Dawnstar

Oops, I forgot to metion @ToThePointe or your daughter in my previous post.

The usher said to the couple that he'd speak to the woman but I don't know if he did as I left the auditorium then & didn't return until just before Act II. If he did speak to her then it clearly had absolutely no effect!

One young woman I overheard commenting after the evening performance certainly didn't seem to be expecting what she got: I heard her say that she was baffled by it & had been expecting something like Wicked!!

While this pales in comparison to the ghastly behaviour in the news recently, at yesterday's matinee I saw the most selfish example of leaning that I've ever seen. I was sitting in stalls circle C24 so in an area where leaning is often a problem. Just before Act I started I noticed that the woman sitting directly in front of me in row B was leaning really far forwards, not just the slight lean that often happens but so far that if her head had been a bit lower she could have rested her chin on the seat of the row A seat. As the lights dimmed & Koen Kessels entered the woman next to her on the right said something to the leaning woman, evidently asking her not to lean forward. But the woman leaning refused to stop & continued to lean as far forward as she could throughout the act. The poor woman next to her must have barely been able to see a thing, especially as the leaning woman had very thick hair that stuck out a lot. I wasn't at all surprised that as soon as the act had finished, and the leaning woman promptly exited, that the husband of the woman whose view was blocked, whose own view must also have been compromised, went & got an usher to complain to. I was so sorry for them that once they'd explained the situation to the usher I chipped in & backed them up as to how badly the woman was leaning. The usher suggested they went to speak to the FOH managed & ask if they could be moved. When I came back for the start of Act II their seats were empty & looking round the auditorium I spotted they had been moved to the previously empty Royal box. I hope they had a much better Acts II & III. Meanwhile the leaning woman took advantage of the couple's absence to spread herself out into their space & continued to lean a long way forward for the rest of the performance. I can only devoutly hope that I never find myself next to her in the future! I should have also said that those row B seats are £112 for Cinderella. That's a heck of a lot of money to pay even for the standard view restriction in that area, in my opinion, let alone to then have your view considerably more restricted by a leaner.

I was rather surprised last night that for me there wasn't that much difference between the female stepsisters & the male pairs I'd previously seen. I thought I'd find them very different but with the costumes, head pieces & make-up all the Stepsisters looked almost the same to me - and no, I wasn't sitting right at the back of the Amphi! On the male Stepsister front, I do tend to get Acri & Hay mixed up anyway but playing the same Stepssiter they looked absolutely identical to me. If the cast sheet hadn't said Hay yesterday matinee I would have put him down as Acri. I'm a bit late to say much else about yesterday, as I think both performances have been covered, so just to say that I thought both Sarah Lamb & Francesca Hayward were excellent Cinderellas & I thought both were rather more naturally suited to the role in terms of projecting pathos & vulnerability than Nunez, fabulous dancer though she is. Can anyone more expert than me confirm if all the Princes are dancing exactly the same solo? I thought McRae & Campbell's solos looked slightly different to Muntagirov's at one point near the end but I'm not sure if it's just a right turner vs left turner thing. I was very pleased to catch Liam Boswell as the Jester at the matinee, as I wanted to see him in the role. Having commented after the first performance I saw that the Jester was a bit more sinister than I had expected, I thought Boswell played it a less sinisterly than Nakao. In the livestreamed Insight Annette Buvoli was being rehearsed as the Fairy Godmother. It was Amelia Townsend who was being rehearsed as Autum. She doesn't seem to have danced the role yet though. No need to apologise. I had a for me incredibly sociable day yesterday. I met up with @Blossom at the matinee & bumped into @Rob S and met up with @Sim @Scheherezade & @JohnS at the evening performance. Then when stage dooring I not only spoke to a number of dancers but also an opera singer, who'd been in rehearsals, & I ended up having quite a long chat with Sarah Lamb's husband while waiting for her to appear. For someone who does 99% of her theatregoing alone, that's far more people than I usually speak to!

I was very impressed during the performance at Annette Buvoli moving from Fairy Godmother to Autumn & back to Fairy Godmother. I was even more impressed when I spoke to her at the stage door afterwards & she said she hasn't learnt the role of Autumn, she's only due to be dancing Winter! She said it's fortunate both are on the same side. I would never have guessed it: she looked flawless to my admittedly inexpert eyes. I will never cease to be amazed at the no-notice jump-ins performers manage to do. I hope Leticia Dias isn't too badly hurt.

In my case I'm very keen to see it because I've not seen it live. From the clips I've seen & what I've read about it it looks like a lovely romantic comedy, which is my favourite genre across most artforms. I'd also like to see more Ashton in general & Fille looked until recently one of his more likely pieces to be revived by the RB.

Thank you both very much. My bank account is currently looking far from healthy so I'm trying to work out how many of the productions I would like to be able to book for I can actually afford to book later this week!

A depressing comment on the state of your trains that making it to a performance is considered a bonus! I certainly don't envy you travelling so far. I find an hour long train journey stressful enough on occasion - such as this past Wednesday when the train decided to be 20 mins late. At least my train today is running to time. Also I swear TfL is deliberately making it rain every time I go down to London so I have to pay to use the tube rather than walking for free!

Many theatre companies do use social media to engage with their audiences though. Evidently the ROH doesn't, which I think is a pity.

I replied to their post saying I hope they'll be reviving Fille soon. Not that I have any hope they'll read my comment. I comment quite often on their Twitter posts but never get so much as a "like" for acknowledgement, let alone a reply.

@Emeralds This is the only relevant tweet I've seen.

I confess I didn't notice any lights in the auditorium at the start of last night's performance. Given everyone else seems to have found them very distracting I can't think how on earth I failed to notice them!

Thank you @bridiem. I thought they might have hoicked the prices up, given modern pieces usually are cheaper than more classical ones. Pleased to hear that they haven't.

No, I wasn't hurt thanks. I thought I had made it to the top of the stairs so tried to step forward only to find I was still one step down, so I fell forwards onto my hands & knees. I had been so busy trying to tell my mother about the performance that I hadn't noticed I was a step short. At least I've only ever done a few months of ballet, aged about 7, so I'm not expected to have any balletic elegance.

May I ask is anyone who has booking that has already opened is able to indicate if the prices for Jewels are the same or different to those advertised for Kunstkamer? When I look at the seating plan on the ROH's website it shows me all the different coloured dots but no key for what price each colour is.

I see this has now been moved to 3pm, so more theatre performances will be affected. Time changed so it won't disrupt some football. Typical of this country that football is considered more important than theatre! https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-theatre/news/governments-national-emergency-alert-test_58706.html

Given the vital moments in Swan Lake - the vision of Odette in Act III & her death in Act IV - that aren't visible from the far sides of the auditorium, I won't be surprised if I find on Monday that I can't see Cinderella's entrance from the same seating area either. I accept that things will be missed from the far sides of the auditorium but considering the view restrictions the recent pricing decisions for those seats are rather hard to take. Your mention of the clock reminds me: if I recall correctly there were some mentions after one of the first performances that the clock on the palace facade seemed to stay at ten to midnight. So last night I kept an eye on the clock every so often and saw it at quarter to, ten to, five to and then just before midnight. So perhaps it didn't work properly at the previous performance. I guess as it's a fairytale I was expecting something a bit more comedic from a jester. I should have thought more about how Grimm fairytales can be!

I'm glad I'm not the only person who found the character swaps were all too obvious. Yes, I could hear various noises from the set in Act I once pieces started being flown out. I could understand an older production being a bit noisy but you'd think that a new production would be quieter. I'm not sure if deconstructing the set like that added much either - except it presumably added to the cost!

I wouldn't actually think it unusual if two people did choose to sit separately. On the occasions when I go to the theatre with my mother we usually sit separately as she likes to sit towards the back on an aisle, as she can get claustrophobic in theatres, whereas I like sitting as near to the stage as I can afford to do so.

I think "stimulating interventions" sounds rather painful, as if they're giving their attendees electric shocks or something! Actually that's probably the sort of "art" installation that would be nominated for the Turner prize nowadays...

Thanks for alerting me that the rush tickets went on sale today rather than tomorrow. I'd forgotten about the Bank Holiday changing the day. As I have yet to receive any replies to my seating query, I've decided to swap tickets for next Monday matinee & hope I've made the right seating decision. Thanks. I will try to have shorter thoughts about the other casts!

(Apologies, this has ended up much longer than I thought it would be when I started typing. I've included some curtain call photos to break up the text a bit & don't expect many - any?! - people to read it all!) I'd like to start my comments by thanking @oncnp whose generosity with a spare ticket meant I was able to see Cinderella for the first time from a fabulous full-view seat. With the prices being so high for Cinderella I thought I was going to have to try to piece it together from a succession of restricted viewings. I think it does make such a difference to be able to see everything for the first time seeing a piece. Mind you, there was so much going on much of the time that I felt I needed several pairs of eyes to be able to really take in everything! Going by order of creation, I found I liked the music more than the first time I heard the score at ENB's Wheeldon Cinderella in 2019. So I hope it will continue to grow on me. While some ballet scores I have immediately loved (R&J, Manon) others have take me a few listenings to fully appreciate (Mayerling, Onegin). I thought the choreography was consistently attractive & graceful - well, apart from the Stepsisters' but that's deliberate! As I have no technical knowledge of ballet, I thought I could see some typical Fonteyn style in Act I but I can't say I would have realised Act II was then choreographed on another dancer if I hadn't already heard about it. It felt it could have equally been due to the difference in Cinderella dancing in private & in public. There were a couple of narrative points that I didn't quite get. I'm not sure if that's due to me missing things, the original choreography, or this particular production. - It didn't seem to be obvious in Act I that the Stepsisters had been invited to a ball & Cinderella hadn't. They were evidently getting ready to go out somewhere but it didn't seem to be indicated where. - Is the ball specifically for the Prince to choose a bride, as it is in many versions of the Cinderella story, or is it just fortunate that the Prince happens to be single & falls in love with Cinderella? There don't seem to be any other girls trying to attract his attention & even the Stepsisters seem more interested in quarrelling over the better-looking of their 2 suitors than over the Prince. - I think someone commented somewhere upthread, or perhaps it was in one of the reviews, that the Prince searching in Act III has been cut? He seemed to arrive only minutes after the Stepsisters got home from the ball! Have previous productions tried to indicate a longer passage of time at this point? - And a more minor Act III point: the Dressmakers, Dancing Master, Hairdresser, Jeweller & Shoemaker are presumably visitors to the house rather than live-in servants, so how come they all reappear in what is presumably the middle of the night to start undressing the Stepsisters?! Overall I liked the production, bearing in mind I have no other productions to compare it to. Perhaps at times it was a little too bright but that might have been partly because I was seeing it close up & it has to reach to the back of the amphitheatre. I thought the sets were attractive. The Act II palace exterior reminded me strongly of Waddesdon Manor, though I imagine that's because Waddesdon was built in the style of a French chateau & the set designer was copying French chateaus rather than the set designer copying Waddesdon specifically (Waddesdon, if anyone's interested https://postimg.cc/212Sf1Yk ). Most of the costumes I liked, especially the corps de ballet's Act II ballgowns (it's perhaps unsurprising those were my favourites as they're very 1950s style & the New Look is for me the peak of fashion). The Fairies' dresses & tutus are pretty bright but I liked the colours. There have been a number of comments about the Prince's Friends' tights having stripes down the side but I was surprised that the stripes were only on the thighs & not right down the legs (like Rudolf's in Mayerling). I think it would have looked better with no stripes at all rather than abbreviated ones. I agree with the previous comments on the Fairy attendants' costumes. I too would have put the fluffy yellow Spring one down as a chick rather than a dandelion! I'm afraid I could have happily done without the attendants at all as I found they distracted from the Fairies without adding anything (and the RB could have probably saved a few thousands on the costume budget without them). Oh and one costume that slightly puzzled me was Cinderella's tutu, which I thought was gorgeous overall but where the skirt met the bodice at the sides there seemed to be narrow bits visible that weren't the same shade of white as the rest. It could have just been a trick of the light or my eyes though. Some of the hairstyles were quite something. It felt as though the ticket price rises might have been just to cover the wig & hairspray budget! Considering the advanced publicity about there being a magic consultant, I was surprised at how little stage magic there seems to be. The switches for the Fairy Godmother in Act I & Cinderella in Act II were fairly visible, as was that of the prop pumpkin for the carriage. I assume selective camera shots will hide them a bit more for the cinecast. Did I blink & miss any other magic? I thought all the cast danced very well. Even though I've seen Nunez & Muntagirov live a number of times in the last 5 years, during their Act II pdd I still had one of those oh-goodness-2-of-the-best-dancers-in-the-world-are-right-in-front-of-me moments! It is interesting having it the other way around with the pdd after the solos. I wish the Prince had had a longer solo, including a manege - but Prokofiev in the 1940s couldn't know that I'd want to see more of Muntagirov in the 2020s! He was, as always, a perfect prince. I'm not sure Nunez made Cinderella quite pathetic enough in Act I, perhaps because she's so naturally buoyant & sunny on stage, so she didn't really seem unhappy with her lot apart from missing her mother, but other than that I thought she gave an excellent performance. I am deeply envious that she can walk downstairs en pointe without looking where she's going whereas when I got home last night & wasn't looking when going upstairs on ordinary flat feet I fell over! I thought Kaneko was lovely as the Fairy Godmother. I hope the back-up filming that was being done last night doesn't have to be used as she had a small slip in her Act I solo which I'm sure she won't want preserved for posterity, as she's usually technically flawless. I rather wish the same dancer played the Fairy Godmother both disguised & in full glory. I know it wouldn't be possible with the very elaborate costume the disguised Fairy Godmother wears but I would have preferred a simpler costume so a single dancer could do a quick cloak removal or suchlike. I'm looking forward to seeing Kaneko as Cinderella later in the run. It was a pretty starry line-up of season Fairies, with 2 Principals & 2 First Soloists. Knowing that the RB tend to have the starriest line-ups in solo roles for first night & cinema casts was one reason why I wanted to see this cast (as well as seeing Nunez & Muntagirov, obviously). I enjoyed all 4 solos & thought they also went quite well together as a quartet. I think on first viewing I may have liked Summer's solo best but I think I'd need more viewings to be certain. Autumn's solo seemed to borrow some hand gestures from the Fairy of the Golden Vine in SB, presumably a deliberate homage by Ashton? Avis & Acri looked like they were having the time of their lives as the Stepsisters. Avis managed an extraordinary range of exaggerated facial expressions at times. I knew Acri was a good actor but this is the first time I've seen him in an outright character role. They were so vibrant & dominating that it was hard to look at anyone else while they were on stage. At one point during a break for applause in Act I I realised guiltily that I had barely noticed Cinderella for the last couple of minutes as it had been impossible to look away from the Stepsisters' antics. I can understand that the schtick may get tiresome on repeated viewings (I'll be finding out in the next couple of weeks if it does!) but as it was my first time seeing it I found it pretty amusing, though I was mostly smiling rather than laughing out loud (many in the audience were laughing loudly though). The costumes were something else & the headgear looked like it has been inspired by Carmen Miranda! Though I didn't understand why they had been made up with partial bald caps which were visible when they were dressing in Act I. Since the characters are supposed to be young(ish) women, why would they be partly bald? It's not as if the production was set in the Medieval period when it was fashionable for women to shave their front hair to show more forehead. In hindsight I wish I'd videoed the Stepsisters' part of the red run curtain call rather than take still photos because they carried on their antics in character, including Avis draping himself around the edge of the curtain just before exiting, which sadly I didn't manage to get a photo of. I was a bit puzzled by the Jester. I couldn't quite work out what tone he was supposed to be conveying. Usually jesters are humorous but this one came across as rather sinister at times. I thought Nakao danced well though. I could quite understand why the Stepsisters were fighting over Braendesrod as, with all due respect to Mosley as a character actor, he can't compete with Braendesrod in the looks department. (Best cheekbones in the RB?!) Cinderella's Father doesn't have a lot to do but Gartside was fine. Did he appear for the curtain calls? I can't spot him in my photos. Were some of the corps dancing the stars RBS students? I could only recognise about half the dancers so I'm not sure if my dancer recognition, never that good for the lower ranks, was even worse than usual or if some of them were students. I'm now looking forward to seeing 5 more casts in the next 3 weeks. Has anyone yet seen the production from the far right of the stalls circle (seat numbers in the 90s)? I have C92 & C93 booked for 2 casts & based on my full view last night I'm a bit worried that Cinderella might not be visible for much of Act I, given she spent quite a lot of time close to the side of the stage on that side. I'm wondering whether I'd be better trying for Friday rush for the left, low numbers, side (which I have booked for the other 3 casts) & returning my current tickets if I'm successful. If anyone is going to be at either of the two performances on Monday 10th & would like to meet up in any of the intervals please let me know. As I feared, I found 2 half-hour intervals a bit long last night. In the second interval I went right round the ROH vertically & still had 15 mins to spare!

I'm pleased by the switch personally, as I've not seen Jewels live in full & I had no interest in seeing Kunstkamer. However I can see it's disappointing for those who have seen Jewels many times & wanted to see something new.

Having just seen Act 1 for the first time, I'm impressed by those of you who have been able to make detailed comments on the production after a single viewing. I think it'll take me several viewings to fully assimilate everything. There's a lot going on visually!