Coated

No no no, if anything Vasiliev would be a balletic *Young* Marlon Brando. Why does everyone have to be Brad Pitt these days?

In this case the guy clearly slipped past the ushers since he came in after the doors were closed - guess the usher was either at the other end or there wasn't one in the area that day. The ushers did a good job that day, but sometimes there is no way of encouraging people to be reasonably considerate. I think I know which usher you mean at the Coliseum, Aileen - she really is awesomely fierce.

Yup, him too. I realise the bit of RDB we saw were mainly principles and I guess some soloist, but I was really impressed how good they looked and even started feeling a bit jealous....

Some stunning audience behaviour in the stalls circle at the Alice matinee last Saturday. Didn't particularly notice the couple in the first act (always possible that they only arrived for the 2nd), but boy were they noticeable to all and sundry in the second act. When the curtain just went up, the woman was filming (holding up her mobile 'gig-style' over her head) and an usher had to practically shout at her from stalls to put away her phone. Madame did so, ever so slowly checking the pictures first. Of course, she got it out again later. At that point (remember - the curtain was up and the 2nd act had started), the seat next to her was empty. But lo and behold, her partner was on his way, a glass in one hand, eating a snack and casually making everyone get up so he could cleave his way to his beloved. Once he arrived, he started chatting loudly, possibly discussing the weather or checking what he might had missed. When the older lady behind him asked them after 5 minutes to stop talking, he does what every charmer would do: turn around to stare her down, because how dare she interrupt him when he's having fun. They continued talking more or less through the performance (a little less after I lost my temper and surprised myself with the vehemence of shushing noise I produced...not my best moment, but just couldn't believe their full-voiced constant talking), canoodling at times to make sure that people behind them were disturbed both visually and aurally. Needless to say, a whole raft of people complaint about them and the usher called the house manager to talk to the couple. They probably got the largest amount of deathstares I've seen from other audience members on their way out as well. My friend told the woman that her behaviour was rather selfish and the woman laught at that, but thankfully they didn't come back for act 3. What a pair of wallies.

Hayward and Muntagirov certainly managed to breath some life into Alice, particularly the first act, but of part of me kept thinking that they were wasted on the ballet. Yes, they made it so much more interesting than when it's danced a bit more indifferently, but overall I still like the idea and design ethic of Alice a lot better than actually watching the whole thing. By the time the 3rd act finished, I had mentally gone through my to-do list for next week which is usually not a good sign. I never quite know what it is that gets me so bored in act 2 & 3, but suspect it might be that some of the dancing / 'entertainment' just goes on and on - what is gorgeous and / or interesting for the first 2 minutes, becomes very tedious when it's repeated endlessly (yes, I'm exaggerating - it obviously isn't endless since I'd otherwise would still be watching the first Alice I ever saw)

Second viewing of the Cojocaru/Vasiliev cast, and yes, it was as good as I thought it first time around. There is something about Vasiliev's (let's call it burly masculinity) physique that really works for the Prince - the swan is initially wary of him, and it makes perfect sense when the prince looks somewhat dangerous and overwhelming compared to the swan, but then he shows a personality tempered with care and tenderness that overcomes the initially threatening appearance. As jmhopton said, it's work in progress, and it's interesting work. Apart from Odette and her prince, the real highlight of this swan lake is the pd3 with Corrales, Summerscales and McWhinney. Whoever decided to sign up Coralles really hit the jackpot IMHO

This was my first view of the Danes, and I enjoyed every elegant minute of it. Even the jokey Jockey short was short enough to not outlast its welcome. I'd love to see a full version of Napoli, but guess it'll have to be a dvd for now. I was particularly impressed with Sorella Englund's incredible stage presence (I could probably watch her for hours just miming) and what felt like genuine cheerfulness and excellent rapport between the dancers. If anyone needs a guest artist in London anytime soon, I wouldn't cry if they invited Andreas Kaas over.... Seeing that the RB occasionally pops to Copenhagen, perhaps someone could persuade the danes to come en masse for a short little stint.

I thought it was an excellent swan lake (apart from the Mazurka - the glacial pace and oddly stolid choreography somewhat take the fun out of it) and Cojocaru and Summerscale both left me in raptures. Vasiliev might not be a born Siegfried, but the man looks good on stage whatever he does and the partnership worked pretty well. Very nice pdds. Though I couldn't quite suppress a slight giggle when he delivered the most dramatic eye roll I have yet seen, on stage or off. I've got a couple more of their performances booked and am really looking forward to seeing it again. The orchestra was nice and lively too, which does make a welcome change after one too many DonQs.

I'm quite happy with the replacement cast. Yes, Osipova would make me even happier but she's injured so I'll just keep my fingers crossed for Onegin I'm now seeing Nunez / Soares twice this run and also saw them in the last run when Kaneko was injured. Seeing that they were not originally cast to dance together for either run, they seem to be giving quite a few performances...

Replacement cast has just been announced On ROH website, Nunez & Soares for 29th

The girl in front of me yesterday definitely fell into the 'not taught' category, since her mother also stuck her hand into their very rustling sweetie bag. But kudos to them, they put the bag away for the rest of the performance when I asked them to (nicely, I hope - by the time I ask I'm often quite wound up and a bit sharpish) The only venues where I still feel reasonably certain that the audience won't be utterly atrocious are the ROH and Wigmore Hall. Saying that, I recently went to see Assassins at the Menier and barely noticed the impeccably behaved audience until the rapturous applause at the end.

Same here for Song of Earth - I think it's not helping that the bench seats closest to the stage are not available for booking anymore. At least my opera booking went well.

And that's not restricted to the lower parts of the house - a friend of mine still has petrified memories of an former acquaintance she met up with for an opera arriving drunk and somewhat belligerent, eventually falling asleep on the poor gent sat next to her in the amphi. He didn't come back after the intermission, and neither did the acquaintance

Poor old ROH, damned if they do and damned if they don't. I think it's fair to say that this forum is a little specialist and extremely fond of standing tickets, but there are friends out there who just want to book some semi-decent amphi seats for themselves and their visiting in-laws for the same performance....

I'm extremely impressed that you resisted standing on their toes, Fonty. It's ridiculous behaviour from those ladies. When that happens to me next (I suspect a lot of us have been there) I'll try out FLOSS's approach. Sounds like a good solution.

Slightly underwhelmed by this bill, pretty much for all the reasons FLOSS just listed. The Scarlett is veering a bit too close to a musical for my taste, the Brandstrup comes across as somewhere between pooh-faced and shouting 'look how deep I am'. I like Aeternum well enough as a pretty piece of dancing but there is not much else to it.

Good point, and to some degree this should probably apply to all building specific costs (for all I know that might already be the case). Clear regulation might be useful to draw the line between necessary upkeep / improvement of facilities and vanity projects by Chief Executives who secretly dream of being architects. I used to work at a publicly funded institution that spent significant amounts on architecturally interesting building developments whilst there was 'no money' for anything else.

I'm surprised to hear that Pajdak has been with the company for 10 years - I just assumed that she is a lovely dancer who has joined the company in the last few years rather than a decade ago. I'm part of the apparent minority of people who really like the Brahms Waltzes, and thought she was fantastic in it - elegant and floaty, but also expressive and unleashing bursts of energy like a coiled spring.

I second that. The Month cast has gelled beautifully, and Bonelli went from slightly nondescript in his first outing to the best I've seen him since Giselle with Cuthbertson. Month is a beauty to behold with 4 strong performers in the leads. I sat too close to the stage today to see much of SdeB, but watching parts of it very close by really allows you to focus on the individual steps and small movements which made me appreciate the ballet a lot more than previously.

Due to calendar overload I was going to sit this one out, but after reading Janet's description of the programme I *had* to get a ticket to sate my curiosity about the blue ball. The Ivgi and Greben piece also sounds intriguing.

I hope your daughter sees a lot of ballets this season and finds time to write about them - really enjoyed reading her reviews. The writing style is very accessible and I suspect she could end up with quite a few readers outside of her target audience There are a couple of other blogs called "To the Pointe" as well as the site Bruce mentioned

Huh, that must be a blip of some sort - I booked a ticket on Saturday. I hope it's merely a blip with their booking system...

After the first 2 acts I thought it was a curiosity with some impressive dancing here and there, and I'd kind of given up following the story. In an ideal world, I could just see an encore of the 3rd act (at a third of the price would be nice....) to decide whether I'd see it live if I'd ever get the chance.

It was definitely nowhere near subtle, and I found some of the hand movements a bit jarring at the beginning - they made me expect a sphinx to show up any time soon. Overall it took me a little while to get to grips with it initially, by the time the curtain fell I was semi-sold on the ballet - need to see it again before I get anywhere near to making my mind up. I liked the group scenes and pdds in the third act a lot, wasn't too keen on the hunchbacks (dwarves?) but rather liked their female companions with the flower-beards. Denis Rodkin certainly doesn't hurt the eye, the other leads were pretty good too. If Maria Allash had any nerves about standing in as a last minute replacement, she really didn't show them. There was so much going on on stage, I already feel as if I've forgotten half of the things I've seen this afternoon. Though I'm likely to never forget the odd costume choices accentuating the female chest area.

£17 at the odeon in covent garden - the American prices look much nicer to me. That said, it was money well spent, the 3rd act was riveting. I did get a bit distracted by the costumes with what I can only call diamanté nipples though.