MJW

Very impressive performances this afternoon from Yasmine Naghdi and Matthew Ball. Great to see Gary Avis as Tybalt and nice to see David Donnelly as Paris (he was excellent as Lensky in 2020). I always try to see how many of the Mandolin dancers I can recognise given their makeup and managed four out of six which I think is pretty good! Next stop Swan Lake on 1st March (my first opening night!)

In 2014, a colleague/friend's husband (who then worked for one of the larger telecoms companies) phoned her at work to say that his company was offering some form of staff discount to go to Covent Garden to see the ballet, and did she want to go? The husband said he didn't want to, but despite never previously having had even an inkling of a desire to go to the ballet, I said I wouldn't mind if she wanted to. I looked into it. and booked us both to see the Nutcracker just after Christmas 2014. It was at that production (with Nunez and Soares) that I caught the Ballet Bug, and haven't looked back since!

Just a reminder of booking dates: General: 22 February 2022, 9am Friends: 8 February 2022, 9am Young Friends: 8 February 2022, 9am Friends+: 3 February 2022, 9am Supporting Friends: 1 February 2022, 9am Premium 1 Friends: 27 January 2022, 9am Premium 2 Friends: 25 January 2022, 9am

Well done ! I was trying to be clever and post a screenshot of the page from the Magazine but that didn't seem to work!

The most recent edition of the Friends Magazine is available if you log in on the ROH website - its under the Membership section. I can post an extract with the prices on here but I am not sure if I am allowed to?

Yes I saw that on IG - great news and am very pleased he will be back on stage soon 😊

My Sky info said the same but clearly not...makes one wonder where they get their information from!

https://www.roh.org.uk/news/remembering-john-sainsbury-19272022

He was very impressive in the same role last October

I quite agree - it was great that last Saturday's Nutcracker started at 18:30

Just been notified that the performance on Saturday 29th is now at 1pm rather than 1:30pm - possibly the start of many alterations to timings.

I have started this thread in anticipation of Romeo and Juliet starting tomorrow. I am booked for the matinee on the 29th (fingers crossed). I have checked the ROH website to see how the performances are selling and there are a shocking number of unsold seats - well over 100 for for a lot of performances including tomorrow's. I wonder whether it was such a good idea for the RB to have two tranches of R&J in the same season?

A great summary of the evening - I thought David Donnelly struggled a bit with the lifts - but as you say it all went well in the end! I might be mistaken but I thought there was some alteration in the Sugar Plum Fairy/Price choreography towards the end? I don't recall fouettes (if that's the correct term) from the Prince like that? Or am I going mad?

Hope you are enjoying this evening’s performance. Extra snow and glitter tonight!

That's good news as I am going to this evening's performance 😀

Keep trying! As Alison says there are seats available at the moment and they keep coming up. Otherwise try Friday Rush tomorrow to see if any more are released.

I managed to grab a ticket for the last performance on Saturday 8th with William Bracewell and Laura Morera so that's something to look forward to during the current gloom. I've already seen two Nutcrackers this season but I couldn't resist !

Something to look forward to during the coming months! The Ashton triple is particularly appealing and hopefully I will end up going to several performances

I wasn't aware that the rules had changed - the chap sitting next to me when I went to see Giselle a couple of weeks ago was eating his during the second act. Good job I didn't cause a fuss! Thankfully during his eating he wasn't able to sigh despondently as he had been during the rest of the performance as clearly he had been dragged there against his will!

He was sitting at the end of the stalls circle on Wednesday - a quick shove and he would be in the orchestra pit!

That's good news - I had it saved on my old Sky box for years and unfortunately I lost the recording when I changed to SkyQ because my old box went kaput

I am very pleased to say that they were both marvelous! I should also say that Mayara Magri was imperious as Mythra - however I did think she looked a bit startled when a "bravo" was shouted out near the start of the second act! I was also very pleased to see Giocomo Rovero (as part of the Pas de Six) and Harris Bell - its nice to see people one follows on IG get bigger roles on stage.

Thanks for that - I was aware that the Royal Ballet School were doing funds match as I saw it on their IG. I will give a donation now otherwise it will go out of my head and it will be too late!

I think that was only the second time I have seen them perform live together since I first started watching ballet in 2013 (the other time was the Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux in the summer). Having seen the Nutcracker many times I am always a bit worried that it might seem a bit jaded but thankfully last night put paid to that. Wonderful performances from everyone. Bit of a nightmare journey home with a cancelled train and police stopping the one I managed to get. Hopefully my journey home from Giselle will be smoother! p.s. I was very pleased to see that they have continued to dispense with the wigs for the men in the second act (as they did in 2020). They look so much better!

I suspect quite a few of us did!