SPD444

Forgive me, but what does "eDI" as the topic title mean please

And long may it continue to be so. Applauding principals when they first arrive on stage is a dreadful habit, imported from the Russians who will applaud and whoop and holler anything and everything, which breaks atmosphere and is almost always inappropriate. As you say, raise the rafters at the end, though!

Do you think applause at the end of the act when followed by an interval is appropriate though. At this R & J we do not see the corp or the harlots in Act 3 so should they get their bow at the end of act 2?

I share Billboyd caution. I do not like applause until the end. It does break any tension created on stage when the principals "take a bow" before the next bit of the action. The end of the act is fine when followed by an interval. Indeed is there is a case in this show for some of the cast to get their applause at the end of Act 2 as the final act is mainly just the principals and two or three others, so the boys and girls of the corps and the four harlots don't get a bow at all. Hope that is not contradictory but in general no applause during the performance for me.

Oh, did I miss a competition somewhere?

It was in the Enfield Advertiser a couple of weeks age.

Sorry, I have already answered alison on this but don't know how to delete.

Oh, did I miss a competition somewhere?

Enfield Advertiser.  No question just respond. My girl did and we won.

My wife and I were at the performance night and really enjoyed it. We were seated on row 1 in the stalls and talk about being in the middle of the action. It felt very strange being so close so how it must feel for the dancers to have the audience seemingly amongst them. The market scene and masked ball were brilliantly conceived and performed; how they got so many on and off without colliding was worth the money alone.The balcony scene did not start very well with the top of the balcony not passing under the ceiling of the doorway without an almighty crash must have very disconcerting for Tamara sitting on the steps. Yonah and Junor were great as Romeo's friends and, of course, Tamara and Carlos were wonderful. My wife won tickets for the performance next Thursday with Daria and Vadim so really looking forward to that as well.

Very sad to read that Claudia has decided to resign from the Royal Ballet and return home to Australia. All good wishes for the future.

Firstly, congratulations not only to Junor and Alison as winners but to all the dancers in what was a joyous evening. However, I cannot say the same for the venue. I was in row D in the Royal Circle and in front and to the left of me was a contraption that was used to send the films to the stage which blasted out noise from what appeared to be it's cooling system of some sort. Perhaps my hearing aids accentuated the noise but no mention had been made of this when I purchased the tickets. Whether this had been put there purely for the ballet I know not but if that is permanent then patrons to the Lion King should be warned beforehand.

I think a synopsis would have been very useful for Sweet Violets but at the rehearsal there were no programes just the cast list. With the lighting it looked to me that they were creating an almost cinema noir interpretation with all the long shadows and very dark corners but it was not clear to me who the characters were and their relationship with each other. On the other hand I loved the Wheeldon, and having now seen three of his works with this, Alice and Winters Tale I am becoming a huge fan.

Watching Sweet Violets today at times, particularly when the piano was playing solo, it looked just like one of those old silent movies with the bad guy chasing the innocent girl.

I went to the general rehearsal today and the cast's were different from the photo's above. Were these taken at a non-public one?

I attended the last night of The Winter's Tale on Thursday 8th May (comments posted in another thread). Half of the third 'act' was really spoiled by two women talking and taking photographs throughout. I was in first row of stalls circle - they were seated at the very end of row S orchestra stalls - their phones and chatter were in my direct sightline of the stage. Thanks goodness (because I would have created more fuss by doing this myself) the woman behind them asked them to stop. At the curtain call I thanked her. Not one word of apology from the two women who were both old and 'seemingly sensible' enorapugh to have known better. I really really wish the House would add to their very short mobile phone announcement that phones/camera are not allowed because additionally 'they distract other audience members'. Thank you unknown person who saved a bit of the final Act for us  . . . perhaps we should start thinking about asking for a refund whenever the House lets this happen until announcements are a bit better and 'policing' of it a little more effective (I have a friend who is an usher there I am sympathetic to the problems and of doing this at times and also very grateful for everything they do already . . .) Rant over I hope sorry everyone .. . 

On the issue of photographs being taken during the performance. A good few years ago I worked in a "rock" musical called Hair at the Shaftesbury. It was performed just when the censorship of theatre had been relaxed and took advantage of this by have a nude scene at the end of the first act. The actors were paid more if they stood naked so, on most nights, a lot of boys and girls took part. This, of course, meant a lot of people would take photos which then led to the ushers catching the offenders and confiscating there cameras and destroying the film, which caused huge arguments and much disruption to the show. This would obviously not be acceptable at the ROH so the problem remains of what can the theatre do about it?

The final dress rehearsal is done as a normal performance but some of the intervals might be a little bit longer than normal. very occasionally a dancer may mark a few steps.

Thank you very much Tony.

This is my first one, so do they perform the whole show as if its for real or is it stop-start-stop-start again.etc.

Can anyone advise how long this should last please. It starts at 11.30 and would like to know how long it goes on for.

You should get a Premier Inn for about £95 for the room near to RAH.

Venturing out from my normal lair of Doing Dance, so do move if I've come to the wrong place. My fiance has got tickets for ENB's Romeo and Juliet in the round for my birthday on (18th June performance), but I don't think he realises how long it will be and I'm worried we will miss the last train back (we live in York and the last train is I think at 22.00 from King's Cross). I'm assuming with interval it will be more than 2 1/2 hours though. Does anyone know the running time?

 

Many thanks!

We stayed in a Premier Inn in Kensington at a very reasonable price, look it up on Tripadvisor, much more relaxing than dashing to the station.

I go to Cineworld in Enfield, North London and pay £11.43 being a senior citizen and my freedom pass gets me their and back for nothing. They get a good turn out too with the staff very attentive with cast lists, ice cream and other goodies being sold in the cinema during the interval.

I can understand your reservations, penelopesimpson, in your comments regarding Darcey's performance but she is out of her comfort zone and she is being expected to make herself understood in, what was it, 29 countries taking the stream whose English would be limited. I like Darcey and think she is well worth being patient with.

I agree with everything Odyssey has just written. I was at the ROH to watch this cast a couple of weeks ago and I found the closeups by watching the cinema relay tonight really conveyed the emotions in Act 3. So, huge congratulation to the cast but the technical side needs to be sorted out. I watched in Cineworld in Enfield, which is in North London ( hardly the other side of the world ). We had loss of sound in both Act 2 and 3; picture break-ups similar to watching Sky when the weather is bad and the funniest of all was during the first interval when Darcey asked Mr O'Hare a question his reply was replaced by Abba singing some song or other. thankfully the sound was restored before Darcey talked about Act 2. Frankly, I don't care why it happened, and it has happened before, but if the Royal Ballet want to be taken seriously in their stated desire to spread the gospel then this has got to stop. They must treat their cinema audience as if they are in the House itself and not as second or third class citizens.

Just read Meunier's review and had to write to congratulate him on it. His command of the english language is a joy to read, something so called journalists could well learn from. Well done!

Went to last nights performance and thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought the last Act's reconciliation scenes with Leontes with his wife and daughter were beautifully conceived and danced by Edward, Lauren and Sarah. Hairs on the back of your neck moments. The first act was a bit long and for one horrible moment I thought the canvas which is raised at the start of the 2nd act had jammed but other than that it was wonderful. I was in the stalls circle and the bear sequence didn't really come across. Beatriz also danced beautifully in the 2nd act as did all the corps. Have got a ticket for the cinema performance and may and try to go and see the 2nd cast. As I admitted in an earlier post of Lest we Forget I struggle with modern dance and likewise with this I don't understand all the strange hand and feet twitches and shakes but Christopher really made it easy to follow the story. Finally, a special mention to Zenaida who played Paulina, only ever seen her in Alice as the Queen of Hearts, so this is the first "serious" role I have watched and she was marvelous. Well done to all.

I doubt that Watson is upset about being given one of the leads in a brand new, full length ballet which has received almost universal critical acclaim. As has been discussed on here before, few dancers at the RB dance (successfully) the full range of works from classical to neo-classical to Ashton to MacMillan to modern works by McGregor etc. I won't be seeing him in The Winter's Tale but what may come across as over-acting to people sitting towards the front of the stalls may be very effective for people sitting high up in the amphitheatre. I think that it must be hard to get the balance right.

Your are absolutely right Aileen, you should always act/dance/perform  to the back row in the balcony not the front row of the stalls. They are equally entitled you your regard.

I agree with other posts regarding "donations". As a friend of ROH and a priority member of the NT and have donated to NTFUTURE I think I am doing my share so any further "donations" should be my choice not automatically taken and hope I don't notice.

Mr O'Hare is speaking at the Ballet Association tonight, if he takes questions maybe someone can ask him. Bet he doesn't answer.