Dawnstar

That sounds really intersting & has made me contemplate seeing it when it comes to Sadler's Wells. However I've looked at Northern Ballet's website & can't find any information about casting. Presumably there will be multiple casts. Does anyone know if Northern Ballet announce casts in advance, and if so how far in advance, or do you not find out until you get to the theatre for a performance?

That's very impressive! It may only be one scene but there looked to be some tricky choreography in there, especially the final lift/throw that you'd think would need lots of practice.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that the RB dancers aren't stars (in the dancing world at least, I'm not sure if they have the general public name recognition of the Hollywood film stars that come & headline WE plays for limited runs).

Yes, you're probably right. I've seen a few amateur productions of G&S & musicals in Cambridge, and some fringe productions of musicals in London, where I've felt as if I'm the only person in the audience who doesn't know anyone in the cast.

Might putting it on at the same time as the RB's production affect the ticket sales? If they were doing a piece I'd never seen & didn't have the opportunity to see done professionally then I might have considered going after this thread had alerted me to the performances, as I live near Cambridge. However having just seen the RB's production I don't feel the need to see an amateur version which, however well done by amateur standards, I cannot believe could come anywhere near the RB's standard.

Thanks. I knew she was someone I should recognise. I saw her as Natasha in Winter Dreams. Sorry, I didn't realise that the cast change sheet had mis-spelt Brændsrød's surname so I've perpetuated the erros in my posts from yesterday. I'll see if I can edit them. EDIT: No, too late to change my posts from yesterday. Plus I see I put an extra e in Mosley. Apologies everyone. I would say that maybe it's because she's doing Seven Deadly Sins at Wilton's but as Morera is the lead in that & still has lots of RB roles coming up then I guess it can't be that. That's still much better than I ever managed. Both my camera & my phone give very poorly focused pictures in low light levels, such as in a theatre. Thank you very much for the information. That also suddenly makes more sense of a scene in the 2008 production of Candide at ENO.

Just my luck to pick one of the busiest evenings in recent memory for my first attempt at RB stage dooring! Maybe I'll give it one more go & see what it's like on a more "normal" night before writing it off as a hopeless thing to attempt. @capybaraI agree with you on needing crowd control, both because it looked to be difficult for people exiting to get through the crowds & because at times some of the crowd looked to be in danger of getting run over by cars driving down Floral Street. Maybe the ROH needs to think about barriers or something on really busy nights, like West End shows with big stars in have. I stood on the pavement on the opposite side of the road, apart from when I went to speak to Magri, in order to keep out of the way of both people & cars. I had a couple of passers by ask me who the crowd was for & heard quite a few others commenting on it as they walked past.

That's a great photo @Rob S. I'm very impressed by the quality of the photos that people post on here. I tried taking curtain call photos a couple of times, at opera performances, but quickly gave up as the poorly-focused results weren't worth it.

On the ticketing issues front, the one on stalls circle right was evidently resolved as I walked past one of the women involved in the foyer at the end so she evidently hadn't been booted out altogether! I really enjoyed tonight & am thanking my lucky stars that I was able to grab a return last Saturday after the first night comments. I felt like crying a couple of times tonight when watching Nunez & Muntagirov at the sheer amazingness of their dancing. I thought both acted as well as they danced too. After seeing them as doomed lovers in the Swan Lake & Bayadere cinecasts it was lovely to see them playing a happy couple! This must be one of the best ballets for male character artists, with 4 roles. I thought Saunders had the perfect mix of chivalry & dottiness for the title role. Avis stole every scene he was in, in a good way: he's just such a great actor that you want to look at everything he does. Gartside was unrecognisable & very amusing (does anyone know who was playing his eventual bride tonight?). Moseley was amusing & that costume must be hard to perform in, given how flushed he looked. I was pleased to see Magri as both the Queen of the Dryads & leading the fandango. The former was down as a cast change but given Kaneko danced Kitri this afternoon would she really have been scheduled to do Queen of the Dryads this evening as well or could it have been an error in the cast list? O'Sullivan was also busy, doing one of Kitri's friends (roles that were larger than I was expecting) as well as & Amour. I thought Padjak & Brandesrood were very good as the lead gypsies. I was pleased to see Gina Storm-Jensen as Dulcinea (and also, I think, in the corps in Act 2). While I was disappointed not to see Morera I thought Mendizabal was very good as Mercedes & especially enjoyed some of her acting. I don't think Hirano will ever be one of my favourite dancers but I did like him a lot more as Espada tonight than as Rudolf back in October. Apart from the gigantic flowers in the Act 2 dream scene I really liked the production (oh and the shadow characters who looked to be wearing black versions of Klu Klax Klan robes!). I was pleased to find I missed very little of significance - at least so far as I could tell - from side stalls circle right, less than I've missed at many opera performances. I'm now about to go & look up exactly why Don Quixote was tilting at windmills...

I had to give up after about 45 minutes to go for the train. During that time I managed to speak to only 2 people: Mayara Magri & Kevin O'Hare. Maybe I'll try again at the end of March, when I'm seeing a matinee so won't have to worry about getting home. At least, do dancers come out after matinees when there's an evening show too?

Is it usual after RB performances for there to be what must be over 100 people in a huge clump round the stage door so it's impossible to see who is exiting? This is my first attempt at RB stage dooring & if it's always like this then it'll also be my last. I've never seen this many people when I've stagedoored after operas here.

I'm very glad that I'm seeing it again later in the run as there's so much going on, especially in Act 1, that I'm sure I'm missing lots. Especially as in Act 1 a lot of character acting was happening right in front of where I'm sitting so I kept in watching Avis & co acting rather than the dancing! (Though not when Nunez & Muntagirov were on!)

There must have been ticket kerfuffles on both sides of the auditorium then! I don't do standing. I tried it once at the Globe, blacked out & had to go & lie down for the rest of Act 1. Admittedly it was 30 degrees but it's still put me off for life. The set for the latter part of Act 2 looked like it has been designed by someone who was watching Waltz of the Flowers while on illegal substances! I liked it when first the Queen of the Dryads did a series of leaps & then Kitri followed doing even more: as I'm seeing Magri as Kitri later in the run it was rather amusing effectively seeing 2 Kritis together! I enjoyed the gypsies, even if it felt a bit like Two Pigeons all over again! I was very impressed by the lead couple's final lift/throw.

Are you standing on the right? I'm sitting in B93 & could hear a ticket-related arguement going on somewhere to the left, though I thought it involved seats rather than standing places. As I exited for the interval I could hear 2 ushers discussing what sounded like more than one duplicate ticketing issue. Yes, Nunez & Muntagirov are amazing thus far!

I'd love to know what the ROH consider to be important cast changes. I've just had the following approximate conversation with a programme seller. Me: That's a lot of changes. Her: Yes but not important ones. Me: I thought Laura Morera was dancing the second most important female role? Her: But Nunez & Muntagirov are on. So do the ROH only consider the lead couple to be important? If so then I disagree with them. If anyone wants the details of the cast changes: Mendizabal replacing Morera (Mercedes) Moseley replacing Yudes (Sancho Panza) O'Sullivan replacing Stix-Brunnell (Friend) Magri replacing Kaneko (Q of Dryads) Edmonds replacing Zuchetti (Fandango) Padjak & Braendsrood replacing Mendizabal & Zuchetti (Gypsy couple)

I used to think I could reliably identify 2 ballet moves: jetes & pirouettes. Then I saw the RB Swan Lake cinecast last summer & discovered I can't tell the difference between fouettes & pirouettes!

I'm there this evening & had been wondering if anyone else from here would also be there & interested in meeting up. However as I haven't seen much ballet I'm not sure if I'd be able to say anything interesting enough on the subject to make it worth anyone's while meeting me.

So from what @bangorballetboy& @capybarahave said above, would I be right in inferring that dancers will usually take half an hour to an hour to exit even on nights where they don't have any functions to attend afterwards? That's useful to know. I had half thought of trying to stage door on Saturday but as I'd only be able to stay about 20 minutes at most it sounds like it wouldn't be worth trying.

Looks like Portillo is promoting "Open Up" by going to have a drink in the Floral Hall with no mention of attending a performance!

That's interesting to know, though I'm not sure I'd want to see any version of Rosenkavalier without Strauss's glorious music. I've just Googled it & see it had a male dancer as Octavian, doubtless necessary in order to have pdds. I can't say that the production looks to be very 18th century so presumably, like so many productions of the opera, it got an update. (I prefer the full 18th century white wigs, breeches & hoop skirts option myself - okay maybe not the hoop skirts for a ballet!)

I'm now thinking about which Strauss operas could be turned into ballets. I can imagine both Rosenkavalier & Arabella as ballets, Adiane not so much (they are my 3 favourites). I'm amusing myself by fantasy casting a Rosenkavalier ballet (with RB dancers, as I've not seen any of the German ballet companies).

My local cinema is doing its Don Q encore on Monday so perhaps you could find one near you that is also doing that day.

I didn't know he listed his performance dates. Do other RB dancers do this too? I'm very pleased to see that I should be seeing him as both Lorenzo and Don Quixote.

I'm afraid that I had very little interest in seeing students perform & only ended up at the first performance because I wanted to see Campbell/Naghdi. I will say that the students considerably exceeded my expectations, helped by most of them being Upper School & therefore able to do "proper" ballet, i.e. pas de deux & en pointe. I thgouth beforehand that it might be a bunch of 12 year olds skipping around, like in the party scene in The Nutcracker. I'm still not sure I'd want to see an entire programme done by students though.

I've not been to any RB Insight events but I've been to pre/post event talks from other companies. While audience members asking really obvious questions can be a bit annoying, I find it much worse when people use the guise of asking a question to assert their own opinions in as longwinded & dogmatic a fashion as they can get away with. I don't feel that a Q&A session is an appropriate occasion for that sort of thing.