screenings of  earlier productions (The Queen of Spades, Don Q, Mayerling...etc)

 

https://www.roh.org.uk/cinemas

Thank you - yes I do have this page bookmarked from earlier times. It is exactly the old website cinema page which I referred to in my long post above.

However, if the link to this page is disabled in the future then this helpful filter option will be lost, unless it can be transferred to the new website cinema page.

8 minutes ago, alison said:

 

Josephine, since the "Cinema" link now just takes you to the details of each production which involves a live relay, you then need to click on the production you're interested in.  If you put in your location, there should be a filter immediately below which give you options for live, encore and recorded.  At least, that's how it works for Romeo & Juliet.

Thanks Alison  - my point remains that currently the new website cinema page seems to give the 'find a showing' option only for those productions for which the live relay has yet to happen, with the sole exception of La forza del destino, as stated in my post above.

Currently it is not possible, as far as I can see, to check for future recorded screenings of other productions once the live relay date has passed.

16 minutes ago, Josephine said:

The new website cinema page does appear to imclude the 'Find a showing' link for La forza del destino, for which the live relay date has passed but was fairly recent. However, when I click on this link I get the 'Screening search' page for Faust (this live relay is yet to happen). I know from links via the old website cinema page that there is a UK recorded screening of La forza del destino in Littlehampton next Tuesday:
https://windmillcinema.co.uk/WindmillCinema.dll/WhatsOn?Programme=2548328
A link to this information appears unobtainable via the new website cinema page.

Another apology - I've just checked again the 'Find a showing' link for La forza del destino, and this time it did work, thankfully! Perhaps the new website cinema page will continue to give accurate links to recorded screenings for productions from now onwards, even though those for future recorded screenings of earlier productions currently remain concealed??

11 hours ago, alison said:

I think you may have to wait until the live screening is past?  Certainly I managed to find a number of Encore screenings for Forza afterwards.  Or possibly set the cinema filter to Recorded or Encore or whatever it says?  (They aren't the same: I think the Encore(?) one will only take you to the Sunday afternoon ones, whereas you need the other option for other showing times)

Apologies, I did not distinguish between encore and recorded screenings in my earlier post. The cinema page on the new website seems to give links to information only about forthcoming live relays and associated encore screenings.

The new website cinema page does appear to imclude the 'Find a showing' link for La forza del destino, for which the live relay date has passed but was fairly recent. However, when I click on this link I get the 'Screening search' page for Faust (this live relay is yet to happen). I know from links via the old website cinema page that there is a UK recorded screening of La forza del destino in Littlehampton next Tuesday:
https://windmillcinema.co.uk/WindmillCinema.dll/WhatsOn?Programme=2548328
A link to this information appears unobtainable via the new website cinema page.

As far as I can see, the new website cinema page currently omits productions for which live and encore screenings have already occurred but which still have forthcoming dates for mostly international recorded screenings. Setting the filters on the new website to, for example 'Type of event - cinema broadcasts' plus 'Booking season - Autumn 18/19' gives the result 'No events found', even though there are still some future dates for US recorded screenings of Mayerling and La Bayadère from last Autumn's ROH season.

The old website cinema page gave filter options for 'Live and encore' and 'Recorded'. The 'Recorded' option gave links to information about these later screenings after the encore dates. I found this filter useful, for example in finding a recorded screening of Swan Lake in Brighton last summer. At present I can't see any option for a similar search on the new website cinema page. But I'd be very pleased to know if there is a filter I haven't spotted!

I don't remember being able to select a list of opera cinema screenings only (for example) on the old website. However, the cinema page on the old website did allow you to search for forthcoming encore screenings of productions for which the live relay had already occurred. I can't see how to do this on the new website, where the cinema page appears to list the 'find a showing' link only for productions where the initial live screening has yet to happen. Any advice on this would be welcome!

Some tickets for the 'Fonteyn and Me' insights have been released this morning.

At time of posting there are currently some tickets available for the Celebrating Fonteyn insight, previously shown as sold out.