Dawnstar

I hope so. June would give Calvert longer to return from maternity leave. However if she isn't ready then I hope Edmonds gets to do it with someone else, as it would seem unfair if he didn't get to dance because his previous partner chose to have a baby! I've been checking the ROH website for the Nutcracker cast change pretty much every day since McRae announced his injury, so replacement casting can't come soon enough for me! (Yes, I am booked for that Nutcracker cast.)

It's a bit awkward not to have the casting for the second block of shows before booking opens for the first block. Given how eye-watering the SL prices are I'm going to have to limit myself to only seeing 2 or 3 casts but it's difficult to choose between casts when some casts are still unknown. I definitely want to see Lamb, as it may be the last chance & so far all I've seen of her O/O is half of Act II. Then Kaneko/Muntagirov is my next pick out of the known casts but with 2 or 3 casts unknown.... @JNC I agree with your sentiments in a general sense but with SL being so expensive I felt relieved when seeing the casts that there were so many pairs I'd already seen in 2022 & can therefore live without seeing this time. If all the partnerships had been swapped then I'd find it much harder to choose between them!

Post removed as info already on World Ballet Day thread. I'm afraid it didn't occur to me to check that thread first for Anemoi casting.

Sure enough, the majority of tickets below amphitheatre level have been sold since last night. I wonder how much they went for? Probably considerably less than the £39 I paid for my restricted view bench.

The ROH Autumn 23 booking thread.

@Emeralds Not my dream seat, as I'd go front row stalls every time if only I could afford it, but at least if I do end up as the only person on that bench (which I suspect I won't) then I won't have to worry about leaners blocking my view!

After my rail replacement bus experience last Saturday I went through my notes on possible dates for seeing Giselle & erased all weekend performances! I had an easy first choice cast but hadn't decided on which other cast to see (I don't think I can manage more than 2 casts in terms of both money & time) but now further casting has been given above that's enabled me to decide.

I've realised that, unless I'm being even more short-sighted than I actually am, that no-one's posted any curtain call photos from Saturday's matinee on here. So I hope it's okay if I seize a fairly rare opportunity and post a few of mine. (If this is too many photos please could someone tell me within the next half an hour so I can delete some of them before the edit time expires.)

Not the bench I'm on. My ticket is C92 and that bench is advance booking. It's funny how on the right of the auditorium only 1 advance ticket, mine, is sold but 4 of the 5 rush tickets are gone whereas on the left of the auditorium all 5 advance tickets are sold but only 1, the cheapest, of the rush tickets is. The last time I almost had a bench to myself was Traviata on 14th March 2020 where I was at one end and someone else at the other with 3 spaces in between, though of course for that performance the many empty seats were due to people not turning up rather than tickets not selling.

I've just had a look at the seating plan for Wednesday when (panic attacks permitting) I'm due to be seeing the double bill & I see at the moment I have an entire stalls circle bench to myself!

Thank you again for the many further kind comments. I definitely agree with this. Personally I prefer seeing Ball with Magri than with Naghdi because for me knowing the former are a real-life couple makes it (slightly) more enjoyable. However I think this is due to the knowledge more than the actual performances. Stage chemistry is so difficult to quantify anyway.

Thanks everyone for the kind replies. I do have a lot of problems with anxiety but usually I can manage to control it when theatregoing. Sadly not this time. I'm on a rail replacement bus approaching Cambridge so nearly home. (Also apologies for cluttering up this thread with my travel & mental health woes but I had said to a couple of people at the matinee I'd let them know what I thought of the evening cast so I wanted to explain why I now can't.)

I'm both glad & frustrated to hear that. I started having a panic attack just as Mercedes & the matadors entered & after about 10 mins fighting it I had to leave. I'm absolutely livid with myself for missing most of the performance. (Currently on a train fighting to try to control waves of anxiety.)

@capybara Thanks. Nice to know my memory isn't that bad! I didn't even notice that Dixon was down for the Fandango then didn't do it, though in Act II I did note it was the first time I've seen someone double urchin & lead gypsy.

Why on earth would anyone want to buy 800 tickets? That would cost more than 10 times as much as just buying 4 top-price Nutcracker tickets directly!

Am I going mad or did the cast list for this evening initially have Masciari down for Sancho Panza? Now it has Ikarashi.

Oh dear. I suppose you've still got a few days to hope for possible returns.

@alison That's okay. I guessed you might have had to return to work after a lunch break. Have you had any luck in getting a ticket?

I love that Calvin Richardson is doing Espada for the matinee & Gamache for the evening. Such different roles! (I do not love that I've had to queue for nearly half an hour for a rail replacement bus and it's looking touch and go as to whether it will connect with the train it was scheduled to.)

The train companies have really taken a dislike to me seeing Don Q this season. After travel problems on both my previous trips, I have now discovered that tomorrow I'm going to have to contend with rail replacement buses. Argh!

Oh dear, that sounds like a "no" then.

@JohnS I can't quote the post because it's in the Autumn casting thread rather than this one but several weeks ago @Silver Capricorn posted Avis's dates & he's down as Don Q for the matinee tomorrow. I guess as Saunders has been filmed as Don Q a couple of times already it makes sense to have the other experienced Don Q in the cinema cast this time around. By the way, does anyone know if Gartside is going to be doing Don Q in this run? As Whitehead made his debut a couple of weeks ago I thought Gartside might be getting a go too.

@Ondine Thanks. I had already had a look at the casting but as Julia Roscoe appeared with a number of different casts I wasn't certain.

As someone who unfortunately does not remember La Sylphide, is that Philip Mosley under that beret & moustache?

I've always managed to get something for the performances I want, if not always the exact seat, so it's not that I'm worried about not managing to get tickets so much as that it can be awfully stressful doing so!