Dawnstar

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!

I think I'll be dreaming about the refresh button when the Manon run starts! Not having been able to afford to book when booking opened for that, I'm going to be entirely depended on Friday rush. Already feeling nervous! ETA Three-quarters of an hour after rush was supposed to have started, I see half a dozen balcony standing tickets have now appeared for the Saturday evening. Strange...

At the moment 3rd November is showing up for me & there's a single balcony ticket C21 showing as available. Is that the area you're after & if so would you like me to get it for you? I've stuck it in my basket for the moment. Edit: Basket time limit ran out so I'm assuming/hoping you didn't want it.

@capybara Repeated refreshing is often required as the seats don't always appear exactly at 1pm (though of course today, when I couldn't get in until a couple of minutes later, they evidently had!). I remember one Mayerling last year when I spent nearly half an hour refreshing before seats finally appeared for one of the two performances I was after, the seats for the other performance having appeared immediately. Did you eventually get a ticket? @alison Refreshing the Don Q seating plans now, I see the performance of 3rd November keeps appearing & disappearing from the drop-down list, so maybe there's some sort of technical glitch with that particular performance at the moment.

I was able to book once I got through but with the delay I could only get mid-bench on the opposite side to what I wanted for the matinee, so I really hope there won't be any confirmed leaners or very large people! I did manage to get an end of bench ticket for the evening.

I think today was the first time I've got stuck in a queue looking at that ubiquitous sofa for Friday rush booking.

Although I want to get Friday rush tickets for both Saturday performances tomorrow so I'm hoping it doesn't shift those tickets so quickly that I can't get any!

While not as egregious as row B at £118, row C at £75 is pretty bad too in my opinion. To charge that much for seats where vital moments of the production are completely invisible (the vision of Odette, Odette's death, Von Rothbart's death) is something I find both infuriating and disappointing.

Thank you very much @Jan McNulty. I had looked at the photos on Sadler's Wells website but they only had dancer close-ups & not any full stage ones. Seeing full stage photos on BRB's website has made me realise that I have in fact seen a video of the production, danced by Dutch National Ballet, one of the myriad of lockdown streamings. I remember there being a lot of gold!

I've only ever bought the cheapest stalls seats (with the help of package booking) so I can't say how the prices of the other stalls seats have risen - but I bet they have!

The lowest priced side orchestra stalls, the pairs along the outside edges, were £115 in 2020, £123 in 2022 and will be £159 in 2024. So if they weren't selling before I cannot imagine that the latest price will encourage sales one bit!

Can anyone say if BRB's production has a similar "floorplan" to the RB's? What I mean is whether the stage is arranged in a similar way so the thrones in the Prologue are stage left/audience's right, the staircase in Act I stage right/audience's left, Aurora's bed upstage more to the right/audience's left at the end of Act II, etc.? I'm not sure yet where I'll be able to afford to sit, as it doesn't seem to be possible to see the price bands in advance on SW's website, but if I have to go for a restricted view seat then I would like to know if it's like the RB production where I find it's better to sit on the right side of the auditorium than the left.

The variations in ticket prices between different seats & different ballets are making no sense this year. "My" stalls circle tickets are £49 for Manon & £75 for Swan Lake, which is a pretty big price difference, so how can other seats be cheaper for Swan Lake than for Manon?!

This article says that Cojocaru will be guesting for the Thursday & Saturday evening performances at Sadler's Wells. I guess I'll have to re-think my intention of not booking until nearer the time as I would like to see her & her performances will probably sell quickly. https://www.broadwayworld.com/westend/article/Birmingham-Royal-Ballets-THE-SLEEPING-BEAUTY-Will-Tour-The-UK-In-Spring-2024-20231024

I completely agree with this. There are fewer & fewer ROH productions I am prepared to sit through nowadays, let alone that I actually find visually enjoyable. Admittedly since I'm seeing a lot of ballet instead the ROH is actually getting more money out of me but I imagine that will not be the case for a lot of operagoers.

I thought BRB currently has 2 male British Principals so my specifying female is deliberate.

I wasn't entirely sure which medium you were referring to, hence specifying the stage version rather than the film in my reply. Although I do hate popcorn in either place, as I find the smell pretty unpleasant.

I'm sorry to hear that she's (probably) retired from dancing. Partly because I would have liked to see her again & partly because that means BRB now doesn't have any British female Principals.

They would have to set the more classical parts of the choreography to different music to get me to want to see them. Heavy metal is not to my taste. I suppose if it were part of a mixed bill with two other pieces I really wanted to see then I might sit through it for the sake of the rest of the bill. Given well-sold it has been I feel absolutely no guilt in not occupying a seat that someone else who doubtless enjoyed it far more than I would have could occupy!