Jane S

A few sisterly footnotes: I think Fraser (as a guest artist) and Hill in 1958 were the first women to do the Sisters - ironically it was Fraser's decision to leave the company in 1948 that caused Ashton to decide that he and Helpmann should do them instead. Women danced the roles the roles maybe 40 times over the next few years. Moyra Fraser was trained at the Sadler's Wells School and had danced Myrtha amongst other roles. She left to go into musicals etc and eventually became an actress - if you remember As Time goes By, she was Penny, Judi Dench's sister-in-law. Margaret Hill was in the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet/ touring Royal Ballet - she created the Girl in Macmillan's Solitaire. There have been some rather good replacements for the Ashton Sister - I remember David Bintley in particular, and also liked Tim Matiakis ('a female Baldrick, all of whose cunning little plans went astray'), and Michael Coleman , but I think the Helpmann role is more difficult.

Ashton was 44 and Helpmann was 39. (I know because I've been looking at the comparative ages of the first cast and the current casts - almost everyone in this run's openng night is older than the person who created their role in 1948.)

Laura Cappelle's Twitter report on the press conference in Paris included Nunez being invited to dance Giselle.

Just been listening to him and Michael Chance singing Sound the Trumpet - almost unbelievably beautiful.

I would guess they might be referring to the bit inesr the beginning of Cinderella's sola in act 2 - she's on the left of the stage, with her back to the audience, and she leans back from the waist and maybe looks back over her left shoulder, then straightens up , and then she does it again a few bars later. (But it might be something quite different)

Sad to hear of his death earlier this week - a wonderful singer - unforgettable as Britten's Oberon.

Please tell me that they've finally ditched Napoleon...

Reminder that it's still available to watch - though a bit bumpy on my screen.

There's a BBC film of a shortened version of Onegin with Haydee as Tatiana and Seymour as Olga (and Desmond Doyle as Onegin and Egon Madsen as Lensky) - I'd love to see that again.

Her and Anthony Dowell and Christopher Gable ...

Or there was also a BBC Omnibus programme called 'When the Dancing had to Stop'.

Possibly 'Lynn Seymour - In a Class of her Own" ?

Just a reminder that we had a long and appreciative thread about Seymour on the occasion of her 80th birthday - lots more reminiscences there.

Wasn't that the Pierre Lacotte version, Bruce? (2004 -ish) Ratmansky was due to make a reconstruction with the Mariinsky last year but pulled out for obvious reasons.

That happened to me once, decades ago - a little girl sitting behind me at a Cinderella and giving her mother a non-stop running commentary: when my patience finally ran out I just turned round and looked at her for a couple of seconds - no frowning or scowling - and the only words I heard from her for the rest of the performance were "Mummy, that lady has ruined my evening!" So I didn't know whether to feel pleased or slightly guilty... Mummy, incidentally, said nothing, either to me or to her daughter.

Unless my memory deceives me (which is not unlikely) you could get tea brought to your seat at Covent Garden matinees when I first visited in 1959.

There's a lot about Inger's Carmen on Google including loads of clips and at least one complete performance (possibly needing a subscription) on Youtube.

Details recently announced - apologies if this has allready been flagged. Some lovely things in there, including some Bournonville!

Squeaky Door was a piece Bejart made for Gielgud - you can see it on her YoutUbe channel. It was also known as Variations for a Door and a Sigh, I think. Steps Notes and Squeaks was a multi-segment show Gielgud produced, with a varying cast of dancers and including a coaching session (Beriosova on Sleeping Beauty the night I was there).

According to the Radio Times Archive a film of the complete production was shown twice - but curiously the usually very reliable catalogue of the BBC Film and Video Library describes what they have as 'Acts 2 and 3 from a complete performance' - so have they lost the rest of it, or what?

Yes - I just watched lovely Hayward and Sambe - and it says it's available till February next year. I really like the way it shows you where each item starts!

Ethan Stiefel danced quite a few guest performances with the RB in the early years of the century, dancing with some of the less tall principals - Wildor, Benjamin, Cojocaru. I remember him particularly as very nice Lensky and in a lovely Fille with Wildor - he looked much more at home in the company than many guests have done.

The London Children's Ballet did it at the Peacock last year, didn't they? Choreography by Jenna Lee

Yes - October 2011. Mason wrote in a programme note: “We have become convinced that a bolder realisation of the costumes was necessary to truly reflect the genius of Messel,”

They have been here before - e,g, Sadler's Wells 12/94 - but I don't think I ever saw them.