MJW

From the ROH: Thank you so much for your email and for your interest in our Friends' Open Day. Tickets for this event will be free and you can book up to 4 tickets. Please do let us know if you have any further queries and thank you for your support of the ROH.

I've dropped the ROH an email to ask about prices and will let you know if I get a response before booking opens next week!

No - its not you - I thought exactly the same thing. Also if I ask a friend or family member to go with me, I'd like to know the cost beforehand!

I had an invite from the ROH last month regarding its future streaming (as below). Unfortunately I couldn't go as I was working but hopefully this research will be of some value - I work with the Royal Opera House as a User Experience Researcher. I am contacting you as we are conducting some research to improve the experience of streaming ROH content online. The sessions will be scheduled at the Royal Opera House on Thursday 21 July and each session will last up to 90 minutes. You will take part in a research session with two other participants, working together to group information into categories. The results of this exercise will then be used to help organise some content on our website.

Such a lovely man - I watched him as a child with Jackanory (reading the Arabel's Raven series which were some of my favourite books as a child) and then did the same for my niece and nephew decades later with Old Jack's Boat

This is from the Courtauld which gives a bit more info https://courtauld.ac.uk/news-blogs/2022/wordfly-incident-and-response/

I appreciate this isn't quite what people are looking for, but a lovely video nonetheless - from Dancersdiary IG https://www.instagram.com/p/CgE9JP0jZQ6/

What a terrific afternoon. I was slightly dreading going today as I am not very good in the heat (and try and avoid London during the summer months), and was a bit concerned about how the trains would be. Thankfully the journey there and back was fine and other than around Waterloo I didn't find it too hot. Apart from a couple of the dancers I can't put names to faces, but the quality of performances all round was excellent and I am sure there was some very proud families there this afternoon. Other than Raymonda I hadn't seen any of the other words before and I think probably Yondering stood out for me - joyous with such great accompaniment with music by Stephen Foster and vocals by Thomas Hampson (which I will see if I can download if possible). I see it was being filmed - does anyone know if this will be streamed in the future?

Today’s programme is a bit thin! Though perhaps that reflects the reduced price of £6! I’m sure there was more last time.

There's a bit of info here - I presume this covers both Holland Park and at Covent Garden. Very much looking forward to it - if not the heat ! https://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/summer-performances/

I have only just had a chance of a quick flick through the Friends Magazine (I will try and remember to take my badge when I go on Saturday!) and really do worry about some of the price increases being proposed. I can quite understand the need for the House to raise revenue to make up the losses incurred due to Covid but I do hope that this doesn't have too detrimental effect on audience numbers. Whilst Alex Beard refers to the cost pressures the House is facing due to the increases in energy prices and inflation generally, so we are we - the audiences. £170 for the highest-price seat for The Sleeping Beauty?

Logged in at 9am this morning at work and that went very smoothly. Booked for Mayerling, the Diamond Celebration and Nutcracker. Only one small point was that I had to re-set the filter every time which is a bit of a pain.

I went on a backstage tour some years and took my mother who, despite having no interest in ballet or opera, found it absolutely fascinating. We were taken into the auditorium and given a history of the building and then backstage to see the areas where the scenery is kept (huge!) and then the costume department, rehearsal areas etc. We were lucky enough to see Carlos Acosta as repetiteur I think for Don Quixote, Also saw a few dancers including Meaghan Grace Hinkis, Akane Takada and Tristan Dyer. Obviously that was during the season, do I don't know how that would compare to a tour during the summer.

Let's hope it is resolved sooner rather than later; I read yesterday that the RMT were prepared to continue until Christmas

I was originally a Friend and am now a Friend+ - I am quite choosy as to where I sit and which performances I want to see so being able to book well in advance of the general public is a considerable plus for me (plus of course one is helping the ROH through the additional fee).

There are quite a few for me but I will pick two: seeing William Bracewell and Fumi Kaneko in their first performance together in Romeo and Juliet in October (which was the first time in a full House since before Covid), and the Ashton triple (which I saw twice) and which was superb.

Rather late in the day...link to images by Alastair Muir https://photos.alastairmuir.com/Ballet/Royal-Ballet/Like-Water-for-Chocolate/i-PJHQXfq

Having had a quick flick, I think the new layout is an improvement on the previous version. Certainly splitting what's on stage from other events seems sensible.

Thanks for that - I have just managed to bag myself a seat in the stalls circle

Interestingly they seem to have added wheelchair spaces in the GT. Unless this is an error, they are presumably carrying out works during the summer as they certainly weren't there on Saturday.

From the ROH's Flickr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/royaloperahouse/albums/72177720299568950

I first started going to the ROH in 2014 so some time after the redevelopment in the late 1990s. Every so often there may be a program on tv from the 1970s or 80s which show the Opera House before it was redeveloped ( there may be an episode of Rumpole and certainly Fresh Fields which show Bow Street etc before the 1990s). There was a book I think by Dixon Jones the architects behind the 1990s development which would have been really interesting but I can't find that now unfortunately.

Just got back home from this afternoon's performance. I have rather mixed feelings about Like Water - the dancers were exemplary and the staging and music were excellent (though at times if I had shut my eyes I felt as though I could have been listening to the parts of the score of Alice). I just felt there was far too much going on - especially in the first act. Even having read the synopsis beforehand there were parts which I didn't have a clue what was going on. Perhaps if I go to the cinema screening in January for a second helping things may be a bit clearer and I might enjoy it more. I do wish the season had ended with the Ashton triple as that was superb, but there we are! Long wait until October !

There were some very amusing anecdotes from Darcey at the beginning of the BBC’s coverage of the service at St Paul’s concerning the Queen’s lack of enthusiasm for ballet (and opera)

Hope your journey was uneventful and you have managed to get here. Hope you enjoy