VickyPage

Lower and Upper Slips are available for general booking (I've just been in and checked, as my booking entitlement opened today).

 

And you may be pleased to know that very few of them have thus far been snaffled by Supporting Friends or higher

Thank you for finding this out! And I am very pleased - the lower numbered seats are often snaffled before general booking opens, in my experience.

Amelia's suggestion is a good one, but if you're still interested in this particular step, thanks to betterankles, I can assure you that what Lopatkina does at 1:14 is the aforementioned movement from the Odette solo. The leg goes through retire (tucked in at the knee) and then she does a developpe (an unfolding motion) to arabesque.

Not the same step, she passes through to attitude, not developpee.   More like it in the Black Swan coda, but much much faster, and consecutive rather then with sissones before...  After the fouettees..

Right, got it; thank you! I thought that step was probably wrong, because she didn't go through a retire, but I had forgotten about those steps after the fouettes (not in the video unfortunately, Don Q Fan). They fit your description so much better.

I'm surprised to hear that.  I went twice and it was jammed both times.

Really? Where were you sitting? I particularly noticed a lot of empty seats in the orchestra stalls and stalls circle on one of the nights with Marianela Nunez/Bennet Gartside. I also thought their ticket prices were pretty steep, but I suppose they had to pay for the ship animations somehow.

Anyone point me to a video of this move?

I think it's this step (she does it at 0:08 and then repeats) that you mean, although she moves to attitude rather than arabesque, so I might be wrong. This is the Bolshoi choreography, but they do it at the Mariinsky too, I think.

I confess I'm confused by this piece of information. I had assumed that the reason the RB decided to do Fille again after such a short time was to make money (they could well have lost some on The Winter's Tale - there were so many empty seats when I was there) from something that they could guarantee would attract a large audience. Maybe people thought they couldn't get their kids out of school to see it? I've certainly seen higher prices from the ROH, so I'm sure it's not money related. This would appear to be a mystery for the ages.

Strangely you get next to no coughing during the performance of Wagner operas. Now that could be because Wagnerites are far healthier than the rest of the population but it could be that they are more engaged by what they are hearing and seeing than other theatre audiences.

That's really interesting, Floss, because in my personal experience, people cough a lot at Wagner operas. Maybe you've had much nicer audiences for Wagner, in which case, I'm jealous, but, due to my Wagner-crazed family, I've been to quite a few Wagner operas around the world (I think maybe the Vienna Staatsoper audience for Parsifal is the best I've had in terms of coughing, but there was still a lot of talking) and we also have over a hundred recordings of his operas (many of which are from live performances, rather than the studio), and there's normally a lot of coughing, echoing around the auditorium. I think people believe it's all right to cough during the prelude (not sure if this is the case for other opera in the overture), so the performance tends to open with a bored audience coughing their way through the vorspiel. The philosophy seems to be: if there aren't people singing, it's all right to cough. 

Thanks Alison.  There was a feature about Osipova and Polunin on the BBC 6 o'clock news tonight.  It starts at 25 minutes and is available until tomorrow:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07myj00/bbc-news-at-six-12082016

Thank you for this, Janet. Interesting to hear Polunin discuss coming back to the RB: 'I would love to come back and dance at the Royal Ballet. Yes, we are having talks.'

Hi Vicky Page (cool name by the way!) you were the young lady with the family going back to Oxford, weren't you? I was the lady who told you about Alina coming out once to sign autographs still dressed as a swan! Nice to meet you, young lady. If nothing else, I got to finally meet some balletco members last night, so something good came of it

I am going to briefly continue to be off topic (yes, I am genuinely sorry) in order to reply to this politely. Yes, I loved your story about Alina! She is just so sweet. It was amazing to meet you. I have to say, even if it was a slightly bitter end to my Bolshoi tour (I'm not going to Corsaire), it was lovely to meet you and swanprincess. 

(I really don't want to make a thing about this, godots_arrived, but there were people at the stage door in black tie. I doubt that the reason for the fracas was that we didn't look posh enough. And I'm not going to get into the 'to stage door or not to stage door' argument, because cavycapers and swanprincess have already responded so eloquently.)

To get on to the actual performance - 

I thought Denis Rodkin was slightly worse than on 29th; maybe he was still suffering from the slight injury/illness that knocked him out on Friday, or maybe I was slightly more tired and less forgiving. The princesses in Act III have really become the highlight of the Bolshoi's Swan Lake for me (which I am fortunately used to by now, so I don't need to rant about the production), especially Tikhomirova, who I think the ROH audience has really got to know on this tour. She was the only princess to get applause when she appeared on stage. Zakharova's acting was a tiny bit flaky in Act II, but when she was acting, it was really beautiful, and her technique was exquisite. Despite a stunning Odile, she did have some problems with the fouettes, and very sensibly elected to finish in fourth, rather than fifth, so as to cover a slight stumble. I could also see perfectly from the upper slips that she travelled a lot less than Smirnova, who also stumbled a bit out of the fouettes as well. 

I think this time round I would say I chose my Swan Lakes well. I thought Smirnova was a fantastic Odette, and Zakharova a magnificent Odile. 

Vicky page, were you the lady in the red gilet, that I spoke to on the tube! Hello if you were!

 

I think I would just have liked the truth, if the woman in red had come out and said Svetlana is very tired and doesn't really want to see people, we would have respected that a lot more.

Nope, sorry. I wore black, and am probably a lot younger than you imagine! I agree though; I think lying to us was just really disrespectful. 

Is there anyone on here who was present last night who feels able to write in?

I know a very angry mother who is going to complain about the experience. There were a lot of young girls there, although judging by how things looked when I left (I am pretty angry, but after Flames on Friday, I was pretty tired, so not too sorry about leaving, since I had to get back to Oxford that night) most of them doggedly stayed and got the pay off.

I don't think that Svetlana could have been the one to ask them, since it sounds like she was so lovely and sweet once she actually emerged. I suspect it's a policy (not necessarily an official one) to tell large crowds that the person they're waiting for has gone home in order to thin the group somewhat. 

Unnecessarily unpleasant young women on the stage door last night as we were waiting for Svetlana to come out. Give someone a little bit of power.... she kept coming out and trying to move us around, and counting us, etc, then after an hour and a quarter, she told us all to go home as Svetlana had gone and there was no one in the building. So most of us did, then Svetlana apparently came out at quarter to twelve and signed, smiled and chatted to those that had stayed. Badly done ROH, I don't care, I'm grown up, but there were many youngsters there clutching their pointe shoes who stood for over an hour to be sent home and then to find she was still there...

Doubly angry now that I learn she did come out (I left when we were told Svetlana was gone). I feel awful for all those sweet girls, many of whom had flown from America and Australia to see her, and then some of whom went home disappointed, just because an officious ROH woman lied to them.

Bruce - I love the idea of Vitaly Biktimiov as David Niven-esque! 

The Bolshoi seem to have finally learned that milking the audience for applause if there is the slightest pause in the music may not be the most popular approach in the UK, because they did a lot less of it last night. I thought Igor Tsvirko was fantastic - and I wasn't really sure what to expect from him - despite a stumble in his solo in Act II. Krysanova was gorgeous; I think she really showed the progression of Jeanne's character throughout the ballet, as well as achieving technical greatness. 

I have to say that when the announcement about the injury replacements came on, I had a huge smile on my face. I am, of course, sad for Rodkin (potentially somewhat overworked? I wonder if he'll be performing on Monday...), but since I had not booked for any of Ovcharenko's performances, and was regretting it slightly, I was thoroughly pleased at the opportunity to see him. He was, of course, amazing, and it was wonderful to see him with Tikhomirova. They have such a lovely tenderness between them on stage. 

I have to agree with Timmie - in my opinion, each night the Bolshoi get better!

I really should have been prepared for last night's Swan Lake to carry with it an appalling audience, particularly since it was opening night. As I took my seat, I'm sorry to say that I was filled with dread at the sight of a large group of 6-7 year old girls sitting behind me, loudly talking about all the sweets that they had with them (rustle rustle) and kicking the back of my seat. I saw my first Swan Lake when I was 11, so I managed to persuade myself that I was being a tad uncharitable, and maybe they'd quieten down once the performance started. No such luck. The adults had, rather selfishly, positioned themselves all together, so that they could talk to each other, rather than mingling with the children to keep an eye on them. Sure enough, the girls giggled and whispered their way through the first two Acts, to the point where I did shush them, but to no avail. This culminated in one girl making some kind of strange rhythmic sucking-clicking noise along with the music at the end of Act II. They quietened down a tiny bit for Acts III and IV, so I suppose someone had a word with them. Shame though, since Act II was the best, as it suited Smirnova's talents the most.

Even worse, the man on my left, who unfortunately seemed quite nice, was one of those people who taps their fingers and nods their head in time with the music, as though they were conducting their own mini-ballet from their seat.

I thought it was a really fantastic performance. I don't actually like the Bolshoi production of Swan Lake very much, but the dancers certainly won me over. I had expected Smirnova to be quite a regal Odette, because the Bolshoi's dancers do seem to lean towards that interpretation of the role, but as it turned out, she was gorgeously shy and fragile, almost childlike. Rodkin's partnering matched that theme perfectly. They were much more in harmony than on Monday for Don Q. 

Of course, her Odile is always going to be a bit weaker, although I think she has improved her interpretation since 2013, there was definitely a long way to go. The highlight of Act III, for me, was Anna Tikhomirova again, who was fantastic as the spanish princess. I really can't wait to see more of her!

The dancers seem to like it, given the number of them who use the photos for their own social media later. 

Although I agree that dancers do often repost photos of them taken during curtain calls on social media, I have also seen, on those rare occasions when I sit in the stalls, dancers favouring people who stood up to take photos with amazing glares. I think some people like it more than others.

Let's hope! Thank you, alison. It was already looking inconvenient, but I don't think I have to resign myself to not going just yet!

In these situations, does anyone know if 'Amphitheatre' includes the Upper Slips or not?

Got to agree with the general consensus on Smirnova here. I wasn't really expecting her to wow my socks off though, because it was so clearly not a role that came naturally to her. At times she seemed to be almost fighting against the choreography. I was surprised by how frosty the audience initially seemed towards Rodkin. I had only previously seen him in the cinema broadcast of Swan Lake from last year, so I wasn't sure what to expect other than fabulous hair, but actually I thought he handled it quite well. He might not have been quite as constantly technically perfect as Smirnova, but I think he succeeded a little in reproducing the energy and verve necessary for the role. I have to say, I was really impressed by Tikhomirova, who got a huge round of much deserved applause. It will be interesting to see her in other roles in the future.

Thanks for posting these! I've been checking the website religiously for weeks, and it's great to have the suspense over. It looks like my bank account is set to suffer a lot; time to readjust my budget for ballet tickets! Like everyone else, I'm in a raptures over the Naghdi/Ball Beauty, even though it's going to be relatively inconvenient for me to get there for a matinee. I wager it'll be worth it though!

I was meeting friends in the area and managed to drag them into the Tate to take a look. I didn't have long to watch the dancers, but the audience was allowed onto the dance floor when I was there, and AT de K was definitely there. I didn't get much of an impression of the choreography, because of my lack of time, but I did think the general style of performance was interesting. The audience members sat or stood all over the dance floor, and the dancers sometimes had to improvise if someone was in their way, but if the audience wasn't directly preventing them from completing a movement, they went ahead and did it anyway, no matter how close they got to audience members because of it. The dancers gave no recognition of the audience's reactions; they completely ignored them.

Overall, I wish I could have seen more, but it was a very intriguing idea.

... it gave a great opportunity to see these two dancers doing something completely out of their comfort zone.

Polunin, in particular, looked slightly uncomfortable with some of the more 60s-ish dancing, but I thought it was brave of him to try it. I just wish that there had been a tad more actual dancing, but Pita does seem to prefer emoting as part of narrative pieces.

I've got tickets for tomorrow, and from the look of the rehearsal pictures I was worried that the consensus would be an overall feeling of disappointment. Silent Echo looks like the one I'll enjoy most, but with regards to Run Mary, Run - I'm afraid I trivially find it very hard to look past the fact that someone decided to put Natalia in a lime green mini and a beehive. There would have to be some pretty spectacular dancing for me to overlook that aesthetic mistake.

I think people might be misunderstanding Osipova's statement a bit here. To quote what she said exactly: 'I would be really happy if there was a chance for him to come and dance there — and I think the audience would as well.' This seems to me to imply that she would like it if he could guest at the RB, something I have heard they have been negotiating for a while now. Nowhere in the article does it say anything about becoming a principal on a permanent basis. 

Kind of sad to see, as Ruth pointed out, that Yuhui hasn't made it to Principal yet, especially when Alexander, who was her most frequent partner, I believe, has managed it. Still, overall I'm very pleased for everyone (especially Matthew Ball - he really deserved it!) and I can't wait to see them all in larger roles.