Dawnstar

43 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Yes, Ryoichi Hirano danced Gypsy Lover (or Her Lover, whatever they called him!) in both runs the last two times, was in the first cast too. Admittedly not the Young Man role - although I have seen him dance the final pas de deux in a Gala with Helen Crawford and they were both glorious and beautiful. He's also danced La Valse and (if I recall correctly) Thais pas de deux. No reason why he couldn't dance Young Man or Les Rendezvous really. The RB triple bill should really repeat Les Rendezvous rather than Rhapsody as we've had a lot of Rhapsody runs recently. 

I thought the first cast in the 2019 run was the Cuthbertson/Muntagirov one? Hirano wasn't in that. I've just double-checked the cast sheet from 18th Janaury 19 & it was Mock as the Gypsy Lover. Hirano was in Asphodel Meadows earlier in the evening. I've never seen Les Rendesvouz so I don't know what the leading male role in that requires. I can't really imagine Hirano doing the leading role in Rhapsody or Oberon in The Dream.

29 minutes ago, LinMM said:

This has happened and been discussed here before but I can never remember the reason why it happens🙄
I think it’s something like tickets being held back for Friday Rush or they are only available to people with certain criteria ….access problems? 

So may be eventually released if no takers etc. 

Previous discussion have indicated they are access tickets. They're definitely not the Friday rush ones. Those never show up until 1pm on Friday, and quite often not even bang on time then!

3 hours ago, Richard LH said:

True, but then there hasn't  been all that much Ashton programmed in recent years! However he has performed, for example, in La Valse, Two Pigeons, and Sylvia in the past.

Was he in the 2019 Two Pigeons casts? I didn't think he was but I might be misremembering. That would still be at least 5 years since his last Ashton performances then, hence I'm less surprised about his absence from the upcoming triple bill than I am about some other dancers who aren't cast, or aren't cast in particular roles.

3 hours ago, Richard LH said:

Nor Hirano.....😕

Hirano doesn't seem to do much Ashton, does he? He wasn't in Cinderella last season & I can't think of any other Ashton pieces he's been in in recent years.

8 hours ago, MAX said:

Bad reviews in general, I was waiting to read them before deciding to buy a ticket or not, it's now clear that I will not go

I had already decided not to go but having now read all the reviews on today's Links they have reinforced my decision, rather than made me regret it. As soon as ENB started posting rehearsal clips I could see that it wasn't at all the sort of choreography that I would like, plus I can't make either of Frola's 2 performances & he was the only reason I contemplated seeing it in the first place.

I think my computer may be trying to tell me that I've spent too much time in this thread in the last 24 hours: when reading the Guardian review of ENB's Carmen just now I realised the ad in the sidebar was for the Ashton triple bills!

4 minutes ago, myrtle said:

Perhaps this is a special privilege granted to members and friends, not just any random member of the ticket buying public, who will (finally) be informed when the actual website gets updated later?    

Per today's links, the casting has been published on the Gramilano website so it is in the public domain & therefore presumably not supposed to be just for Friends. However more casual potential ticket buyers are probably less likely to know of the existance of specialist dance websites such as Gramilano (I certainly didn't know of it until I joined here & started to see mentions of it) & are therefore less likely to find the casting info on it.

Thank you very much.

2 hours ago, Emeralds said:

In fact, the story could have been more harrowing if Woyzeck was shown to have killed Marie out of revenge or because she tipped him over the edge, or if he hadn't taken part in the experiments of his own volition for the money (although without the synopsis unfortunately that isn't as clear on stage) but was instead forced to, that would have made the ballet really bleak indeed.

I wish I'd realised beforehand that he was chosing to take part in the experiments for money as I interpreted it that he was being forced to do so by the Captain against his will & so found those scenes pretty horrendous to watch.

50 minutes ago, OnePigeon said:

Casting still isn’t on the website yet either so that won’t help ticket sales get off to a flying start.  I don’t think the duplicate programming helps either - most people will only choose one of the triples to attend.  Hopefully they will sell well over time though, or alternatively, maybe we’ll be getting in a miff about some people being emailed with a discount code come May 😉.

I wonder why the casting wasn't put up on the website yesterday? Given the Bank Holidays, I suppose it now may not get added until Tuesday. That's hardly going to encourage ticket sales, especially for more "casual" potential attendees who are unlikely to be able to find the information elsewhere. I agree the duplicate programming may not help either. If they want to do 2 triple bills with a substatial overlap then why not do one near the start of the season & one near the end? Like in 2018-19 when Symphony in C was performed in November and June.

14 hours ago, myrtle said:

I don't mean to spam the forum, just wanted to say thank you to everyone who kindly helped me find the casting, and also to say wow, Dawnstar, I'm so impressed with your spreadsheet and found it enormously helpful, so thank you for going through the trouble of representing the data in a different way and sharing it.

Thanks. I've done it a couple of times before for triple bills as for me it makes it a lot easier to work out the best way of seeing the maximum number of casts in the minimum number of performances.

16 hours ago, JNC said:

Similar to the MacMillan there’s no easy way to see each single cast once without any repeats(?).

The best option I can work out is 7th, 15th matinee, 19th & 22nd matinee. That covers every cast in every piece (excluding Walk To The Paradise Gardens as there is no casting info for that) apart from Magri in the Five Brahms Waltzes, & doesn't include any repeated casts. (Incidentally the MacMillan triple was originally pretty easy: 27th combined with either 4th or 9th covered both casts for all 3 pieces, but the subsequent cast changes have messed it up a bit.)

After rather a lot of working out (I don't think my brain's worked this hard in ages!) I've found that I can manage to see every cast of Dream, Rhapsody, Rendezvous and Hamlet & Ophelia over 4 performances if a) I accept that I won't be able to see Magri in Five Brahms Waltzes & b) I brave the rail replacement buses. As I gather the Five Brahms Waltzes has a running time of under 10 minutes & as I'd only have to suffer rail replacements buses for a matinee rather than at midnight then I think I'll have to go with those compromises. And I'll have to spend from now until June praying that there aren't too many cast changes to mess up my calculations!

14 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

I'm not sure how much it's helping me! It feels as though it's going to be impossible to see half the dancers I want to see - which admittedly is most of them - not helped by the clashes with Sarasota at the start of the run & me not having any trains on 8th or 15th June.

Aargh, I've just realised that I'm not going to be able to see Nunez & Clarke in Les Rendesvous because I'm already booked for Sarasota on 6th June & no trains on 15th June. I prefer not to go down to London 2 days in a row but it looks like I'm going to have to on 2 or 3 occasions to have any hope of seeing various casts. This is a nightmare: every single performance has a different combination of casts. I'm starting to think the ROH should offer camping out packages for the duration of June!

2 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

I suspect the £4 is a fair reflection of the cost of (manually) processing refund requests so I'd be very surprised if this were the case.

I agree it probably was when they were manually processing refunds but now the process appears to be automated, given one just clicks a button on the website to return a ticket, so presumably uses a lot less staff resource.

In case it helps anyone else, the casting turned into spreadsheet form. (Sorry it's showing up a bit small, if you click on the image it comes up larger.)

I'm not sure how much it's helping me! It feels as though it's going to be impossible to see half the dancers I want to see - which admittedly is most of them - not helped by the clashes with Sarasota at the start of the run & me not having any trains on 8th or 15th June.

10 minutes ago, capybara said:

The timing is, of course, not untypical of the ROH.

However, it is all the more galling given that the pdf was clearly signed off by KOH on the 26th March.

Oh, that is annoying. I can't help wondering cynically if someone saw an opportunity for getting a little extra income for the ROH with all the £4 exchange fees! Also, has everyone else received a casting email with the pdf or is it only Friends? I would have expected it to be sent to all ticket holders for either of the triple bills but I've not received it.

2 hours ago, Fonty said:

Well, there seems to have been quite a party of ballet forum people there last night.  How come I never seem to find anybody?   Next time I will parade up and down the floral hall holding a huge placard saying "BalletCoForum make yourselves known."  Or better yet, I shall wear a sandwich board with the same message.

I sometimes think that were one to stand in the vicinity of the stalls circle standing areas & call out "Anyone on the Ballet Forum here?" then there should be quite a few responses! There seems to be a greater concentration of regulars in the SCS areas than anywhere else in the auditorium. (I don't stand myself but when sat on the stalls circle benches on the right of the auditorium I have to walk past most of the SCS places & I often recognise several people en route.)

3 hours ago, Emeralds said:

The pas de deux was danced at one of the Insight Evenings along with other rare gems like Hamlet and Ophelia (also being staged in June). If you saw that Insight Evening online, Dawnstar (still available on YouTube).you probably already know it without realising. 😀 

I must have seen that Insight because I remember Hamlet & Ophelia but I have no recollection of the Dante Sonata part of it.

3 hours ago, Blossom said:

I only logged on at 2 and managed to secure some balcony standing for my house guest/sitter for Easter Monday's matinee with plenty of options - and no wait to get in. 

That's interesting. I kept an eye on the website for a bit afterwards & while the MacMillan triple rush tickets were mostly still there about half an hour after the start of rush (indeed most of them are still there now) the Swan Lakes were showing as sold out by then. I guess there must have been various tickets apearing & disappearing seemingly at random, as often happens.

I do wonder why they have to announce it the day after public booking opens. I also was not expecting so many casts so it's going to be awfully complicated. I'm trying to get my head around all the casting combinations & failing. I think I'm going to have to turn it into a spreadsheet....

Thanks @Roberta. That looks safe enough!

Apologies for totally failing to see you @alison.

1 hour ago, Roberta said:

Yes it's Dante Sonata. Very 'modern' for its time @Dawnstar bare feet and all. 

 

https://bachtrack.com/review-sarasota-ballet-conflicted-beauty-the-art-of-war-dante-sonata-company-b-sarasota-november-2023

I'd naively assumed that all the Ashton pieces Sarasota would be dancing weould be fairly, well, traditional. I am suddenly feeling rather apprehensive! I hope Valses Nobles et Sentimentales won't be too modern, given I'll be seeing that twice as it's on both programmes.

5 hours ago, Emeralds said:

Great photos @Dawnstar! I bought the programme- there is a colour photo of Lauren Cuthbertson with the whole ensemble and she's the only cast member in a performance photo from both the last and current run. Nunez is in the performance photos but is of course no longer in the run. There are rehearsal photos of the current casts of all 3 ballets. Some nice historical photos of original cast members eg Maryon Lane (Danses Concertantes), Ferri and Eagling (Different Drummer), and Marcia Haydee (Requiem) if you like history. 

 

I'm afraid the programme this time (again! - same problem as in 2017 with the triple bill) has omitted the ballet synopses altogether. There are articles discussing intentions and memories making the ballets but no mention of the actual plot you will see. A bit annoying to queue and pay £8.50 and still end up having to be a human souvenir programme to explain the  plot to your newbie friends! 

Thanks for the programme information. That's a pity to have no synopses, at least for Different Drummer, the other 2 pieces I suppose they're not really needed for.

2 hours ago, Fonty said:

@Dawnstar  Thanks for that great review of last night's performance.  Shame I didn't realise others were there from the forum.  I did have a quick look around in the main bar, but the only group near the main stairs seemed to be quaffing champagne and devouring food in large quantities.  I didn't like to disturb them, especially as I didn't see anyone I recognised. 

I too had a quick look in the Floral Hall at the start of both intervals & didn't spot anyone I recognised so I assume there wasn't a Forum group up there last night.

Lovely to see you too @Silke H & to meet your friends.

The ROH website managed yet again to stress me by the rush tickets not appearing until a couple of minutes after 1pm. I don't know why this happens so often.

2 hours ago, Roberta said:

The latest Royal Opera House promo has just landed on Twitter (or X if you prefer). I presume it's on Facebook and other ROH social media.

Does anyone know which ballet the photo used to illustrate Sarasota Ballet in this video is from? The costumes remind me of Corybantic Games rather than what I'd expect costumes in any Ashton piece to look like.

13 hours ago, Emeralds said:

Good observation, Dawnstar- I think the critics were at Sadler's Wells, although I'm not sure that the same people who generally watch MacMillan or Royal Ballet will necessarily watch this style/genre of dance. (Case in point- quite a few of our members!)

I meant Forum members. I'm not sure I'd recognise any dance critics if I saw them & I'm certainly not on interval-chatting terms with them!