Paul Arrowsmith

have seen observations elsewhere in the blogosphere that recent experience of online booking suggests you cannot open more than one window on one device without the ROH system realising and equalising your positions in the queue, so you do have to use multiple devices.

San Francisco Ballet programmes A and C (though will probably sit out the Yuri Possokhov). And hope this season augurs well for a visit by Paul Taylor Dance Company - please!

Some practicalities, the performance timings for the matinee, supplied by the ROH. The work is now in three acts - and longer. Approximate performance timings: Announcement 12.30pm - 12.31pm (1 minutes) Act I 12.31pm - 1.16pm (45 minutes) Interval (20 minutes) Act II 1.36pm - 2.02pm (26 minutes) Interval (25 minutes) Act III 2.27pm - 3.16pm (49 minutes) Approximate end time: 3.16pm

They said in the interview she would be the new Alice - but not who she is replacing.

I believe (from those more in the know than me) Stix-Brunell is replacing Nunez in Alice's Adventures.

Refreshing after this rather dusty valedictory season - without being hugely must see.

"He (Polunin) says he wishes ballet companies would do a month of rehearsal and then 30 performances of the same show, "so you're just enjoying being on stage – not rehearse for a month then have one show, rehearse for another month and change the show. What's the point?" "So you would repeat a show 30 times?" asks a baffled Putrov." Not about Polunin specifically, but last year I asked Kevin O'Hare whether principals got enough enough performance opportunities in a role. He said with the amount of rehearsal and coaching that principals receive the actual low number of shows wasn't an issue. Every performance remains special.

... or reconnecting Aldwych station to the Underground network?! Hope there is no late running with the engineering work - and no more waiting rooms.

Even without the economics, I think Hamlet has had its day. A friend who saw it (and saw through it) in the 1940s described it as a succession of melodramatic entrances and exits, not a ballet. As a guide to the flamboyance required, a dancer in the RB's last revival in 1981 told me that Helpman's only note to Anthony Dowell was "more lilac eyeshadow!"

The Prince of the Pagodas June 2-29 Nuñez*, Rojo*, Kish* (June 2, 6, 18) Cuthbertson*, Yanowsky*, Pennefather* (June 9, 21, 27) Lamb*, Morera*, Bonelli* (June 13, 29) I am surprised this hasn't been cast younger for Belle Rose. Who will be the fool? I guess this would have gone to Polunin - so possibly McCrae? Wondering where I would make Whitehead king of - north or south?

I see the period 4 leaflet says there are two intervals in Alice's Adventures (but I have known strange errors in that publication). Is that accurate does anybody know?

469 in the queue after two hours. I'm also expecting John lewis to deliver - not what's the betting...

Just into the queue at 1961 (the year of my birth - wonder how old I'll be before I get served).

Not for me. Still in cattle class beyond capacity of the site.

MacMillan’s Song of the Earth is what Robbins’ Dances at a Gathering is to other people. I’d like it more at half the length. I struggle with Mahler. My ear slides off the music, I don’t absorb it. But I can see how the choreography grows organically out of it, I can appreciate the kaleidoscope of syncopated geometry in MacMillan’s choreography – but I don’t get any emotional connection between the two. The sense of loss and grief, particularly from the women, looked cosmetic. As the messenger of death, Edward Watson was insidious. His menace was elegant and sleek. Only one performance took the choreography to a more profound dimension. Valeri Hristov broke through his princely primness and revealed an ecstatic life force as the messenger of life. He and Watson shadowed each other powerfully. Given the loss of two principal men this season Hristov looks ready to step into the shoes vacated by David Makhateli. The Dream is a masterly concision of Shakespeare’s play – but for all its robust structure it needs carefully balanced performances for it to work. Here, as in the last revival in 2008, it’s not only Bottom &Co who were mechanical. The humour fell flat, the magic refused to ignite. Steven McRae is the cleanest Oberon since Bruce Sansom, but apart from some prissy hands there was no sense of character. Robert Marquez has grown in regal stature but has no glint of capriciousness. The murky lighting made this a dirty Dream.

<< it's really going to throw the RB casting into chaos - he's cast in so much>>, I'l repeat here what I said on the old ballet.co last night: Scarcely a surprise for such a raw talent. I’ve seen Polunin dance everybody else off the stage (in Voluntaries and Symphony in C) and be wayward (Ballo della regina). His debuts in classical roles have been uneven. His Solor was mightily impressive, his prince in Sleeping Beauty much less so. In Alice’s Adventures, the choreography didn’t particularly utilise Polunin’s abilities – and he did not make much of an impression. Clearly Polunin thinks he has big feet – I hope that he will find the big shoes that will fit him well. His departure highlights again how few performance opportunities principals have at the RB. Their urge to perform is indulged with guest appearances elsewhere. But one man’s departure creates opportunities for others. I hope Johannes Stepanek gets his chance in Month in the Country.

<<I'm afraid it was a serious comment. National Ballet of Canada have just parked their Cranko R&J (not exactly a bad production or one without historical significance) and invested in a new one from Ratmansky. There is always room for another take on a famous piece>> And National Ballet of Canada can earn more money renting their Cranko staging to other companies than they do performing it themselves. The brief to Ratmansky and his production team was that their new R&J had to last 25 years to justify the investment. So it is a difficult question. This latest RB Romeo revival sounds to have come up fresh - but too many revivals over the years dulled the work into staleness. I recall I wrote to Anthony Dowell in 1996 complaining of a very predictable performance - and suggesting a change. So I'm not holding my breath. How old does a piece have to be before it is revisited? Ballets from the 19th century are apparently faif game - but not apparently something that is 60 or 50 years old.

Some incidental pleasure from the matinee on 3 Jan: An ardent Nutcracker from Alexander Campbell, a vivid Drosselemeyer's assistant from Paul Kay, a razor sharp Clara's partner from Ludovic Ondiviela - and Gary Avis continued his gallery of vivid character portrayals with a lubricous captain that put me in mind of certain elderly royal prince. The production looked more brightly lit than I recall (which meant the magical wires were more visible in act one), but Julia Trevelyan Oman's palette of pointing, moss and taupe is still dull.