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Lizbie1

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Everything posted by Lizbie1

  1. Lizbie1
    How do you mean?
  2. Lizbie1
    I think the sponsors and bigwigs who I've decided to hold responsible might indeed fall into that category!
  3. Lizbie1
    There are all kinds of barriers to being able to see the performances we want to, whether it be disability, budget, other commitments or (particularly in my case) work and distance - I need to allow at least £40 and three hours travel time either side of a show in London, and that's using every trick in the book. I wish I could get to all the wonderful debuts that some others here can, but prefer to enjoy others' thoughts on them rather than fret about not seeing them myself. I'm also happy when things sell out before I can buy a ticket (and as others have pointed out, Friends are not immune to this!) as it signifies that there is still life in the art form. By the way, I'm not suggesting that you ought to follow suit, but I once sat next to a woman who makes sure to take the morning off when General Booking opens. That's real commitment! I agree about the accessible seats: that looks like it should be managed better. Edited to add: of course not everyone can or will choose to pay for Friends membership; my point was rather that this isn't some special inner sanctum with funny handshakes.
  4. Lizbie1
    Here's my rather boring theory: the first of the Concerto programme evenings, being the opening of the MacMillan commemorations, is in effect a special occasion akin to a gala or the opening event of a festival. This means that a higher than usual proportion of the best seats may have been allocated to important sponsors of the five companies as well as friends and associates of the MacMillans. Combine this with it being effectively a very short run of a popular programme (no Judas Tree to put people off!) and low ticket prices (the accountants must be rueing this) and you put great pressure on the remaining tickets. By chance I saw a good number of decent tickets available maybe an hour after General Booking had opened - I think their release must have been accidentally delayed, which though frustrating shows that good tickets were held back. As for "special status", I pay a little under £100/year to improve my chances of getting the tickets I prefer; in my view, membership quickly pays for itself through the ability to buy better value tickets. Anyone with £100/year discretionary income (and I imagine that this includes most on this forum) is at liberty to do so.
  5. Lizbie1
    Yep, not working for me either.
  6. Lizbie1
    If it's any consolation, there were no tickets available for Jeux or Sea of Troubles when Friends' booking opened (and they were my first port of call as well).
  7. Lizbie1
    I think they've just added some more seats (of a wider variety) for the Baiser triple.
  8. Lizbie1
    Ticket now sold.
  9. Lizbie1
    Still available if anyone's interested. If I don't hear back before Saturday 29th I'll return it to the box office.
  10. Lizbie1
    I just tried and it seemed to work - once you choose the seat it prompts you to choose either the full price or discounted price. I didn't attempt to go any further, though. I entered the code as donquixote without any punctuation or upper case letters - I don't know if you did that too, but thought it worth checking!
  11. Lizbie1
    Interesting that Fumi Kaneko has been cast as Hermione in Winter's Tale.
  12. Lizbie1
    Ticket now sold.
  13. Lizbie1
    Date: Monday 7th August Cast: Osmolkina/Stepin Seat: Stalls Circle Right D33 (standing) Venue: ROH Price: £15 Please PM me if interested.
  14. Lizbie1
    Date: Friday 4th August Cast: Tereshkina/Parish Seat: Balcony Right C66 (standing) Venue: ROH Price: £15. Please PM me if interested.
  15. Lizbie1
    POB has also had its share of ups and downs - I wasn't really around at the time but I don't believe it was much rated as recently as the 60s and 70s from what I've read. Others with longer memories can no doubt correct me if I'm wrong. I don't want to cast judgement on the Joseph Aumeer situation but I don't believe the POB corps is even now the bastion of impeccable technique FLOSS makes out: Benjamin Millepied complained that only half of the corps are fit for the classics, with some dancers not having been en pointe in years; his successor's programming since can be read as a tacit admission of this - even with a company of 154 dancers at her disposal, scheduling more than 4 "classics" (using so loose a definition that it encompasses Onegin) would risk too many injuries - for more, read the series of tweets below. Luke Jennings has also written about training deficiencies here: https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/apr/02/midsummer-nights-dream-paris-opera-ballet-review-balanchine I don't say all this to claim that RB is better than POB or any such nonsense (this isn't a competitive sport) or to make a case for Aumeer, but to venture an opinion that the POB school and its recruitment system is not infallible.
  16. Lizbie1
    Yes, I can't remember the last time I heard such warm and genuine applause at ROH, and after every act: it was a terrific atmosphere throughout. And I too wanted to see it all over again!
  17. Lizbie1
    On the other hand it was a pretty fabulous performance - apart from Alagna's total commitment and fearlessness, Kurzak (in her role debut) was a surprisingly lush-toned Liu and Lindstrom's top is very exciting, though I'm not so fussed about the rest of her voice (and tbh I only really care about Turandot's top!).
  18. Lizbie1
    I can see why some feel the production to be racist but for my money it was just about the right side of the line. (I speak as one who couldn't bear the old RB Nutcracker Chinese dance.) It also seemed far less dated to me than, say, the Mitridate which the critics insist hasn't aged at all. As for Ping, Pang and Pong's names: I don't think we can blame the production for that! I don't doubt that Puccini himself would have been alive to the distastefulness of the story: the dark side of humanity is in all his operas to a lesser or greater extent (for example, it's clear to me that Rodolfo and his friends are poor by choice, but it's Mimi, who doesn't have that luxury, who suffers for it). And if part of the objection is to Puccini and his librettists' portrayal of Eastern culture, where does that leave, for example, Bayadere? Again, I think yours is a perfectly valid point of view, but I wouldn't want the casual reader to think that it's an open and shut case: in my opinion it's too strong a show both dramatically and musically to miss.
  19. Lizbie1
    There were places where I agree you could argue that, but it was always in the big ensemble numbers, such as the Act I finale, where outside the recording studio the detail will always suffer a bit. Personally speaking, from my perch in the upper slips I thought the balance was about right and l had no trouble hearing the voices at the end of In questa reggia, for example. Alagna was on thrilling form I thought.
  20. Lizbie1
    Indeed: the charges are so high that I've long been in the habit of booking the next batch of tickets whenever I go to a show there.
  21. Lizbie1
    Thank you! I have friends about an hour away from the area so I'm not too worried about the dark day, but I'm quite happy to give Bradford a try too. Since it's so finely balanced I suppose another question is, where would NB appreciate my presence more?
  22. Lizbie1
    Really looking forward to seeing Jane Eyre: it's great that it's touring so widely. It does leave me with a dilemma though: whether to travel to Leeds for a few days and combine it with the Macmillan programme, or head to Bradford for Macmillan and catch JE in London or Cardiff. I don't know the Bradford or Leeds theatres: is there a preference?
  23. Lizbie1
    There are still a good number left in the Amphitheatre, though I don't know what how long that will last - presumably those displaced from the stalls will snap them up. Unsurprised but disappointed that there was nothing left for Jeux or Sea of Troubles.
  24. Lizbie1
    The ribbon promenade in Fille always makes my breath catch. Apart from that, call me old-fashioned but I'm a sucker for a stage full of dancers being revealed behind a gauze.
  25. Lizbie1
    Another vote for Bychkov here. I saw Cosi late in the run and didn't find the tempi that strange - perhaps he'd sped things up by then. The ensemble was definitely off in places, but as always with SB there were moments of great illumination which make you forgive him. I agree with Geoff about many things but especially wrt the casting department: surely it's time for a change there.
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