Dawnstar

Thanks but unfortunately I can't do Saturday, as I have no trains.

Thanks @li tai po. A pity that scene was cut then if it explained a point that is now a bit puzzling. I did think it wasn't very likely that Manon or Des Grieux would have been able to bring the bracelet with them from France given their arrest just after he'd pulled it off her wrist.

Thanks. It did seem emotionally as though she ought to remove it. I was re-reading the thread from the 2019 run & there was quite an extensive discussion on there as to whether the bracelet was supposed to be the same one GM had given Manon in Act II or a different one.

I'd be interested in knowing too, as I have one performance booked but am considering seeing a second one as well.

All gone by the time I saw this. Were any of them lower-priced tickets? So far the ones I've seen have only been top price ones.

Thank you - though incisive is about the last word I'd use to describe my own writing! I've just been looking up the ROH performance database & found he first performed the Gaoler in 2005, so that's a lot of experience in Manon-assaulting! Though I'm slightly susprised to find the several years younger Whitehead has been doing the Gaoler for even longer, starting in 2003. That reminds me of something I forgot to mention from Monday's performance. At the end of the dance near the start of Act II by the Mistress & Courtesans where they are wearing their wraps, Hinkis's wrap got caught on the jewelled band on her forehead. She had to get Nakao, who was the playing Gentleman who's keen on the Mistress, to help her disentangle it, just in time for her to join Lescaut when he entered. Does anyone know if Manon is supposed to remove the bracelet before she leaves the stage at the end of Act III Scene II? Lamb definitely did on Monday but I'm pretty sure I've seen at least one Manon this run, I think it was Cuthbertson, still have it on when she left.

That was more serendipity than cleverness, as I didn't much like any of the other wrapping paper options available in the Waterstones just across the road from Tesco (which also yielded the card & sellotape, it was only the pen I already had on me). I knew that wouldn't be a problem, given when I went to the stage door to hand in mine there was a man just in front of me handing in a much larger & better-presented lot of flowers for Lamb. More generally on Gaolers, I note that the 3 Gaolers who have made their debuts this run, Braendsrod, Edmonds & Donnelly, have all been paired with experienced Manons, Osipova, Hayward & Lamb, while the 2 debutante Manons, Naghdi & Kaneko, have both been paired with the extremely experienced Avis. Do people think this is likely to be deliberate? It must be such a difficult scene to do emotions-wise for both dancers that I can imagine they might want to avoid having 2 debuting dancers together. Incidentally, I'd be fascinated to see an Insight on how Act III Scene II is rehearsed. Thanks to everyone who has made kind replies to my very long post yesterday. I'm also relieved that, at least thus far, no-one has told me that I've completely misinterpreted Lamb's Manon.

I'm impressed you had the strength of mind to miss the last act. I don't think I could make myself to do that for Manon. (Sleeping Beauty maybe, when the plot's already wrapped up at the end of Act II!) I feel guilty enough when I have to cut a curtain call in order to run for a train.

At least the wrapping paper held up. I was running out of time & couldn't find anywhere to put it down so had to somehow get the paper round the flowers while holding both of them in mid-air, then try to slap some sellotape on without having any scissors to cut it. While as for the handwriting on the card, he'll probably be looking for a hieroglyphics expert to decipher it!

I'm running late on saying anything about last night's performance, given half the Forum are already at the next one, so I'll try not to be too long-winded. [ETA Well, that didn't work!] I didn't have the best view in Act I because the girl next to me was leaning forward (I know it's so tempting on the stalls circle bench seats) so I had to try to look beyond/over her head to see the near side of the stage. She also took a photo at the start of the first pdd. I'm not good at speaking to people but I nerved myself to speak to her at the end of the act & fortunately she was much better trying not to lean for the rest of the performance & her phone stayed away until the curtain calls so I was able to concentrate better on Acts II & III than Act I. Usually (sample size 12) when I see Manon it is Des Grieux who is the emotional key to the piece for me. Last night however it was Manon herself who I felt the most emotion for. I thought Lamb was absolutely superb in the role. At times I was reminded of her Countess Larisch, with one of the keynotes of both being that being in control was a very important part of their personalities. I did not feel that her Manon was one who was either being forced into prostitution by her brother or who suddenly succumbed to the lure of riches but that she knew what she wanted, she knew what she was doing to get it, & she was in control of the situation she was in. When she gave into Des Grieux's pleadings in Act II the first crack appeared in the control, which was then broken a few minutes later with the fracas. Then it felt as if she was happy at the beginning ot the next scene because she was back in control, even if her plans had changed, only for her to realise during the course of the bracelet pdd that she could no longer control Des Grieux as she not only wanted but expected to. Then her control was suddenly & totally smashed by Lescaut's muder in front of her. I can still see Lamb's screaming reaction to that moment in my mind's eye. I felt as though an important part of Manon's spirit died at the same time as Lescaut did & I was almost more moved by the end of Act II than the end of Act III as by Act III it felt as though Manon was really only half there, with her spirit broken at least as much as her body. Even when she was trying to fight off the Gaoler at the moment of the rape she wasn't fighting him very hard. At the start of the final scene her death felt absolutely inevitable, and that it would be a merciful release for her. I will be very sorry if, as unfortunately seems quite likely, last night turns out to be the last time I get to see Lamb in the role. I thought Hirano gave a very good performance in his Des Grieux debut. In fact I really don't understand why he hasn't been cast before. It seems almost insulting that he only finally gets to do the role at 40, and that only because of McRae's injury, so he'll perhaps get one more go at it at most. There were a few slight wobbles in his solos but his partnering work all looked exemplary (they did play it a bit safe in the final pdd with him fairly close behind Lamb when she did the fall at the front of the stage rather than running in from further back). I wasn't sure how I'd find his characterisation, given I'm a bit ambivalent on his Rudolf (thought I did like him significantly more in that role when I finally saw him with Hamilton than the 2 times I'd previously seen him with Osipova), but I really liked his take on Des Grieux. During the Act II party scene I found the expression "dumb suffering" came into my mind (though I suppose that's a bit daft given ballet is all dumb!) as it sort of felt from his body language as though his Des Grieux was suffering more than he could really express through facial expressions. Hay was the only Lescaut I didn't see in the last run so I was pleased to finally see him in the role this time around, as well as seeing him doing a proper dancing role this season after Gamache & Clients. I thought he was excellent in both acting & dancing & I found his death heart-wrenching with the expression on his face as he died. The only minor downside was, as with other Lescat/Des Grieux pairings, the implausibility of him overpowering Hirano at the end of Act I. Hinkis I thought did a decent job as Lescaut's Mistress without being outstanding, though I confess I didn't really pay that much attention to her Act II solo because I was more focused on Manon & GM at the table & Des Grieux's reactions to them. I thought Saunders' GM seemed to be a bit more into it with Lamb's Manon than with Kaneko's the other day, especially in the party scene, maybe because he & Lamb have played opposite each other in previous runs so are more at ease with each other. Or perhaps it was just because I was looking at them more last night because of being on the right side of the auditorium! I really liked Boswell as the Beggar Chief, though I may be biased given I'd been hoping to see his debut in the role. I certainly spent more time in the first scene looking at the Beggar Chief than I have at the other performances I've seen. I thought Donnelly did a very good job for a debut as the Gaoler but at a few moments I felt he was slightly too much partnering Manon rather than pushing her around. I realise that it must be very difficult for dancers that after years of partnering when the men are supposed to take care of & show off the women suddenly there's this role where the man has to be as unpleasant as possible to the woman! I thought he died very effectively. (His curtain call flowers are from me as I thought it would be nice for him to have some on debut & the Gaoler never seems to get flowers. Though since I only saw his casting on the train down & my budget is limited I'm afraid it was £10 Tesco rather than £100 Bloomsbury. Still, it's supposed to be the thought that counts...) Among the small roles, Mosely as one of the clients provided some moments I loved in the party scene, especially when the three Gentlemen were doing their dance & he was trying to show off to a couple of the Harlots by marking some of the steps along with them. It made me wonder if he'd ever danced the Gentlemen role many years ago. Does anyone know? Apologies, as is so often the case this has gone on a lot longer than I intended. Oh well, I daresay most people will be too busy reading the posts that are bound to appear soon about tonight's performance to slog through all my ramblings!

If anyone's a) awake & b) feeling wealthy there's currently a single £140 mid-stalls ticket available for 8th March. That's the first return I've seen for that performance in several days of checking. Sadly it's nearly 3 times my budget.

I think I spent at least as much time in tonight's intervals when talking to other Forum members complaing about trains than discussing ballet!

@Rob S I thought of you when I saw earlier about the Paddington delays. Hope you make it alright. So infuriating when you think a problem has been cleared then suddenly it reoccurs. My train has got through Broxbourne with no delays so it now looks like I'll be too early. Typical! You can bet if I'd got the later train I'd planned to get then there would have been delays. @bridiem I can only see this cast today, as on Saturday I have no trains!

Yes, I'm worried about that too. Unfortunately the ballets are quite unevenly spread over this season's booking periods (as is often the case) so while Winter only had Manon on the main stage for Summer we're going to have to scramble between 3 main stage programmes plus Sarasota. I keep on changing my mind as to which to try for first. I also realised recently that public booking is the same date that I'm booked for the MacMillan triple bill so that's really not going to help my stress levels.

Are those people likely to have access to Friends booking though? I would have thought that anyone who went often enough to make having Friends membership worthwhile is highly likely to have seen more than enough ballet to have cast preferences.

I thought of you when I saw that this morning & wondered if you would be affected. At least your cold saved you from train-related sufferings! Not that that's probably much consolation for you.

Thanks for all the information @Emeralds. I guess it was nice for her that she got to dance Clara as a child, since that's about the last role she would ever have got cast in as an adult!

The cast sheet for tonight is up. In addition to Hirano's Des Grieux debut I think Donnelly as the Gaoler & Boswell as the Beggar Chief are also debuts. https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/43/manon-by-kenneth-macmillan/cast-list/54655

Famous last words! At ten past four Greater Anglia announced that there are severe delays from Broxbourne to Hertford East due to a fallen tree. I tweeted to ask if there were also delays on the main line through Broxbourne & was told there might be. So I've just had a frantic scramble to get the 16.55 train, rather than the 17.25 I was planning to get, to give some leeway if there are delays. I caught it but I'm feeling extremely stressed. I really hope there won't be as I have the MacMillan triple bill booked on 27th.

I've now got this showing up when accessing the ROH website using Chrome but the previous version is till appearing on Firefox, which is somewhat confusing!

I for one would be ecstatic if the seat map still looked like that by the time of public booking! I'd gladly sit in the front 2 rows. However with 5 more lots of Friends to book before the general public can get anywhere near the tickets I fear that it certainly won't.

I see the estimate has now changed to 6pm, though it's gone from being marked red to yellow so looks like it's improving. On the other hand, travel into Paddington is now being flagged as red for major disruption due to a landslip. So that's south into London & west into London screwed up so far today. I have everything crossed that north into London stays okay for the next few hours!

I didn't say that they never film anyone more than once!

Oh dear, that's very unfortunate timing. I hope you recover soon. The problem is Hirano was filmed as Lescaut in 2018 & the RB seem to try to only film dancers once in a role so that probably ruled him out for this time around. What they really need is more taller Lescauts as, apart from Sissens debuting, I think every other Lescaut this run is a similar height to Campbell, whereas every Des Grieux apart from Sambe & Campbell is on the tall side.

I'm another one who looked into it & decided not to go due to the high ticket prices for any seats remotely near the stage (yes, I know it's for charity but I can't currently afford to pay over £100 for a single ticket no matter how good the cause) & engineering works meaning I would only have one slow train per hour which, given there was no way of knowing the running time accurately in advance, could have left me having to wait for a train nearly an hour on my own late in the evening.