ninamargaret

No such luck! Tickets were impossible to get - I tried and failed dismally.

Perhaps we should revert to the old days when programmes carried a note asking ladies to remove their hats! Another note at the same time advertised that tea trays could be ordered and brought to patrons in their seats. Just imagine what fun that would be if the practice restarted! Unfortunately I can remember the delicate clink of teacups throughout the theatre. Think what fun that would be at the ROH!

don't tell me about it! I had to return my ticket because I have the mother and father of all coughs because of a chest infection and couldn't inflict this on the audience. So I've missed out on Coppelia.

After a gap of many years I returned to ballet at the ROH just in time to see Cojocaru/Kobborg in,Sylphide- - and Mayerling - definitely highlights. Ferri/Bonelli in Marguerite,and Armand. The Winters Tale,with Watson, thankfully on DVD. The superb triple bill of Firebird, Month in the Country, Symphony in C, also the triple with Patineurs. Seeing all four casts of Mayerling during the previous,run and being fascinated that each Watson, Bonelli, McCrae and Soares bought something different and personal,to the,role. James Hay as Lescaut. The MacMillan celebrations with RB, BRB Scottish ballet etc. Lows are Twyla Tharp, McGregor ( WW excluded), Bernstein triple, any ballet that employs extravagant sets, lighting, projections,etc that I find distract me from the dance, which is what I pay to see. (Already getting nervous about the Dante Project)

I watched Le Corsaire from the Vienna State Opera last night and was amused to note that there were no flowers presented on stage, but two or three bunches were thrown from the audience, but only to male members of the cast.

I missed some parts which I enjoy in performance but which were omitted in the film but that is inevitable. For me, the stand out performance was from Matthew Ball, and of course James Hay is,always worth seeing. It's a good looking film and I enjoyed it but still prefer a 'performance' dvd

a visiting friend, whose only ballet visit has been to a Matthew Bourne ballet, watched it and was entranced! I think it was probably intended for audiences who go infrequently, not for hardened specimens like readers of this foum!

There appears to be no mention of this, or the other recipients of honours, in the ROH website. Or is there a delay because of the holiday?

Yes, and I saw a brilliant captain Belaye danced by Alexander Grant!

my two favourite Manon performances - Morera/Bonelli and Hayward/Campbell. But don't ask me to coose! Another contender must be Anna Rose O'Sullivan's SB.

wouldn't it have been good for ballet if some mention had been made in the BBC? Hope there's more interest in Birmingham.

The triple of Patineurs, Winter Dreams and The Concert shown last year was a real Christmas treat - would happily see it again. And suitable for both adults and older children.

Thank you to our marvellous moderators who look after the forum so well and manage to keep tempers on a pretty even keel! It's lovely to be able to exchange views and opinions and have friendly disagreements with other people and, speaking as an older ballet goer, to find there are others out there who also have similar memories. And,well balanced by those lucky ones just getting interested and who have different views. Happy Christmas to all and a good ballet going 2020.

i totally understand Jan being reduced to mush in Enigma - I react in the same way and did on Wedneday afternoon.Don't know what it is, if it's Elgar, Ashton, Ashton 's portrayal of the Elgar/Alice relationship or what. nothing to do with the cast, excellent though they were, it's always affected me from the very early performances that i saw.And who wouldn't have fallen for Jean de Brienne as danced by Bonelli! it's just that lovely relaxed style of his with good partnering that I love.

A friend who used to run an excellent cattery could usually manage to pill a cat by firmly wrapping it in a towel and then getting her husband to hold the cat in a sort of,rugby tackle while she got the pill down. But if it's any consolation, my current cat recently resisted attempts by the vet and the,vet nurse to get a nice tasting worming pill down him. Some cats are really impossible to pill.