Sebastian

Barak?! One wonders how on earth they justified that to themselves.

Please forgive my curiosity: might we know which opera? I thought I knew the Strauss repertoire but this has me stumped.

Richard Bratby in The Spectator seems to like the singing and the production. And also the conducting, the review concludes:

Just to say Irmgard, it’s a wonderful programme, thank you very much. I have not been able to get to the Coliseum until this afternoon (super show) so have only just bought one. Are we allowed to know who is responsible for the unsigned parts? I was going to stay and watch again this evening but a family emergency meant I had to hurry home. However I am much looking forward to going to the last performance tomorrow.

Ticket taken

Suddenly available: Balcony D28 - £20 Please PM as well as posting here if interested.

Tickets just gone

Tomorrow Friday Giselle, £25 each. Row D (ie near the front without having the rail in your eye line) If interested please PM as well as posting here.

Me too, if someone ends up not being able to use two SCS!

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Yes please! DM coming.

For those wishing to see Frola and who can go to the matinee on Sunday (he is still showing as dancing that performance) I am waiting for some news. It may be that two good £25 tickets for the sold out Balcony for that performance may come available. If the tickets come free I will advertise them early tomorrow Saturday morning on the Exchange section of the Forum.

Just sent you a PM which might help.

Hope so. The last programme note the ENB produced had a mistake (discussed in one of the links in my post above).

Much looking forward to seeing this lovely production again. Perhaps it might be useful to gather some sources for further reading about this iconic ballet. Cyril Beaumont's wonderful book A Ballet Called Giselle is still (just) in print and should be everyone's starting point. I once had the privilege of looking at some of Beaumont's research papers in the V&A archive (currently sadly closed pending a re-opening in east London) and was most impressed. He was a serious historian as well as a dance writer. A most useful complement is an unpublished essay by Alastair Macaulay, available online at his website: https://www.alastairmacaulay.com/all-essays/giselle-and-her-problems Two peripheral issues were aired on this Forum a while ago. Members offered many useful leads after my initial posts: https://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/14339-english-national-ballet-mary-skeapings-giselle-london-coliseum-2017/?do=findComment&comment=197609 https://www.balletcoforum.com/topic/16916-women-in-white/ Finally, an observation which reinforces the links between operatic women-in-white and Giselle:. The first Giselle, Carlotta Grisi, had just sung the (very difficult) lead coloratura soprano role in the opera Lucia di Lammermoor only six years earlier, before deciding to pursue a career as a ballerina. Such a range of skill is scarcely imaginable.

Just to add @LynetteH - I have used the Rambert archive and found the people friendly, helpful and professional. I am sure you will enjoy visiting.

I’ll send you a PM.

For those who would like to know more, might I suggest Julie Kavanagh’s marvellous biography “Secret Muses”? She details what was going on in Ashton’s life at the time he conceived the ballet, and spells out what she calls “its additional, hidden dimension”, the temptations of Fire Island and so on.

Gulp:

Ticket gone now

Friday 17 November 2023, 7:30pm Don Quixote Amphitheatre Upper Slips Row CC2 £14 Very sadly work now means I can’t use this ticket. Anyone interested please leave a message here as well as sending me a PM. Thank you.

In which case a cheap Slips ticket was automatically repriced at £150, to be bought (at that price?) en bloc by a patron to give it to someone deserving - but it couldn’t in fact be bought or given away as I had already bought it at its normal price. And so the returned seat stayed empty? The more I think about what went on, the more Alice in Wonderland the ROH plan for the evening appears. But it was no doubt all for the best. Sad no one got to sit in the seat I gave back though.

Those who remember the odd story of the Upper Slips seat I returned, are presumably still puzzling (as am I) why a well under £20 ticket had been repriced by the ROH system at £150. At those prices I am not surprised the seats stayed unsold.

No

Perhaps this is the right place to report a new (new at least to me) excitement with regard to online relations with the ROH. Today I received the standard email, telling me I was going to the performance on November 7 and here is my ticket. However I sadly had to return that ticket some weeks ago as I am working overseas. The credit is in my account. But what would happen if I was forgetful and let the ticket the ROH just sent me get used? Presumably two people for one seat? Incidentally this seat - in the amphitheatre slips - is now, according to the ROH email, costed at £150, which is quite a large mark up on what it originally cost. Perhaps that tells us something about ROH dynamic pricing (or the mystery of November 7)? Or this is just another example of clumsiness on the part of those who manage the website?