Dawnstar

Watson did do the major MacMillan roles as well, didn't he. What I don't know is if he did anything more classical as he was coming up the company. Time for a rummage around the ROH performance database!

Looking again at the pricing for the MacMillan triple (without any offers as the ROH never send me any) I'm rather baffled by some of the relative pricing. Top price is £30 lower than for Manon, second price £16 lower but third price, the lowest in the stalls, is only £3 lower than for Manon. Among the mid-prices, the cheapest advance-sale seats in the stalls circle are £39 so £10 cheaper than for Manon but the next price point at £50 is £29 cheaper than some of the same seats were for Manon. I cannot understand how the RB calculate their prices. I would have expected them to set a top price for each programme then work down with each price being a percentage of the top price but that is very clearly not the case.

I can't think of anything else major* he's done since then. He's done various solo diverts e.g. the Arabian & various male fours e.g. Prince's Friends in Cinderella but I can't think of any really large roles. *Drum major pun not intended!

His last lead role would have been Prince Florimund in Sleeping Beauty last season. I think he was in the second block of performances so just after Cinderella but I'm not certain of that. I didn't try to see him then as I'd seen him in the role in 2019. Has anyone other than Edward Watson become a Principal primarily on the strength of their performances of modern choreography?

I saw Richardson's Nutcracker Prince debut last season but unfortunately he didn't do his scheduled performance this season, presumably due to either illness or injury. Sissens has done several performances of the role in the last 2 seasons but I've not seen him. He'd already done the Nutcracker Prince, Prince Florimund, Aminta & Des Grieux, and was due to do Romeo in 2019 but was injured, before Muntagirov's withdrawal from Onegin in 2020 first paired him with Osipova. So his casting in principal roles wasn't all due to Osipova wanting him as a partner.

I'm slightly surprised that departing Principal Campbell has been replaced by First Artist Serrano rather than a higher-ranked dancer. I know the management try to give dancers at all ranks casting opportunities but usually casting for cinema performances tends towards having more higher-ranked dancers.

@alison If it's balcony standing you're after then there are single ones showing up for most of the dates right now. It's so confusing how Friday rush tickets seem to appear & vanish repeatedly for an hour or so after rush starts. Can there really be that many people who put them in baskets then decide half or three-quarters of an hour later that they don't want them or is it sometimes the website playing up, I wonder?

@alison Yes, I somehow managed to get what I was after (see Manon thread). I just wish the seats would appear when they're supposed to so I didn't have to panic-refresh for several minutes while getting more & more stressed. I'm sorry you didn't manage to get what you were after.

Unfortunately I was unable to make any bookings when the Winter booking period opened due to being broke at the time so I've had to do all my Manons via Friday rush. Swan Lake was more annoying because I tried to book in advance but 2 of the 3 performances I wanted had already sold out of the stalls circle row C bench seats, not sure if it was while I was stuck in the queue or before public booking even opened. There's also the dilemma that the Friday rush stalls circle row C bench seats, being further away from the stage than the advance booking seats, are actually better in terms of losing a bit less of the near side of the stage so you get a worse view booking in advance than booking via rush. By the time I first booked with the ROH in 2004 I believe they had online booking, if I remember correctly. The Proms were still booking via forms though, as I remember a couple of seasons of filling those in at around the same time. I remember when the Proms moved to online booking the online queuing took so long in some years, 3-4 hours, that I was longing for the forms to still be used, especially as I rarely wanted to book more than 1 concert per year. I haven't seen anything at the Proms since before covid so I don't know if the online queuing still take hours.

Thanks @bridiem. Thank goodness that's the last of the Friday rushes I've had to do for Manon & I now have several rushes off before I'll be trying for Swan Lake!

Extremely relieved to report that I managed to get the tickets I wanted: 8th March for me & my mother plus 5th March for me. I've been so stressed about it that it took me several attempts to put in the right card number, I nearly started crying when I finally got the confirmation screen, & I'm still shaking!

Yet again the Friday rush tickets didn't show up on the dot of 1pm for me. After several minutes of frantic refreshing I was shaking so much from the adreneline that when they did show up I found it difficult to hold my mouse still enough to click on the correct seats! It looks like the confirmation screen has had a slight change in design, presumably in conjunction with the recent change of the how to choose seats screen.

Kaneko 3 years, O'Sullivan 2 years, Magri 3 years, Clarke 2 and a half years, Bracewell 4 years. Though all of them effectively lost a year of performing at First Soloist level because of covid & Bracewell had also lost nearly a year to injury before that. So Richardson at 2 and a half years & Sissens at 1 and a half years have probably had nearly as much performing time at First Soloist level as the others did but it doesn't feel as though they have had the same amount of leading role experience. So far Sissens has done Nutcracker Prince & will do Siegfried shortly while Richardson has done Nutcracker Prince & Romeo & will do Des Grieux shortly. Whereas Bracewell had done Nutcracker Prince, Siegfried, Franz & Romeo and Clarke had done Nutcracker Prince, Prince Florimund, Aminta, Des Grieux, Onegin, Siegfried, Albrecht & Romeo. May I ask who your 4 preferred Des Grieux are? Personally I've seen 4 Des Grieux live this run, Bracewell, Ball, Muntagirov & Hirano, plus Clarke at the cinema & I thought all of them justified being cast in the role. I agree with this feeling. I have no idea who the First Soloist you're referring to is but for me it's Sambe who I thought was excellent in the roles I saw him in as First Soloist such as Mercutio but I haven't been as keen on him in some of the big classical roles.

Hay has been a First Soloist for 9 years. Surely if he was going to make Principal he would have done so before now? I've just checked the biographies of all the current Principals & the longest any of them spent at First Soloist level before being promoted to Principal was 4 years. In terms of promotion momentum & who's getting roles it seems that Sissens or Richardson are the most likely candidate. Personally I'd prefer Richardson, as I find him a better actor, but I suspect Sissens is more likely. If either of them is definitely in line, then I'd rather they had another year at First Soloist level than get promoted in the next few months just because there's a vacancy. It feels as though neither of them has as much experience in a range of lead roles as the more recently-promoted men gained before their promotions (Clarke especially had already danced so many lead roles before he finally got promoted).

I am dreading tomorrow's rush. For ages, long before Campbell's retirement was announced, I'd been hoping to get tickets for 5th & 8th. Now the 8th is going to be a nightmare to try to get a ticket for & I'm worried that while I'm trying to get 8th then all the tickets for 5th will also go & I'll be left with nothing.

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!