Dawnstar

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.

I'm booked for Giselle on 12th too. I can manage without the tube, as I usually walk from Kings Cross or Liverpool Street to the ROH anyway, but if the train companies decide to go on strike at the same time then I'm screwed.

Another lot of tube strikes to give everyone a not very happy New Year! https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-67800989

Thank you @JohnS. It was actually something that I had already wondered about recently, with the numerous Nutcracker cast changes. I would be interested to know if the standard practice is to always give the flowers to the last minute substitute, as while a fan of the company as a whole such as yourself was happy for the flowers to go to the substitute I can imagine that perhaps friends or relatives of a specific dancer might prefer to have the flowers back so they can give them to their own dancer privately.

If you can afford a better ticket & one appears then to be honest I'd upgrade if I was in your situation! Personally having sat in C22 and its counterpart on the other side C91 once each I'd only do so again if there were no other seats available & it was a performance I really wanted to see.

@LinMM That's what I would expect, but @JohnS's comment that I quoted seemed to indicate that Sophie Allnatt got the bouquet originally intended for Leticia Stock. Or have I misread/misunderstood?

I saw a Swan Lake from C22 in the last run and you have to do a lot of looking to either side of the pillar (hopefully while also trying to be considerate to the rest of the bench's occupants, whose view suddenly becomes very restricted if the person in the pillar seat decides to lean really far forward!). So basically it's a choice between a possible/quite likely view restriction in D2 and a definite view restriction in C22; and between standing or sitting.

If a dancer is replaced at the last minute are the bouquets intended for the originally cast dancer given to the replacement then?

I see several more cast changes have been added to the ROH website, including Lamb replacing Takada in January and various dancers who have already been replaced at least once being replaced again (Dean, Ella, Zuchetti). Most interestingly, Braendsrod is replacing Richardson on 27th. I'm pretty sure that will be Braendsrod's Prince debut. Wish I could see it.

I hope it's okay to post this link. The friend who I saw Monday's Nutcracker with has reviewed it on his website. While he's a West End theatre expert, it was his first Nutcracker so it's not a technical review but I thought maybe the opinion of someone seeing the production for the first time might be of interest to some on here. https://www.theatremonkey.com/blog/2023/december/nutcracker-royal-opera-house-covent-garden

It was a busy Nutcracker day today, as we managed to fit in the matinee in London then got back home in time to watch the Telegraph stream. I really enjoyed the interview & rehearsal, & regret that I can't see Annette Buvoli's SPF debut, as I have no trains from Christmas Eve to New Year. I thought this afternoon's cast were very good. I was so pleased for Aiden O'Brien that his Drosselmeyer debut went so well & without any technical glitches in the magic tricks. It must be such a nerve-wracking role to perform for the first time from that point of view. Though with Gary Avis as Dr Stahlbaum it felt as though he'd be able to step in if any of the magic tricks went wrong! I also found it amusing that he managed to look impressed at the magic tricks even though he taught him them all! As no-one else has posted any, some curtain call photos from this afternoon. I'm sorry the Drosselmeyer photo isn't very good but I always find him a difficult character to photograph in focus, with the darker costume & the fairly short bow combined with glitter throwing.

Thanks. I knew someone on here would know. I have seen Phantom 30-odd times over the years so I know rather a lot of lines from it! I can't really visualise the larger rondes de jambe that you describe (admittedly I have very little visual imagination) but I will try to look out for them in the future.

My camera's coming up for a decade old so I don't think it's very smart! Thanks. So what I described as "shakes her legs while jumping" is the ronde de jambe part of the movement? I had been under the impression a ronde de jambe was a much bigger circling movement, but that's because my only knowledge of a ronde de jambe is from Phantom of the Opera (musical) where Madame Giry is criticising the dancers and says "Such ronde de jambe" while describing a circle with her foot so I thought she actually does a ronde de jambe but evidently not! To be honest they don't really stick out for me when seeing the DPF's solo live, it was only when seeing them in close up at the cinecast that I twigged that that movement must be the oft-referred to gargouillades.