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Hi Juliet. I just wanted to say, having read this post earlier today, I went to the RBS showcase this evening at Holland Park and worked out (not on stage, but in the programme listings) exactly which one your daughter must be... narrowed it down to 2 with German contracts on the graduate destinations page, and then to 1 from the fact that she wasn't marked as having been a JA/MA/SA. It was a fabulous showcase without weak links, and therefore, even though I couldn't tell who was who in the Sylphides corps, you should be extremely proud (as I am sure you are).

I've a MacMillan Concerto triple ticket purchased in error (I can only go on the alternative date) SC Standing D50, £6, for the 18th. Didn't realize my mistake until my tickets arrived only a few days ago. Obviously I'd advertise this in the usual place, but seeing as you're talking about it... first person to drop me a PM (and acknowledge here that they've done so) is welcome to it.

I love the Nutcracker performance photo which may as well be captioned "Hayley and husband Brian randomly captured in the same frame even though they are dancing roles which have absolutely nothing to do with each other"

Just to say: anyone who might have read underwhelming reviews and possibly be expecting disappointment, I attended the dress rehearsal, press night and second night, and press night was by far the weakest of the three! Second night, Saturday 24th June, was like a completely different show and very exciting indeed.

There's a ticket offer in today's Time Out email for certain performances of An American in Paris: https://www.timeout.com/london/shop/theatre-an-american-in-paris

I was in the live audience and it was very difficult to choose between them. Usually you know who it *won't* be (indeed, usually I find myself wondering what one finalist is doing there in the first place) and can pick a couple of front-runners from the others. This year the standard was higher in the final than any I can remember, though all five singers also had their flaws. I'll try to remember to post more about this in due course, but for now, it's been a very long weekend and I'm collapsed in my bed in Cardiff Central Travelodge.

I just thought... we never did get a Leavers announcement last year! Just "Promotions and joiners" - and we all assumed maybe there was something not yet finalized regarding Leavers and a further press release would follow at some point. But it didn't.

Last year was unusually early, though - IIRC, it was because of some clause in the contract with their tour venues in Japan which stated that certain roles will be taken by principals, and because of injuries elsewhere in the company, they needed their new principals to be officially named as such in time for the tour. More typically, they make the announcement about the time they return from tour. Edited following a trawl of the ROH website to add: 2012: 11th July 2013: 3rd July 2014: 3rd July 2015: 29th June

Pm'd you!

Me too

I had a wonderful time last night, though none of my curtain call photos came out, because from the Balcony, Yanowsky's dress was the same colour as the floor, which gives the effect of making her vanish from the pictures! It may be blasphemy to say so, but in my ideal universe, her farewell to the company would have been Month in the Country. I do hope she gets asked back to guest in it in future.

I don't know how long Tower Bridge has had those railings, but they've certainly been there a long time. I can't say much about the attack without seeming to make it "about me", which clearly it wasn't when I wasn't in the vicinity at the time. But that's a part of London I spend a lot of time in - I was at the hairdresser's round the corner a few hours beforehand, and singing Mass at St Magnus adjacent to the north side of the bridge a few hours afterwards (fortunately by Sunday morning, the cordon on Lower Thames Street was only excluding vehicle access, not pedestrians). At the same time on some other Saturday nights I might well be found on a bus on the bridge, coming home from the Barbican or Hackney Empire. The point I'm trying to make is, it really could happen anywhere...

Hi. South of the river is still generally easier to find affordable rented accommodation than north, though I agree with others that 30min is somewhat optimistic. I too work in the Victoria area, and I live only 3 miles away in Camberwell, but because my neighbourhood is (very well-) served by buses rather than trains, it takes me 45min on a very good day to get in by public transport, or an hour to walk. He might just be lucky with a swift commute - and avoid the dreaded Southern Railway - if he looks in Lewisham, or perhaps a little further out along the Bexleyheath line. There's a direct train service on that line into Victoria, and reasonably affordable shared accommodation definitely still exists in the area.

In "Camille" I'm never quite sure of what the age difference is meant to be, because I can't gauge how old either Garbo or Robert Taylor are meant to be individually. I see that in real life she was six years older than him (she was 31 and he was 25).

In the novel she is once described (through Armand's eyes) as a "beautiful creature of twenty" so isn't meant to be much older than that, and as Lizbie1 said, Marie Duplessis was 23. Indeed, only just turned 23 when she died, so 21/22 for most of the story. I'd find it very odd to see the Ashton danced with a young ballerina, though. (I've also seen some really interesting productions of La traviata which deliberately make a point of having Violetta played older - the one that Opera North did in 1999 with Janis Kelly particularly springs to mind.)

Thanks John - I've answered your PM. Ticket now taken.

Bump This'll be going back to the box office for resale on Wednesday morning if not claimed by then.

Having replaced my original booking with my favourite Balcony Standing spot on Friday Rush today, I now have the following for sale: Royal Ballet: The Dream/Symphonic Variations/Marguerite and Armand Wednesday 7th June 2017 Amphitheatre D38 £20 I'll be there myself to hand over. Please let me know if interested

I was there too. Disappointed in particular that (a) I hadn't already seen it this time round, given that it was the last performance in the run and normally I'd have seen it sooner, and (b) that they didn't manage to do any of Act 4, which (with reference to Lizbie above) in fact contains three of the most famous arias - Philip's, Eboli's, and Posa's death scene, as well as the great duet between Philip and the Grand Inquisitor, none of which individually involve the character of Elisabetta. There was also a rather weird moment at the end of Act 3 when a staff director, in costume, walked the role of Elisabetta for a few minutes to enable the auto-da-fe scene to go on, but with the vocal part missing - the top line of the ensemble begging mercy for the Flemish deputies, and one or two individual lines. I didn't know I knew the part so well until it wasn't there! While they would have had contingency plans should somebody have been taken ill with even a little more notice, it's simply unfortunate that the emergency happened only an hour before the show, and at a matinee on a Bank Holiday. And that it was a role which wouldn't have been appropriate for any of the current crop of Young Artists to cover (edited to add: Lizbie1, your theory re YAs is all very well, but which of the current Young Artists would you put on as Elisabetta? All the current sopranos are lighter than required...) - some may recall a similar situation last year when a sudden illness laid claim at similarly short notice to both the soprano and tenor for a performance of La traviata, but in that case the show was able to proceed normally, as Vlada Borovko on the young artists' programme had fully covered the role of Violetta, and Charles Castronovo (who's done the production several times in the past) was in the house rehearsing for Lucia di Lammermoor and was able to step into the role of Alfredo. I ended up in the pub, with multiple friends from the chorus and extra chorus as well as several of the cast, and I don't believe I am breaking any of the rules of this forum when I say that nobody seemed to have any additional gossip/conspiracy-theory fodder about the situation at all (of course if they had, I'd be breaking forum rules by posting it, but I assure you they did not). It was an unfortunate situation, which the house dealt with in an imperfect fashion when perhaps no perfect solution could have been reasonably planned for.

Ah, fabulous. Good to know your friend is sorted.

Several returns on the website at present, including one in the upper slips (left, front row, just the "good end" of centre) for £17.

I don't know of anything at present but will keep an eye open. Will he stand?

In the hypothetical situation that they HAD filmed it, there were some significant mishaps along the way (Romany Pajdak's costume incident on first night... somebody's train getting trodden on tonight at the very opening of Act 1 and nearly causing a pile-up... and did I imagine that Osipova briefly slipped tonight during the scene with Larisch and the cards?) so there might have been a little patching required from alternative filmed performances! I don't recall anything too memorable going wrong with the middle one.

Apologies if this has already been asked and answered and I've missed it, but I've just seen Act 2 of the Watson/Osipova cast for the third and final time, having also seen each other cast once. Does anyone know why Mary Vetsera's revolver shot in the bedroom scene is faked from offstage when Osipova does it, while the other 3 Marys fire a real shot? On opening night I assumed a real shot failed and was backed up, but it's been done consistently.

By the person in question, I gather!