Lizbie1

Is there anything that we can't find a way to moan about here?

I sometimes think I need a name for the feeling of simultaneous relief and disappointment when an an announcement means there's nothing extra I want to come up to London for.

16 minutes ago, Henry said:

Personally, I welcome some shorter programmes being scheduled.  Of course, it's nice if that is reflected in the ticket price.  

 

Many will remember the long, successful run of the play "Art".  Part of its success was attributed to it being 90 minutes with no interval.  People could have a Tuesday evening at the theatre and still be home by 10pm.  For people, who need to get up for work the next morning, that was appreciated!  

Seconded! A short running time has tipped the balance for me several times, and I speak as someone for who most of the time and expense is spent travelling.

5 minutes ago, Jamesrhblack said:

And here are the prices

Good thing I'm not planning on seeing Swan Lake this season! I see that there is one less price band in the Amphi than for the MacMillan bill, and it looks like the missing band is very far down the order. I would not be at all surprised if the front amphi sides are £55.

4 minutes ago, Sim said:

And, to paraphrase Professor Higgins, why can't the English learn to sit in a theatre without having to eat or drink the whole time?*  Can't they last the 30-60 minutes in the auditorium and then imbibe in the interval?  I have seen ballet/opera in various countries and no-one else behaves in this way....at least, not in the theatres I have been to.

It was definitely going on in Paris (Bastille) in July. I was rather surprised!

29 minutes ago, FionaM said:

I’m concerned about ENB Giselle in Bristol next week.  The Hippodrome have just sent through this info about ordering refreshments direct to your seat !!!

 

https://www.atgtickets.com/venues/bristol-hippodrome/food-and-drink/

I think the Hippodrome trialled this a few years ago before Covid - I would have been watching WNO. I can't remember it causing any real disturbance.

It's a lovely theatre and a lovely summery festival. When I went the "bell" to recall everyone milling around outside before curtain up was a brass fanfare from the balcony - the idea borrowed from Bayreuth I think.

1 minute ago, MAB said:

 

As a rule of thunb the Garnier always sells out because it is such a tourist attraction., I've occaasionally seen empty seats at the Bastille, but it depends very much on the programme.

I've seen quite a lot of empty seats at the Bastille for some operas. I agree that the Garnier gets a lot of tourist traffic.

Isn't it related to why gymnasts are nearly always short? Google suggests this helps with "rotational skills" - I suppose that means logically that if your extremities are further from their axis they have more distance to travel, slowing you down.

33 minutes ago, annamk said:

A friend pointed out that the first two programmes at Paris Opera Nallet seemed to sell out. The top price tickets are the same as the RB so I wonder why this is: is it the ballets themselves, are there fewer seats to shift overall, are there more cheaper price tickets, do people in Paris have more money, are there fewer alternatives ? 

I do think that fewer alternatives is a big but underremarked factor when we start hand-wringing about relative audience numbers for opera and ballet in other countries.

14 minutes ago, capybara said:

I get that websites which need to interact with users represent a complex business

undertaking.
However, among other things, the ROH’s is its primary vehicle for sales and a business of that size should be able to create and maintain something which is fit for purpose.

I agree, and obviously they need to fix it! And I've said several times that it was probably a serious mistake for the website to be developed in-house. But the team running it now is probably not very closely related to the team who developed it - which presents its own problems - and has to deal with the fallout from decisions made 5 years ago or more.

The ROH as an organisation can be at fault without everyone in it being to blame.

1 minute ago, oncnp said:

Agreed. Running a website is complicated. And to be honest I have never had much of a problem.

 

But.......the same problems keep appearing and are never truly "fixed".

 

What galls me most is their attitude. Yes, I do think they are blaming the end user. No one ever appears to check their work. I was told in the initial DonQ fiasco that no, everything's working fine, All they had to do was look and they would have known everything wasn't "fine" but apparently no one did.  

 

So yes, I think the proverbial root and branch clean up is necessary

 

But do we know that the Don Q fiasco *was* an IT problem rather than a mistake by whoever looks after ticket prices? When an opera singer's name is mistakenly loaded into a ballet cast list, that wouldn't normally be down to IT, it's just a content editor screwing up (not helped by the lack of checks that goes with not having a proper workflow set-up - but that's another story). Without knowing who's responsible for loading prices into seat plans my assumption would be that this also is not within IT's remit.

I understand the frustration and that the comments above were not entirely serious, but while we don't know what the underlying cause of the website problem is, it's a bit unfair to say the whole team should be got rid of. Websites like this are complicated things and very often it's hard to diagnose what's going wrong, especially when there appears to be no rhyme or reason as to who is affected - they could well be struggling to replicate the problem and are therefore working in the dark.

I get that the "advice" may look like they're blaming the end users but I very much doubt that's the case: while they try to find a fix they're just giving tips that will at least help some people. Would we prefer that they just say tough luck, come back in six months?

15 minutes ago, Sim said:

and looked to me that in quite a few places it held the hand of MacMillan...but he was such a genius (in my opinion) that it is hard not to.  Song of the Earth and Requiem kept popping into my head. 

IIRC someone upthread* mentioned seeing Ashton references - Symphonic Variations specifically - in Four Last Songs. I thought I caught a Monotones II reference in the men's pirouettes. It's funny how these choreographers make such an impression that either we or choreographers or both can't escape them (not that you'd want to).

*Edited to add that I can't find this in the thread so presumably it was in a review.

My one real gripe about the programme is the amplification of the violin solos. I don't understand why it was thought necessary.

58 minutes ago, annamk said:

I went to the matinee this afternoon and pretty much completely changed my mind about Four Last Songs. On the opening night I felt the choreography was rather repetitive with far too many lifts but this afternoon it seemed utterly mesmerising, in short I was completely blown away by the sculptural beauty of it. One of the best new creations I've seen for some time. All the dancers, a number of whom were new to me, were terrific. Daniel McCormick (in the role danced by Frola I think) is clearly on the up in the company and this afternoon he was a revelation for the sensitivity, beauty and sleekness of his movement. 

In spite of me reading the programme notes Les Noces remains a mystery. However, the primal power and raw energy of it all swept me up.

I chose this T & V cast to see Sangeun Lee and Gareth Haw and I thoroughly enjoyed their performance in the lead roles. In particular I thought Gareth Haw's partnering was terrific, he made it all look smooth and effortless.  

 

What a fantastic triple bill. I regret not going to more performances. Also disappointing for the company that it didn't sell out, it really deserved to. 

I saw today's matinee and second this post!

11 minutes ago, Silver Capricorn said:

I hope the orchestra strike would have been announced well in advance. Not like at the Paris Opera where we found out about the cancellation of the performance due to the dancers' strike at 12:00 on the day of the performance, after we had landed in Paris and checked into the hotel ...

8 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Well Silver Capricorn that won’t exactly get people on their side will it 😮

Back before Covid I stayed in Paris to see four PO and POB performances and all four were cancelled in this way. All was not lost as I ate very well and caught up on a few museums

On another trip (just before Covid stopped everything) one POB performance was cancelled and one went ahead but with a statement read out at the start; I was also at the Opera Comique on the same trip and a similar statement had a "mixed reception". I think sympathy was beginning to run short by then.

IIRC at least two weeks' notice is required, unless the employer agrees to cut that to one week (I don't know why they would).

13 minutes ago, Fonty said:

I would prefer an opera that is a) tuneful and b) not too long.  The operatic equivalent of La Fille Mal Gardee if there is something like that.  Sitting through 4 hours plus of Wagner doesn't sound like my cup of tea, to be honest.  

I look at this page more often than I should admit to: https://theopera101.com/operaabc/runningtimes/ - NB you can sort by length!

8 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

 

Me.  I saw a number of Mozart Operas in the 80s plus Puccini and several others and (until the slightly niche Maria de Buenos Aires a couple of weeks ago) I've never felt the need or desire to go again.  WNO, SO and ON.

This is heretical stuff but I find most Mozart operas too long and could live without Puccini. Verdi, however...!

Agree - La Traviata is IMO the best opera for beginners.

I agree with the comments above about Cav/Pag and L'elisir d'amore. Casting for Cav looks good but I've no idea about most of the Pag singers; L'elisir d'amore is very well cast.

Has anyone noticed timings after the first couple of nights? Has it settled down to comfortably within 2 1/2 hours?

14 minutes ago, FionaE said:

The box office have no indication of running time.  They say it’s not yet in rehearsal by which I assume it’s not created in full yet.
 

The previous Brandstrup show in Bath was called Minotaur.  The box office say that had 2 parts of 40-45 minutes each with an interval.  I believe this new show includes part of that show.  
 

Does anyone know the running order of the Brandstrup Phaedra & Minotaur double bill in Edinburgh?

 

https://amp.theguardian.com/stage/2023/aug/19/phaedra-minotaur-review-royal-lyceum-edinburgh

The previous Bath show had a staged version of Britten's Phaedra in the first half (I can remember this because the mezzo Christine Rice made it to the bar during the interval!) followed by Minotaur.

It is indeed a small venue but they used the stage very cleverly.

7 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

But the chance to see Jonathan Goddard is definitely worth sitting through the first one before Minotaur!

I saw Minotaur first time around in Bath and it's very good.

5 minutes ago, Anna C said:

That’s a good point, Anne.  However, in other ballets containing elements that weren’t originally but are are now considered problematic, those elements (be they costume/makeup or choreography) can be - and have been - altered.  I’m thinking in particular of the Tea/Chinese dance in RB’s Nutcracker, where both costume/props and choreography have been changed.  
 

I can see no reason why Alain couldn’t be portrayed as more “eccentric bachelor”, totally uninterested in/unaware of marriage, than someone with developmental delay/learning difficulties, who is laughed AT, as opposed to laughed WITH.  Likewise, as much as I enjoyed Naughty Peregrine the pony, he’s not pivotal to the story.  
 

People may have their own views on modernising certain dances/portrayals, but surely it’s better to do that than not perform the production at all?  

I wonder if it's something to do with the rights holder?