ninamargaret

At the ROH last week for Falstaff I was impressed by the speed at which one of the ushers told someone in S/C row A to turn her phone off. To be fair, the woman was just in the process of turning it off, although the opera,had started. But good to see.

i sometimes feel quite sorry for the RB. They have to try and perform all the classics, Sean Lake etc, keep the De Valois, Ashton, Fokin e , Nijinska, Balanchine repertoire going, keep their Macmillan McGregor, Scarlett works in trim,produce new works, and for audiences that vary between the, 'seeing a show' variety and the serious balletgoer. And all in a theatre that is shared by the opera so that the number of performances is limited.And as we all know from this forum we all have slightly different ideas about what should be kept to the forefront of the repertoire, what could probably be laid to rest, and whose new work we would like to see. Don't think I'd want KOH'sjob!!

Maybe a case for programming Nutcracker in the summer in future! All those snowflakes might cool us down a bit.

And I was in front row stalls!

Thank you for this,Angela. The performance was memorable for one extra reason. The chosen one ended up in a sort of sling that was flown from the back to the front of the stage at the end of the ballet. On The night i saw it it didn't work properly, and we were treated to an enraged Marcia Haydee who informed us that it had been rehearsed many times and had been fine. So they would work on it and if we waited for 15 minutes or so they would dance the last part again! They did, it worked, and the applause was thunderous!!

i think prices have risen very steeply for the new season. I used to be able to afford the occasional opera visit, but I notice with horror that the Queen of Spades, which I Would love to see, offers front amphi at an eye watering £100- more than I have paid for stalls circle in the past. And as other posters have said there seem to be larger areas at higher prices, with fewer seats being sold as restricted view.

the matinee, which I attended, was trouble free, so I missed all the drama

Angela's references to Richard Cragun reminded me, if I needed it, of what a superb dancer he was. I saw him two or three times when the Stuttgart ballet came to London and the performances with him and Haydee were outstanding. He also danced in the Rite of Spring - not sure whose choreography it was but it might have been Neumeier. Would love to see RBME, have never seen it. Good that there are excerpts from R and J on fscebook.

Not sure if it would have worked, but I would happily have paid good money to see ir!

Have just had a couple of highly enjoyable days at the,ROH seeing Boheme and Falstaff. And Danielle de Niese rightly brought the house down! I enjoyed the production, although I found the fact that the shed in Act 2 suddenly started to move and I wondered if there,was some sort of malfunction. But no, although from my side SC seat I found it a,but distracting (and fascinating) to see so much of the backstage area. Falstaff great fun, Bryn Terfel on terrific form with Sir Simon a slightly sinister Ford. The whole cast really played it for all its worth, chorus and orchestra excellent. Now nothing until The Ring in October - give my bank balance time to recuperate!

Seems to me we,are getting to the stage where we will be talking about 'original performances' of ballet as we do in music. While it could be of interest, ballet, like music,is a living art and I personally would not like to see performances remaining unchanged just because they were done in that style 50, or whatever, years ago. My ballet watching goes back some 60 odd years and without the blessing of various film clips and You Tube I am sure I am not in minority when I say I would find it hard to recall the finer points of performances given during the earlier part of my ballet going. For me, a great part of my enjoyment is seeing how dancers tackle the technical and artistic challenges of roles just as I love hearing younger musicians tackling music that I have grown up with.

Thank you for putting a girl out of her misery, Rob!

There must be some sort of curse on Woolf Works. I recorded it on my hard disc, then transferred it to DVD and somehow managed to lose a chunk of Act2, so I don't get to see Eric Underwood in his gold outfit!

Had a look at this,and it seems,that quite a few of their offerings are available - and free!- on other platforms. But we'll worth keeping an eye on it. Thanks to you and The Times for noting it.

I suspect the main difficulty in your suggestion is that any full length ballet involves much work to prepare costumes and sets, and because of the financial outlay necessary longer runs are preferred. We've had some pretty long runs this season and while most have attracted full houses i wonder if Fille does it or Cinderella would? Also, giving shorter runs would provide even less chances for soloists to really get to grips with a role. The mechanics of programming ballets to appeal to the various tastes of audiences, plus providing opportunities for the ever increasing number of fine dancers,and fitting in with the opera company never cease to amaze me. Combining artistic and commercial requirements can't be easy.

Will happily join the rest of the daft, ignorant members of the forum who pay their hard earned cash to enjoy performances by the wonderfully mediocre dancers that we like watching.

Totally agree, Daphnis a particular favourite of mine. would also love to see Campbell as Daphnis; for me he's a perfect Ashton dancer. I do wonder if a large choir is necessary - my recording lists 32 singers, I don't know if that counts as a large number of not. Suppose they could finish with a rousing performance Les Noces and make it worth their whi!e!

what a good start! my first visit was Fonteyn in Cinderella. Never forgotten which I'm sure will be the case with your visit.

possibly an ignorant question on my part, but I wonder what came first - increased demands from choreographers, better techniques from dancers, better health and nutrition or better knowledge of the physical requirements of dance and better medical knowledge generally? I would imagine that some of the choreography we see today would have been totally beyond the scope of dancers in the1920s and 30s.

if I may add another, seeing Precious Adams in Elite Syncopations at the ROH was worth the price of my ticket!. I don't think I've ever seen anyone come into that stage and immediately take in the whole audience and give them a big hug! May not be particularly balletic but what an artist!

Very envious of Jan's many visits - gone are the days when I would happily have caught up with her and maybe even beaten her! So I do not have a long list but I think the stand out performance for me was Alex Campbell as Dr Grieux, followed by James Hay as Lescaut.And I know it wasn't particularly popular in here, but I loved Ferri and Bonelli in M and A.

just fantasising, but wouldn't it be wonderful if one of the Naghdi performances could be filmed and put on You Tube or whatever!

if it isn't too late, just a reminder that the film is in BBC 4 at 2100 this evening

Used to be a,frequent visitor in the 'Powerhouse'days. Productions were exciting, seat prices reasonable, casts good. Now prices are near ROH level ( I can't cope with their Dress Circle or Balcony) and productions and casts questionable. I think the main problem is the theatre is too big and unwieldy and I suspect morale is pretty low. A very long way away from the original intentions of providing culture at a low price!