Jump to content

Dawnstar

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    3,463

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by Dawnstar

  1. Dawnstar
    Maybe as part of Open Up the ROH should allow London's pigeons in to roost in the Floral Hall. After all, having lovely white doves on stage while keeping out ordinary pigeons could be considered elitism, and we all know how desparate the ROH is to avoid that! 😉 As the only Ashton I've seen previously is Les Patineurs last month I didn't really know what to expect from Two Pigeons (I had looked up the plot but as written down it's quite short).
  2. Dawnstar
    Were they rehearsing with the pigeons or do they only come for the stage rehearsals?
  3. Dawnstar
    I was fairly apprehensive about seeing Asphodel Meadows, the first modern abstract ballet I've seen live. I found it better than I was expecting, in that the choreography was more classical & attractive than I thought it would be. However the lack of any plot did make me wonder what the point of it all was. Having the dancers stand with their backs to the audience for most of the time when not actively dancing made it, for me, impossible to recognise any of the ensemble. I couldn't even work out which was Anna Rose O'Sullivan & I saw her as Clara last week! Of the 3 main couples who I could identify I think I liked Morera/Bracewell the most (I'm also now wondering if Bracewell was selected to replace Bonelli in The Nutcracker because he & Morera had already been chosen to dance together in this, or is other partnering not a casting consideration?). I absolutely loved Two Pigeons. I found it a joy from start to finish. I thought the cast were all excellent. Muntagirov was pretty much flawless again & even managed to look elegant dancing with ropes on (my mother & I were so busy telling each other afterwards how excellent he was that we nearly missed the right tube stop!). I loved Cuthertson's acting as much as her dancing, especially her indignation & attention seeking. Morera somehow seems to manage to perfectly fit every role I've seen her in (The Concert, Nutcracker & both tonight's all within a month). ETA I had wondered if, after seeing Manon in the afternoon, Two Pigeons would seem a bit lightweight by comparison, but I didn't find that. I would like to thank the West End for putting on so few musicals I want to see at the moment that I have the time to start exploring ballet!
  4. Dawnstar
    Oh, I was quite happy to see them. I was just rather amused that my run of not managing to see male dancers was continuing (see the ROH Winter season casting thread). However all the advertised men turned up at the ROH tonight so it looks like I've finally broken the curse! I'm glad he's not going to be killed off! After this afternoon's performance my view on Manon is split: I thought the pdds & the interactions between the main characters were also excellent & interesting. However the parts where various beggars and courtesans were disporting themselves I didn't find very interesting. I don't think this is any fault of ENB's however (apart from the amount of luridly-coloured net/tulle involved!), I imagine I'd think the same regardless of the production. It was absolutely worth sitting through the ensemble bits for the sake of the pdds. I sobbed through the final pdd. I don't have anyone else to compare them with but I thought this afternoon's cast were all very good. I was particularly impressed by Frola, who I found extremely sympathetic & moving, with excellent dancing & acting. I started crying at the end at the look of sheer despair on his face just before the final pdd properly started. I was interested to see in his bio that he's also danced Lescaut, as I can't imagine that after seeing him as such a sympathetic Des Grieux. If I want to see other ENB productions in the future then I'll definitely be trying to catch him in them. I can't say I liked Manon too much as a character - how she could happily go off with GM minutes after that pdd with Des Grieux I do not know, although the corrupting influence of her surroundings was obvious from the first scene - but given that I thought McWhinney portrayed her extremely well in both acting & dancing. I was surprised that Manon is portrayed as still being affectionate towards Lescaut even after he sold her to GM. I thought McCormick was excellent as Lescaut. Some of the reviews & comments thought there was too much dry ice in the last scene but I thought it was effective, especially twice when McWhinney looked like she was floating on the dry ice because Frola underneath lifting her was barely visible.
  5. Dawnstar
    Mime interpretation query: at the end of Act 1 Scene 1 is Lescaut seriously telling the beggars to slit the old servant's throat? I mean, I realise he's hacked off that Manon has gone off with Des Grieux but murder seems a heck of an over-reaction!
  6. Dawnstar
    Daniel McCormick is replacing Giorgio Garrett as Lescaut this afternoon so that's 3 for 3 replacements for the principal cast. Fortunately, since I last saw ENB in 2006, I don't know who either of them are so I don't mind who I see, but clearly my RB cast replacement curse is continuing!
  7. Dawnstar
    Oh well, at least the piece is set in Russia. It would be even less appropriate if they'd been doing, say, Pearl Fishers or Aida! That's a brilliant photo @Rob S Considering how many times Avis must have performed the role he still looks so joyful to be doing so.
  8. Dawnstar
    I wonder how many litres/kilos/whatever glitter is measured in the ROH gets through in each Nutcracker season? And for how many months afterwards the cast & crew find stray bits lurking?!
  9. 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.
  10. 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!
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. 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.
  14. 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!
  15. 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?
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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!
  19. 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.
  20. 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.
  21. 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?
  22. 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.
  23. 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
  24. Dawnstar
    Copying over my reply to Bluebird's post from the Nutcracker discussion.
  25. 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!!
×
×
  • Create New...