Dawnstar

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.

I've just looked up the cast for the first ever performance of this production back in 1984 (for some reason during yesterday's encore screening I found myself wondering about it) and among the names for the Waltz of the Flowers is a Joanna Allnatt. Does anyone know if she is the mother/aunt/other relative of Sophie Allnatt? Also it's amazing to see that Christopher Saunders was in the very first performance & is still managing to look enthusiastic appearing in it 39 years later!

I'm glad to hear it. I was decidedly unimpressed by the audiences at the two SLs I went to last season, worse than at the single Nutcracker i saw.

Thanks. I can't say I was very impressed by seeing them in close up at the cinecast.

Yes, my camera is on spot metering so it sounds like that could be the cause then. I guess I'll just have to put up with it as without spot metering my photos are even worse! May I just check that the gargouillades are what I think they are? The dancer jumps sideways with her legs curved apart & shakes her legs while jumping? I'm pretty sure she put a double into her fouettes last night as well, though admittedly I'm terrible at distinguishing between single/double/triple fouettes so I could have been mistaken. I'm using a digital camera, not a smartphone, yet I'm still getting it! Thanks. The orange colour doesn't actually look quite a bad on a computer screen as I find it does when I'm going through on my camera after a performance deleting all the hopelessly blurred photos (usually at least half of them).

I'm glad to hear it's not just me who is getting oddly coloured photos. Recently, for Don Q & now for The Nutcracker last night, I've been having some photos coming out a fairly normal colour then suddenly some come out looking much more orange. If the orangeness is due to the stage lighting then do any photography experts have any idea how the colour of my photos can suddenly change when the stage lighting hasn't changed? For instance the two photos below from last night of Sarah Lamb with her bouquets were taken only a few seconds apart, with a zoom in between photos, yet the colour looks normal in the first and too orange in the second. Or, in case the above pair of photos can be explained by the zoom in upsetting something, does anyone have any idea how the two photos below, taken within the same second & otherwise virtually identical, can look a such a different colour? (Apologies if this is going too off topic. If it is please let me know & I'll delete the post.)

Did anyone else read the BTG review (in yesterday's links) and feel your heart sink at this paragraph: While I'm not seeing The Nutcracker I hope to see Giselle next month & I really don't want to be surrounded by people eating half a dozen different foodstuffs.

I thought this evening's cast were very good but I don't feel it fair to comment in detail as I found concentrating difficult because my anxiety levels were through the roof. If I hadn't been with a friend, who was seeing the production for the first time, I fear I would have repeated my Don Q mid-act early exit. I hope others who were able to experience the performance in a normal manner will be able to make more useful comments.

Exactly what I was going to say. I'd really like to see Andrijshenko (I adored him when he jumped in as Romeo in 2019) but while I'm prepared to pay £64 when I see the RB live I am not paying it for a stream of a ballet. I would be happy to pay around £10-15 but not more.

Having missed a chunk of Act II when the picture vanished during the live cinecast last Tuesday, I decided to go to the encore today to see the bit I'd missed (various other reasons too). The reason I went to the live screening rather than the encore in the first place was because I already had this evening's live performance booked & I thought 2 Nutcrackers in a day might be a bit much. However now I'm doing 2 in a day & am currently on a train half way between Cambridge & London. Thank goodness The Nutcracker isn't a 3 hour 3 act ballet or I wouldn't have had much time to squeeze in the train journey. I'm quite happy with this evening's cast list, especially Leticia Dias as the Rose Fairy as I've not yet seen her in that role, which feels remiss of me considering I have seen her as the SPF! (PS The doctor I saw on Friday night wasn't much help with my blocked tear duct but fortunately on Saturday night I managed to "pop" the lump in the corner of my eye so while I've still got a bit of pain, doubtless I've got inflammation in my sinuses that'll take time to die down, it's a lot less, and I'm not having to wipe my eye every 5 mins.)

That's the main reason why I got a rush ticket for that performance. In the last couple of years I've seen at least one debut for each of the other 4 main roles but I have yet to see a Drosselmeyer debut & the Insight livestream the other week really made me want to see his.

I'm the other way around in that I can't make 27th so I thought I wasn't going to be able to see Rovero & am very pleased that I now (hopefully!) can. It also helps my dithering over which of 2 January Nutcracker casts to see as if I'm seeing Tsembenhoi & Junker next week then I can skip seeing them in January & go for Bailey & Boswell instead.