Blossom

@alison there are a couple of standing places available 21 Dec mat now plus always worth checking for returns up to the hour or so beforehand!

Yes all sold out when I finally got to the page too. At least I do have a performance before Christmas, plus one after, although I may need to return that.

Friday rush - I started with a 2 minute wait which keeps yoyo-ing between 15 and 5 minutes' wait. Surely the wait should only decrease?!

This sounds easily achievable with Amsterdam only a short flight away. It would be barely different to working in Manchester and London. Looking forward to hearing more news from Amsterdam.

I love Still Life at the Penguin Cafe but have never seen it at ROH. Thank goodness for BRB!!! Am I the only person who just generally does not get on with Wheeldon choreography? To be honest, I'm not sure if it's actually the choreography or the music. I'm not a fan of Joby Talbot and wish Wheeldon would work with someone who creates pieces which are pleasant to listen to and become more compelling when attached to the choreography.

I love all of the responses so far. I am still trying to work out what would go into my fantasy triple. It feels about time that we have Symphonic Variations again. So for an Ashton triple, I would love Marguerite & Amand with the right cast- I’m imagining that Naghdi/Ball would probably work better than many of the casts I have seen… I just can’t decide on a 3rd. @Sophoife I would definitely go to your Spectre de la Rose/Petrouchka/Sheherazade triple! Not had the pleasure to see any of them but love heritage works!

Just wanted to follow up while I am in Amsterdam to say that the NH Caransa is a perfect location from the Dutch National Opera and Ballet- just over the bridge and a walk in straight line down a relatively lively for 11pm street. It’s a proper hotel building not a hotel squeezed into a town house, so has lifts etc. Rooms start at approx £130 excluding city taxes.

I thought this would be the best place to share my experience of the 2023 run of Raymonda, so hopefully an admin can update the subject to cover this run too! My original aim had been to see Xander Parish dance Jean de Brienne at the Mariinsky around my 40th birthday. With Covid followed by the invasion of Ukraine, this was never going to happen. The complete change in context of ENB’s version of the ballet didn’t quite work for me. I wasn’t too keen on the setting of the story and it made the Hungarian style wedding even more incongruous than it can seem in the versions I have seen being streamed online from the Mariinsky and Danish Ballet. I hoped that Dutch National Ballet’s version would resolve the narrative to be more palatable in the present day and they certainly did. Although the sword fight between Abdelrahman and Jean de Brienne was a bit of a cringe moment, the overall idea that Raymonda chooses the other man worked well, this was a common thread from Abdelrahman’s first appearance in her dream, through to Jean de Brienne’s reappearance in act 2. Overall it was a very pleasing ballet. As with the ‘original’, there isn’t much of a storyline in act 1 or much action. The dream sequence was a beautiful display of pure classicism, but the earlier portion gave away either some slightly clunky choreography, or, potentially on only the second performance, the act was slightly under rehearsed. These chinks were visible not just in the corps de ballet, but also in Olga Smirnova’s performance. Act 2 was a wonderful show of character dances from the warriors, sabres and Spanish dance with a beautiful grand pas d’action. Act 3 was just wonderful to watch and was a cut above the previous acts. Special mention to Kira Hilli, soloist from the mazurka who really embraced and embodied the style and her performance was superior to any versions I have previously seen. Maria Chicago and Giorgi Potskhishvili also delivered a strong Grand Pas Hongrois, both dances were supported by a strong corps de ballet. Despite an imperfect performance, Olga Smirnova brought the taste of Russian Raymonda which really elevated the performance a level. She delivered some of the fastest pique turns I have seen and overall just glittered. Constantine Allen delivered some super speed quadruple-or-more pirouettes and his jeté turns across the stage were exciting to watch. By the time I had cottoned on to Victor Caixeta dancing Jean de Brienne, his stage time was almost over - my only criticism with this version is that it gives this role a lot less of an opportunity to dance. Overall, delighted I came to Amsterdam. Ticket prices are absolutely reasonable at around £85 for top price stalls based on the exchange rate at around the time I booked. Perhaps this is why the audience was so diverse in age and included not just many ladies in their 20s but also plenty of men of that age range. The theatre appears to have a well publicised access scheme for young people also which may have had an impact.The city also seems incredibly international as many people were talking to each other in English although clearly not their first language.

LBC is currently covering audience behaviour - Paul Brand from approx 6.05pm and you can catch up online/download as a podcast. Interested to hear what callers have to say!

While watching Les Patineurs on ROH stream, it got me thinking about how much I enjoyed the last triple it featured in, in a bill alongside Winter Dreams and The Concert. It was almost all winter themed. Then there was the fabulous Russian triple with Firebird, Month in the Country and Symphony in C. We have the MacMillan and Ashton triples to look forward to in spring and summer. Many other triple bills have had a piece which is not particularly satisfying though. Which gets to the question, which 3 works would make your perfect triple bill?

Osipova’s Cinderella. So much talk of her not being ‘an Ashton dancer’ but she was the only person who got the characterisation absolutely spot on throughout.

Loads available still on Friday Rush

The play conveyed attitudes which today would be homophobic and overall was rather lacking in terms of diversity and inclusion. But I think to find it controversial, you would have to be exceptionally young for a start and I don’t think there was anyone born in the 90s or after in the audience.

Thanks Janet!

Slight diversion to ballets with are not considered palatable these days- Bayadère, Corsaire, potentially Fille, I found this sign at the Duke of York theatre tonight quite interesting… “This play is set in 1979 and consequently reflects some of the attitudes, language and conventions of the time”. Unfortunately cant work out how to shrink a photo file size on my phone…

I’m not going to see ENB’s Nutcracker because I just don’t like it. I wrote an email to ask Aaron S Watkin if he would mount a new version. To his credit he replied within 24 hours to say it’s early days for him at ENB but I certainly hope he views the Land of Sweets with a critical eye at the Coliseum at least. I find it is completely lost on such a huge stage for a start. In agreement on the food and drink situation- my friend had the displeasure of being covered in someone else’s glass of red wine at a performance of Manon pre Covid.

Littering in theatres is something I feel very strongly about and hopefully training the (not so) mini-Blossoms effectively. We take everything out with us if the kids have eaten or drunk anything (in the interval) at our seats. This is one reason why I adore the ROH, if you can't take anything in, then nothing will get left behind. Astounded by the chicken wing story though!

It was such a lovely treat today. Brilliant to have Hayward/Campbell AND to see Tsembenhoi/Rovero showing the (almost) finished results of their work from the studio insight. Having Gary Avis was the perfect icing on the cake. There were a few last minute cast changes so hoping no more injury news to follow and it was just a matter of clashing schedules.

I wonder if this is to try to keep things fresh or something else… Getting my fill while I can!

I thought this too. Especially the app on TV where there is no A-Z search.

Is there anyone who has had access to the stream for a while? Keen to know whether new productions are added monthly to further bulk up the content OR are productions added for a limited time and then taken away? I'd rather hoped for the former, but one of the reasons I signed up was for Coppelia which doesn't work on my TV (shows the insight under the production listing), shows 'coming soon' on my laptop and according to the Box Office I would like to inform you that we have now removed access to the performance content for the ballet titles The Dante Project, Coppélia and Like Water for Chocolate on Royal Opera House Stream. They will be available soon, so the pages can still be viewed and their wraparound and trailers are still available. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide with information about specific dates for titles to be added to the current Stream catalogue.

Terrible shame for James Hay BUT delighted to see Daichi instead.

Decided too late I wanted to book for 20/21 Dec… Looking for 2x£68 or £32 seats. Or would happily take one of the £32 loose seats and one of the more expensive ones on the row infront…

Luckily have seen her dance at the Nureyev gala which is one of the reasons I was particularly keen!

I have it on good authority that Fille hasn't been cancelled. Next season perhaps? I think it's a wonderful sunshine ballet and a great first ballet for kids. Would love to see this danced by the new cohort of principals promoted since the last run.