Dawnstar

4 hours ago, Amanda Liu said:

Also some people may need to rush to catch a train after a performance so may not have time to queue…

Yes, I never leave my coat in the ROH cloakroom because the majority of the time I have to leave pretty briskly in order to make sure I get my train. What I do it sit in my coat, with my arms slipped out of the sleeves, so it's not as if it's in anyone else's way. As for dressing up, I'm afraid my theatregoing clothes have to deal with a half an hour walk each way between train station & ROH so I have to go for practical clothes & flat shoes. (I never wear jeans to the ROH, though I do occasionally to other theatres.)

@Lucy M On the ticket cancellation screen it says "Any outstanding items will be removed from your basket when you cancel tickets. " so I guess you must have fallen foul of that. Though goodness only knows why the ROH website does that.

@alison Getting redirected to the checkout screen is a new one on me. In recent Friday rushes (though I wasn't trying today) it's sent me back to the production page when I've tried to go onto seating plans a number of times. That at least has some logic to it but sending someone to the checkout before they can get on the seating plan is completely illogical!

I was thinking that now we're into April the respiratory virus season would be ending but the amount of coughing at the ROH tonight seemed to indicate otherwise! It seemed particularly frequent & loud during Requiem.

36 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

If they take the black headpiece off completely, because the costume is quite streamlined, it has the effect of making their hair look messy especially next to the women.

They could try oceans of hair gel, a la Woolf Works Act II!

@Rob S I haven't even looked at my photos yet. Not really much point in doing so now!

Unless there are any more significant ticket discounts, like for the MacMillan triple, I will see the entire season, apart from that one performance, from the stalls circle benches!

Yes, it will definitely be restricted I'm afraid. In terms of the dancing missed I don't find it too bad, though you will miss one side of the corps when they're right across the stage & there will be the occasional moments in solos & pas de deuxs when the dancers disappear from view & you just have to wait for them to reappear. There is also an issue with some of the key plot moments not being visible: the vision of Odette in Act III, Odette throwing herself off the rock & Von Rothbart's demise on the rock in Act IV.

If you're going to try Friday rush then the stalls circle rush tickets are slightly better because they're one bench further round but you still get a similar restriction to a lesser extent. The other Friday rush tickets are much further from the stage so wouldn't give you much of the acting that you're after, unless you use binoculars.

I do get fed up that the tube strikes always get called off yet, as far as I can recall, every train strike bar one in the last 2 years has gone ahead.

3 hours ago, Linnzi5 said:

To be honest, it doesn't diminish her amazing performance for the live cinema relay - to have danced it to an audience fully just once before and then to be filmed with a different, albeit wonderful and experienced, partner? Wow. That is some achievement. I've watched that performance on the ROH Stream many times and she is amazing - so controlled and calm! She makes a lovely Aurora, in my opinion.

I believe Kaneko actually danced 3 performances earlier in the run before having to step in for Cuthbertson.

Sorry to hear that you're injured @Silke H. Hope you recover quickly.

@Emeralds Thanks for that link. It's interesting to see the different designs. While one cannot entirely judge in black & white, I can't say I think they are preferable to the designs being used this time, apart from the abscence of the rather odd hats!

(Off topic but it's interesting to see the Manon photo at the bottom of the article: photographers still going for capturing the same pose 30 years later. And my goodness Adam Cooper was good-looking when he was young.)

3 minutes ago, Sim said:

Of Nut or Sleeping Beauty?  Fumi definitely took over with just a few hours' notice and was sensational.  

Damn, sorry, I've just been counting up Nutcracker performances from earlier this season so typed the wrong ballet title. I definitely meant Sleeping Beauty. However digging back through the relevant thread on here indicates that Cuthbertson was actually replaced by Kaneko part-way through her previous SB performance. I guess that one would have been the filmed for backup performance & therefore explains why they couldn't use that to show Cuthbertson's performance even if they'd wanted to.

Checking @Saodan's website, Cuthbertson did her 2 previous Nutcrackers that season & only missed the cinema performance.

On 28/03/2024 at 03:47, Dawnstar said:

I'm very glad I saw this cast first as I thought Lamb in particular was so visually well-suited to her role & I'm not sure I'll find Cuthbertson quite as much so.

I now feel rather guilty about saying this given I'm going to get to see Lamb replacing Cuthbertson tomorrow. Given tomorrow's performance is supposed to be the back-up filming for the cinecast on the 9th, could it potentially be an issue if Lamb danced tomorrow & Cuthbertson on 9th?

8 minutes ago, Linnzi5 said:

Ah. They may have been. Have they been cast in anything else? I can't recall seeing them together. 

Digging through my memory & my curtain call photos, Symphony in C in June 2019, though I have a feeling that too may have been due to a cast change.

25 minutes ago, Fonty said:

Unless it is obviously one where audience participation is encouraged, such as pantomime.  

I think some of last night's audience may have mistakenly thought they were at a pantomime, given Avis got some pantomime boos at his solo curtain call.

19 minutes ago, Linnzi5 said:

Anyway, back to SL. I am sad to have read upthread that Anne Rose O'Sullivan is unable to perform in SL - I really hope her injury isn't too bad. Has Magri ever danced with Sambè before - not in SL, I don't think?

They were supposed to do SL together in 2020 but their performances were after the start of the first lockdown. They must have rehearsed it together though. At the start of this season they did Don Q together when Magri subbed for Osipova.

ETA: Sorry, just cross-posted with @capybara.

Oh dear, in the 2022 Swan Lake discussion thread I inadvertantly kicked off a prolonged discussion of the 32 fouettes & now it looks like I've done the same for double double tours!

2 hours ago, capybara said:

No. Maybe, when Cesar Corrales is fully fit again, there will be another, but not currently or previously.

The double-doubles are pretty incredible and ramp up the excitement in that pdd considerably.

Thank you for the confimation. With apologies to the rest of the performance, I think it was my highlight of the evening!

@Rob S I thought you'd get a perfect photo of that flower swap!

Thanks @alison. It says the train was cancelled at Broxbourne so a) thank goodness I bailed onto that other one & b) I hope delay repay has a cancelled option!

Do any current RB Siegfrieds apart from Muntagirov do double-double tours in Act III? I'm trying to remember from the 2022 run & failing.

2 hours ago, Linnzi5 said:

How strange. Sorry you had to swap trains and then it was really full - that's horrible! No idea why the trains are going via Stratford, though that has been happening a lot recently.

Glad you got there. I always get off at Tottenham Hale and then change from the Victoria line to the Piccadilly at Finsbury Park now - I mean, seriously, why didn't I know that was so much easier than going to King's Cross?! 😂 I hope you get the delay compensation, though applying for it is so long-winded (well it has been for me) I almost didn't think it was worth the effort!  Sorry you've lost your gloves. I lost mine walking around Marks and Spencer's in the colder weather. The weird thing is, nobody handed them in! Why anyone would want my gloves is beyond me.

I've not been on a train that was going via Stratford before. I had assumed it was just today because of the Bank Holiday so I hope it doesn't become a regular thing. Yes, changing tube lines at Finsbury Park is so much quicker & easier than at Kings Cross. I've realised that as I don't know what time my original train ended up getting into Liverpool Street I probably won't be able to do delay repay because I think you have to say how long you were delayed for. I also can't face trying to find out what Greater Anglia do with lost property. I'm guessing they may not even bother keeping low value items like gloves.

Made it. I bailed onto the tube at Tottenham Hale, as I could see I wouldn't have time to walk from Liverpool Street. I suppose if I can get delay repay compensation it might just about cover the tube fare!

I also seem to have lost a pair of gloves en route.

The train crawled into Broxbourne, 2 policemen got on & removed a man! I don't know what's going on as I hadn't heard any disruption & I was only about half a carriage away. I've swapped onto another train that we were told was leaving first & is heaving. It doesn't help that all the trains today are going via Stratford for some reason thus extending the journey time.

@Suffolkgal Hope you make it. The trains have been a flipping nightmare this season. The only reason I'm venturing on them on a Bank Holiday is because I can't get to this cast's other performance next Saturday as I have no trains then due to engineering.

I'm stuck on a train that's been sitting between Roydon & Broxbourne for nearly half an hour. I'm losing hope of making it to Swan Lake this evening.

6 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Oh wow, @Dawnstar, it seems unbelievable that you haven't seen The Dream yet, but I suppose the full ballet hasn't been performed for a fairly long time at either ROH (RB) or Sadler's Wells (BRB)! - the last would be June 2017 (Morera and Campbell were Titania and Oberon,  Acri was Puck....Matthew Ball was Lysander in that run). You're in for a treat; it's  simply genius  😊. 

I've only seen what the RB have performed since autumn 2018. Therefore the only full length Ashton piece I've seen is Cinderella. I've done a bit better with the one-acters: Patineurs, Two Pigeons, Month in the Country, Enigma Variations, Marguerite & Armand (not RB, Cojocaru & Frola at SW), Scenes de Ballet, Rhapsody. Plus the various extracts in the 2019 Fonteyn Gala. So there's an awful lot of Ashton I haven't seen. Hopefully I'll be able to tick off half a dozen more one-acters in June then a second full length in October.