Mummykool

Well I wore my newly acquired badge to Frankenstein last night but I think you were all at Emerging Dancer instead! I looked out for badge wearers on opening night as well, but have yet to see anyone wearing one.

From what has been said on this thread, it sounds very much like the programme he's doing with the Cuban cast is pretty much the same as the one he performed at the Coliseum last December with RB dancers. I shouldn't imagine there will be much difference.

Looking at the Pathe Live site Bright Stream, Nutcracker and Swan Lake are re-broadcasts rather than 'live' feeds. Really looking forward to Golden Age and Bright Stream

If you search on zazzle for 'ballet shoes' rather than 'pointe shoes' you get other designs. I rather liked the red shoes on a black background. If we do decide to do this, (and I think a badge is an excellent idea), it will need to be a unisex design. From the fascinating discussions we have on the forum it is very clear we have a wide variety of tastes. We could spend months going round in circles trying to agree on a particular design. Perhaps we should ask the moderators to choose something they think suitable.

I cannot say I am his greatest fan, but his Onegin was absolutely wonderful

Rite of Spring did not appeal to us either. We both absolutely love the music but the choreography left us cold. The husband reckoned it was very much in the style of Night of the Living Dead. I shall have to take his word for it as that has no appeal for me either. I have to admit the only 'Rite' ballet I have thoroughly enjoyed was the one the Ballet Boyz did for TV back in 2010 with the hip-hop, ballroom and pole dancers! Concerto was a joy and it is a shame that they did not perform the two pieces the other way around. Lovely to meet Don Q Fan and Trog. I couldn't see from our seat but Trog assured me that Gergiev conducted using a very small baton!

Chris G, the chosen one was the wonderful Yekaterina Kondourova .

There certainly wasn't a huge crowd on Thursday. I had booked front row tickets for the upper circle but they decided to close that section and I was not best pleased to be moved to row C of the side block in the circle. It will be even worse tonight as we have been put in row F which is considerably further back. I must have been one of the very first people to book tickets so I had quite a conversation with somebody in the box office, but all to no avail. The theatre is absolutely lovely but customer services leave a lot to be desired. Anyway, rant over and on to the important part! The dancing was super on Thursday. I agree with DQF that they had saved the best until last with In the Night. Such a contrast the the lack lustre rendition we saw at the RB a couple of years ago. It sounds as if they had the same casting for Friday (presumably it saved printing another set of cast sheets) and we too were very impressed by both Kondourova and Shkylarov. I also thought Anastasia Matvienko stood out in both Infra and In the Night. Not quite sure what to make of FiveTangos. I think I would need a second viewing before voicing an opinion. Infra is one of my husband's favourites so he was just happy to see it again. I thought it had lost its edge. The dancers didn't really have the essential angularity and speed that characterises so much of McGregor's style. To my mind it was too smooth, too pretty and had somehow too classical. What really amused me was that each dancer had a 'character' assigned to them in the programme. We worked out these were the names of the original cast on which the ballet was created. I hope the dancers concerned realise they all now have immortality! Overall a good evening and worth the trip. Looking forward to seeing if Gergiev conducts with a tooth pick!

Me too. Despite all the promotional material both she and David Hallberg are missing from the roster :-( Sadly also missing Merkuriev and Kaptsova.....

Oh and I am absolutely sure that the Act 2 pas de quatre that I saw in the cinema yesterday (the one with the man in the bobble hat) was NOT in the previous version. It looked totally out of place and was more in keeping with Bright Stream than Don Q. Act 2 is plenty long enough as it is!

If I remember rightly the Osipova / Vasiliev performance was a fairly early live broadcast and there were some quite noticeable breaks in the transmission. Maybe that is why a DVD never appeared. I am sure they wouldn't have missed such a lucrative trick unless there was a very good reason. However, I'm probably not the only one who would buy it even if it wasn't perfect.....

The dancers in 30's costume were dancing the tango from The Golden Age. That was scheduled last year and then cancelled, so we are keeping our fingers crossed. Haven't got a clue about the rest though.

No he wasn't in his final artistic throes when we saw him Floss. He was still a dancer of considerable majesty. Many years later I saw a documentary where Baryshnikov said that he has always thought him a rather sloppy dancer and I think that was the disappointment...that his dancing was not as polished as I had expected. Exciting yes, but rough around the edges. I still regard it as a great privilege to have seen him though.

The truly wonderful Fernando Bujones. The few recordings of his dancing do not do him justice. We never saw him put in anything less than 100% and always perfect. Loved Baryshnikov when he was in the mood.....unfortunately you never knew which Mischa would turn up unless the cameras were on him. Was not impressed with Nureyev by comparison. More recently Denis Matvienko, Daniil Simkin and Vadim Muntagirov

My husband did the booking this morning. He got signed in and got put in a waiting room with 11 people in front of him.He didn't have to wait long for access, got some tickets in the basket only for an error to appear that told him he needed to sign in again. He was not best pleased thinking he would now be in a huge queue (as back in the good old days) but he signed in again and got access to tickets straight away. All the amphi seats we usually get had already gone for the Bolshoi performances we wanted and nothing at all was available in the main amphi for opening night of the triple bill. As SPD444 says, some point in being a Friend+

Gosh, three acts of Strapless with that awful music? Count me out please.

I'm pretty sure the opening jumps are embellishment. The spins at the end, however, were definitely one of Baryshnikov's party tricks but when he did them you didn't see the mechanics of it...one spin the standing leg was there, the next spin it simply wasn't. The first time we saw him do it we had to check with each other that we hadn't imagined it! All for $9 a ticket...those were the days! From what you are all saying about Darcey's presentation (or lack of it) I'm glad those of us the house were spared. Unfortunately I now want to see lots of the other 'filling' pieces in the relay which means I'll have to endure it anyway at the encore showing

We just loved the two performances seen so far. So much so we have just booked another. Yes it's ballet panto but it is great entertainment and the standard of dancing has been astonishing. We get so much depressing and earnest stuff at the Royal, it is joy to sit back and enjoy a bit of fun for a change. It is also of a length that those of us from further afield can get to see the whole show and still get home. The Bolshoi might be the truest to the original but I have seen this three times when they have come to London and never been able to stay for the final act! I think at one point I downloaded the whole ballet from YouTube, but with all the favourite bits being in the first Act anyway, I still didn't see the end..it is just too long. I was glad that Tamara got this version as I was already familiar with it from ABT. It would be great if should also get their version of Don Q but I digress... There were a few minor wobbles on opening night. Osiel Guneo is a fine dancer but I didn't think he was comfortable with the choreography for the role of Conrad. Last night he danced Ali and was in his element. Caesar Corrales danced Ali on opening night and stole the show. What a talent! Last night we had the privilege of seeing Isaac Hernandez dance Conrad and I don't think I've seen anyone do it better (including the glorious Vadim Muntagirov). His line and elevation were wondrous to behold and his acting skills are already improving. Tamara danced Medora both times and, as usual, led her company from the front in fine style. If anyone else was there last night I would love to know how the Odalisques fared. I was so busy watching James Streeter's pirate character get drunk and try to fondle all the women (including any soloist near enough to grab) only to get shoved away by Lankendem's bully boys, that I missed all three solos. Talk about being in character! He was equally obstreperous in Act 2 and it was totally brilliant. In so many companies the corps just stand around like puppets but he was living his part to the full. Kudos to him and everyone else for delivering such great entertainment

It could also be that the Nutcracker draws an audience from further afield. Much as we would love to go to these evenings, living in Bristol makes that prohibitive unless also attending a performance. I wish they would post more of them online as they can be absolutely fascinating.

Sad to see her go, but not surprised. Hasn't Roberta's husband also left ENB?

Lucky you DonQFan. At Cinelux in Bristol we lost the feed at the end of Viscera and sat in total blackout of both sound and vision for the interval and the start of Faun. About halfway through Faun (having made several unsuccessful attempts) they managed to give us sound but still no pictures. We were told it was a nationwide problem with the feed from the ROH which is clearly not the case. Our screen finally leapt into life just after the start of the Tchaikovsky pdd. We have all been given a ticket for use another time but that doesn't replace our missing one of the four ballets. As we were only there because our local Vue did not have the encore screening, we would have much preferred a refund. The rest of your post echoes my feelings exactly though we possibly enjoyed Viscera a tad more and Carmen a tad less!.

What a lot of acrimony there seems to be on this forum at the moment. I'm getting to the point I no longer wish to be a part of it

Well headlines sell newspapers and this one seems to have got peoples attention. Having read the text I can't see that either of them have made such a claim. There were some general comments from Sergei about some companies (particularly in Russia) who discourage off stage couples from partnering each other, but this was carefully balanced by a comment that this was not the case at the RB. Of course they wish to dance together, but I think this is far more about publicising the show at Sadler's Wells just before the tickets go on sale.

Hansel and Gretel is certainly one I'd love to see again Bruce. Will they be able to stage it though once the Linbury is reconfigured?

Yes she lived the role and was truly sublime. Its a shame her Romeo, although a lovely dancer, wore an inane grin almost throughout the entire ballet. This was made more obvious by the way Caesar Corrales threw himself heart and soul into the role of Mercutio. He is still a teenager and definitely one to watch. Incidentally, with reference to the same other thread as Capybara, Alina's Juliet also 'died' with perfectly pointed feet!