Dawnstar

Apologies for my part in that. I did think last night, as I finished writing a post almost entirely about the RB with only 1 line about ENB, that it should really be on this thread instead but as it's not possible to quote a post on a different thread I couldn't do so.

Thanks. I knew the production had had alterations made around 2000 (presumably coinciding with the first time it was done after the 2 year closure & major rebuild) but didn't know exactly what had been done. I did notice from looking at casts on the ROH performance database that some characters changed in Act II at that time (Rose Fairy added, 3 Princesses removed, 1 less in the Mirliton & Russian dances). If the original version didn't have the Drosselmeyer & his nephew scenes at the start & end then may I ask what occupied their place in the music? The cast lists from the 80s & 90s say "Act II scene 3 Street outside the Stahlbaums' house" and "Act II scene 4 Apotheosis" which I had assumed described the last few minutes as they are now but evidently didn't. ETA Looking at the cast lists from the 90s, I'm now even more confused. There's only 1 Clara credited so was she a child throughout? If so then how did the partnering with the Nutcracker work? That character must have been an adult given one of the dancers is Philip Mosley & while I don't know exactly how old he is now he's old enough that he must have been an adult in the 90s. I've only seen ENB's Nutcracker once, last season, so I didn't get as far as observing the detailed movements of mice!

I'm glad to see I'm not the only person who is bothered by things like this on stage! I had no idea the RB production did this in the past? Do you know the approximate years?

Is Tchaikovsky Overtures a single, full-length work or multiple shorter pieces? I had assumed it was full-length but the scenes in the trailer look so different in costuming, with some tutus but also some very modern-looking costumes.

I see that for once ENB had only a partial cast change today. Most of their other cast changes seem to have swapped all 4 leads. In the case of the Nephew, if I remember correctly Saruhashi was originally due to do this performance, then it was swapped to Jakonis when they had a load of Nephew cast changes just before the run started, and now it's back to Saruhashi again! (It was in fact changed on their website to Saruhashi some days ago.)

While I didn't like ENB's Manon production as much as the RB's I still want ENB to revive it so I can see Frola as Des Grieux again.

That's why I said "from a company efficiency point of view". They're evidently considering other criteria, such as dancer development, when choosing to give dancers a single performance of a new role.

I do find it rather surprising that the company sometimes chooses to give a dancer just the one performance of a lead role from a "cost effectiveness" point of view of performance time compared to rehearsal time. You'd think rehearsing 4 dancers & giving each 4 performances would be better from a company efficiency point of view than rehearsing 8 dancers and giving them each 2 performances (the current ROH model for many pieces) let alone rehearsing even more dancers for a single performance. This year not only has Buvoli only had a single scheduled performance but so has Dias, and in the latter case it's for the second year running (I don't think Dias picked up any extra performances last season, though the similarly only-one-scheduled Sasaki did). It must be very difficult for a dancer to improve in a role if she gets to perform it only once a year!

I definitely agree with thse two, Onegin because I loved it when I saw it 4 times in 2020 (thank goodness that run happened just before covid) and Fille because I've never seen it as the RB haven't done it since I've been seeing them live. Also they're probably more likely to get programmed than most of the other ballets that I would like to see live that the RB either haven't done for years (or even decades in some cases like the de Valois works I want to see) or have deliberately stopped doing (yes, I would like to see La Bayadere). I wish ENB would revive either Romeo and Juliet or Manon (or better still both, but that won't happen in the same season). Definitely. At the moment I'm getting a double whammy too with frequently having no trains to London due to engineering works. Between the two, half of December was a no go theatregoing wise for me & it's not looking any better for this year. I discovered the other day that 2 of the Manon performances I was hoping to see I now can't get to & that's just due to engineering before any more strikes get announced. Even when the trains are supposed to be running they have problems so often. Sometimes I feel like just giving up.

The first Nutcracker cast list since 12th December when none of the 5 lead roles are marked as a replacement! ETA I see there are no replacements marked on tonight's cast sheet, even though two of the leads surely are replacements, Acri for Zuchetti & Allnatt for Stock. Also a couple of other oddities on there, including crediting St Nicholas when I don't think any other cast sheet this season has done so. Maybe it's all becoming a bit too much for whichever department is responsible for cast sheet production! Hoping some comments on Annette Buvoli's SPF will appear here soon. I would have loved to have seen her debut but no trains.

I think this absolutely applies to everything else ACE funds as well as dance, and perhaps even more to opera than the rest. Unfortunately "the best" seems to be near the bottom of ACE's priorities at the moment.

I'll have to hope one of them makes a proper post of some of the photos at some point then, as I can see proper Instagram posts just not stories. ETA: Thanks to a PM I've now seen a couple of the photos. Her dress & flowers were indeed lovely.

A bit depressing for those of us awaiting public booking that we're effectively being pushed down yet another priority level. Oh well, I suppose I'll save money on Swan Lake if there aren't any seats I can (just about) afford left when the public finally gets to book.

They were brave scheduling a wedding for mid-Nutcracker-run - unless it was a last minute decision to get married after they were both out injured! I gather all the photos on Instagram so far have only been on stories, so unfortunately aren't visible to those of us who don't have Instagram, but I hope it looked a nice occasion.

Gosh, that's a bit of a baptism of fire for Braendsrod as the Prince, cavaliering 2 different SPFs in 48 hours. I wonder if he was chosen to cover tonight because he danced with Magri in The Cellist?

I will be attempting to book for other casts nearer the time. I did see them last time around. (Just looking back at the prices for my 2019 Manon tickets. I want to weep!)

I found the Nutcracker tickets for the performance I was after appeared pretty quickly, within a minute. I was all checked out & paid by 3 minutes past one. I didn't have to do the several minutes (nearly half an hour in one instance) of agonised refreshing that I sometimes have had to do before any tickets have appeared. Looking at the Manon availability, Nunez/Bolle does look to be the most popular pairing. I wonder whether that's due to her or him.

Oh, I must have just been lucky then. Admittedly I did very much know it was Friday & had 3 different browsers open with various tabs pre-loaded! None of them hit a queue though, it was either an immediate Performance Sold Out message or straight onto the seating plan. Did you get anywhere with Manon? I haven't even started trying to do any Manon booking.

That made a pleasant change: the first time I've tried Friday rush in a while where I haven't got stuck in a queue looking at that dratted sofa!

Sophie Allnatt is doing well for extra Claras this run! If I'm remembering correctly she had 3 shows originally scheduled & has already done 2 extra so with another 2 that'll be 7 altogether. With the way lead roles are cast at the RB nowadays, it must be pretty unusual for anyone to get to dance a lead role 7 times in one run as even if a dancer does a replacement 4 or 5 performances is usually the maximum.

I suppose this week is still peak Nutcracker season, even though it's after Christmas, as it's the school holidays, so tickets will be at a premium. I didn't try, even after seeing the cast changes that made me want to see the performance even more, as I can't face the rail replacement buses that I'd have had to tackle.

Was that as a Leading Flower & Rose Fairy Escort? If so then I noticed it on 20th. She's nearly a head taller than him when en pointe. I realise pairings can't always be an ideal height match, especially if there are last minute changes of dancers, but given at that performance she was the tallest of the 4 Leading Flowers & he was the shortest of the 4 Escorts it did seem a bit odd to pair them up. Waiting enviously for reports of tonight's cast, which I would have really liked to have been able to see.

It may be due to my lack of technical knowledge but in the performance I saw, which was 18th as opposed to 22nd that the posters above all seem to have been at, I didn't notice any obvious technical problems with Lamb & Hirano's partnership in the grand pas.

Apropos @JohnS's post, does anyone know approximately how many of the corps dancers for The Nutcracker are from the RBS? As far as I could tell most of the Angels seemed to be dancers I didn't recognise and there were definitely some Snowflakes but I couldn't work out how many. (Obviously I realise it varies somewhat between performances & depending on injuries/illnesses.)

I completely agree with your post. My ticket was a sale one too so yes, probably no exchange or refund. I was so stressed by a string of train problems in the autumn, culminating in a panic attack on a day I was dealing with rail replacement buses, that I'm now struggling with significant anxiety each time I go to the theatre even when the trains are running normally.