Alice Shortcake

I was so looking forward to seeing Raymonda in Manchester. That production and Opera North's Parsifal in Leeds were my most disappointing Covid-related losses of this year.

From a Bored Panda thread entitled "People Share What Careers Look Glamorous From The Outside But End Up Being A Nightmare": "Ballet dancer Parents spend tens of thousands (or more) on training. They give up their entire teen years and schooling (most elite ballet dancers are homeschooled and a large percentage move away from home for training in high school).Most dancers you see on stage in a ballet are paying to be there. The bottom rungs of ballet companies are pay to play. Then when you have paid to dance a few years you might be able to get a position that pays you with a dozen pairs of pointe shoes and a stipend for performances. Then maybe you'll be promoted to the bottom level where you get paid 20K a year and have no health insurance. All while putting your body through major torture." https://www.boredpanda.com Ye gods! In which ballet companies do dancers pay to play?

How on earth can ENB's 'Raymonda', a POSTPONED production, be eligible for a prize?

There was some unplanned drama in the first act of 'Cinderella' at today's matinee. The elements of the kitchen set, instead of coming together like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, crashed into each other and caused the curtain to be lowered for a few minutes until the problem was sorted out! It didn't stop a large and well-behaved audience of children enjoying the show immensely, with the wicked stepmother being thunderously booed, panto style! I have to say that although I enjoyed the performance and the unusual take on the Cinderella story, the score left me cold. I really missed Prokofiev's music.

I thoroughly enjoyed the live broadcast, but did anyone else find the first act much too dark? Perhaps the old DVD gave a false impression of the production - most recordings of that era were over-lit for the TV cameras - but I was a bit disappointed when the curtain rose to find that twilight had already fallen and Osbert Lancaster's lovely buildings and clouds were barely visible! On the credit side, thank goodness the night hours no longer have to carry those comically huge candlesticks...

I'm really looking forward to seeing this in Leeds later this month. The last time I saw a Northern Ballet Cinderella was back in the 80s - in that production Cinders was a dressmaker in her family's upmarket shop and the score was by Johann Strauss.

I do hope there will be a DVD. I can't get to the 5th November relay and there is no encore showing at York.

I book aisle seats whenever possible in order to make a quick getaway - not necessarily in order to catch the last train home, but to avoid the infantile whooping and screeching that passes for applause nowadays. When did British audiences start to behave like this?

I had to stop watching after about twenty seconds because the CGI human/cat effects made my skin crawl. Evidently some people are more sensitive to this sort of thing than others, but to me it's high octane nightmare fuel!

I had the same problem earlier this year after an opera performance (hello, fellow York resident!) Rather than risk having the show ruined by worrying about the risk of being stranded in London I decided to spend the night at one of the many budget hotels near King's Cross.

Interesting to hear that there will be a DVD of 'Victoria', but not of 'Casanova', which was also filmed.

Problem solved - tickets are available via the Birmingham Hippodrome but not from BRB's own website!

Public booking for the 19/20 season was supposed to open at 11 this morning. I'm sitting here, credit card in hand, dying to give BRB my money, but so far nothing has happened.

Something that looks like a triple mirror formed part of the set for 'The Haunted Ballroom': https://www.flickr.com/photos/crossettlibrary/16592603783

A couple of days before making a rare trip to London to see 'Akhnaten' at the Coliseum I developed the worst cough I've had for decades. Despite equipping myself with cough mixture, lozenges and bottled water I was terrified I'd become That Awful Person Who Coughs All the Way Through. Mercifully, other than a minor spasm near the beginning I remained cough-free throughout the performance - only to make up for it at the hotel, where my seal-like barking caused the woman in the next room to knock on my door and ask if I needed help!