Coated

It's fascinating how the same ballet can be a completely different animal with a different cast, with both casts being deeply enjoyable. Osipova and McRae brought the fireworks tonight, I think it's possible that McRae outMcRaed himself - some of his turns and jumps were very spectacular. It was great having Osipova back on the stage and looking right at home amongst the gorgeous RB girls - Olivia Cowley particularly caught my eye quite a few times with her willowy elegance and gracefulness. Rhapsody felt more nervy and bursting with barely reigned-in energy tonight, like satin over steel springs, whilst retaining a nearly timeless and hypnotic elegance.

Timmy, as far as I remember, the second replacement was Mayara Magri replacing Stix-Brunell. Someone else might want to confirm whether that was it

I saw the matinee on Saturday and loved Francesca Hayward's ethereal quality. There were a few glimpses where she looked positively regal, an exciting harbinger of the many qualities she is likely to add to her repertoire over the years to come. She was as wonderful, if not more, as in her Rhapsody debut which remains one of my RB highlights. Whilst he might not bring on the bravura, I really like James Hay in the role, he shares some of the ethereal qualities with Francesca and when they are in unison it's a little piece of dance heaven. I had missed the news of new (old) costumes and spent the first few minutes of the ballet questioning my sanity, wondering whether I'm mixing up Rhapsody with a different ballet altogether. I though it was a bit of a shame that the balustrade obscures part of Francesca Hayward's entrance, a moment that was burned in my minds eye as a piece of beauty from her debut, but overall I much prefer the new look. To me, the performance overall felt a bit like a Monday morning piece where people might still be in the process of waking up. The boys particularly didn't have the cohesion I'd like to see (and I'm pretty certain they had previously), they looked a lot less together than their female counterparts who had 2 last minute substitutions.

I already have a plethora of tickets, but am seriously considering to book an extra one just to see Corrales' Ali again. Crickey, that boy was good. Great cast all round tonight and a lovely energy on stage. Cheered me right up.

Quite sad that I don't get any Cojacaru now and hope it's not a bad injury - very pleased about the replacements though since I couldn't make the initial Rojo days and now get an extra Summerscales too

Interesting - would be lovely to have a successful female successor for Mr Holten next year.

I couldn't get through the pilot. It just seems to be misery guts with a side order of misery. And then some gritty looooooong shots of something miserable. I hopped through a couple of other episodes to see whether it becomes less woeful, only saw long sorrowful looks and morose silences and decided that it's clearly not for me. I could imagine a documentary about an abattoir to be more cheerful than this.

I thought it was excellent. Michieletto created a real sense of place and community in a small mid century italian towm populated by a chorus that for once wasn't just awkwardly parked on stage but created drama through their movement (or lack thereof in some scenes). Cav is probably not entirely my cup of tea as an opera, but it was a pleasant started for a great Pagliacci with some Pag characters making a cameo in Cav and vice versa. At the beginning of Pag, one of the chorus pieces was 'conducted' on stage by an actress?/chorus member?, and I nearly cracked up watching her conducting on stage and Pappano in the pit at the same time from my upper slips perch. At times, they made nearly the same movements, occasionally either one of them looked like a silent film satire of a conductor. The real strength of Pag was the drama unfolding on stage. At some point the story turned into an internal psychodrama, with the action of the play-within-the-opera turning into the inner monologue of the cheated husband - very meta, very effective. Overall, I though it was a great production, musically as well as dramatically. Special kudos to the supportive roles, which occasionally outshone the main performers. For some reasons only known to the booers, there was yet another episode of a small group of very vocal *^*%*^& randomly booing the production team. It felt like they enjoyed their last booing outing and were going to have another go, no matter what the production was like. The guy sitting next to us what utterly confused why anyone would be booing a production like this, and I can only concur. Next time I'm going to a first night, I'm taking a muzzle just in case I end up sitting next to a persistent attention seeker.

The other cast has Artur Rucinski in it, who was a fabulous stand-in Giorgio Germont in a recent Traviata run. I was initially leaving this one out but ended up with tickets for both casts in the end. Katie Mitchell has been a byword for 'prepare to not see the stage due to random objects placed for maximum sight line disruption, let's see whether we can make it through to the end of the play' for my theatre going friends in her NT heydays. Saying that, her recent Cherry Orchard at the Young Vic wasn't half bad, and I liked one of her plays at the NT (though one out of five I've seen is a bit of a daunting track record) If there are any dropped handbags or sand in the production, you might hear an unsuppressable groan from the upper slips.

I'm utterly smitten by Morgen und Abend, from the monologue at the beginning to the last quiet moment on stage. The sporadic monologue allowed me to really listen to the music whilst setting up the elegiac atmosphere perfectly. Having seen a fair share of Scandinavian film as a teenager, the quietness and slowness of the story as like an oasis of calm for me. I didn't quite expect it to turn into an emotional tour de force, but the sadness and grief over his wife's death really got to me. The singing was outstanding, and I really hope the same cast could return for a revival in the very near future. Morgen und Abend is on R3 next Saturday for anyone curious about the soundscape created by Haas.

Monotones II really didn't work for me on Fri night. Whilst the matching in height was nice, I felt that only Arestis brought something to the ballet with her beautifully expressive upper body and regal aura. Monotones I was more enjoyable, albeit a little bit wonky at times. Two Pigeons smoothed my Monotone ruffled feathers beautifully. McRae and Salenko were alive and characterful, with Salenko really going for the goofy aspects of the girl without worrying about looking pretty. I thought they had lovely chemistry in this one, something that hasn't always been evident to me in other ballets. Fumi Kaneko just rocked the Gypsy girl, I don't know whether I liked her dancing or her attitude best. But best of all, I thought the whole company looked like they are really enjoying themselves on stage. I spent a fair amount of time looking at the young ones, particularly Chisato Katsura, and they all seemed to have a little extra sparkle in Pigeons. And it was nice to see Reece Clarke back on stage, I hadn't seen him since his Symphonic Variations.

I'm seeing it on Saturday and I'm getting VERY curious about this. Sounds like people who saw it twice liked it better the second time, knowing what to expect from it.

Personally, I quite enjoyed the 'Trollop' - big voice and a bit of flavour in an insipid production. Yoncheva's Michaela was very good as well and Nicholas Courjal as 'Officer' - ¡Ay, caramba!

I am shocked and abhorred to find out that Puccini and Massenet conspired to shoot a man of the cloth.

The regular exchange policy requires a ticket return 3 days prior to the performance, Kaufmann ticket holders were able to exchange with less notice

Well, I've had a least 2 ROH operas where the replacement was a lot better than the more starry initial cast though that's unlikely to be the case for this Carmen. 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. Whilst I personally would love to be able to get credit notes when I can't make a performance, I don't think that system would work well for the ROH - I'd certainly exchange a lot more tickets on short notice that way and might be tempted to buy more tickets 'on spec' since I could just return them if I don't fancy it after all. Unless they increased the ticket price overall to deal with the money lost on last minute unsold tickets, I can't see how they'd finance a "no question asked exchange policy" - I'd rather have the odd ticket not resold / unused than a hefty increase on all tickets.

'Get into London Theatre' promotion includes reduced price Nutcracker, Corsaire and Bourne's Sleeping Beauty tickets this year. It runs between Jan 1 - Feb 12 http://www.getintolondontheatre.co.uk/price-guide/

....wrong thread

Must remember to cancel normal life between the 25th July to the 13th of August. Bliss. I just realised that I'll be seeing a LOT of Corsaires next year

After a third viewing of Carmen, I remain stoically unimpressed, and occasionally deeply unimpressed by the machismo tinged representation of sexuality.

It might fail the test, though Cinderella has a stepmother and that comes through quite clearly, Elektra's behated mother and step father could be done. Hansel and Gretel managed to weave some quite complex psychology into the performance, mostly through dancing, but partially through clever staging and sometimes by crossing the line between dancing and acting I guess this is what ballet mime was for. Perhaps a judicious use of projections can replace that function these days for audiences not familiar with more intricate mime. I wouldn't be adverse to a little bit of cheating by using projections and/or props including lighting or 'vision scenes' of her not-dead brother, they could use a picture / similar to introduce her brother as a concept, which can then be used as a prop when her mother tells her her brother is dead. Music wise, I'm after Strauss, though that wouldn't be straightforward at all. Of course now I'm intrigued to know what the version MAB mentioned was like. The only thing I could find about it was a Wikipedia article mentioning it as a 1967 ballet reworked from an 1963 version for the RB. ETA: according to a book by Zoe Anderson the RB Elektra was short-lived, but lurid, with terrifying throws that see "Nerina hurled from one group of men to another" and a woman screamed and fainted watching them on tour in New York. I wish I had a time machine....

I'd love to see Elektra as a ballet, something in the 30-40 minute region, full orchestra, maybe done by Pita or Scarlett, either in its historical setting or updated for the modern day (dead) oligarch. Or maybe in a 1970's grim factory setting. I realise my chances are exceedingly slim.

40 minutes would definitely be an improvement. I didn't think it was the worst thing I've ever seen, but can't say that I'd be happy if this were to become the new house style. I found the roller derby very amusing, though probably for the wrong reasons. Muntagirov and Nunez were fantastic in the Tchaikovsky PDD. I think they work really well together, and their solos were mind boggling. I swear that Vadim has figured out how to simply levitate, there was a series of 3 jumps were he appeared to hover motionless in the air for a couple of seconds before coming back to earth with one of his buttery soft perfect landings. They were so assured, relaxed and joyous on stage, both with their own innate elegance - it was a delight to watch.

That was a lovely interview, thanks for reposting it. I'm always glad that I managed to see him and Daria a few times, fingers crossed that will one day find someone at the RB that he's equally in tune with. Though obviously from a purely dancing point of view, I thought he looked good with pretty much any RB partner he had so far. I always feel he makes his partner look good as well

I fell in love with Corsaire and its outrageous silliness when the Bolshoi did it at the Coliseum a few years back and cherish my memory of Tsiskaridze eating up the stage and delivering enough swagger to supply a mid-sized pirate armada. Bliss. I'm very happy that ENB has now taken it upon itself to fulfil my pirate needs by putting on a raft of lovely casts in London.