serenade

Happy Christmas all! Hope you all have a lovely Christmas! Thank you so much mods for keeping this small corner of the internet alive and well, and for everyone who contributes to it 😀

Thanks for the recommendation- I’ve just ordered myself a copy😊

Haha- my favourite version of Nutcracker is Royal Ballet but I still absolutely love the Balanchine version! The kids are brilliant in it. there is a great documentary series on how they put the NYCB nutcracker together on Disney Plus called On Pointe, I’m not sure if it has already been mentioned but if anyone already has Disney it’s definitely worth checking out (whether you’re a fan of the version or not 😂)

Me too! 😀 shame it had to be a lucky dip but can’t wait to see them!

I saw it at the cinema too and really enjoyed it. Unfortunately my cinema was plagued with technical difficulties, the screen froze a lot in the first act, missing audio and just general disruption. They came in to apologise and said a lot of cinemas were having the same problem. Luckily it had mostly resolved for the second act. So the first act was a bit spoilt but still loved it, it's still my favourite Nutcracker 😄 Sae Maeda was lovely. I saw Joseph Sissens last year in the role, I really enjoyed him then but I thought this time he danced so beautifully it was wonderful. Enjoyed seeing Bennet Gartside for a change, I enjoy his interpretation. Although I agree with someone who said Gary Avis made the smaller role he was playing stand out (sorry can't remember the name of his character). I agree with all the praise on the Arabian dance, thought Melissa Hamilton was perfect and Lucas BB really well matched and a strong partner. I am a bit hit and miss with the Arabian especially with the new version but this performance really worked for me. Loved all the other dances, loved Mayara Magri as Rose fairy. Fumi and William were lovely. A great night all round. This is sadly the only Nutcracker I can attend for this run so a shame about the technical issues but so glad I managed to see it.

Mostly all fine for me too- I did get put in a queue for 5 mins so I was a bit worried there as haven’t been put in a queue since they got the new booking system in. I was using Chrome and the site was a bit slow with loading the seat map up but I think I’ve found that every time recently. But I can’t complain, got everything I wanted as availability was really good.

I agree. Literally all people want is not to have their Christmas ruined especially after the last 2 years of complete misery we have all been through. I'm travelling home on Christmas Eve, luckily on the morning. Usually I travel back to London on the 27th as I need to get back for work so anyone who does that trip- at least the Scotland-London LNER route knows it's often jam packed on the 27th so although their strike is finishing early in the morning there's still the knock on effect. I think they should have picked other dates if they want public support but I guess they're the experts 😂 Next year I am going to do driving lessons so at least I could rent a car, I have had too many things ruined this year because of the strikes and I can only see it continuing or getting worse next year to be honest.

Yes it will be really interesting to read some reports- wish I could have also seen this cast but I chose the Ball cast last night. Unfortunately had extremely tall people in front so my view was very obstructed. What I did manage to see was good 😂

Thanks for the photos, v interesting When I clicked on the link I got quite a few questions about what things to allow but I think it was all in relation to cookies- it was just more than normal. If that was the same for you @LinMM just scroll to the bottom and there's a reject all button which I clicked on....or there's an accept all, and it saves you setting each preference.

But I’ve never missed any ENB SW matinees for a few years now 😂 never mind I probably am misremembering past shows. Pleased you enjoyed the Ek 😊

I thought the same thing and I also don't think it's the norm for other ENB triple bills at Sadlers I've attended- I've never seen it so full for a triple bill matinee. As for the show, I enjoyed Blake Works better than last time I saw it. I am a William Forsythe fan- my main issue is with really disliking James Blake's voice so obviously quite hard to enjoy this work if that's the case. If they could have danced to the same beat/used the music instrumentally I might really like it, it's his voice I have the problem with. The Stina Quagebeur I thought was fine, it didn't really do anything for me but it was enjoyable enough although not sure about the music choices. The dancers were obviously fantastic in both pieces I should add, I was just quite luke warm to the choreography. My main reason for going was to see the Rite of Spring. I absolutely love the Pina Bausch version, I was blown away when ENB did it a few years ago and I love the music. I was excited to see this new version but I'm afraid for me I just couldn't see anything good about it at all. Purely the choreography again, nothing at all to do with the quality of the dancing, but I felt nothing whereas the suspense when watching the Pina version was so strong, I remember feeling the emotion just from watching something so powerful. I suspect Mats Ek is not my cup of tea so I would have to think carefully before spending money to see any of his works again. It was very warmly received by everyone around me and I'm pleased other forum attendees enjoyed it but definitely not for me 😄

I am so excited about Still Life 😀, it's one of my favourites will definitely travel up to see it! Also I've never seen Apollo live so makes it even better.

I saw it last night also and loved 2 out of the 3 ballets so about typical for me and triple bills! It was so nice to see BRB again, I haven't actually seen them since pre pandemic as couldn't face Curated by Carlos, couldn't make it to Don Q and haven't been able to travel to see them outside London so was excited for this evening. I thought Forgotten Land was great, very unusual and atmospheric. I think the Red Couple section choreography was my favourite danced by Miki Mizutani and Mathias Dingman but I enjoyed it all and also loved the music. Unfortunately I didn't like Hotel at all, I don't really have anything positive to say about it except of course the dancers were great. I felt really claustrophobic watching it, I really hate secret filming and that kind of thing so the concept just made me uncomfortable which maybe was the point? Really not sure! I didn't buy the programme so maybe there would have been more details in there as to why the film projections were there as some of it I got the point of but I didn't understand why everything happening on the stage was simply being projected. I read about it online but it didn't really help (me). There was a lot of laughter at the more surreal elements and it got the biggest cheer of the night, people seemed to love it but it was spectacularly not for me😅, but looking forward to hearing others thoughts on it. The Seventh Symphony was just amazing- I am so happy to have seen this piece! It was like a breath of fresh air, it evoked a bit of Symphony in C type feelings for me! I loved all the movements but probably the Second was my favourite, Yaoqian Shang and Mathias Dingman were the leads in it, they were great. Also I thought Celine Gittens was just amazing throughout though of course everyone was but she really stood out to me. Also, the lighting was amazing, so well lit, and costumes were fun. Music of course was of course out of this world. So pleased I was able to attend

Haha I don’t think you can beat the trusty notebook. I’m on excel all day at work so I really couldn’t be bothered with looking at another spreadsheet 😂

Don’t do it 😂😂 I have zero social media and it’s really fine. They post everything on their websites anyway

I just write in a notebook 5 sections, Royal Ballet, BRB, ENB, northern ballet and Scottish ballet. I go on each companies website and then write down what they are bringing to London (as that’s where I live) and when. Then I go on the Coliseum, Sadlers wells and Barbican website in case I’ve missed any smaller companies or galas. Technical I know 😂 but you could do it in Excel or just a regular document. The only company I’m completely organised for is the Royal ballet as they are the only ones who announce their casting (far) in advance and I struggle with sight lines at ROH so I’m ready on booking day them. Then this forum is the other best way of not missing anything 😂 but anyway, I’m so looking forward to this triple bill!

Although I loved the performance I definitely agree with this and thought exactly the same. But I presumed there was a particular reason why they had to do it last night as I didn’t think anyone would really choose to film on opening night especially the start of new season. Well I know I wouldn’t anyway😂

Yes the lighting was really bad, even worse than usual I thought- I did think I’m pleased I’m so familiar with it. My local charges £22 so it would nice to be able to see all the scenes 😂 100% agree re the presenter, he was very good.

I also saw Hirano after booking for Watson in the last run. I didn’t connect with the performance last time at all but this time I did. It could be seeing it in the cinema helped as I thought his Rudolf was more restrained than other interpretations so having the close ups helped. But I thought he was really great this time, very strong performance and I could feel the pain of Rudolf from the performance and I couldn’t before. Overall I really loved tonight’s performance. Everyone was amazing. Hungarian officers- wow. All the women were fantastic. Loved Natalia. Loved Marianela as Mitzi. Laura Morera was perfect as Marie Larisch. I have booked to see the Ball cast so I can’t wait for that.

No minimum term if you select the monthly option, you can just cancel it any time the same as Netflix etc. I agree, maybe they are planning on adding a lot but I have a feeling a lot of the older stuff a lot fans want to see is never going to be uploaded. Hopefully I’m wrong. I think a monthly service is a bit of an odd choice with the amount of content they’ve initially put up but I guess we’ll see. I think if there wasn’t already services like Marquee I would have been more excited. It seems a shame you can’t just click to rent it to buy a digital copy of individual performances instead. IMO the price is ok if they add more content, especially if you are into both opera and ballet, but right now it’s a little steep for what they are offering. But I do think the Friends deal is very generous so I have signed up and got the first 3 months free which is nice and I’ll see how much I watch it. I already have a lot of it on DVD already as others have mentioned so it will be interesting to see what else they add in the first 3 months.

I got some technical error messages and the seat map was slow to load but I did get the seats I wanted and it wasn’t too bad (I was using safari on my phone). So it was a much improved experience from last time (for me).

Great thread My highlights were Natalia Osipova in Giselle, my favourite Giselle I was so happy to see her in the role again Mayara Magri as Myrtha...amazing Francesca Hayward's Sugar Plum Fairy...very special The Ashton triple esp Corrales and Hayward in Rhapsody Like Water for chocolate- Nagdhi/Corrales loved their chemistry and the passionate ending- wow. And Meaghan Grace Hinkis' Gertrudis, she danced the part with so much joy I loved it.

Pleased it went smoothly for others and I agree it's nice and easy to apply the credit vouchers at checkout. Unfortunately it was the worst time I've had trying to book yet. I couldn't load the seating plan on Chrome or Edge and kept getting error messages. Tried my own laptop, the work laptop etc, eventually managed to book on Safari on my phone. So it was quite stressful 😒

I sat next to this person or someone very similar at the Ashton triple too. He absolutely ruined it for me. He air conducted through Scenes. He played the air piano through A month in the country and he was back to air conducting through Rhapsody. He had a wonderful time I think. I also had talkers behind me so it wasn’t even just him who ruined it but he certainly was incredibly distracting. I had another ticket for the same bill but had to return it as I was ill so I was really upset about it.

Sorry I must have misread it.