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MJW

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Posts posted by MJW

    Letter To Tchaikovsky (with James Hay)

    in Ballet / Dance news & information

    Posted

    16 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

    Thank you Jamesrhblack and Bluebird- I wonder why his bio hasn’t included Lescaut in that case. This might be pushing it, but would either of you happen to remember if he was originally cast in it or substituted for someone injured? (Only because I thought the original cast was Takada/McRae/Campbell that year, but I could be confusing it with a different season!) 

     

    in that case, I wish they’d cast him as Lescaut again - or as Des Grieux. I think there was indeed, in the past, an assumption in the casting that he wasn’t tall. But when he appears on stage he is certainly not short. He can partner Naghdi, O’Sullivan, Hayward and Takada beautifully, and in the contemporary works he has no problem with the various tricky lifts and other partnering requirements. He does have that pure classical foundation - you can see it in the wonderful control in his spins- that many don’t have. It’s the same pure foundation that Muntagirov has...they are both elegant classicists (Anthony Dowell was also one). Many of the RB men are dance actors, which is another style that is great to watch, but it is lovely to see pure classicism. 

     

    And I agree with Capybara- he was our favourite Young Man in The Two Pigeons. The others we saw were brilliant, but James had brilliance and on top of that, moved us immensely (TTP has never made me cry prior to that.) Am still waiting to see his Florimund and Rhapsody! 


    Will you be booking to see James in SB in May? I’m booked for the 11th

    • Like 1

    The Sleeping Beauty, Royal Ballet 2023

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    53 minutes ago, Linnzi5 said:

    I have read a lot of reviews of Beauty this run and the prologue fairies regularly seem to disappoint, it appears. I am going to the Saturday matinee and am very interested to see what I think of them - I know the ballet very well and love it. However, I do agree with you and often find the prologue a bit of a slog - I feel the same about Nutcracker with the opening scenes at Clara's house - it seems to go on and on! I haven't seen Hayward in the role, but I can see she would make a lovely, young and vibrant Aurora. I am considering going to the cinema relay in May to see Naghdi/Ball as I have never seen them in these roles. I really enjoy the live relays. I will post my review of the matinee - I am looking forward to it so much and am praying I do not have any 'audience issues!'

     

    Hope you enjoy the Saturday matinee - I am going as well and was lucky enough to see Fumi and William B in the general rehearsal in January.

    • Like 3

    Audience Behaviour - Thread 2

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    1 hour ago, Sebastian said:

     

     

     

     

     

    This confusion seemed worth drawing to ROH's attention. So I wrote to the ever helpful Graham Boland of ROH Customer Services. He replied (and I told him I would update the Forum with what he said):

     

    >>Whilst we encourage all to attend our performances, we do have an age guidance of 5 years and above. Sometimes, it is difficult to gauge a child's exact age and occasionally when asked, a parent might provide a slightly older age which can prove difficult for a member of staff to decide upon. This is why the team will advise customers with young children to be aware of their environment with fellow audience members close by and request politely that they leave at the first sign of noise or irritation. I am sorry if this was not explained clearly to the customer before the performance on this occasion. 

    In response to your request for clarification, please be assured that the matter is being addressed at this very time. Our Visitor Experience department, Front of House and Digital teams are working to ensure we have a consistent, departmental approach for delivery of this guidance for all our customers, both online and when visiting. We are aiming for this to be concluded in the coming weeks...It would be remiss of me to comment on this until the group has come to a fuller explanation. 

     

    As ROH is engaged in a discussion about the issue I presume they would appreciate feedback from its patrons. Graham will no doubt be pleased to feed in any new ideas (I suggested they check the discussion here). 

     

    Thank you for taking the time to contact ROH and for updating us.

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 1

    Hieroglyphs unlocking ancient Egypt (British Museum)

    in Not Dance

    Posted

    5 hours ago, Sim said:

    Thanks so much for the reminder.  I meant to go and it slipped my mind.  I did a Nile cruise in May 2022 and saw many awesome sights, so this exhibition will make a lot of sense to me, and hopefully enhance what I saw.  

     

    Just to forewarn you, I've had this message from the BM about next week -

     

    If you are planning to visit the Museum next week, I wanted to make you aware of the possibility that our ability to open the exhibitions and galleries may be affected by strike activity.

    The Museum’s Director, Hartwig Fischer, has issued a statement about how strike activity may affect our ability to open exhibitions and galleries between 13 and 19 February. You can read the full statement here.

    How will this impact me if I am planning to visit next week?

    We will be working very hard to try to open the Museum each day and to ensure that, wherever possible, we can maintain access to Hieroglyphs: unlocking ancient Egypt. We will need time in the morning to assess the impact of the strikes. We will then update our website by 11am daily with the latest information about what is open to Members and the public.

    What about the Member late night and early morning viewings of the Hieroglyphs exhibition?

    We have taken the difficult decision to cancel our late night and early morning viewings of the Hieroglyphs exhibition on 13 February and 18 February. This is to avoid last minute inconveniece and is not a decision taken lightly.

    We recognise that this uncertainty will be disappointing. As Members, your satisfaction is our first priority, and we are happy to speak with anyone whose enjoyment of their Membership is affected next week.

    Thank you again for your support of the Museum.

     

    Hieroglyphs unlocking ancient Egypt (British Museum)

    in Not Dance

    Posted

    Managed to get round to seeing this exhibition today at the BM. It ends on the 19th Feb and if you can I would recommend it. I would however caution it can get quite crowded and I had to go back and forth to see exhibits when there were fewer people around them.

     

    The BM website link - 

    https://www.britishmuseum.org/exhibitions/hieroglyphs-unlocking-ancient-egypt

     

    My photos - 

     

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CoaN_xrIRUU/

    • Like 1
    • Thanks 2

    ROH seat prices

    in Ballet / Dance news & information

    Posted

    27 minutes ago, oncnp said:

    The ROH has said in the past that they need ~95% full house (Presumably at full price) to break even but with increase in costs that may no longer be true

     

    As to the marketing/advertising aspect how many companies advertise they support the ROH? I don't live in the UK so don't know

     

     

     

    I don't think they do that much. 

     

    Some companies advertise that they support Britain's Olympic team for example ("Proud supporters of...etc etc") but otherwise they seem pretty reticent in advertising their support for the arts etc. Unfortunately we don't have the tax breaks here in the UK that I understand the US does for charitable giving.

    • Like 1

    ROH seat prices

    in Ballet / Dance news & information

    Posted

    27 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

    Yes, I was thinking that there have been sponsors with just as many question marks. The replacement sponsors aren’t the average ticket buyers  though, not counting donors that buy tickets, or ticket buyers who might decide to add a donation of 50% or more on their tickets. Far from it.

     

    If ROH and similar sized organisations had no sponsorship or subsidy, the top price tickets would have to be £300 to £500 (depending on the production) and the lowest about £50.  Most tickets sold don’t cover costs . But many (not all) sponsors need ticket buyers to attend as their sponsorship is a form of marketing/advertisers. And of course the companies (RB, RO, and Linbury performers) need audiences -many audience members- because if only sponsors or people able to pay £300 attended, the auditorium would only be 1% to 5% full every night, which would be very strange and not fun.

     

    I’ve noticed Aud Jebsen and the Rausings being listed on more productions this season but I don’t know the size of their donations or increase in donations if any, and who else has increased or joined as sponsors, and of course, the possibility that any donor may have stipulated that they replace BP is definitely only a guess. They may also have received bequests and it’s impossible to have predicted beforehand who will pass away in which year. Finally, some individual  donors do not wish their names or size of donations to be publicised in case it makes them a target for crime.

     

    According to their charity's funding statement, the Rausings have given £3million over the past two years to the ROH.

    • Thanks 1

    Audience Behaviour - Thread 2

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted

    I'm sure people do anyway, but I would urge anyone to report anything as mentioned above to ROH. If the management is not aware of rules being enforced properly etc etc, then the situation won't improve. 

     

    With regard to young children, I can't see anything specific mentioned regarding "relaxed" rules for SB but the website states 

     

    "Children age five and above are permitted into our auditoria. They must have their own ticket and sit next to an accompanying adult. Some events are open to families with children younger that five. This will be clearly stated on the production or event web page"

     

    I have a nephew and niece of 10 and 7 and would be very happy to take them to see something but I'm certain they would be bored after a while and unlike a DVD, a live production can't be paused to go and do something else half way through!

    • Like 5

    The Sleeping Beauty, Royal Ballet 2023

    in Performances seen & general discussions

    Posted · Edited by MJW

    39 minutes ago, art_enthusiast said:


    Slightly off topic here but are ROH programmes worth buying? I haven’t really purchased any before due to the expense, and I didn’t feel the need as I’m familiar with the plots of most productions. I would like to get one for one of the upcoming operas as a souvenir, but not if the content isn’t that great.

     

    Most of them are - but others (including last year's programme for the RBS summer performance was very poor). I have a whole pile of them at home and they are a nice memento of a visit. I usually keep a copy of the cast list with it.

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