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Dawnstar

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Everything posted by Dawnstar

  1. Dawnstar
    Yes, both McWhinney & Frola are now doing a matinee 2 days in a row. I suppose that given Cojocaru/Caley & Dronina/Hernandez already have 2 performances each & Takahashi/Cirio are doing Friday evening & Cao/Arieta Thursday evening that McWhinney/Frola actually have a longer break between performances, though still only 24 hours, than either of the other two 1-performance couples would have if they were to take over.
  2. Dawnstar
    I've had a look for offers & found row B stalls reduced to £40 so have decided to go for it. I did see Mayerling live on the Friday then the cinecast encore on the Monday this past October & didn't find that too much so I'll have to hope I'll be as blown away by Manon as I was by Mayerling!
  3. Dawnstar
    Now Emma Hawes is being replaced by Alison McWhinney on Friday matinee too. They seem to be having a spate of injuries! Request for advice: is Manon the sort of piece that can be seen twice in 3 days by a newcomer to it? I've never seen it before & booked ages ago to see Cojocaru/Caley on Sunday. I'm now going to be in London Friday evening to see the ROH Asphodel Meadows/Two Pigeons & due to an unexpectedly cancelled temp job could go down early & see what will now be McWhinney/Frola, who I see got very good comments for their tour performances.
  4. Dawnstar
    If someone is desparate enough to meet the cast that they'd pay hundreds of pounds then I imagine they'd also be prepared to wait a considerable length of time at the stage door. At least, I personally would rather spend, say, an hour of time waiting than all that money (not that I've tried going to the stage door for the RB but I've hung around at plenty of stage doors of other theatres, sometimes for quite a while). Or try again on another night when the cast don't have post-show commitments.
  5. Dawnstar
    I know about the gap for the orchestra pit extension, as I almost always sit side stalls circle when seeing opera at the ROH. However you'd think they would have checked carefully which seats were still physically there when they made the change in the first place! I see that, having "rediscovered" A100, it's now been put in the same price group as A99-inwards so they're evidently trying to make up for the loss of revenue by now selling it at a higher price! I'm not sure if I should view this as promising, in that there will hopefully still be seats left to buy on 30th, or worrying, in that I may not be able to afford any of them! Especially as I'm currently trying to decide which cast to see - Lamb/Muntagirov, Hamilton/Clarke, Hayward/Corrales or Nunez/Clarke. It's so much easier with ROH opera, when you have at most 2 casts to choose from.
  6. Dawnstar
    Good heavens! That rather puts my dithering over whether to pay £73 or £93 in the Don Q thread into persepctive. You'd think it would be a lot easier & cheaper just to go to the stage door if you wanted to meet the cast!
  7. Dawnstar
    Thanks. I'm hoping I'll be in the liking it camp, as the production seems to divide opinion. How odd! I wonder how the system has managed to do that?
  8. Dawnstar
    Yes, 30th March matinee is the date I've been looking at (annoyingly, their other date has far more tickets available but I can't make it as ETO is at my local theatre the first week of April so I'm booked up already). Thank you very much for the advice. I've just booked A100.
  9. Dawnstar
    Can anyone advise how much would be missed for this production if sitting stalls circle right? I'm not sure whether to get one of the very few £60/£73 SC seats left for the performance I'm looking at going to or if I should cough up an extra £20 for a £93 stalls seat. Or, for that matter, wait & see if there are any offers or better setas returned nearer the time.
  10. Dawnstar
    Yes, there have been 2 high-profile instances that generated quite a lot of discussion so I'm certainly aware it can & does happen. Also at the moment I think I'm just generally worrying about cast changes after having them for 3 out of 3 performances. I'm someone who very much books to see particular singers/actors in opera/musicals/plays (not necessarily famous people) & my attempts to do the same with ballet are thus far not going too well!
  11. Dawnstar
    One of the reasons I booked for last night's performance was to see two of the older principals (this was when Bonelli was scheduled), on the assumption that there may not be that long left to do so. However Morera looked like she could still keep dancing for years. I have little knowledge of ballet technique but to my inexperienced eyes her dancing looked pretty much impeccable. Considering the recent discussions about Soares' technical problems coming as he gets older, and that Morera is I believe several years older than he is, she seems to still be in remarkable form.
  12. Dawnstar
    If this is directed at my post I'd just like to say that I have seen 3 live RB performances this season & none of them have had the originally-announced male leads (Mayerling Hirano for Watson, Patineurs Acri for Corrales, Nutcracker Sambe & Bracewell for Hay & Bonelli). Therefore I don't feel that it is "gloom and doom overdrive" that I'm worrying about the possible non-appearance of a male lead before potentially forking out £60+ for Don Q.
  13. Dawnstar
    I hope that Capmpbell replacing McRae doesn't mean that he won't do his own scheduled performances with Magri later in the run. I've been eyeing up ticket possibilities for the end of March. (I'm not interested in seeing Takada.) By the way, does anyone who knows the Don Quixote production have any advice as to whether it would be better to sit in restricted view on the right or left of the auditorium or if it's about the same either side?
  14. Dawnstar
    If he isn't then I wouldn't object to him being replaced by Rupert Pennefather, who I'd be interested in seeing having seen him with the Royal Opera (yes, not the RB) about 10 years ago.
  15. Dawnstar
    If it's any help, I've just had an email through from the ROH giving the following timings for the first night. Approximate performance timings: Act I 7pm - 7.25pm (25 minutes) Interval (30 minutes) Act II 7.55pm - 8.30pm (35 minutes) Interval (20 minutes) Act III 8.50pm - 9.25pm (35 minutes) Approximate end time: 9.25pm
  16. Dawnstar
    Copying over my reply to Bluebird's post from the Nutcracker discussion.
  17. Dawnstar
    I find the benches comfortable enough most of the time. The only time it was really uncomfortable was seeing Meistersinger from one, especially the 2 hours of Act 3. Yes, there is a lack of cheaper stalls circle seats. I realise that it was necessary to remove the stalls circle seats nearer the stage for the pit but it does mean there are now very few stalls circle seats that are affordable. It would have been nice if they'd dropped the prices of the next blocks to compensate for removing the cheapest 2 blocks of seats, but no. That does seem pretty ridiculous. By the time you've paid £85 for restricted view stalls circle you almost might as well be paying £106 for the cheapest stalls seats with much less restriction. Actually, maybe that's their cunning plan to try to get people to buy more expensive seats!!
  18. Dawnstar
    I can't help on that but she was on the cast list this evening, not one of the last-minute replacements, so must be doing the role "properly" this season. That's good to read. I've liked her in what I've seen her do so far so was thinking about trying to see her as Juliet but then while browsing old threads the other day I came across a number of quite critical comments on her technique so I'm not sure. Another point: tonight was the first time I've sat in the stalls circle for ballet (though it's been my preferred location for opera for years) and I was pleasantly surprised at how little dancing I missed from B86. I was afraid that the restriction would be worse for ballet than opera but actually it was if anything less bad. Any comments on whether Nutcracker is particularly well-designed/blocked or are ballets in general mostly okay from side stalls circle?
  19. Dawnstar
    I'm afraid so. I did try not to get too much in the way but kept having to move to try to see past the moving heads in front of me. There was a list at the programme desk but I'd've been even more in the way there as the print was so small it would only have been legible stood right in front of the desk, & I could hardly do that with numerous people queuing for programmes. Tonight was my first time seeing the ROH's Nutcracker live (I've seen 2 cinecasts) & my first live Nutcracker since 1995. I really enjoyed it, especially the latter part of Act 1, from the transformation scene onwards, & Act 2. I was very pleased that Avis was the only one of the 3 originally-announced men to appear tonight, as I particularly wanted to see his Drosselmeyer live. He was just as good as expected. When Bracewell replaced Bonelli I wasn't sure how he'd look opposite Morera, given he must be at least a dozen years younger, but in the event I thought they looked fine together (well, as fine as anyone can in those wigs!) & both seemed very good in their solos too. In the divertissemebts I was pleased to see several of the dancers who I'd liked in Patineurs last month: Hamilton (Rose Fairy*), Storm-Jensen (Arabian), Acri (Chinese & Clara's partner), Hinkis (Vivandiere & Mirliton) & Magri (Flower replacement). *I gather from reading this board that she's not considered to be that good in classical roles but fortunately my knowledge of ballet technique is too limited to be able to tell. ETA: It also handily finished 7 mins earlier than scheduled so I managed to get a half an hour earlier train. Lovely.
  20. Dawnstar
    I've just popped up to the Amphitheatre level for the first time since Open Up to have a look. I stepped off the escalator and went "Yes, it's beige". There isn't anything else I can think of to say about the decor.
  21. Dawnstar
    I'm glad that reading this forum has made me aware of cast changes being displayed on the screens. I've just had to watch the display 3 times over in order to note down 8 cast changes (some evidently caused by others) for tonight. My cast sheet now looks a mess! While I probably wouldn't have recognised many of the changes - certainly not the Mouse King! - I do like to know accurately who I'm seeing at any type of theatrical performance.
  22. Dawnstar
    This is actually one of the reasons I love both showjumping and cross country. They may only get broadcast on the BBC a couple of times a year but most of the riders are still familiar names, many from when I was having my teenage horsy phase 20-odd years ago (I helped out at a stables whose owner had a horse that was ridden by John Whitaker). It's great to see a sport where people can still compete into their sixties. Sports like gymnastics or swimming on the other hand seem to have an almost completely new set of competitors at every Olympics/Commonwealth Games. Ice skating (trying to drag this back on topic!) isn't quite as bad but still isn't great for longevity.
  23. Dawnstar
    At the time I thought she was, unsurprisingly, devastated at her fiance's death. However if it's supposed to only be a marriage of convenience then maybe she's just hacked off that she's not going to be a Baroness!
  24. Dawnstar
    I find this very interesting. I too did not read it that Irina picked Tusenbach for a marriage of convenience. I interpreted it as she hadn't at first decided between her two suitor but then found Solyony was being too overbearing & taking too much for granted (when she slapped him) and so she chose to accept Tusenbach because he was a nicer person. I myself would have made the same choice, as I found Tusenbach a more appealing character than Solyony - and this was without knowing which was which as I hadn't seen either Bracewell or Edmonds previously so it wasn't until Naghdi slapped the latter & got engaged to the former that I actually knew which dancer was which! It was my first time seeing the piece & I've not seen Three Sisters as a play either. It's interesting to find that I appear to have completely misinterpreted the situation.
  25. Dawnstar
    Is that just because the BBC can acceptably broadcast opera on the radio whereas ballet on the radio would be rather more problematic? I don't recall that opera has had significantly more TV outings on the BBC than dance has had over the last few years.
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