Jacqueline

Was anyone on the forum present during the Lopatkina/Mariinsky Swan Lake of - I think - 2009, when a stage-hand appeared on stage? My, how some of us laughed! It was during a quiet moment of Act 3 and suddenly there he was, in all his shorts and safety booted glory, frozen like a rabbit in the headlights, until he realised where he was and got off quick! I remember being rather disappointed by the performance in general, the scenery looked moth eaten and Lopatkina seemed to be totally disengaged. I know some find her hard to connect with anyway, but I usually love her. The best was Ilya Kuznetzov who was a rather attractive Rothbart. I wouldn't mind so much being under his spell! Is he coming to London this year?

Sign seen recently on a tourist double decker - Top on and off for sightseeing! Well!

Indeed. I have been looking, almost slack-jawed, at the prices of what to my eyes are bog standard properties. I start in the lower end price categories and can barely find a shed. We sold our flat in Haywards Heath about 17 years ago for just under 50grand and I see the same flat was most recently sold again in 2006, for 178grand. Okay, it is near the railway station and has parking etc, but it was a small, two bedroom property and nothing special. Absurd.

I seem to recall at some point during the buttock clenching embarrassment that was Viva la Diva, Darcey said she found it nerve-wracking to be speaking and singing-the latter was conveniently inaudible so she need not have worried-on stage. Presumably she received some training in these new forms of projection and she now has quite a prolific t.v/presenting career, so one would expect her to have got over any nerves and be on top of her game. We do seem to live in a world where, as has been said, if you are pretty and famous, you can present almost anything no matter how limited your knowledge and/or skills. I wish there could be a turn around in this general dumbing down. It reminds me a little of people ringing the ROH to ask which performances of Swan Lake would be danced by Natalie Portman, so there is obviously an audience for this kind of approach. But where does it leave the rest of us? As for The Winter's Tale last Saturday, I would add that when it does return, I very much hope they will see fit to put the matinees on at a more reasonable time,12pm is far too early for anyone who has to travel some distance and who cannot stay overnight for various reasons, not least financial. It didn't spoil the day because I didn't let it but I missed my usual opportunity to relax with a coffee and look at the programme. These things matter after a long journey and make a difference to how one perceives the performance. Well, they do to me anyway.

Sorry I didn't respond before now. Thank you for your thoughts. I have thought again about the dream and I am wondering if I have worked it out. I think it may be to do with moving after all. I really dislike where we live currently and hanker to return south, where I come from originally. It is nothing to do with being nearer family or friends or whatever. I am just a southerner at heart and I want to go back down south. No offense to the north! We have talked about moving again and I was against it at first as I felt quite settled here. But I have been back down south, mostly to London and the ballet, a few times to just visit Sussex. When I walk through Victoria Station and see all those familiar place names on the departure boards, I feel so homesick. But then I wonder if it is just rose tinted glasses and maybe it wasn't that great. I don't know. I do know property is horrendously expensive down there now and what we give up here, we couldn't afford there. It might be a mistake to go back. So, my having so much to pack might be a reflection of feeling trapped, that I would just go tomorrow if I didn't have so much stuff. Or it could be that having all that stuff acts as a kind of anchor, stopping me from rushing into a mistake. Or maybe it doesn't mean any of that and is just a recurring dream.

I attended Saturday's matinee and have been mulling over it since. Luckily I have been spared the effort of writing about it by Judith Cruickshank, whose review appears in today's links and whose views are so largely in line with mine and written so much more succinctly than my thoughts have been. Thank you to Janet McNulty for sourcing the review.

There are some great dreams here. I love the one about spooning cocoa into the sea! Makes my packing dream look a bit mundane. I had my dream again last night but it has gone large, almost as though it is telling me to think harder and work it out. I woke this morning and realized it was the same theme but different set - up. I was moving this time, into a property shared with Sarah Beeny, whom I don't know and have never met, but you can spot the property link. I don't know whether she has a sister, but she did in the dream and she ran a pottery shop. This was being packed up as well, so there were millions of pieces of pottery to be wrapped and boxed and so on. It started to rain so I went out to get the washing in, which was hanging around a tree and too high up to reach. Maybe this is The Winter's Tale tree? Then my mother turned up with a 'few bits' I had left at her house. This turned out to be six large crates of junk which I insisted wasn't mine, but she wouldn't take no for an answer and insisted I pay her travelling expenses. There were lots of people in this dream but I only knew two of them. Essentially, it was about packing. I feel tired out today.

Thank you for all the suggestions, very interesting. I see the connection between baggage and unresolved issues. But I have been having this dream for a long time now, both in stressful times and more peaceful ones. Like most people I suppose, I have unresolved issues but at this stage in my life, they are either things I could do something about if I chose to or they are things I have just let go. I don't feel swamped or overwhelmed by problems. I am not much given to pondering over things I can do nothing about. I have as suggested, really thought about the dream rather than just thinking I have had the same old dream again. It doesn't really change other than location and I generally know where I am, if not the hotel/accommodation, then the place. I look out of the window and recognize something - be it Brighton seafront, the harbour at Mousehole or wherever. I am not usually somewhere I wouldn't want to be or have never been. My possessions are all current, I am not looking at stuff I have owned down the years. I am usually on my own. I don't remember feeling unduly stressed or anxious to leave, just mystified how it is when I come to pack, that I have so much stuff. The two smallish bags are Iike some I bought years ago in Jersey but don't have them anymore in reality. LinnMM, I don't want to sound thick, but what do you mean I could be 'coming into a movement'? 2Dancersmum, does the dream interpretation work for you, as you say you have the same dream?

Hello TheQuays, Can I just poke my nose in again? I was wondering, as a retired driving instructor and an expert , whether your Sean is taking driving lessons. You don't mention it so I assume not. I used to teach a lot of people his age and it was a good age to learn. If you still have some money put aside that you would like to spend on him, this might be a good idea. It would set him up well to be mobile or at least have a licence and maybe you could buy him a little car. He has several months now of light evenings and the summer holidays and he wouldn't have to go far from home. If he isn't already doing this or doesn't want to at the moment, you could set the money aside for when he does. A very practical gift and no pressure! I expect some of his friends are learning to drive so maybe they could recommend an instructor. Anyway, just a thought.

Yes, that is weird! I used to have recurring dreams about moving house, back when we went through a period of moving quite regularly for various reasons. We weren't on the run!! Those dreams were largely about moving into a house that was still full of the previous owner's belongings, although this only happened once in reality. I could sort of get where those dreams were coming from. We have been in our present abode for some years now and that dream has faded or perhaps morphed into the one about packing, which I really can't decipher. How interesting that you have a similar dream. I would love to know what it means. Even when I am dreaming, I know I have dreamed this before and it is like here we go again.

Does anyone here know owt about the meaning of dreams? I have a recurring one which is as follows - I am on holiday or staying somewhere and it is time to go home, so I have to pack. When I open the wardrobe and drawers etc, I find I have a ridiculous amount of stuff. I seem to have brought all my possessions with me. I only have two smallish bags and no recollection of bringing so much stuff or why. These extras are definitely mine by the way, I am not 'mistakenly' including the towels and hotel fixtures and fittings!! Anyway, as I said, I have this dream or variations of, quite often, last night infact! I have tried to decipher it but not really come up with anything sensible. I am not a hoarder and my house is not full of clutter. Whenever I travel, I always do so light. So what does it all mean? Perhaps nothing, but then why does it keep happening? Any answers please?

According to my cast sheets, Melissa Hamilton was Hermia in The Dream in 2012 and one of Syvia's attendents in 2010. Edited to say I don't have that many to look through, so this is all I could come up with!

Revised list of dvds for sale: As per post number 5 plus: Manon - Rojo/Acosta Mariinsky - Swan Lake - Lopatkina Push - Guillem/Maliphant Giselle - SPBT - Kolesnikova

Can't find a mention of this anywhere so apologies if I have missed it. Anyway, there is a programme on Channel 4 at 7.30pm this Friday - Good Friday - called Unreported World, about the students of Iraq's only school dedicated to ballet and music and the struggle to keep it going against the threat of religious extremism and sectarian violence.

I agree with you about standing ovations. Not so bad if everyone or nearly everyone is doing it, but the one person version can be unfortunate. Last time this happened to me was at Sadler's Wells after a performance by Sylvie Guillem. The only person to stand did so in front of me, completely blocking my view. I got her attention and asked her to sit down which she did. All part of my zero tolerance approach! Yes, I think I will just pay the supplement and have done with it. It is already an expensive day, so a few more quid won't make much difference and it will mean I can relax. Your route is the way I usually go and as you say, the bus is the most stress free journey. Thank you for offering the info! I am looking forward to the performance even more now, even though the reviews are somewhat mixed. Sorry Thiago Soares is injured, but I do like Bennet Gartside. Love that tree as well. Want one!

Yes, the lovely Victoria coach station it is. If the performance is over by 3pm and I can get out quickly, I will have to hotfoot it down to Embankment as you suggest. I usually get the number 11 bus when there is time, but with living so far away from London, the early start matinee already means a crack of dawn coach and no margin for error. Now this. Oh well, it's not worth spoiling the day worrying about it. I just hate arriving anywhere in a stressed heap. Sure fire recipe for a migraine.

Ah, I didn't know that. I am not familiar with this tale, I was just going by the synopsis. I suppose the moral of the story could be that sometimes it is best to take no for an answer. I am going to see the April 26th matinee and am very much looking forward to it, particularly to seeing Vadim Muntagirov for the first time. I was interested to see the revised running time as I had booked my return coach already, based on the original timings. This will now give me less than an hour to get to the coach station or pay a supplement for a later coach. Oh, the romance of it all.

Even so, it is still an outrageous abuse of a welcome. Was he even invited or did he just turn up? As if that wasn't bad enough, Hermione then goes and invites him to stay another week, on the very day he was supposed to be finally leaving. No wonder Leontes was vexed. I would have been climbing the curtains!!

Polixenes visits Leontes and stays for NINE MONTHS? no wonder there was trouble at mill. Three days is the absolute maximum for guests if you want to avoid unrest.

I've got that song in my head now!!

I think this is absolutely right as well. Sean sounds a lovely, well balanced young man with lots of friends and studying a specific field, so he must have some idea what he wants to do. I don't think there is any such thing as a once in a lifetime opportunity. If it is not right for that person, then it is not an opportunity for them. We can all say we wish we had done this or that, or hear about someone else's perceived missed chances. I wish I had tried harder at various things in my life but I didn't at the time and there is a reason for that. I was lazy!! I still am. I was also forever being held up for comparison with my - surprisingly - best friend and found wanting. She worked hard at school, went to the best girl's school in Sussex, went to university etc etc. I didn't do any of those things and left college with no idea what I wanted to do. My mother only seemed to take interest in my existence when I transgressed the unwritten law. Her obvious disappointment in me was partly a result of her own mother's apparently negative attitude towards her. We should always be careful what we pass on! When I was about 19, I decided to travel and had some adventures. I have done various jobs, the longest as a driving instructor and been married rather a long time. I now live in an area where most of the population was born and bred and think London is a foreign country. I also find that attitude blinkered but it is a sort of safety valve as well. The point is people will be what they will be. We can't mold them into what we want or think they should be and we make a big mistake trying. One of these days, Sean will be off to begin life as an independent adult and although I don't know him, I hope he is happy and successful in whatever he decides to do. I wonder if rather than saying no to your suggestions, he has ever made some himself as to where his interests may lie? Indeed, what are your own interests, apart from Oasis!!! Be less focused on what he is doing and more on yourself, the pressure will lift from both of you!

Well Quays, I have read your post several times and forgive me if I speak out of turn. I am just trying to apply my experiences to your own. Firstly, your son is only 17, he has plenty of time to make his own mind up about what he wants to do with his life. You may have been desperate to leave school etc when you were 16 ( I was the same! ), but as you say, everybody is different and he has a mind of his own. I take it he has academic qualifications or expectation of them, or you would not be talking about university? I think you were right to let him make the decision about not going to boarding school at such a crucial age, when he had lost his father and sounds as though he - Sean - wanted stability and to remain on familiar ground and near friends. Not to be 'sent away' even if it was a great opportunity that could have changed his life. It may have resulted in his resenting you for forcing him to go and that would have been no basis for a good education and a well adjusted young man deciding what to do with his life. If he is not interested in seeing his Aunty Sue or any of your suggestions - exciting though they sound - I don't really blame him. He sounds keen to stay near you. He is only 17 which can be very young in many ways, especially if I dare say it, for boys. I can certainly remember being uninterested in everything my mother suggested I might like to do and I had a lot more opportunities than she did - according to her! The more she suggested, the more it seemed she was telling me what to do and as you know, the more you push even if you feel you are doing it for the best reasons, the more resistance you will encounter. The fact that some suggestions won't cost a penny probably doesn't register with him, if he just doesn't want to do it. I can think of a number of things I still wouldn't want to do, even if they were free. Staying in his room is very common. A friend of mine has a son of Sean's age who spends hours in his room, friends come and go, music goes on and off and so on. The curtains can stay closed for days. But he goes to college and is not interested in drugs or getting drunk. Your boy will do what he wants in his own time. As you say, it can't have been easy for him but he has stayed with you and not been off at the first opportunity. You have clearly been there for him when he has needed you. Now, frustrating though it is, unless you have real concerns for his well being, you should let him live his own life. He will thank you for it in the end. Once again, hope I haven't spoken out of turn!

I agree Sheffield does seem to rather left out of the loop nowadays. In the 12 or so years we have lived within easy reach of the city, there has been a very noticeable drop in ballet performances. As you say Terpsichore, The Lyceum is a lovely, well appointed theatre. I much prefer it to Buxton Opera House, which despite being of architectural interest, I find uncomfortable and like being in a time warp. Particularly in the bar, which some find charmingly old fashioned but I half expect Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard to walk in! I have seen SPBT many times at Sheffield but they don't go there anymore or appear much in this country at all to be fair. I have also seen some wonderful performances by BRB but nothing since, I think, 2009. The former were very much bums on seats productions. But I felt terribly sorry for BRB as they were wonderful in some things that were new to me, but the theatre was barely half full. I thought how soul destroying to play to such a small,albeit enthusiastic, audience. Added to that, the cost of touring. Then again, I have sat in a half empty Buxton Opera house, wondering where everyone is and why can't people try something that isn't Swan Lake. So how do companies decide where the audiences are likely to be. Your question of why isn't there more ballet in Sheffield is hard to answer. I don't know whether there is still an audience for it. There certainly has been in the past. I remember Norther Ballet's production of Romeo and Juliet playing to a full house a few years ago. Now you flick through what's on and there is next to nothing. I suppose one half empty house is one too many. If there is little demand, there will eventually be no supply. Then of course people will say why isn't there any 'whatever' anymore. Was it a full house for Northern Ballet last night by the way?

I was wondering why Carla from Coronation Street was on the cover of the new ROH brochure with Mr Kaufmann. I don't associate her with opera. Then I realised it was Anna Netrebko. Are they twins or is it just my imagination? As for Katherine Jenkins, she also seems to polarize opinion. Is she an opera singer, or a singer of things that include opera? Perhaps Miss Bussell and Miss Jenkins could team up again and co - present. They were supposed to be great friends when they did Viva La Diva, despite giving the impression they had just met in the foyer. What a show that was. See Darcey sing and hear Katherine dance as I recall.

I agree, the programme contents were rather more wide ranging, or trying to be, than the title suggested. I enjoyed it as a whole and found some of the archive fascinating. As for the hour slot, it was a bit like the Sylvie programme in reverse, when she only got half an hour and it seemed rushed and overly condensed. An hour would have been just right. Darcey's programme got an hour, which would have been fine if it hadn't strayed from the title and tried to cover a bit of everything. Still, I am not complaining. I would love to see more programmes about ballet and dance, not just because I like it already but because there is so much of interest in the subject to appeal to a wide range of viewers. I also found the extra programme (on the red button?) interesting, when Darcey talked about her career. As for the repeated shots of her going up and down staircases, the shot at the end of her ascending the steps outside the RBS was, I think, unintentionally funny. It must have been the camera angle but it was not terribly elegant!