A frog

How’s everyone finding ease of access to the ROH at the moment, what with the Open Up project and the increased security. Any delays to get in? Is the main cloakroom still open OK and running smoothly? (Matinee-ing tomorrow for the first time for a couple of months).

There's a long-ish queue to get in, but it moves pretty briskly now.

Cloakroom seems fine and I'm told they still accept suitcases, doesn't seem to be any changes there.

If there were no obvious empty seats, wouldn't the available tickets just have been a handful of returns?

A friend has been raving about it, but he is a lot more interested in lurid camp than in ballet.

I believe there had been brief mentions but I couldn't find any dedicated topic.

Flesh And Bone is now streaming on Amazon Prime for those who have it.
I haven't watched it yet, and reviews have been decidedly mixed, but at least they hired actual dancers to play the dancers.

I think your point about Tudor is very valid FLOSS. The Royal Ballet seem to have a near schizophrenic relationship with his work and pieces such as Dark Elegies and Lilac Garden don't seem to have been performed in Britain for decades. I have only seen Lilac Garden once, at the old Sadler's Wells and by a foreign company. Sorry, cannot remember which one.

 

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Lilac Garden was performed somewhat recently in London, it was part of ABT's programme on their last visit here about five years ago

I was there on the first night, between a long and tiring day beforehand and the news afterwards I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I think I liked it and will probably see it again before it leaves.

I was a little surprised by the prologue, seeing on the production page a mix of dialogue in English and sung in German, I expected they would be mixed throughout rather than have the first third a spoken monologue with musical accompaniment. As to the music I was occasionally reminded of some post-rock and noise bands which are not interested so much in tunes as in weaving sonic blankets so to speak (I'm sure some orchestral composers did it as well, but I'm not as familiar with them), as it happens it's something I tend to love so I was quite happy but it won't please everyone, and while it's not as abrasive as Harrison Birtwistle for instance it's still light on tunes you can whistle or hum afterwards.

I don't have much to say about the libretto, but based on what I'd heard about Jon Fosse previously it was still a lot more accessible than what I expected.

Regarding the production, I found the spareness fitting with the themes and the music, and I suspect the surtitles were projected at the back just to allow one effect at the end which I found rather moving so even if that wasn't the goal at least it allowed that.

I actually asked them last night as I'll need to come to a performance with a suitcase in a couple of weeks, I was told it was still fine to leave it in the cloakroom.

I also found the checks rather perfunctory, my friend just walked past without anyone saying anything, and if they have been reinstated following the Paris attacks, considering the perpetrators were all wearing explosive belts, unless they start pat downs or install metal detectors at the entrance, it seems the measure is meant to make the audience feel safer rather than actually prevent anything.

I know they used to put premium prices on Fonteyn and Nureyev performances abroad, but did they do this at ROH as well for their tickets?

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If I remember the Royal Ballet 75 Years book correctly, it was indeed the case.

FLOSS if the soprano you're alluding to is the one I'm thinking of (I understand she still somewhat reliably performs in Munich and Vienna), Holten has somewhat publicly said she would no longer be booked at Covent Garden.

 

The ROH has asked ticket holders who don't want to use their tickets to get in touch (on the comments thread), so whilst they won't see Kaufmann, it doesn't sound like they are getting complete short thrift.

 

 

They only offer the regular exchange/resale policy.

I'd assume credit would only be valid for a certain amount of time (usually six months), they'd probably end up benefitting from those never used.

Sometimes the RO put a premium on the prices for those specific performances where a particularly "big" name is performing, and sometimes they don't.  If they don't, there's not much of an argument for a partial refund, unfortunately - I believe they have in the past refunded that premium when the singer has had to cancel?

The only case of a refund I remember (though based on just about 7 years of opera going only) was for Tamerlano with Domingo and Kurt Streit, though both were initially priced the same they had different pages to make sure the customers wouldn't mistakenly book the wrong singer (and sure enough the Streit dates were very very poorly sold). When Domingo cancelled and was replaced by Streit for the whole run they offered a 20% discount, it was a few more days before they also discounted the performances that Streit was always going to sing.

I don't think the somewhat recent Domingo/Nucci casts of Nabucco had different prices depending on who was singing.

The only time I recall where prices changed depending on the casts was a run of The Magic Flute a few years ago when there was three different pricings, though it was explained as being related to the day of the week, it just so happened that Simon Keenlyside (if I remember correctly) was only singing the weekend performances.

The price differences between casts will rather be for different runs, and with for instance Carmen, the Alagna/Garanca run from 2009 was then the most expensive tickets in the season (or even tickets had ever been at Covent Garden), this run with a couple of Kaufmann dates was getting close to that, whereas the runs in between tended to be noticeably cheaper.

With Kaufmann and opera singers in general, an additional reason for ticket holders to be annoyed is that the price of a run will often depend on who is singing, I hope Andrea Caré will deliver the goods, but had he been cast in the first place tickets probably would have been about 20-25% cheaper.

It was very common before the opera house set up their exchange site, I haven't particularly noticed people selling tickets at the doors since, and I would assume that now anyone who does is a tout rather than someone with a spare.

Does anyone know when the booking for their visit starts?

Shouldn't it be whenever booking for the summer season opens?

As there are still tickets available, I suggest you book online now if you are sure to go.

There are only 32 day tickets, they are only standing ones at the back of the stalls for five euros (payment by card only), are sold from 90 minutes before curtain up but anything popular will require you to start queuing much earlier than that (especially since it's possible to buy two per person, or at least it used to).

They don't accept returns but have a ticket exchange website, http://boursechange.operadeparis.fr/ if you go that route you should make sure to set up email alerts to an account that connects directly to your phone as anything that is offered for sale will usually go extremely quickly.

I'm guessing things are pretty much as they ever were. I was watching a movie about annoying people over the weekend, the first example was a man arriving late at the theatre and then proceeding to very noisily unwrapping sweets. The film is from 1948.

Except that I seem to remember Wayne, when Niffenegger expressed doubts, saying something along the lines of "leave the narrative to me", or at least I think he said that in an interview.  The whole thing was a collaboration between the two, wasn't it, rather than a staging of an existing work?

If I remember correctly, he told her to write the story without worrying about how it could be told in dance, I seem to recall him joking during the insight evening that he ended regretting it. While the book didn't exist before the commission, neither had much if any input in what the other was doing. 

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Buying a ticket for new ballets, we take a risk and we cannot regret too much the wasted money; but, considering Jennings observations about funds, I hope that you have not paid it twice with also your taxes.

That is a common refrain in Luke Jennings' complaints about new ballets, he at least this time didn't drag Alice into it, but regardless of one thinks of the new works artistically, they tend to be successful enough. I don't think tax money is wastefully spent when it helps develop works that are popular. 

Why would you think that?

I wonder why the ROH doesn't allow memberships to be paid for monthly by direct debit, I suspect more people would be tempted to upgrade which surely they would be happy with. A premium membership (and if there are no SCS tickets left at supporting level, it means that is when they are bought) still has the SCS tickets at reasonably good value (assuming one then buys as many tickets as allowed per production which is likely the case anyway at that level), but as a one-off payment it is quite a lot compared to a £10 ticket.

Bruce, Cav/Pag was put on sale the previous season, that might explain the absence of anything truly cheap.

Things did run smoothly for me as well, though I'm a bit disappointed with availability and wonder if they still keep tickets for general public for all performances, the Nunez/Muntagirov Giselle I was looking at had a fully booked amphi by 9.05. Also a lot fewer SCS than I'd become used to the past couple booking days (I did get one for Takada's Giselle, which had a surprisingly high number available, but it was the only performance I checked that did).

ETA: apparently that Giselle might have amphi tickets for students only, their others weren't much better anyway.

The UK might be predominantly white, but London isn't, or at least not 95%.

Whenever The Guardian has an article about the ethnic make-up of ballet companies, I'm usually in the comments pointing out that the percentage is consistent with the UK population (and that if there is any discrimination, it will anyway happen a long time before any AD sees students so it's a bit too easy to blame the companies), but one can't give the same justification for London audiences.

Maybe others will confirm, but I believe Darcey Bussell used to have and has private management, at any rate, I don't find it something to be outraged about.

Ballet careers are notoriously short, so what if she's already preparing for the future?

I saw the movie a couple of days ago (apparently the first time it was shown anywhere), there is still a screening on Sunday and I heartily recommend it.

There isn't that much in the way of dance in it, but Ohad makes for a compelling character. It will be shown on Arte in France and Germany, not idea if any sort of release is scheduled in the UK at a later date.

I've only seen Misty Copeland dance Gamzatti, but at no point did I think she was there because of her race. And if anything, if there's an ABT policy that stifles the opportunities for promotion of other dancers, it's their over-reliance on guests, not some "reverse racism".

I'm also confused by complaints that she is promoting herself and by extension her company and ballet, I thought anything that would develop potential audiences would be a good thing and all and any efforts should be applauded.

He isn't cast in the classical ones, but he is usually cast in MacMillan, in the past few runs he did R&J with Melissa Hamilton and Leanne Benjamin. His absence from this run might have more to do with theirs.

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