Scheherezade

Yep, I’m there tomorrow night too; final night and my first and only night during this run so really looking forward to it.

I wrote to the Friends team about not receiving the offer and this is their reply, most of which duplicates, I think, their standard response to any matter that is raised with them and none of which has any relevance whatsoever to my question as to why some Friends received the offer but others didn’t. (I have cut the extremely lengthy recital if the actual offer details) to minimise the boredom quotient: Thank you for your email. I would just like to start off by thanking you for your support over many years, It’s the passion and commitment of people like yourself that makes the Royal Opera House such a special and unique place. You, our audience, are at the heart of all we do, whether it’s a traditional stage performance, our backstage work, online streams, in cinemas or in our communities. Unfortunately, the challenges facing the ROH and the wider theatre industry have not gone away with the relaxing of Covid restrictions. Indeed, a new set of challenges have presented themselves; with recent Arts' Council cuts (which in real-terms has been reduced by 19%), the cost of living crisis (a threefold increase in energy costs from £1.5m per annum to more than £6m in this year alone) and as we recover from the closures of the past few years, every donation made and ticket sold is more important than ever in order to continue presenting a varied programme of world class ballet and opera The offer you heard about is part of a specially-targeted initiative to attract selected audiences to the Royal Opera House for specific performances only. We have previously carried out an offer for an opera too and previous ballets. They are time-limited and restrictive in date and time and a very different proposition to the flexibility of early booking offered to Friends. Please find the details of the offer and feel free to use the code to book extra tickets if you wish to do so… I can assure you that we will always keep prices, and what we offer our Friends and loyal supporters, under constant review. Thank you again for your loyal support as a Friend.

Ditto...

I haven't received a Friends offer. Not that I would be able to afford the expensive seats even with a discount but, yes, why don't the offers go out to all Friends?

Then they should have gone to Specsavers!!!

Thank you for the link, Alison, and I have to say, I did enjoy reading Kevin W Ng's review. I particularly liked the description below: "When the curtain rises, we’re underground in a concrete bunker, a rising moon visible through a hole in the sky. It’s a beautiful, striking image – but then Girard adds more and more moons, careening across the stage increasingly quickly until they explode into red smoke at the climax of the prelude. It’s like watching a screensaver from inside a toilet bowl." That said, I listened to the Radio 3 broadcast of the New York Met production on Saturday and totally concur re the quality of the singing.

As is almost always the case. I can still recall his extraordinary Die Frau ohne Schatten, possibly the only occasion I can recollect in which the audience broke into spontaneous applause at random points during the performance.

Lovely and heartfelt indeed. And as well as being so mesmeric on stage, what an extraordinarily perceptive individual Lynn Seymour was.

Los Gabrieles in Calle Echegaray. Sadly, it was closed many years ago for redevelopment but I think it’s since been reopened after disassembling and restoring the utterly glorious ceramics. Not sure what it’s like now - it used to be a haunt of bullfighters, artist and poets back in its seedy, but achingly romantic, bordello past - so do report back if you go.

Agree re the samey James Blake music - not my music of choice, either, although I preferred this selection to the pieces used by ENB in the fleshed-out Blake Works 1 and really loved the choreography and energy in performance of this piece, music notwithstanding. And I found the fusion of tap, ballet and vocal accompaniment in Time Spell totally intoxicating.

The best flamenco I ever saw was in a former brothel in Madrid: tiled walls painted with skeletons; standing only; arrive early and wait around the bar until the dancers are ready to perform; no stage as such, no charge. Incomparable!

I am hoping that they will bring this programme- or part, if not all, of it - to the Linbury at some point, as per usual.

On the audience behaviour front, there was something of a kerfuffle in the interval at Friday night's Turandot. I could hear someone shouting down to people down below but couldn't make out what was being said. Apparently it was the ushers telling someone in the lower levels to stop videoing the performance. Which was also Pappano's first Turandot in the pit. And was accompanied by a big flower throw at the end, to much whooping and applause from a very appreciative audience. And for anyone who is wondering (sorry, I haven't put this in the opera section) do go and see the performance. It was quite wonderful in every respect: conducting (Pappano at is absolute best), singing (with a big shout out for Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha's Liu), staging (how rare it is to be able to say that these days). And how good to see the ushers taking decisive action for once.

My TV says it’s Nunez/Osipova/Muntagirov. As usual, with Sky Arts, who knows?

I have friends who, for various reasons, are unable to stand or to sit in the slips or the back of the amphi and since the massive hike in price of the previously £30 tickets are now unable to afford to attend. I find it shocking. And it is certainly careering towards elitism of the very worst sort.

These are the March strike dates for SWR trains as confirmed just now: Thursday 16 March Saturday 18 March Thursday 30 March Saturday 1 April

What an evening, indeed! Annamk, I feel like going again tomorrow night too. I loved every moment of Time Spell - the singing as much as the dancing. And my only complaint about Blake Works II was that it was over much too soon. More please! And soon!

Agreed, art_enthusiast. And I've seen far worse stagings at the ROH.

So very sad. Lynn Seymour was incomparable; a force of nature and absolutely one of a kind. She will be greatly missed.

Not fair, is it, says she, amidst much foot thtamping and thcweaming.

What! You mean it's not magic?

I saw that performance too and loved it overall but, being honest, I'd say that for me the magic came from the three amigos partnership of Corrales, Sambe and Hay, along with Matthew Ball's fabulous 'entitled public schoolboy Tybalt. I loved Hayward and Bracewell in Romeo and Juliet Beyond Words, ditto both of them in Dances at a Gathering and Swan Lake. Goodness, Bracewell will be very busy if he is to partner Kaneko, Hayward, Nunez and also, now, O'Sullivan on a regular basis.

I totally agree with both of these comments. And prices in the cheaper amphitheatre seats have risen by jaw dropping amounts. They need to drastically rethink these prices or they most certainly will not meet any inclusivity criteria (for which, by the way, it is disingenuous in the extreme to claim that these criteria are met by giving away tickets to students and other young people).

I find real life/stage couplings something of a grey area. Quite apart from the risk that the real life relationship may hit a sticky patch, some couples may feel that committing emotionally on stage is too much of an intrusion into their private lives. I have only seen Ball and Magri together in the Carousel pas de deux and they were wonderful together, whereas I feel that both Hayward and Corrales have more of an onstage rapport with other dancers.

They did say that the second survey would go to all Friends. The latest survey was prefaced by an apology for sending out two surveys within a short period. Perhaps they are therefore sending out the first batch to those who have already been contacted and will send a differently worded preface and survey to those who haven't.