patsomerset

Thank you. Two runs in a season is surely unusual. My cast list for 20 July (evening) definitely lists Gemma Bond as Olga but who am I to argue with the ROH performance database! I guess there must have been a last minute change of cast

I saw this too and have just managed to find my programme and cast lists. This was in the days when I had a friend living in London who would put me up for the night, so I managed to see Onegin twice. I see that it was 2002 but it seems like yesterday. Another sign of advancing years I fear! I see that the dates on the cast list are 19 January, this one with Rojo, Cojocaru and Adam Cooper and the other one on 20 July, with Cojocaru, Bond, Kobborg and Putrov. I can't now believe my luck at the casts and it became one of my favourite ballets. I had to do a double take as the two dates are so far apart.. Does anyone know why this happened. I am assuming it was not a misprint on the cast list! I no longer have the tickets and the inside of the programme makes no mention of the July performance. It's a mystery to me

Thank you and my apologies for giving Joan a 'p' in the middle of her name. A typo - sorry Pat

I too saw the Bolshoi Don Q yesterday. It was a recording but none the worse for that. I saw it and 'them' at ROH two years ago and can still remember the excitement and the joy they seem to take in performing. They lend themselves to Don Q so well. He is an amazing jumper who seems to hang in the air and she moves across the stage at the speed of light. Yes, the camera was not always on the feet when you wanted it to be or full stage when you would have liked, but very small gripes for what was a wonderful afternoon. Does anyone by any chance have a full cast list please? The credits rolled very quickly at our Odeon and of course they had no printed cast lists My Odeon was advertising Rite of Spring for 31 March although it has been cancelled. Do you know what they are showing Jopan? Have I missed something? Pat

Me neither!

I have just commented on the cinema thread Joan but was delighted to see that you had enjoyed it so much too. Yes, the new costumes were very lovely. Like you I was not going to put this on my list for the summer but I might just do this now.

I saw the live relay of Bayadere in my local Odeon this after and I thought it magnificent. It was a long performance but everyone seemed to be enthralled and what a well behaved crowd! No coughing, no popcorn, no talking, not even any fidgeting. It made for such an enjoyable afternoon. I happen to love Svetlana Zakharova and I thought she gave a stunning performance, which was much appreciated by the Moscow audience who are much more vocal than most audiences in this country. Someone quite near me who had not seen Bayadere before was very puzzled by the dance of the Golden Idol as he did not appear again as a 'statue' as he does in the RB production. The Bolshoi version ends with the 'Shades' which, lovely though it is, does not round off the story The performance in the Taunton Odeon went almost without hitch. Just one momentary screech in the sound track. We thought the camera work and production excellent. They switched from close up to full stage, to overhead views at just the right moment and the presenter did stirling work in Russian, French and English I am now looking forward to Don Quixote on 10 February. Though not 'live' I am sure it will be another feast of wonderful dancing I hope others enjoyed it as much as well all did and that other cinemas had a glitch free relay. I should love to have comments from the more knowledgeable forum members

Thank you! That's really good news. I didn't see it first time around in the cinema but I did see them live at ROH (was it two or three years ago). My local cinema is on the list you gave, so here's hoping. We will try and book when we go to Bayadere this Sunday. That is,if it is has stoppped snowing. It's been falling for nearly five hours now and I live in the town. What it's like on Exmoor or up on the hills, I hate to think. Thanks you for cheering me up

Yes, Anne, I booked online as soon as the booking opened and it was as easy as usual, so I am sorry to hear you are having trouble. You need to select your cinema from the list but to make the actual booking you click on the time. You then should get a seating plan up and you move however many people you are booking for to the seats you want. I don't know whether this helps. I know what you mean about the Odeon telephone and their seeming shyness about events such as these. We have taken to printing things out from the website and taking them to our bridge club, and such places where we know people will be interested. Result, our local Odeon is now nearly booked up for Sunday I hope you manage to book somehow. I see from the above which came in while I was replying, that you have! I am looking forward to it also

I don't remember Mayerling being relayed to cinemas, nor Ondine for that matter. I stand to be corrected but I do not think that many cinemas outside London or other big cities carried these, or may be not the Odeon group. Those of us who live outside London or other big centres do not have the luxury of choosing between a Big Screen relay or a cinema just up the road and quite often have only one cinema in the town even in this day and age

Big Screen relay is on 13th June I think. I do wish they could relay it to cinemas at the same time

Glad you have been able to sort it!

I used it yesterday and just a few minutes ago with no problem, so maybe the problem is with you. Sorry!

You may be correct. I can't put my hand on mine at the moment. I may have given it away to a friend who is not on line

Thank you bringing this to my attention. To my delight my local Odeon are showing a Bolshoi transmission for the first time. I did think that no one was listening to me but perhaps they are after all. The RB transmissions are now always virtually sold out so I am hoping this will be equally popular. It was not of course on their Culture leaflet which they gave out at the start of the season so let's hope the good old word of mouth works once again

I think we, the users, owe you the Committee, a huge vote of thanks for your hard work in getting the new site up and running in the first place and the dedication and work it takes to keep it running from day to day. I, for one, am amazed by the variety of topics discussed. I cannot always join in, not having a dancing daughter for instance, but it certainly adds to one's knowledge and appreciation of ballet from many different points of view May I in turn wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year of dance. A lot to look forward to next year I think best wishes Pat

Thank you Tony. Obviously something happened but no one knows what as yet. What a wonderful example of 'the show must go on'

Please tell me what happened to Thiago. Was he injured or taken ill? many thanks

Thank you for posting the link to the clip John. I watched it while I was having my lunch and just the sight of Carlos's smiling face and warm personality cheered me up on what is a very, very wet soggy day here in the West Country. Lovely to see him dancing a piece from one of my favourite ballets, as he says, just big, joyful dancing

Yes, the cinemas showing Pharoah's Daugher have just appeared in the last few days. A very select few though, so I am waiting to see whether they will add more. Pretty poor pickings for us here in the west country for example. Does anyone else share my frustration at the Odeon chain in particular? No one ever seems to know what is going to be shown or what is going on. It doesn't matter who you contact or how, neither the local cinema itself or guest services ever seem to able to tell you what is coming. All I get is a meanless answer, telling me to watch the website which is something I could work out for myself. I gather that is is the distrbutors who decide what is shown where, not the cinemas themselves, but I don't know how they make their decisions or how you can contact them. You just feel voiceless and helpless

I would like to echo everything you have said about the Pas de Trois, Laura Morera and Ricardo Cervera and the corps

A seat at the back in the middle section and allegedly slighty better upholstered! Nice to hear from someone who was actually there! ROH looked packed inspite of the transmissions, which is good to know and the audience seemed to be very enthusiastic. I did not notice on the screen that they were dancing cautiously but you don't always get a view of the whole stage in the cinema. This has benefits in that you get close up of the fabulous costumes. The costumes in the ballroon scene are particularly beautiful with a wonderfully blend of shades and tones. The yellowing only seemed to occur on Zen's white tutu and some of the swans from time to time. It also shows up even the slightest of mishaps. I think both Zen and Nehemiah had small ones. Nehemaih had a slightly rocky landing in his Act III solo and I think Zen had a bit of a slip up at the end of the fouettes. Did I imagine it? This is an example of where the screen close ups magnify something you might not have noticed otherwise. Perhaps it is something you don't or shouldn't think about, but when you have millions of people watching you worldwide it must be a bit daunting however professional you are. Like you, I love Zen. She is a most beautiful, thoughtful dancer and gives a performance which really grips you emotionally

The tickets here for the Odeon in Taunton were £15 for a standard seat and £16.10 for a Premier seat. Quite a good discount is to be had for students and senior citizens. There appears to be quite a variation from place to place doesn't there but I have no idea how they decide upon the price I consider we had good value last night. Compared with the price of a ticket at ROH, the train fare and a night in London that is! Granted our local Odeon is nowhere near as glamorous as ROH but I for one am very happy to be able to see performances such as this locally. I would welcome a slightly more adventurous choice of programme, for instance we have Alice which has been on TV. Why not Bayadere for instance?

What a shame Ian. This happened in my local cinema during a Bolshoi transmission a couple of years ago and again during the first RB transmission. It turned several people I know off completely and they have never been to another live transmission since, which is really sad. Happily it has not happened since and we have nearly full houses now. Envy you the cast sheets though!

Thank you for that. Unfortunately I did not see it until I arrived back from the cinema tonight but it was still good to have it. Our Odeon have given out cast sheets for the last few ballets but not tonight Our local cinema was pretty full, and no bad behaviour as far as I was aware. I very much enjoyed the fact that Zen, Nehemiah and others in the cast told the story and some of the background themselves. It gave it a great personal touch What a performance! I loved every bit of it and thought the Company on really sparkling form. I know the sets have been criticised heavily of late and I rather agree, they are far too over the top but the costumes are just ravishing and you do get the full effect of these in the cinema. I am still not sure about the swan costumes but somehow even those looked better tonight. The only rather strange thing was some lighting effect which turned Zen's costume yellow from time to time