alison

I can understand perhaps wanting to take the remains of your interval drink back in if you hadn't finished it - heaven knows, intervals can be pretty short, especially when you spend half of it queuing to be served, and we all know that many people won't avail themselves of the opportunity to order drinks before the performance starts - but to expect to start a new drink while you're in the auditorium, unless it's one of those supper-club-type theatres, is totally inappropriate. And there is always the question of what if you spill the drink? Will the patron next to you really appreciate going home with their coat stinking of beer, or their clothes ruined by red wine, or whatever? And ultimately, if damage is done, who is responsible? The theatre will presumably get the blame for its policy of allowing the drinks in in the first place.

Ah, so in fact it's audio description rather than subtitling? That would make more sense.

Wonder if this is yet another occurrence of companies quoting low to win a tender and then finding that they can't actually, well, deliver under those conditions (no pun intended)? It happens so frequently these days, and you'd think the people putting out the tenders would have realised by now that you can't do things that cheaply without paying a price somewhere along the line.

My sister tore an article out of Saturday's Daily Telegraph on the London Boys Ballet School for me. I was going to post a link here, but it doesn't appear to be online as yet. Just thought I'd mention it, as people have complained about the difficulties of finding training for boys. Their website is boysballetlondon.com.

I've merged this thread with an existing one on a similar theme. Incidentally, I'd just got as far as Winter's Tale in the Radio Times today when I saw that there's an overnight repeat - with subtitles. It's a ballet, for heaven's sake - and squeezed into 2 hours, I can't imagine there's going to be much additional room for people talking

Funny, I've never had any problems with Hermes (mind you, have never tried using them at this time of year), and I really appreciate the fact that the Parcel Shop for returns is less than 5 minutes' walk away. Wonder if they've expanded too much, taking on various mail-order returns services and so on?

Unfortunately, I'm not sure I'm going to be able to catch it this run I hadn't realised it was an unusually short run, and I seem to be heavily booked between Christmas and early January. I'd assumed I'd be able to catch it on tour somewhere, but I think the company are going into The Car Man pretty quickly afterwards. Typical. I haven't been to the ballet in weeks, and suddenly I'm swamped!

Thanks for the feedback, Mummykool. All well worth knowing

Welcome to the forum, northstar, and thank you for posting. Unfortunately, I think we have a bit of a dearth of readers in the Birmingham area (or perhaps they just never post?), and what you might call our longer-distance balletgoers aren't always able to travel. I agree with you, though: I think BRB's is the best Nutcracker in the UK, and I only wish I could see it more often. (It's actually on my Christmas list, but I don't think anyone's found the DVD recently, so I guess I shall just have to suffer withdrawal symptoms).

I see today's Daily Telegraph has a 2-4-1 offer on Bolshoi screenings.

Oh, I wasn't sure whether you mentioned him in relation to the performance or to the Russian gala (couldn't see the reason for the latter, but still ...) Should be interesting, then. Edit: actually, having hauled out my "ROH blurb" (Winter brochure) I was surprised to see no mention of this event whatsoever. Yet the link says it's part of the spring booking programme, for which public booking hasn't yet opened, but I can still access it and book. Strange, and a bit tough on people who would have had no idea it was on more or less until public booking opened, isn't it?

What?

Various dance offerings available via GILT this year, including selected performances of ENB's Swan Lake and RB's Don Quixote (the DQ offer is particularly good!) http://www.getintolondontheatre.co.uk/shows/dance-opera/ Edit: The Don Qs all seem to be amphi-only, but I booked myself a nice £50 ticket at £20 Edward Scissorhands is among the other offerings, but that comes under Entertainment rather than Dance.

Thanks, BBB. I had a feeling there was something more to do with capacity/scope of the instruments, but can't remember now.

I actually came across the definition of a philharmonic orchestra (as opposed to a symphony orchestra) a few years ago - can anyone remind me what it is? This might be a question for Mr or Mrs BBB

So why did it only happen today? Is there much greater demand for opera than for ballet?

Oh well, that's something. Someone has promised me a BluRay player as a housewarming present, so I might get that by the end of the decade.

Oh, I don't know. Putting Muntagirov in for the first night didn't seem to bring any complaints

Hmm. Call me old-fashioned, but I'd still rather have a DVD - I don't like watching things on computers. Presumably there is some way of stopping me from burning the whole thing to a DVD, because otherwise what would stop me from producing multiple copies and distributing them to friends? (Well, okay, my DVD burner isn't working, but that wasn't what I meant)

Thanks for the information, SPD, and to anna for the link. Those who patronise the tkts Theatre Booth in Leicester Square may like to recall at this point that their loyalty cards get them free rentals/downloads

Thanks, Naomi. And I'm going to change the title of this thread so I can add this (to me) most welcome piece of news, culled from Luke Jennings' recent review of BRB's Nutcracker in Sunday's Observer (link here: http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2014/dec/07/the-nutcracker-review-birmingham-royal-ballet-christmassy): "(On the subject of the Arabian dance, English National Ballet’s Nutcracker has in recent seasons featured a sadistic-looking sheikh with a bullwhip. But this season, I’m informed, is to be flagellation-free, ENB director Tamara Rojo having apparently decided that the sequence doesn’t contribute significantly to the cause of world peace.)"

I take your point that he may be entitled to do what he likes in his own home, although I'm not sure whether that includes the garden, in full view of the neighbours. However, you imply that he's actually (deliberately?) *moved* the TV so that it's visible to you - and there's the matter of the magazine to consider: it didn't land there by accident. Now, he may just be thinking it's a bit of a laugh and he's winding you up, or he may be getting some weird kick out of it, or worse. Oh, and by the way, the ex-colleague I mentioned above was initially reluctant to go to the police because she thought she might be overreacting. When she did finally go, she found they took it a lot more seriously than she had, and told her she should have contacted them sooner. And that was probably 15 years or so ago.

We are frequently told these days, it seems, that it's fairly "normal" for men to look at porn. However, *this* sounds way beyond "normal" - and it is clearly having an impact on your life. You shouldn't be having to live with your blinds closed all the time so you can't see him and he can't see you. I agree that it is effectively harassment - although he may not see it that way. The situation calls to mind a former colleague of mine who acquired a stalker: he used to follow her back and forth between the station and the office - never used to say or do anything, but it got her feeling really worried, to the extent that she wouldn't leave the office on her own of an evening, and eventually she went to the police. They stopped him one day, had a quiet word and pointed out that his actions were causing her distress, and would he please stop it. He clearly hadn't realised the distress he was causing, and she never had any further problems after that. Now, this man may be like that - or he may not. The situation seems to be escalating, and may continue to do so. It does sound as though his wife is aware to some extent of what he's doing, and is trying to ignore it, for reasons of her own. Maybe she's scared of him, maybe she's just trying not to rock the boat, doesn't realise the full import of what he's doing, or is worried about the effect it may have on her marriage if she does confront him on this - who knows? I'm no psychologist, although I could conceive of several distinctly unpleasant scenarios arising from this, but I think you at the very least need to have an informal discussion about the situation with the police - I can't think of anyone else who might be helpful - and see what they advise. You say you've said nothing, but I'd also be inclined to ask your next-door neighbours fairly straight out whether they're aware of previous occupants having problems with this man. And I presume from what you've said that the problem was totally non-existent when Sean was occupying the room, rather than that he simply hadn't noticed, but I think you need to clarify that, too.

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Sounds gorgeous I may have to buy a second ticket.