Richard LH

I do prefer the ROH brand (I forget its name). Also there had been a run on the Salted Caramel at the RAH by the time I got there and the vanilla was also a bit pallid 😢 Were you there for the Acosta, Alison?

An email reminding me of Mayerling next week..."We open the Royal Opera House doors for a performance 1 hour and 30 minutes before curtain up". I am not sure exactly which doors they mean, or how this fits in with the Open Up hoo-ha...

Yes I can totally see that...as reported, it appears both crass and insensitive.

We went last night and found it a brilliant and exhilarating dance experience. Costa was wonderful and his fellow dancers are so committed, skilful, artistic and frankly Hot in every sense! It was fascinating to see Marta Ortega transform from a mermaid (or drunken lady - not sure quite which) into someone who could stand on her own two feet, literally. Her movements were so clever and subtle. The Alrededor No Hay Nada piece was a spectacular exhibition of controlled, slick, breakneck dancing – so expressive and powerful, even though we couldn’t follow the accompanying Spanish poetry. Rooster was great fun; the girls were in no way demeaned, rather the joke is all on the over-preening boys. Finally Carmen is a much more effective piece, in my view, than some reviewers have concluded, especially seen live with this company performing. There were several changes from the original RB production. Acosta played the toreador, rather than Don Jose. A really feisty performance from Laura Treto (I think it was her) as Carmen, who played the role with a lot more venom, I thought, than Nunez did. We were lucky enough to be fairly near the front and we had a great view of the performers, but I can see why there has been some criticism of the RAH for ballet productions (when not in the round) in terms of viewing for those further away – including equally expensive stalls seats nearer the rear. Also praise today (at a time of criticism on another thread) to the ROH for keeping their ice cream at £3 - it is £4.50 at the RAH!

Yes I see, fair point. But I suppose if the £5, £10 and £19 bands were included in the packages, 10% off would really not amount to all that much in the great scheme of things, and now that the general booking for Friends is open there do seem to be plenty of tickets available for Don Q in the £5, £10 and £19 bands. Anyway I hope you can find tickets to suit you, Lizbie.

Really? That is disturbing....We had quite careful bag searches at the Royal Albert Hall yesterday evening.

But discount packages are available for the "relatively cheaper" amphi seats, and Friends get a good opportunity to buy these in advance.

But I suppose if the "timing of purchases" logic is correct (and I don't know if it is) the response would be that by pricing those seats higher, they stay available longer for the benefit of the more casual/occasional customer. The "bargain" for the latter, on that logic, would be that although the price is higher than before, this has enabled them to have a better choice of relatively "cheaper" seats over a longer period. In an ideal world of course we would all like lower ticket prices, but I am not sure that I would like to see more tickets held back until after Friends' booking. There has to be a benefit for paying to be a Friend.

Why is this tricking them bridiem? From what Dave suggests above, the assumption may that although a £18-20 (say) ticket technically would have been available before, by the time a newbie would tend to look for a ticket, most of those were snapped up by regulars in the know, and the choice would be limited to (say) £40 plus. The logic (as far as it goes) may be that by pricing such seats at (say) £25- £30 instead, a larger pool of those tickets would stay available longer, allowing more newbies to get "affordable" tickets later in the booking process. Whether that works, or is fair, needs to be thought about a bit more, perhaps.

Dave I see what you mean ....the assumption is that newbies are put off because by the time they are likely to express an interest, most of the cheaper seats have been snapped up by regulars. If that is actually what happens at the moment, I sort of get what the ROH may be trying to achieve - they may be trying to correct a perceived unfairness - although if so this has been badly/insensitively explained in the offending article. I wonder, also, if trying to expand the core audience is somehow l requirement of the level of grant funding - but I really don't know how these things work. This needs thinking about...maybe I was a little too quick to judge...

Sorry Dave perhaps I am beiing a bit dense but I still don't understand the logic....how would a potential "newbie" who was not previously tempted to buy a ticket at say £25 be encouraged to buy one at say £30? Surely it is the other way around - i.e. it is the committed regulars, rather than newbies, who are more likely to pay the extra. Going back to price elasticity of demand (from my A-level economics) I would have thought newbies would be more price elastic than committed ballet lovers.

Anyone know what prices have been reduced, as claimed? And how do price increases enlarge, or diversify, the core audience? Why not just be honest, and say we have had to increase prices because of reduced grant funding? Lucy Sinclair's attitude seems to be "we love to see you here, but not too often". Charming!

Cast change for The Royal Ballet's Mayerling 8 October 2018 at 7.30pm 13 October 2018 at 1.30pm 13 October 2018 at 7pm 19 October 2018 at 7.30pm 20 October 2018 at 7pm Edward Watson will be replaced by Ryoichi Hirano as Crown Prince Rudolf for three performances of Mayerling on 8, 13 and 19 October. Ryoichi Hirano will be replaced by Matthew Ball as Crown Prince Rudolf for the matinee performance on 13 October and the evening performance on 20 October.

Thanks for posting these links. Here is what is available from the Bolshoi so far on You Tube -- just the last 1hr 48, and a poor quality recording at that https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z88kZ0RI9AU Mind you I would not recommend much of the earlier stuff they broadcast yesterday, which included a recording of a pretty excruciating school admission session, with young boys and girls wearing only knickers having to dance in front of a po faced Committee, plus the depressing/bad tempered La Bayadere rehearsal already mentioned herein. The RB and Australian You Tube videos are technically good quality recordings, but many of the current Facebook videos have unacceptably poor visual or audio quality, including those from the rest of the UK (with the exception of Northern Ballet).

Sorry to hear this Capybara... as you say, everything from the RB's own 5 hours, at least, appears to be working fine now on You Tube so I hope you can enjoy that.

Same here.

I think that's a bit harsh. I thought the RB had by far the best presentations and I saw fewer technical glitches during these than in other sections.

Loved the RB corps ladies' run through of the whole Shades entrance sequence from La B. Such a test of graceful coordination. Several new artists seen.

She attended Class though, at least the first part.

I much preferred the whole style, ethos and camaraderie that the RB presented to what we saw from the Bolshoi.

I have put UK time in red. I think they got the "UTC+" for Wellington wrong - the web tells me it is currently 11:40 pm in Wellington so they are exactly 12 hours ahead of us here. Please correct if you spot any silly errors. The Australian Ballet, Melbourne 11:00-16:00 AEST (UTC+10hrs) 02:00 - 07:00 Bolshoi Theatre of Russia, Bolshoi Ballet, Moscow 09:00-14:00 MSK (UTC +3hrs) 7:00 - 12:00 Royal Opera House, The Royal Ballet, London 12:00-17:00 BST (UTC +1hr) Guest companies: AUSTRALIA and ASIA The National Ballet of Japan, Tokyo - 11:00-11:15 JST (UTC +9hrs) 03:00 - 03:15 West Australian Ballet , Perth - 14:30-14:40 AWST (UTC +8hrs) 07:30 - 07:40 Queensland Ballet, Brisbane - 15:00-16:00 AEST (UTC+10hrs) 06:00 – 07:00 Royal New Zealand Ballet, Wellington - 15:00-16:00 NZST (UTC +12hrs) 03:00 - 04:00 (UTC + 13 hrs) MAINLAND EUROPE Nasjonalballetten UNG / Norwegian NB 2, Oslo - 14:00 - 14:30 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 13:00 - 13:30 The Royal Danish Ballet, Copenhagen - 14:15-14:45 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 13:15 - 13:45 Bayerisches Staatsballett, Munich - 14:30-15:00 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 13:30 - 14:00 Das Stuttgarter Ballettt, Stuttgart - 15:00-15:30 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 14:00 - 14:30 Wiener Staatsballett, Vienna - 15:15-15:45 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 14:15 - 14:45 Ballet de l'Opéra de Paris, Paris - 15:30-16:00 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 14:30 - 15:00 Het Nationale Ballet - Dutch NB, Amsterdam - 16:00-16:30 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 15:00 - 15:30 Kungliga Svenska/Royal Swedish Ballet Sch.Stockholm - 16:15-16:45 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 15:15 - 15:45 Teatr Wielki - Opera Narodowa, Warsaw - 17:00-17:30 CEST (UTC +2hrs) 16:00 - 16:30 UNITED KINGDOM Scottish Ballet, Glasgow - 11:00-11:30 BST (UTC +1hr) Birmingham Royal Ballet - 13:00-13:30 BST (UTC +1hr) English National Ballet, London - 14:00-14:30 BST (UTC +1hr) Royal Academy of Dance, London - 14:30-15:00 BST (UTC +1hr) Northern Ballet, Leeds - 16:00-16:30 BST (UTC +1hr) AMERICA and CANADA Ballet Concierto De PR, San Juan - 10:00-10:15 AST (UTC -4hrs) 15:00 - 15:15 Acosta Danza, Cuba - 12:00-12:40 EDT (UTC -4hrs) 17:00 - 17:40 Houston Ballet, Texas - 12:30-13:30 CDT (UTC -5hrs) 18:30 - 19:30 Pacific Northwest Ballet , Seattle - 11:00-11:30 PDT (UTC -7hrs) 19:00 - 19:30 Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York - 15:00-15:30 EDT (UTC -4hrs) 20:00 - 20:30 Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal - 16:00-17:00 EDT (UTC -4hrs) 21:00 - 22:00

The RB's time slot is stated as 12:00 - 17:00, and yet schedule shows the La Bayadère rehearsal with the corps de ballet only starting at 17:00. Confusing...

Yes that was my point really...the small number of people around when there was no main performance, would tend to suggest that the crowding, when there was an opera on, was mainly ticket holders rather than casual visitors. Of course this is only speculation....

We entered through the new door off Bow Street, into the new foyer/cafe area under the PH Hall. From what we could see, there were no bag checks from the Covent Garden piazza entrance either. It seems daft to check bags at one entrance but not another. We went up the stairs from the foyer/cafe area to the escalator and up to Level 5 and the Amphi terrace, display area etc. with no checks of tickets (or bags). To clarify, the place where our tickets were checked was at the door from the Level 5 area leading to the stairs (two flights) up to the Clore studio, not the actual studio door. Did you have your ticket checked there as well BBB? But thinking back, all the new publicly accessible areas we saw (ground floor foyer/cafe and shop, lower ground floor next to Linbury, and Level 5 ) were very sparsely populated on Thursday evening, so it is surprising to hear that opera goers have found nowhere to sit/stand comfortably before curtain up or in the intervals, because non-ticket holders were occupying all the spaces. Are we sure these people were all non-ticket holders?

There were no bag checks at all for the Clore event yesterday, and tickets only had to be shown on entry to the studio itself. Is more public access is going to mean less security, and less comfort for paying customers outside the auditorium? The reports from opera goers are troubling.