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RuthE

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Everything posted by RuthE

  1. RuthE
    Thanks for that! It hadn't occurred to me the last time the RB did Monotones, but now I'll never be able to un-see it...
  2. RuthE
    Weirdly, though, a friend of mine who works front of house at the ROH said they had bag search training last week! Presumably before the Paris attacks. Maybe it's just something they do as a routine training course in case of particularly high-security events.
  3. RuthE
    It depends on what I'm seeing. Front row of a section is always good, or a side aisle seat with a clear view towards the centre, not just for guaranteed lack of a tall person in front of me (I was at Christian Gerhaher's Wigmore Hall recital on Sunday and could only hear him, not see him...) but because if people are misbehaving - fiddling with their phones or constantly fidgeting - a front-of-section seat means I have as few of them in my sightline as possible. Budget dictates that most of the time I take a cheap seat or stand, in which case I would rather be at downstairs or mid-level than right at the top. While most theatres offer better sound in the gods, I like being able to see performers at closer range. When I do splash out and treat myself, I always go for proximity even when there's a compromise involved; occasional front row seats at the ROH means you lose sight of the dancers' feet, for example, but I'd only ever spend that sort of money on dancers whose faces I like watching, so I can't understand why anyone would want to be miles away in the Grand Tier...
  4. RuthE
    Yes, I almost liked that cast best, on the whole, and I did see all three. I'm glad Ismene Brown was so complimentary about them in her Arts Desk review. (Though, on a separate note, I was baffled as to why she identified the Carmen/Jose pas de deux music - which is the Act 3 prelude from the opera - as the music of Micaela's aria.)
  5. RuthE
    Well, I for one am pleased that they are bringing Flames of Paris, with or without Vassiliev - I had to miss it last time round for a work function. I also haven't ever seen their Don Q, so must give that a go once casting is announced - though ominously I am already double-booked on opening night.
  6. RuthE
    That just made me snort with laughter at my desk at work, Quintus! I'd have thought at this time of year the magic sparkle-dust would be more of a risk...
  7. RuthE
    I wonder what the chances are of them announcing the exact principal casting schedule before booking opens... that's been a big problem in the past.
  8. RuthE
    To add to my post above: my favourite Royal Ballet tweeter has to be Gary Avis. He comes across as endlessly passionate about his work, but doesn't take himself too seriously; also posts about his lovely dogs, the charity work he's involved in with his partner, and the trials of commuting from Suffolk. And is also just obviously a sweetheart. Other favourite RB tweeters include Lauren Cuthbertson & Olivia Cowley (for the sort of ordinary woman-about-town stuff I can personally relate to, along with interesting or funny ballet stuff), the charming, interesting and intelligent Genesia Rosato, and Anna Rose O'Sullivan, whose joie de vivre is as evident in her tweets as it is in her dancing. Edited to add: between them, Gary and Lauren had a lot to do with me becoming a regular ballet-goer in the first place. They engaged with me on Twitter back in 2011 at a time when I was just starting to explore ballet, having been to almost nothing but opera for years, and Lauren effectively dared me to try more. Nowadays I'm probably at the ballet an average of once a week.
  9. RuthE
    Thanks to a friend on Twitter, it appears I have finally tracked down the identity of the mystery pas-de-deux music in Carmen. It appears to be a slowed-down version of the Danse Bohemienne from Bizet's "La jolie fille de Perth": https://t.co/uU6y6orKbI Another friend on Facebook has further identified it (and posted a picture of part of the sheet music) as something she's encountered as an orchestral player in a ballet suite supposedly from Carmen-the-opera, though it doesn't appear in any version of the opera I've ever come across.
  10. RuthE
    I'm primarily a Twitter user, and to be honest, I'm mostly interested in artists who post normal everyday things about their work and lives that I can relate to, rather than those who use their accounts for more commercial reasons. As adorable as his little daughter is, I'm getting a little tired of Steven McRae posting baby-photos with corporate accounts like Baby Gap tagged in them when they've obviously supplied the outfit. Likewise Eric Underwood's tweets of the results of some of his modelling photoshoots for Premier. I'm also not that interested on social media in artists who only ever tweet about their upcoming engagements or about how marvellous all their colleagues are. It's up to them how they use their accounts (and Eric in particular is also good for a bit of ordinary banter on Twitter, he doesn't JUST post pictures) but I tend not to find them very engaging. The artists I tend to relate to are the ones who post about their art and their performances but who also say things which tell me I have something in common with them as people. People of my own generation (often, in the case of dancers, a bit younger than me) who obviously work hard and love what they do, but who also talk about the everyday idiosyncrasies of being out and about in London, or who post (or invite) the odd restaurant, shop or salon recommendation. People who give the impression that if I bumped into them in a coffee shop, we'd actually have something to make ordinary small talk about. The same goes for opera singers - there are lots of opera singers I like as artists who I find totally uninteresting or non-relatable-to on social media, but others with whom I've immediately sensed a lot of common ground, which has led to several in-person friendships.
  11. RuthE
    Raised white blood cell count possibly means you're anaemic, I think, though your GP will be the one to confirm that! It's a horrible feeling, fortunately one that I've only experienced once, at a concert, and I actually stayed in my seat because I knew if I moved I would either keel over or vomit and (as I was in the middle of the second row) that could have been rather disruptive!! Luckily the feeling passed, and I managed to do neither. I do hope you're OK.
  12. RuthE
    Last night and two weeks ago, in fact - her debut was 23rd October. I saw both and although I generally agree with annamk about the mismatch, I thought they gelled as a couple more last night than in their debut performance. I also thought the fighting in Act 2 really caught fire last night in a way that it didn't at this cast's previous performance - Golding really pulled it out of the bag and I'm slightly haunted this morning by the look of sheer resigned dread on Thomas Whitehead's face in the moment between Romeo disarming him and stabbing him. And what a death scene from Marcelino Sambe...
  13. RuthE
    That's entirely possible - the only bit of L'Arlesienne I know is the Farandole, mainly because we used to play it in school orchestra!
  14. RuthE
    Maybe when I see it for the last time (tomorrow) I will suddenly realise that it's something obvious, just in a strange arrangement... but I know the opera really well and it didn't seem familiar at all.
  15. RuthE
    By the way, I asked this question on Twitter but got no reply, so perhaps somebody here knows the answer. In Carmen, besides the many instantly recognisable bits of music adapted from the opera score plus a chunk of the Farandole from L'Arlesienne, there is a piece of music I don't recognise. It's the slow music for Carmen's pas de deux with Escamillo. Can somebody please tell me what it is? I've watched that ballet twice now and it was no more familiar the second time.
  16. RuthE
    I *love* what this review says about Tierney Heap!
  17. RuthE
    The plot of Pineapple Poll does not come from a light opera - though of course the score is stitched together from several - but from one of WS Gilbert's "Bab ballads", although that same source inspired parts of HMS Pinafore. Hmmm... I'd love to see it again. Wonder if BRB might think of bringing it back?
  18. RuthE
    Somebody needs to tell this to the appallingly rude woman who shouted at the cast change announcer from a seat in the Stalls Circle to demand a refund, on the night when Yuhui Choe replaced Osipova in The Sleeping Beauty...
  19. RuthE
    I know there don't seem to be many stories that have gone straight from ballet to opera, but how many of those which have "gone from opera to ballet" have done so in a true sense, rather than just being based on a common source? I'm assuming the example of Madam Butterfly, above, is genuinely opera-inspired, given that the source play isn't widely known and the opera is (I don't know anything about the ballet's score - is it related to the opera's?) As a long-time opera lover and a relatively recent ballet convert, I always find it fascinating how ballets deal with the same dramatic source material as well-known operas. I've got a friend who's an operatic principal soprano and we have established a tradition of seeing ballets together which "match" operas in her repertoire; so far Onegin, Marguerite & Armand and Romeo & Juliet (she missed Manon last year by a whisker through being out of town). She really is the best person with whom to have a lengthy discussion about differences in the interpretations after the performance! I personally find Onegin (the character) comes across much worse in the ballet than in the opera, for example, because the opera's Act 1 Scene 3 is missing from the ballet and conflated into Act 2 Scene 1... I also find it very interesting that in the opera, it is Tatyana who walks out of the final confrontation with Onegin, while in the ballet she ensures it's he that removes himself (it's her home, after all...)
  20. RuthE
    There is also an Italian place which I think is quite cheap and currently run as an all-you-can-eat buffet. Same side of the road as the Mayflower, next block down the hill. I forget what it's called, but know a couple of people who like it for pre-theatre.
  21. RuthE
    There used to be a lovely little eat-in Chinese called the Orchid, a little further up the hill beyond the Mayflower on the other side of the road, but it closed down It was great for arriving off a train from London at 6:30 and getting fed a big cheap plate of noodles with ample time to spare prior to a 7:15 start.
  22. RuthE
    The Vestry is great! I went there a couple of weeks ago when I was there for Welsh National Opera. I only had an hour to spare having come straight down from London after work, but the service was so swift that I was able not only to have three courses but coffee as well. In the few hours before a show at the Mayflower they ONLY offer the fixed-price pre-theatre menu, which in my opinion was very good value, not to mention varied (six or seven choices of starter and main, including a variety of vegetarian and gluten-free options). Service was lovely and friendly and the food was absolutely delicious. Highly recommended - it's only been there three or four years, and the choice in the immediate vicinity used to be rather limited.
  23. RuthE
    I might add to the above that if I weren't such a regular attender, I almost certainly wouldn't bother with membership and would put the money I'd saved towards better tickets.
  24. RuthE
    The fact is, the best Stalls Circle and Balcony standing places provide the sort of quality of view that you'd generally pay a minimum of ten times the price for in a seat. I go to the ROH for both opera and ballet, at least once a week from September to July and often more. Just because I could afford to pay more than, say, £10 a time, doesn't mean I can afford £100. Let's say a good standing place is £10 and my actual price limit is £15-20. I'd far rather have the view you get from an amazing standing place than be crammed up into the Upper Amphitheatre or Lower Slips with a distant or restricted view for £20. If my Friends membership ends up working out as a surcharge of a couple of pounds per standing ticket over the course of a year, that's still within my price range, and therefore represents money very well spent.
  25. RuthE
    Don't forget that there is absolutely nothing to stop you, as a Supporting Friend, going back and making an additional booking as a member of the general public once spare student tickets have been released for sale.
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