Lizbie1

Please don't take this too strictly! It's just that when we start on dancers' priorities (and a few other areas) things can get a bit dicey.

I wonder if with the rise of international travel for ballet and opera more people are complaining about cast changes when certain dancers are affected and looking for compensation. Obviously the ROH is clear that there will be no such compensation, but they might be feeling increased pressure.

Thank you - in that case perhaps we should stop kicking it about as a possible reason. It can lead the discussion down dangerous paths IMO.

I'm seeing the suggestion here that this is related in some part to giving dancers more flexibility wrt guesting and galas. Is there any basis for this?

The Macmillan Triple was late - I certainly booked blind - and I think Dante was too? Winter's Tale was somewhat delayed but I can't be sure because I wouldn't have gone anyway. By the time the Ashton wasn't announced I wondered if this was a trend.

It wasn't just the Ashton though!

Some of us were challenged (fair enough!) when we expressed disappointment that the season announcement would happen so late this year. What I almost said then was that it was of a piece with a general sloppiness about timeliness that IMO has got conspicuously worse in the last few years. Another example is the now routinely delayed starts and restarts of performances; it felt too soon to add late ballet casting announcements to the list, but it now looks as if they've decided to jettison the principle of casting information being available in good time for the opening of Friends' booking. It seems like the organisation is increasingly unwilling to set itself challenging deadlines and stick to them, the main exception being having a production ready for opening night. My job involves externally imposed and very rigid deadlines; if I missed them I would pretty soon be out of a job and my employer would suffer serious consequences. There are occasions when I have to work with parts of the company where it is clear that deadlines are considered optional at best. I fear that this is becoming the prevailing attitude in parts of the ROH/RBO. It is very discourteous to the people who they are there to serve.

This is really shocking. It's these people's job to know this stuff.

As a registered charity they have to but IIRC they don't shed any light on this. (I've often thought it strange how little clarity charities have to provide compared to PLCs.)

My favourite applause is when people are moved to applaud the sets when the curtain goes up, as it's so exceptional and because people (me included!) couldn't help themselves. I've only witnessed it with the current RB Swan Lake Act 3 and the RB's Raymonda Act 3 - and both are absolutely worth it.

I've often thought that when ACE spending allocations are announced the ROH gets a harder time than it should because the very conspicuous headline figure covers three entities (the theatre, the ballet company and the opera company). Perhaps one of the motives for the rebranding is making this a bit clearer.

For people worrying about the direction of travel of the RB's repertoire, Alex Beard's interview in the Times today perhaps offers some reassurance, depending on the way you look at it: he flatly rejects ACE's recent assertions about the place of older operas and ballets in the repertoire: "The reason why they are great works is that they speak universal truths to everyone in a way that is off the scale...We see this all the time: it’s the reinterpretations of classics that draws first-timers into these extraordinary art forms." (There's a bit more but I don't want to push it with quotations.) It is interesting that the ballet programme is all from the last 100 years whereas the opera programme has a very retro feel to it. It sounds like the RB itself has driven the profile of 24/25.

I don't love it but it looks familiar, maybe I've seen similar on a poster from the 70s or something! They change it quite often, I'll doubt we'll have to put up with it for long. I didn't think much of the current one when it arrived but I've got used to it.

NOT in any corps de ballet but some years ago I had to wear this type of costume for a choir and we did the same, joining the front of the train as we were ready to be laced. It makes for a good photograph!

Yes it's not much of a promise! Booking (in person) closes a few minutes before curtain up surely?

I agree with every word of this - no padding in Giselle and the same goes for Fille.

Some interesting and some very good casting - probables for me are Walkure and Semele; possibles are Onegin, Faust and Turandot (Radvanovsky).

One thing that has me wondering is: have they considered the effect of this programme on the company's technique? With no 19th century classics to keep the corps honest, as it were, will this cause a problem in 25/26?

Agreed!

When was the last RB season that featured no Petipa? Edit: and nothing from before, I think, 1929.

It's this or something like this: https://www.theatrechampselysees.fr/saison-2024-2025/opera-mis-en-scene/semele

Yes, the whole season screams "consolidation" - I believe Hoffmann will be new to ROH (Michieletto, should be intelligent) and Semele is travelling from the Théâtre des Champs Elysées, but apart from these and the Walkure and the Turnage I don't see much scope for new productions.* *And if there were to be others they'd probably choose the ones people actually like.

It doesn't sound at all interesting to me - only the Balanchine answers to that description, but then I don't like Wheeldon or McGregor and have learned to wait for others' opinions of the RB's commissions. I'll certainly catch some of the Cinderella casts, probably the same for Onegin, and R&J will be very cast dependent.

With that list the interest will all be in the casting as far as I'm concerned.

By chance I've just seen that a pair of Stalls tickets has become available - £59 each. Be quick!