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.

That's probably because they released the SCS places originally reserved for students

Still makes you (one) wonder..... - even more...

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.

Only other thing I didn't like is when you clicked 'continue shopping' it didn't take you back to the winter booking period and you had to go to the bottom of the page and click again on it and then whatever ballet you wanted. Just adds extra time if you're in a rush to beat the 30 minute deadline.

To repeat a tip I have given on a previous thread, bookmark the following link to the list of everything going on sale today:

http://www.roh.org.uk/events/booking/20151021

And every time a "booking day" is coming up, amend the date code at the end of the URL in your bookmark to match the date in question.

Then when you have selected a ticket and are in your shopping basket, instead of clicking on "Continue Shopping", all you need to do is return to your bookmark to select your next date.

Hmmmm.   So, no Nutcracker over the Christmas period then? 

 

Well, that will make a nice change. 

It's hardly unheard-of for the RB to miss a year with Nutcracker.  They didn't do it last Christmas.

I for one think it's lovely to see the underrated and underused Laura Morera in first cast of a new work!

I think the reference was more to the fact that Acosta, Kobborg and Pennefather wouldn't be around.  Whether any of the others mentioned make it to dancing the role by then is probably anyone's guess: they might do, or they might not.

Yes - "shortage" was your choice of word, not mine.  The fact that so many of the Mayerling leads from last time round have now left the company doesn't mean the company doesn't now have the capability to produce multiple casts - it simply means that should they choose to do so there will be one heck of a lot of debuts!

I SO hope we will see him do Mayerling just once more.  I think with him absent there is a lack of what I would term emotional male leads.  Great hopes for Alexander Campbell.  I adore Macrae but for me he does not do emotion.

I was having this conversation about Mayerling with a friend just the other day!  I fear that if he hasn't formally retired the role yet, he probably will have done by the time the RB next get around to doing it.  *Are* we likely to see Mayerling again at the RB any time soon?  I'm thinking back to the casting last time and almost all of the Rudolfs and Mary Vetseras have since left the company.

Apologies if off-topic!

Reece Clark - I was amazed by his performance in Symphonic Variations. But they seem to be "resting" him at the moment...

Is he perhaps injured?

Edward Watson first night of Mayerling in 2013.  One of the greatest nights of my life.  Unbelievable.  Anybody else there?

Yes! It was my first Mayerling, too...

RAVEN GIRL / CONNECTOME ROYAL OPERA HOUSE, BOW STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON WC2E 9DD   SAVE UP TO 58%

AMPHITHEATRE SEATS JUST £5!   Usually up to £12

 

Admired and beautifully contrasting, two recent ballets by choreographers withinThe Royal Ballet are brought together for an atmospheric and contemporary programme.

 

Connectome by Alastair Marriott is an abstract meditation on the nature of identity. Using video imagery to evoke the landscape of the brain, Marriott narrates the journey of one woman’s changing sense of herself as she moves between lovers and friends.

 

Wayne McGregor’s Raven Girl – a collaboration with author Audrey Niffenegger (author of The Time Traveler’s Wife) – brings to life a compassionate tale of difference and discovery. A young man’s love for a raven results in a girl with the body of a human and the wings and soul of a bird. 

 

To claim this offer for performances on 8, 12, 20 and 22 October at 7.30pm and 24 October at 12.30pm, visit www.roh.org.uk/connectomemixed and enter ‘htraven’ into the ‘Do you have a code?’ box situated above the seating plan on the booking page, and click ‘Update’. To book by phone, call 020 7304 4000 and quote ‘HT Raven’, or visit the Box Office in person.       BOOK ONLINE AND ENTER HTRAVEN   CALL 020 7304 4000 AND QUOTE HTRAVEN       TERMS & CONDITIONS     Offer for performances on 8, 12, 20 and 22 October at 7.30pm and 24 October at 12.30pm. Book online, over the phone or in person at the ROH Box Office, by quoting the promo code htraven. Please note that the code is case sensitive and needs to be entered as htraven in lower case. Offer is subject to availability, and is non-transferrable and non-refundable. This cannot be used in conjunction with any other offers or on tickets already purchased.

Thanks! I wasn't going to bother, but I've just booked a ticket for the second cast next Monday.

Did anyone attend the rehearsal today and if so are they willing/able to comment on any notable changes to Raven Girl?

No, but it has been mentioned elsewhere on this forum that the role of the prince is being greatly increased.  This was something Gary Avis mentioned when coaching Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Ryoichi Hirano on the final pas de deux at the Insight Event the other week - the prince is now present throughout the ballet, with a demanding solo just prior to the pas de deux.

Sorry to state the obvious, but couldn't she ask the girls she's seen wearing them?

For all of those who (like me) had to miss yesterday's matinee - I had a really good ticket, too, before becoming unavoidably double-booked! - console yourselves with the knowledge that this ballet comes round every two seasons at the RB, and a roaringly successful joint debut should mean that we get more opportunities to see both dancers do it again in the not too distant future, and if we're lucky, for the next quarter of a century.

Hahaha, same here, Timmie! I was on a train with poor data connection when the RB class started (or more accurately, when the filmed coverage joined them, as that must have been half an hour in) but by the time the Two Pigeons rehearsal was shown I was sitting by the ballerina statue opposite the ROH, SURROUNDED by pigeons, awaiting the R&J matinee.  Nice to see it properly on my TV today, though, rather than my tiny phone screen.

Having been at the RB Insight last week at which Gary Avis coached Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Ryoichi Hirano on the Raven Girl pas de deux, I found it especially interesting to see them work on part of the same with Wayne McGregor.  It seemed to be a lot tighter by yesterday. I wish I could remember, though, which moment it was that Gary highlighted as something they'd have to find out McGregor's opinion on...

I saw lots of ballet on World Ballet Day (R&J in the afternoon, Cheri in the evening) but am only now catching up properly with a lot of the filmed coverage!

I know that conductors are important but surely players in the orchestra of the ROH, playing a very familiar score, should not be relying too much on the conductor to bring them in, adjust tempi, dynamics etc. 

You'd think - but given that "the Orchestra of the ROH" only got back from the opera tour in Japan a few days ago, my guess is that at the moment they are still heavily reliant on deps in the pit for R&J.

That said, it's been a while since I've been impressed with the trumpet and horn sections of the ROH orchestra, even in shows for which you would expect them to have the usual quorum of core personnel.  I wish this wasn't the case.

I do hope that much of it will be available on demand afterwards, as has been the case in the past.  I'll have to miss almost all of it live, as I'll be on a train home in the morning following an overnight trip, and then at the ROH for the R&J matinee and Cheri evening show...

Oh yes, I forgot to comment on the beautiful synchonicity of Campbell, McRae and Dyer; weren't they marvellous in that trio before the ball? So well matched in height too.

Yes, I remember this being particularly impressive on Saturday too.  It's a point at which, naming no names, I've often in the past been disappointed!

I'm also disappointed to see no debut as Juliet by Kase or Ovsyanick.

That was my feeling too, though I'm pleased to see Alison McWhinney being given a big opportunity like this...

Vadim was a lovely Romeo in ENB's version at the Royal Albert Hall...

Incidentally, I'm one of those who found her extremely moving in Manon

So did I (particularly with Muntagirov, when she took over after Lauren Cuthbertson's injury). I'm generally more of a fan of her contemporary things, though...

I *have* liked Sarah Lamb very much as Juliet in the past. She was, in point of fact, my first RB Juliet (in the January 2012 run), and I liked her in the Autumn 2013 run too.  However, I was at Saturday's performance and for some reason this time she didn't do it for me at all. I think perhaps my memories of McRae with Obraztsova in the last run - who I loved so much together at the dress rehearsal that I ended up going to see all three of their performances - were too fresh in my mind for me not to find their chemistry lacking.  I'd previously seen Lamb opposite Bonelli and Pennefather.

(Edited to add: I've just read the Telegraph review and particularly the following paragraph: "much to enjoy ... but ... repeatedly had me thinking back to the devastating, Wagnerian passion that Tamara Rojo and Carlos Acosta ignited together as the star-cross’d lovers just a few years ago, on the same stage.".  Um, yes. I saw them do it three days after I first saw Sarah Lamb do it, and I actually can't argue with that.)

Yes indeed - also good advice!  I found myself doing that quite a lot when booking my Giselles.

The quickest and easiest way I find to get from shopping basket to my next event on "booking day" is by using and returning to what I call the "shopping list" page. They don't make it easy to find these days - it used to come up if you clicked on the date of the "booking day" on any show page.

www.roh.org.uk/events/booking/20150922

This link will work for ordinary friends' ballet booking day on 22nd September but for a future booking day, just amend the last few digits of the URL to show the correct date.

1) Paste the link into your browser

2) Bookmark it

3) When booking goes live, make your first booking

4) When your first ticket has been added to your basket, return to your bookmarked page instead of clicking "Continue Shopping".

Depending on your browser you may find it quicker and easier to copy the URL once it's in your browser and paste it back in whenever you need to, rather than using a bookmark.

Hope this is helpful to some!

I rather suspect that if your son and daughter trained into the opposite professions - he as a dancer and she as a footballer - he'd still be at a potential advantage, assuming equal talent/hard work/quality of available training (whatever that means, in two very different fields!) unless there's a lot more money and opportunity in women's football than I imagine there is!  Money isn't the only measure of success, of course...

I wondered the same, and I'm not sure. I was aware last year (privately) that OHP and the RBS were in talks about future collaboration/venue use, but that's all.