alison

Actually, forget that. He's apparently dispensing with the post-9.30 am off-peak cap all together. That means it would effectively cost me £10 simply to get up to London and back from zone 4. I'm disgusted

Well, I hope he simply went down to the foyer and asked if there was anywhere else he could move to. I'd hate to think of some poor innocent person having to miss out on the rest of the performance because of someone else's behaviour.

I'm sure it's not: I've heard several reports of drunken patrons over the last year or so.

Yes, but unfortunately there are only two Principals cast as Alice, and with a cinema broadcast I suppose the powers that be didn't want to put on anyone more junior. Lamb had the last broadcast too, didn't she?

Well, I've never been to an ENB performance (except those promoted by Raymond Gubbay) where cast sheets weren't freely available. Apart from anything else, isn't this the time of year when they usually ask for audience votes for favourite dancers on the back of them?

And there's at least one ROH regular who's a big motor-racing fan.

Good. Perhaps it'll be easier to follow the plans there.

Surely those weren't her only scheduled performances? I hadn't got any of them booked. Wonder whether Watson will be back in time to do White Rabbit?

But EVERYBODY has a contactless card now, don't they? Apart from those who are too impecunious to have a bank account which gives you a debit card, Nationwide customers, and so on ... And Oysters NEVER go wrong, do they? I just encountered a woman (Italian, I'd guess) this evening who'd just put a lot of money on her Oystercard only to find that it wasn't registering, and the bus driver wouldn't let her on the bus because she couldn't pay, and left her potentially stranded. Well, I'm sure she had money on her, but London buses don't take cash any more, do they? And this "one extra journey" thing where you're allowed to go up to one bus ride into debt if you haven't got enough money on your Oyster obviously doesn't work if the Oyster is malfunctioning. And all of those of you who actually use paper Travelcards (like me, at weekends - it works out cheaper) watch out: Boris Johnson has come up with a scheme to cut the peak-rate travel cap on Oysters, but he's going to pay for it by bumping the paper Travelcards up to £12.00!!! I think they're currently £8.90 for Zones 1-6. So you may want to get yourself an Oyster.

Thanks, Yaffa. Unfortunately, all the travel I'm planning on doing tomorrow would be covered by a friend giving me a lift, but I'll bear it in mind for the 28th. Gotta to stock up if Boris' plans to cut Oystercard peak payment caps come to fruition: METRO is implying that it will be at the expense of the off-peak cap, in which case my travel costs will SOAR! By the way, is anyone still *without* a contactless payment card? I run my business account off a Nationwide current account, and was looking forward to getting one when my debit card ran out last month, so I could stop messing around having to refund my personal account every time I went on business trips, but the new one's non-contactless as well Perhaps I could use this Mastercard and keep topping it up?

*What* summer programmes, Bruce? I'd assumed that the ROH would be closed so they can do all this reconstruction work. It's one thing to say the normal run of performances will continue during the works, but surely they must need the summers to do the major stuff?

I take it that doesn't work for The Times, though? Actually, I had a word with the librarian at our local library the other day. She told me you can access The Times online using your library card, but I can't remember the details now.

This is why I hate the Barbican Theatre - no central aisle, although admittedly there is at least enough room to get by (in the stalls at least) without people having to stand up. And the New Victoria Theatre in Woking is pretty bad on that score now - and I usually have to make a quick exit to catch a train. But that's why I've taken to sitting at the sides in Sadler's Wells: invariably when I used to sit in the middle, everyone else would just stay in their seats during the interval and I'd have to make my way past them. At the ROH, when I do the opposite and sit in the cheap seats by the wall in the Amphi, I reckon there's about a 50% that most of my row will decide to stay put during the interval and I'll have to push past them. There have even been times when I've returned to my seat immediately the 10-minute bell has sounded and found the entire row already seated. Sorry, but if you do that you must expect me to need to get past you. But really, the behaviour described above is rather beyond the pale. I understand that some people aren't very mobile (I have problems in that area too) and find it difficult to stand up or manage the steps, so may need to stay in their seats, but surely if you do that you should accept with good grace that other people do wish to leave the auditorium during the interval. After all, do most people want to be stuck in a seat for 3 hours solid? It's not as if you're in a train where you need to be a mindreader to know that the person next to you in the window seat is getting out at the next station.

My goodness, Jane, only one viewing? How disappointing. Yes, Pennefather had his own hair the other night, and it did indeed look a lot better. (Interestingly, I noticed that Francesca Hayward's Vera's hair was several shades darker than regulation, too, which looked more convincing.) What always bugs me with this production, though, is that Matvei, the footman, for no apparent reason also has the very golden blonde hair that Kolia has. It always leads my mind to speculate about a byblow from an extramarital affair somewhere, which I'm sure is totally inappropriate

So am I. But why the beginning of January? (It'll have to go on my birthday present list, then). Wouldn't it make more sense to have brought it out, say, in October so that people could buy it before they realised it was going to be on the TV? I mean, it was recorded at the end of April, so I'd have thought 6 months would be enough.

Hmm. Rather misleading of them to say top price tickets £12 when that only applies to the matinee: otherwise it's £25, which is a lot more than I ever pay for Rambert anyway. But thanks for posting, BBB.

Thanks, Jane: it's always nice to have feedback about performances outside the UK.

It's very useful, John. Only trouble is, I don't think it allows you to select your own seat, unlike some offers.

Yes, I think so, too (and agree that I too didn't initially buy enough tickets). I'll have to have another look at the bit I "snatched" off the big screen.

If it's anything like the USA, it could be that cinema prices generally are lower over there? I have a friend in the US who keeps going and re-viewing films she really likes, and I can't believe how little it costs her! What strikes me even more is the discrepancy between cinemas of the same group. For example, Surrey Quays Odeon £13.00 for live broadcast of RB Manon, Wimbledon Odeon £25.00 for Bolshoi Legend of Love. I can understand central London screens having a premium, but Wimbledon is *not* central London!

Actually, I think I distinctly preferred the Metamorphosis evening I think I shall save my pennies and not bother seeing this one again - I'm sure Age of Anxiety will be back on another bill shortly. I usually like his work, and loved Invitus Invitam, but I've never really warmed to Rushes. Come to think of it, I've also really liked some of his work in the Linbury. I'd be interested to hear comparisons from those who saw Ceremony when it was at Aldeburgh. I was glad to view the whole programme from the Balcony: even then, I thought it was an evening more suited to somewhere the size of Sadler's Wells, so I don't know how I would have felt if I'd been as far away as the amphitheatre. I was having difficulty "reading" people even from halfway up the House. Although the current Ashton bill is full of variety, I keep wondering whether it is actually the best idea to have a "single-choreographer" bill. Certainly if I see an "all-one-composer" classical concert I'm generally unlikely to go to it, and I do tend to prefer a bit of mix-and-match in my triple bills, too. Sure, it allows the [specific choreographer] fans to avoid all that tedious stuff from [insert name of other choreographer here] - and possibly supports their prejudices, too - but at the same time it can cause casting problems if dancers who are particularly in tune with the choreographer's work have to be limited to, say, only one work on a bill, whereas ideally if the works were distributed over several bills the dancer would be cast in each of them. It does feel like that sometimes, doesn't it? I'm sure it's not actually true, but possibly coming up with a true crowd-pleaser may be the most difficult job of the lot. Very true. I've often said that I can "see" a dancer on whom a role was created in a ballet even when they're not dancing it, and it's often difficult for a replacement dancer completely to erase the original one. Not to mention an extremely complex and costly set design. I'm not picking on any ballet in particular here, but have often thought how nice it would be if more modern choreographers would just use a simple backdrop rather than a cluttered physical set - Symphonic Variations of course being an excellent example of this, or various ballets by Balanchine. Good point, Bruce. Although I think in the Ratmansky case it was a case of opportunism by O'Hare: he was in New York, found out that Ratmansky had a gap in his diary, and grabbed him "on spec". Possibly getting a choreographer into a company in the first place so that s/he can familiarise him/herself with the dancers could be a good point of departure for getting him/her to remount an existing work on that company.

No problem for me there, B3 (can't do the subscript from my laptop at the moment). If you've read my comments elsewhere, you'll see I don't rate Swanilda as one of her best roles

Presumably tomorrow?

Ah. I did wonder if something might be wrong the other day.

Well, I'm hoping there will be somewhere to *sit*, not just stand. And without having to buy refreshments. There were plenty of people on the terrace during both intervals, despite the rain. My guess about the lack of people beforehand could have something to do with the very long queue to pick up tickets, the early start, and other people getting delayed for various reasons. I'm not sure about the idea of open/shut panels: the mention of lowering the balustrades outside the restaurant makes me think that there won't be anything open to the elements, for safety reasons.