capybara

5 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

 

Thank you for the confimation. With apologies to the rest of the performance, I think it was my highlight of the evening!

I had meant to say that, in this particular instance (it isn’t always the case with ballet pyrotechnics), the sequence serves the story in the way it emphasises the rapture Siegfried feels for Odile at that moment.

That connection is what makes the double doubles special for me.

18 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

Do any current RB Siegfrieds apart from Muntagirov do double-double tours in Act III? I'm trying to remember from the 2022 run & failing.

No. Maybe, when Cesar Corrales is fully fit again, there will be another, but not currently or previously.

The double-doubles are pretty incredible and ramp up the excitement in that pdd considerably.

2 hours ago, Amanda Liu said:

Looks like Mayara is replacing Anna Rose O’Sullivan in all 3 performances.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/maymagriofficial/3336679073361920503?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=MWY1YTZ5bXMxeTA4dw==

I somehow feel that, since this involves Anna Rose as well and so fundamentally, the announcement should have come first from the RB/ROH.

The thought of this possible change did strike me when Mayara disappeared from the casting for Danses Concertantes at the time when Anna Rose also had to withdraw. So sorry for Anna Rose…..

(Similarly, on IG, Joseph Sissens appears to be confirming that Akane will dance O/O with him.)

(Edited to add that Mayara’s story on IG was a re-post of her upcoming performance schedule from her agent. They (StageFieldEntertainment) should not, imho, have jumped the gun.)

1 hour ago, zxDaveM said:

Muntagirov and Cuthbertson

Yasmine Naghdi

(as per quoting Mary's post...)

I know…… 😉 and I find the familiarity endearing but the rot can set in quite quickly once we start to use shorthand.

1 minute ago, zxDaveM said:

 

M&C - yes they were 🙂

Yas will make sure Calvin's up to scratch, with no doubt 😉

 

M&C?

Yas?

😳

9 minutes ago, alison said:

 

I make it 5 - at least, based on Dawnstar's spreadsheet?  I know it's complicated trying to switch between the two, but is it really 7?

 

I must admit, some of the casting has been somewhat unexpected from my point of view.  I had been hoping we'd finally get Muntagirov's Oberon (he was supposed to do it in the School's graduation performance, but had been injured, I believe), but had never thought of Cuthbertson for Titania.  Or Richardson for Oberon, for that matter.  Did Osipova do Titania in a previous season?  

Apologies - Hayward also has two Ophelias.

There’s a lot of laudatory coverage of Fumi Kaneko in the April/May edition of Dance Europe including, in a specific portrait, the following phrase:

”It’s proved: she’s now one of the world’s leading ballerinas.”

🤩😁🌟

14 minutes ago, San Perregrino said:

 

The cover email that was sent out with the casting included the following paragraph:

 

”'Please find attached the latest casting for Ashton Celebrated which begins in two months’ time. I do apologise that these are reaching you later than we had planned; due to a number of factors the casting has been in flux, so we did not want to give you incorrect information.

 

You have received this email because you are a Friend of the Royal Opera House.

That (approximate) wording was also used in earlier emails and, I think, was accepted, albeit reluctantly, on here.

My latest post simply pointed to the date of KOH’s casting pdf preceding public booking by a day. 
 

3 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

I do wonder why they have to announce it the day after public booking opens. I also was not expecting so many casts so it's going to be awfully complicated. I'm trying to get my head around all the casting combinations & failing. I think I'm going to have to turn it into a spreadsheet....

The timing is, of course, not untypical of the ROH.

However, it is all the more galling given that the pdf was clearly signed off by KOH on the 26th March.

I'm wondering whether it might be possible to keep the transport discussions on the separate thread there is now. It seemed such a good move to create that............

7 minutes ago, alison said:

Hardly surprising, given that she's probably the company's most Ashtonian dancer, I guess.  I was wondering what they were going to have to leave her out of!

But, with so many shows and Ashton coming into the rep. less frequently now, there could surely be no better opportunity to enable other dancers to have a priceless learning experience and take their place alongside Hayward?

Hayward has the lead in either The Dream or Rhapsody in 7 out of the 10 shows.

15 minutes ago, Fonty said:

Edited to add could the posts regarding the Ashton triple bill be put in a separate thread?  Or in an existing one if it has already been started.  

Would be very grateful if this were possible, please. This thread is already a bit of a patchwork, albeit a nice and informative one.

Several RB ballerinas ‘advertise’ dancewear, usually with an acknowledgement. At the rate some do that their wardrobes/dressing rooms must be very full.

A couple of years ago the number of ‘followers’ for a male RB dancer appeared to jump by over 100k overnight!!!!! Those must’ve been paid for surely? Presumably the purpose was to boost his profile for use by his agent.

And the entry of agents into the ballet scene (a relatively new phenomenon) is a whole other dimension where promoting ballet is concerned.

3 minutes ago, LinMM said:

 It must be especially annoying if audience members who are standing for the performance can find nowhere to sit beforehand. 

 I don’t want to be harsh; but performance choices aren’t really relevant. After all, people book to stand knowingly. There are patrons who need to sit while they wait.

So where do audience members (many of whom obviously have difficulty standing and others with non visible medical conditions) wait until the auditorium is open (which can be as late as 20 minutes before a performance)?

The Linbury Foyer is often cordoned off; the velvet seating under the Stalls Circle is inaccessible. That leaves the toilets - and, yes, I have sat down in the Ladies many a time.

Wasn’t one of the reasons Osipova left the Bolshoi that she wasn’t given the opportunity there to essay the biggest classics?

Maybe an early comment was thus being made about her technique?

(But I have insufficient knowledge to judge; all I have is my less than positive response to her Gala Don Quixote PDD and my more general appreciation of her uniqueness for better or for worse.)

1 hour ago, Sim said:

O-dial?!  

How is it possible for someone associated with the ROH/RB, or anyone overseeing her, to miscue in this way?

It does offer an unfortunate window on the way in which certain areas of responsibility are discharged within the ROH.

15 minutes ago, San Perregrino said:

I understand that some ballet fans need to plan early. I like to do so myself. However coming down on the ROH like a ton of bricks because it doesn’t announce until the end of April, a little later than some other companies, seems both unnecessary and unwarranted to me. 
Hotel prices advertised months in advance can be priced at a premium as well as a discount. The hotel I booked six months ago in Birmingham for next week has actually come down in price and I have been able cancel and rebook at a lower rate. So, the early bird doesn’t always get the worm.
As I said in my previous post Summer booking for the general public only opens tomorrow. The emphasis needs to be on selling the remaining seats for this the season to a general public which is increasingly choosing not to book months in advance as the current 2023/2024 season has shown.

(BRB’s La Fille Mal Gardée has been on sale to Sadlers Friends and is now onsale to the general public. A quick look shows that, despite much anxiety on BCF, actual sales including today are minimal.)

In the same vein, I don’t think announcing Cinderella on April 1st or April 30th will have any impact on sales vis à vis other companies’ Nutcrackers. 

 

I don’t read anyone as “coming down on the ROH like a ton of bricks”. 

5 minutes ago, San Perregrino said:

Not sure why it makes much difference if it’s announced before, simultaneously or after other companies?  

 
Many reasons but here’s just one……

If, for example (and as is rumoured), the RB is offering Cinderella as its Christmas/New Year production, lodging that in the minds of a potential audience before they book for other companies’ Nutcrackers could be a smart idea.

Difficult to understand how ‘coming last’ with its ‘big reveal’ works for the RB in terms of marketing, ticket sales etc .

26 minutes ago, FionaM said:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C40i9MSIhgt/?igsh=dDdncGxzbDUwdGli
 

This influencer is dressed up as a ballerina in the ROH … and clearly isn’t one.   This offends me.  

It feels to me almost as if the ROH is taking the pxxs out of one of the art forms it houses.

Such an important issue!

The ROH needs a re-think where it’s social media input is concerned (as part of an overall PR strategy which seems to be missing).

How is it that a discussion about Swan Lake is running on this particular thread? All very confusing!!!

20 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Whatever one feels about standards the dancers may have lost or are still maintaining, they have put in 100% of themselves in that performance and put a great deal of time, commitment and energy just to get up on that stage, and I especially applaud those who have had to travel far  to dance for us. 

And, in the case of the latest gala, there are hints on IG regarding the pressures that some participants were under: last minute substitutions; illness; competing Company demands etc.