Lynette H

A minor point, maybe. The ability to check the view of the stage from a particular seat seems to have vanished from the ROH site (or at least I have been unable to find it despite looking quite hard). It would be really useful to have this back, given at present the circumstances of booking have left me (and no doubt others) with tickets in areas of the house less familiar, and it's not clear just how bad the view is going to be. Has anyone else managed to find this ? All I could get was a video about how they had gone about taking pictures from each seat - but not, sadly, the results of all that effort.

Article in the Guardian giving more details https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/may/06/plans-for-50-funding-cut-to-arts-subjects-at-universities-catastrophic

The ROH Friends magazine has arrived but there aren't any performance dates for 2021/22 in it, just booking dates. It says the new season summary should be issued at the beginning of June. For this summer it does say that the "meet the Young Dancers" insight event will now be streamed on 7th May. Other insight events are mentioned but there are no dates for these yet.

This news item on the ROH site adds in details of Royal Ballet School performances and dates. Also a bit more about Draft Works and Rambert School. https://www.roh.org.uk/news/royal-opera-house-announces-packed-schedule-for-spring-and-summer-2021

An email from the Friends of RBS indicates this about School performances. They " will be at the Royal Opera House, both on the main stage for the Matinee on Saturday 10 July and also in their Linbury Theatre, from 23-26 June with further performances in the Upper School and at White Lodge." "Only the Upper School will perform at the Royal Opera House while White Lodge will perform in their own Margot Fonteyn Theatre, though this will just be for their families." Tickets will be very limited (socially distanced seating).

The Culture Whisper interview with Kevin O'Hare says "The Royal Ballet founder choreographer, Frederick Ashton, is remembered with a triple bill: ‘Scènes de Ballet, Month in the Country and Rhapsody. Both Scènes de Ballet and Rhapsody we haven’t seen for quite a while, and I think we definitely have the dancers to do those ballets justice, and I’m really looking forward to that.’ " https://www.culturewhisper.com/r/dance/the_royal_ballet_season_2021_22/16242

If the RB need to limit the number of dancers involved and concentrate on duets for the moments, then maybe Pite's Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue, as seen at Sadler's in 2013? I remember it had very moody lighting.

The V&A along with the British Museum and other museums have used Blythe House, an enormous building in Olympia, for storage of parts of their collections for many years. The government announced a few years ago that it would sell off Blythe House and provide some funding for alternative storage sites for the museums. The development of the V&A East in in two parts, one for this storage. The other part on the waterfront (next to where the Sadler's Wells new small theatre will be) is for display. https://www.vam.ac.uk/info/va-east-project

Opera Holland Park have announced changes to their theatre for this summer season. The capacity will be reduced from 1000 to 400 to allow for socially distanced seating. https://operahollandpark.com/your-visit/what-to-expect/ The season announcement is here https://operahollandpark.com/season-and-events/2021-season/?utm_campaign=783647_Season Launch with membership push&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Opera Holland Park&dm_i=4Y6B,GSNZ,1X9PNM,1ZIBE,1 There is no mention of any performances by the Royal Ballet School. But there does look to be a gap in their announced schedule in early July which is when any RBS performances might typically take place. Of course, that ight not be possible for all sorts of reasons. But the venue plan looked interesting.

Nice to have news of Muriel Valtat who I remember fondly, particularly in Ashton works.

Don't miss this. It's really charming, really well put together and no spare fat on it at an hour's running time. The little boy with the football is brilliant. Available till midnight on Christmas Eve.

Details of Royal Ballet leavers https://www.roh.org.uk/news/the-royal-ballet-announces-news-of-dancers-leaving-the-company-in-2020?utm_source=wordfly&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2020_Dec_ENews_Friends_18Dec&utm_content=version_A&emailsource=52436

Only alternate rows are occupied. So in the amphi, it's row A, C, E etc that are used. B, D etc are completely empty. In the rows that are occupied there are two empty seats between each group. The boxes seem to be occupied as normal though - I couldn't be sure.

Article in the Telegraph today (in today's links) about Stopgap Dance https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/just-us-disabled-dancers-behind-wondrous-new-bbc-film/ David Toole appears in this new dance film BBC4 Nov 18th 11:50pm.

Obituary in some detail in the NYT https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/10/arts/david-toole-disabled-dancer-with-grace-in-his-hands-dies-at-56.html

Sarah Lamb came on stage for Elite still wearing her blue mask....it took her a couple of minutes to realise and then discreetly dispose of it. What strange times.....

Just a reminder. There is no service on the Northern line branch between Moorgate and Kennington tomorrow 31 Oct so you might need to plot a different journey if attending BRB at Sadler's Wells.

Thanks very much.

Are there cast sheets available ? I didn't spot anything that could be downloaded but I may have missed it.

Obituary in the Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2020/oct/28/david-toole-obituary He had the most amazing stage presence, The work with DV8 was stunning.

It does seem odd that the ROH ticketing system doesn't let you see the available seats and select a seat yourself. Sadler's Wells currently lets you do this, as do the National Theatre and the Bridge Theatre. It gives you a much better idea of what the distancing is like.

I was just wondering if they are using the boxes at all. I think these are usually sold as a unit of 4, but you can't currently request more than 2 tickets for a performance. I thought I got a glimpse of people in boxes on the 9th Oct livestream, but I might be mistaken about that.

Best new dance - Ingoma, Mthuthuzeli November for Ballet Black. Outstanding achievement in Dance - Sarah Baras, Ballet Flamenco Sombras, Sadler's Wells. Best Theatre Choreographer - Matthew Bourne and Stephen Mear, Mary Poppins. (Bourne's ninth Olivier award). https://officiallondontheatre.com/olivier-awards/year/olivier-awards-2020/

19 to 29 Oct Kate Prince ZooNation Some Like it Hip Hop https://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/2020/digital-stage-in-focus-sadlers-wells-x-zoonation-the-kate-prince-company/ "Some Like It Hip Hop is a nod to Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. It tells a comical tale of love, mistaken identity and revolution, all played out in ZooNation’s trademark style."

I see from an ROH email that tonight's opera streaming 4 / 4 includes Phaedra which will "also feature Principal dancer of The Royal Ballet: Matthew Ball."