JohnS

I thought Anna-Rose a fabulous Amour last time and am looking forward immensely to her Kitri debut and Friday’s evening performance.

3 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

I'd love to know how to get discounts from the ROH. I don't recall I've ever been sent any in the coming up for 20 years I've been going there.

I wonder what would happen if you (or others) were to ask for the discount at the Box Office?

14 minutes ago, PeterS said:

Today’s matinee casting is online.

I could only access the matinee cast sheet via the What’s On Don Q page, not via cast sheets.

And now discounts are offered for The Cellist, what will people do if they’ve not yet booked for Dante? Always difficult but whenever discounting has to be used, there must be lessons regarding how prices were originally pitched. The more frequently the ROH has to resort to discounting, the less incentive there is to book early at full price.

Do I take it you haven’t received the offer @capybara? I haven’t had the offer but am going 3 times plus the General Rehearsal.

16 minutes ago, Mary said:

Related to the mystery of disappeared casting for Anemoi/Cellist, I've just had TWO emails from ROH offering me 25% off and cheap stalls seats- but I am sure that is just because of sales, not casting. Not having casting up won't help tempt people of course.

 

I am no expert but could have predicted this show would not sell, what a huge shame it really is- all that talent really deserves to be seen, shown off and enjoyed.

 

 

I’d be very interested to know how the ROH goes about offering discounts, for example whether it is targeting people who are already going, or those not currently booked but who might have gone last time?

Apologies - I hadn’t noticed the dates until I got to ‘6 years later’.
I do recall hearing Pavarotti many years ago. Fabulous voice of course but he remained virtually stationary on stage with the other singers having to provide all the movement.

Picking up some comments about the Cellist and Dante from the Don Q thread, I hadn’t realised just how many seats remain unsold - for some performances it looks as if half of the seats are unsold. I appreciate there’s some time for the first performances but opening night for the Cellist is 20 October with Dante 17 November.

When the season was announced I’d been a bit disappointed that we weren’t seeing Dances at a Gathering with the Cellist again as I thought that made for a fabulous double bill and where the casting (both casts for Dances) was a dream. I’ll be happy to see Anemoi but I don’t think it has the appeal of Dances at a Gathering.

But irrespective of the relative merits of the other part of the double bill, prices have rocketed. In March 2020 for the Cellist I paid £61.50 for Stalls H4 albeit that was taking advantage of a subscription package. The same seat this month is £110. For Dante in October 2021 I paid £73.80 for Stalls H4, again part of a subscription package. That seat is £130 when Dante opens in November.
 

Is this an apples and pears comparison? I don’t know what use was made of subscription packages but I think comparing what I actually paid with what I would have to pay now is valid and it certainly makes me look closely at what tickets I buy. And I’m sure many people look askance at the increases in prices they find they are having to pay.

I do hope the ROH are able to sell the spare tickets with minimal discounting: the dancers and all who make performances happen deserve full houses; and we all benefit from the buzz of a packed house where an appreciative audience is engaged with the live performance. 

4 hours ago, JNC said:

Yes camera is filming for the cheaper dates. But the entire pricing seems to be off, and there is no indication that views will be restricted. 
 

For the Osipova dates the pricing is

£8

14

34

49

60

63

70

74

79

99

105

120

140

 

and the bands are different as well. Eg for £34 I can sit in row M (amphi side). But this costs £49 on the Hayward date. 
 

for Hayward it’s 

8

14

34

49

63

79

99

120

140

 

 

I’d rather not have a restricted view and will they have cameras up in the amphitheatre? 
 

I might email ROH to ask as the Hayward pricing seems to be the standard one it’s just the Osipova dates that appear different. 
 

I tried to add photos of the seat map but the files were too large. 
 

edited to say when I say cheaper it’s not necessarily the case, just the back central amphi I’m looking at is £34 to £49, I don’t think it’s “cheaper” anywhere else. 
 

Shocked at Manon prices. I’ve booked two performances but closer to the time I think I’ll look at train prices (and strikes!) and probably return one, unless I can maybe pick up a good scs from here as it’s too expensive to justify otherwise. 

Surely another ‘mis-step’?

I see Rheingold is on Radio 3 this Saturday 6:30 pm and then BBC Sounds. Fabulously played and sung so well worth hearing but I do hope it’s added to the ROH Stream at some point as the production is so strong.

I was very pleased to catch Les Noces and Four Last Songs on Saturday afternoon after the first two Acts of the Don Q General Rehearsal. I’d chosen the Second Circle A33 opposite Madeleine Pierard. I hadn’t appreciated that the view was quite so badly affected by people leaning  forward from the sides.

‘Les Noces’ has certainly grown on me although in the Second Tier I still found the amplification too much: a shame as the Stravinsky has much of interest and I’m sure was impressively performed. I was also a little distracted during ‘Les Noces’ as I’d called in the Stage Door to check on flowers which seemed to have gone awol but I was assured the flowers had been delivered that morning. In checking at the second interval it transpired ‘Mat’ on the flower bucket had been taken as a dancer’s name rather than the intended ‘Matinee’. So all was well although I was a bit surprised to hear that only company flowers are presented on stage.

I’ve been hugely taken with ‘Four Last Songs’, ravishingly sung by Madeleine Pierard. I’ve tended to see the ballet more as an accompaniment to the music, particularly given the quality of the musical performance. And an accompaniment as good as this is a great achievement and I very much hope something we will see again. Perhaps I’m being a little unfair on the dancers and David Dawson but being the support is one of the risks of choosing such wonderful music: exquisite, profound, and providing such solace.

PS - I heard Madeleine liked her flowers but I don’t know if ‘Mat’ was disappointed.

I take it Mr Linnzi doesn’t look at Ballet Forum?

Fabulous photos @Rob S - they encapsulate the joyfulness of the performance.

I ended up seeing the first two Acts of the General Rehearsal and the last two thirds of Our Voices although I was very tempted to stay for the whole of the General Rehearsal.

Lovely to see @NikkiB‘s posts and all the follow ups.

No real comment about the General Rehearsal but I couldn’t help wondering if Rocinante wasn’t content just to sign the ROH Orchestra petition and had decided to take his own stand. We’ll see what he does tonight.

I very much enjoyed yesterday evening’s Das Rheingold. I hadn’t seen the cinema relay so the production was completely fresh to me, apart from reading a handful of reviews. It makes a very strong impression, gripping throughout, funny in places, and appropriately brutal when necessary: if I ever see a polo stick again I’ll think of Fafner and poor Fasolt. The Rheingold ‘milking’ machine was pretty gross but I thought captured the awfulness of the Nibelungs and the abuse of nature. Even grosser when Alberich started licking his fingers coated in gold/(custard?) but that in turn was outdone by Freia’s submergence in the gold: I hope Kiandra Howarth doesn’t become typecast for such treatment. I wasn’t quite sure about the glitter rainbow - rainbow colours might have helped. But I like the notion of Valhalla being little more than vast quantities of glitter. I wish there’d been a way to change the scenes without bringing down the house curtain which just seemed too incongruous. A black cloth would have been better if a curtain had to be lowered but with the Ash tree remaining in place for most of the opera and working so well in its different guises through decoration, I’d have hoped there would be a way not to have lowered a curtain. Fabulous singing, excellent diction and surtitles, and the ROH orchestra under Tony Pappano at its finest. Here’s looking forward to the next instalment.

I thought the two Thursday performances were well under 2hrs 30mins, more like 2hrs 20 mins. I was outside Sadler’s Wells by 9:55pm.

Spoilt for choice tomorrow with Don Q General Rehearsal, Opening Night  and the Our Voices matinee. Do I just see Four Last Songs after the General Rehearsal or cut short the General Rehearsal? All made more difficult given the fabulous cast although I should be seeing the Nagdhi cast later in the run.

Yellow T-shirts for full members of the ROH Orchestra with contract players all wearing yellow ribbons in support (apparently it’s one of those ‘too difficult’ steps for contract players not to appear in concert dress). Fabulous to see the whole orchestra on stage at the end of Das Rheingold with Tony Pappano and hear the support and appreciation from the audience.

The ROH orchestra are asking people to sign their petition:

https://www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/royal-opera-house-give-us-back-our-10

I think there’ll be similar dress/requests for support tomorrow evening.

3 hours ago, Irmgard said:

I spoke with Maestro Sutherland before the performance, and he assured me that the only amplification that there should be is a very modest one for the chorus in “Les Noces” so that they can be heard over the 65-piece orchestra and, sitting in the stalls, I only noticed their amplification at one point during the piece so hopefully those sitting higher up also benefitted from only minimal amplification in “Les Noces”.  I was assured that the amplification of the other two pieces had been removed after opening night, and I was certainly aware of hearing the music in its ‘natural state’ at this performance and last Friday.

Many thanks for this Irmgard. I’d just say that as soon as amplification is used, the balance is contingent on where you’re sitting. If relatively close to one of the speakers, the experience is very different compared to a central position. I appreciate that sitting close to percussion or brass can also be problematic for balance but speakers seem to my ears far too dominating. My brother, a music teacher, and I thought Les Noces very difficult to take sitting in Stalls F28/29.

21 hours ago, Emeralds said:

They do have the funds if they look [as they managed to pay for a lot of new productions of questionable quality].

Would be good to know the spend on consultants, what’s been delivered, and whether the work could have better delivered by in house teams.

I enjoyed Our Voices, with Four Last Songs head and shoulders above the other two pieces. And I very much agree with Henry’s post above. Madeleine Pierard was particularly engaging on stage acknowledging and interacting with the dancers. I saw the matinee from the middle of the first circle and I found I was drawn to the soprano at key points and so rather missed the dancers. In the evening I was in the stalls on the far left hand side and so I was looking across the stage to the soprano with the dancers well insight. A fortunate choice and the choreography was attractive, enhancing the music although I do think it would have been interesting if ‘At Dusk’ had been an extended pdd as it’s clearly a couple albeit plus the two larks. And how refreshing to hear the soprano to my right rather than have distorted music coming at me from the left hand speaker as was the case with Les Noces and I thought in the Tchaikovsky. I still struggle to understand why there is any amplification at all given the voices on stage and the resources in the orchestra pit. Surely Gavin Sutherland should have the final say on what’s best but I’d be surprised if he were happy with what was provided.

I didn’t warm to the Balenchine as I thought I would although the evening cast certainly had more panache than the matinee.

The Stravinsky is hard going, not helped by the huge difference between the programme note and the synopsis on the cast sheet stuck on the wall.

Whilst there’s much of interest in the Programme, I do wonder why some items are included with no explanation. I’m a great admirer of Rilke but his ‘Closing Piece’ and ‘And this is longing …’ are simply printed without comment.

I’m very tempted to see how the Don Q General Rehearsal runs and nip over to Sadler’s Wells for ‘Four Last Songs’ although I don’t think I’d do that on Saturday evening and Opening Night.

Very much looking forward to today’s double performance and it’s been very good to read all the posts.

Heading for London and Avanti have clearly improved since they were awarded their contract extension: I heard yesterday that my train had been cancelled rather than when getting to the station. No explanation as to why other than ‘unforeseen circumstances’ and no facility to reserve a seat on trains allegedly running. But the train via Birmingham is new, there’s a power point at every seat, and the quiet coach more than lives up to its name, so I’ve stayed on the train rather than change at Crewe.

10 hours ago, art_enthusiast said:

That’s the balcony standing ticket price - of course more must be available for friends with early booking, but you can sometimes find returns. I saw 1 or 2 available last week.

I think a couple of good Balcony standing tickets are included in Friday Rush - D30 & 31?

Disappointed to read about the amplification. I can’t think of any performance I’ve attended which has benefitted from amplification - save when there are speeches. I’d like to think amplification will be abandoned for future performances and at the very least things will have settled down for when I go on the 28th.

It’s organ donation week 16 to 24 September (9 days). As part of raising awareness and encouraging people to talk to their loved ones about their wishes, NHS Trusts have asked teams to record distances walked, run, cycled etc.

Personal / Team Targets:

Travel 9km, a distance that represents the 9 lives one organ donor can save

Travel 40km to represent the 40 children who donated their organs last year

Travel 200km to represent the number of children who are currently waiting for a life saving transplant

Travel 300km a distance that represents the number of people currently waiting for a life saving heart or lung transplant

Travel 600km to raise awareness of the 600 people waiting for a liver transplant

Travel 900km, a number that represents the number of living kidney donors

Travel 1400km to honour the number of organ donors last year

Travel 3700km to celebrate the number of organs by the 1400 donors

Travel 5500km, a distance that represents the number of people waiting for a kidney transplant

Travel 7000km to represent the number of people currently waiting for a life saving transplant

Regional Target:

Travel 50,000km, a distance that represents the number of people living in the UK today with an organ transplant

People can simply record their activity as individuals but you might like to join a team and so help contribute to your local NHS trust winning the race. Or you’d be very welcome to join Northern Region’s North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Trust’s team where I chair the Organ Donation Committee and provide a donor family perspective in the various discussions.

In North Cumbria on Monday we made awards to living donors where increasingly people are donating a kidney to a relative or altruistically. Tonight we’re unveiling a memorial statue in Whitehaven Hospital in commemoration of organ donors and their families.

Here’s the link to ‘Race for Recipients’ where you can register to participate either as an individual or for a team. You can record all your distances from Saturday 16 September once you’ve registered so your 10km Saturday fun run in the park or walking the dog would count. There’s also a wealth of material which expands the targets set out above and which may be of interest.

https://raceforrecipients.com/