JNC

@LinMM I believe Paris Opera have a feature like that on their website so it is possible to do but I don’t think the ROH website has this functionality. Also every time I received such a notification from Paris the tickets were sold out by the time you looked, so unless you happen to immediately click when you get the alert it doesn’t lead to much success. 
 

I don’t think it’s a bad idea but personally these things can often cause more disappointment for me personally (knowing I’d missed an opportunity rather than remaining ignorant of it). Not that it’s mutually exclusive but I think Friday Rush is a good alternative - everyone knows what time they go live and it sort of levels the playing field a bit if you do want to pick up something relatively last minute. 

Are there similar issues with other theatres? I know the stalls section of the Palau’s Garnier has similar issues with heads in the way in front (for the most expensive seats near enough). 
 

For ROH I guess the front of stalls circle or Grand Tier would technically be the best in the sense there is the lowest risk of anyone in front being in the way. I’ve never sat there though so can’t personally comment! 
 

When they did the full refurb back at the turn of the century it was probably an opportunity to ensure improved sight lines but presumably moving too much would have been prohibitive. 
 

Not that it’s one or the other but I find the Linbury revamp much more annoying given how many reduced sight lines there are proportionally given there aren’t many seats anyway! 

Interesting casting choices! I have to admit I’ve not heard of or noticed Newton Severgini before but I’m less a regular at ROH then I used to be! Pleased to see Pantuso, I first noticed her as one of the fairies in Sleeping Beauty and also then the Royal Ballet class on stage and could sense her promise. 
 

Also interesting to see each cast gets 3 or 4 performances, I will stand corrected if I’m wrong as I’ve not been in the loop so recently but I know usually there are sometimes only 2 performances for each cast for swan lake for example? 

Presumably O’Sullivan, Naghdi and Hay, Sissens etc could be cast in the Summer run of this when it comes back June 2025. 

Do we have any more casting for Cinderella and Maddaddam at all? Hopefully they’ll follow soon. 

Ah maybe it wouldn’t work then.

yes I’ve noticed a pattern of fewer trains (and longer journeys) on Sundays compared to Saturdays but it’s still preferable to a weekday evening for me given overnight stay, work etc. Even if it’s half an hour longer for me to get there (for example, each way) it’s still an option - compared to weekday evenings where it’s going to cost me far more in money and time (if you include an overnight stay). 
 

As @Emeralds points out I’d be less likely to travel on a bank holiday as often there’s no service at all due to engineering works completely closing the line. But I guess bank holidays they’re aiming for London crowds anyway perhaps, or those doing weekends in London rather than day trips as hotel prices would be higher round then too usually. 
 

Obviously if they don’t sell well on a Sunday then that’s that but I wonder if they would be more popular now compared to pre pandemic at least. But the point about tiring out dancers doing Friday, sat matinee, sat evening and Sunday is a pertinent one. Presumably they could mix up the ballet and opera programming though but again not an insider so don’t know how difficult this would be to do re sets/orchestra etc.

28 minutes ago, alison said:

Sundays were a no-no because of the knock-on effects on Monday scheduling.

I’m not disagreeing with this but I’m just wondering if especially post pandemic and a shift to more hybrid / working from home lifestyles whether a Sunday matinee would actually make more sense as opposed to a Monday evening performance.

Sunday matinees would be accessible for non-Londoners without incurring travel costs, be another opportunity for children to attend (depending on the show!) and for those who do work in really busy jobs they can’t always guarantee leaving work by a certain time on weekday evenings (particularly if you’re booking months in advance you don’t know how busy you’ll be) but Sunday is more likely to be a “safe” day. 
 

Obviously I’m sure there are other considerations like dancers’/orchestra and other staff time off so I’m doubt it’ll happen anytime soon at least but most other theatres do tend to offer Sunday matinee performances so would be interesting to see if ROH would ever shift. 

That’s a shame about the insights. 
 

I would have been interested to see an insight on Maddaddam even if I doubt I’ll see the actual performance. And similarly it would have been really interesting to see a variety of choreographers and discussion/viewing of an early creative work forming for the contemporary mixed bill. 
 

I also don’t really understand the combined insight - I suppose you could lump Cinderella and Hansel and Gretel together under a theme of how to adapt fairy tales but it’s a stretch with the different mediums of ballet/opera…and Ruination reading the website it’s adapting a Greek Myth but Cinderella is definitely the odd one out as more “traditional” and ballet! 

Yes if it’s within 24 hours you can still return for resale - if they sell you are credited (minus the £4 fee per ticket). If they don’t sell you lose the money and also don’t see the performance (unless you rebuy your own tickets I suppose last minute!) 

1 minute ago, MildConcern said:

If your concern is whether you get the return credit, then rest assured, the amount will be credited to your account immediately on return and is not contingent upon resale. 

Not if it’s less than 24 hours until the performance?

If Sissens posted a few days ago he’s not dancing I wonder why they only updated the cast change to those who bought tickets today, if they did it yesterday people could have returned tickets for guaranteed credit…?

So Kevin O’Hare has no say? 
 

aside from the practicalities surely O’Hare is best placed to know who should be cast in what, as well as partnerships etc. 
 

I’d always presumed casting was his call, with maybe some dancers inputting (but not getting final say?). Then out of respect, or if rights demanded it I imagined a list of dancers would go to the choregrapher/rights holder for not so much approval but just for information.

I’m not a ballet insider and I trust choreographers and rights holders to know the ballet best but is this really how it works? 

On 04/05/2024 at 15:04, art_enthusiast said:

Hopefully she'll be in Onegin next year though, something to look forward to!

I had booked to see her in Onegin but think she was unwell so unfortunately I couldn’t see her last time round.

A minor aside but should there be a question mark on the title of this thread? When I see it pop up I always question this as It makes it seem like there is a question mark over her ability, without the ? it just feels a nicer title (sorry to be pedantic, I know the question mark is there because some people don’t like her but then this thread title  doesn’t need it was my thought!) 

@FionaM my favourite performances of hers have been in Giselle and Swan Lake, and also Gamzatti in Bayadere. I’ve not seen her Aurora or Sugar Plum but I think she does the classics exceptionally well, at least the ones that require dramatic flair! We all have our preferences though and I agree I wouldn’t necessarily book for her as Aurora or Sugar Plum over some other RB dancers. 

Lovely to read the reviews of Fumi/Vadim.

I was lucky enough to catch the wonderful Fumi and Federico Bonelli performance (it was his retirement, and if I’m not remembering incorrectly her debut, at least at ROH). It’s probably in my top 5 performances at ROH. 
 

I was incredibly impressed by Fumi as she is one the rare few that can capture both the fragility of Odette with the wicked glamour of Odile. (Marinela Nunez and Natalia Osipova are up there too, but they have more years experience!) And her technique is just spectacular. 

She will definitely be my “one to watch” next round, I could only afford one performance this time and as I hadn’t yet seen Marianela I opted for her. Originally I was hoping Fumi would be cast with Bracewell next time round, but looks like her and Vadim have an equally (?) good and strong partnership. Will be a tough choice if she’s partnered with both again, otherwise I’ll just be happy to only have one performance to deliberate on! 

2 minutes ago, MAB said:

 

Not so sacrosanct as I'd like.  All the alterations to sets. costumes and lighting plots have diminished the ballet over the years in my opinion.  I'd give a lot to see Romeo back in the original turquoise tunic.

Oh this is really interesting. I didn’t realise they had done little changes! Guess unless you spot the difference and you have a good eye/memory it’s not necessarily something that would be obvious. I wonder why they changed the colour of the tunic?

Sorry to take further off topic but now I’m curious - why do opera sets/productions get refreshed more often than ballet ones?

Do the sets wear out quicker or is it more artistic expectations that there should be creative changes more often?

I’m curious because obviously it’s vastly expensive to change all sets/costumes, bring in a new director or some creative force (eg if you have slightly different positioning depending on sets as there’s no set “choreography” like in ballet?). 
 

I’m just wondering whether in the current economic times we are in they could make the opera productions last a bit longer? 
 

I suppose nothing lasts forever and with ballets using the same productions the sets/costumes will wear and need to be replaced but producing off an existing template is going to be cheaper, there’s no big artistic changes that have to be scoped and tested with the trial/error process removed. 
 

I’m now going even more off topic and wondering what big ballet production will be the next to have a refresh! The MacMillan/Georgiadis designs feel sacrosanct at this point so I’d imagine as much as I like the current Nutcracker production that might be next in line given it’s 40 years old now. To be honest I’d prefer to see Giselle given a refresh, I don’t like the jagged edge of the Willis’ costumes and I don’t know why but the plot doesn’t seem as strong to me as ENB Skeaping or Paris Opera’s version. Or I wonder if they redid the designs for a MacMillan work that hasn’t been seen recently (Rite of Spring for example) that could be an excuse to revive it. And whilst I adore the Makarova Bayadere, if an updated production that removes some of the “concerns” about it but retains the overall plot and choreography means it can have a full revival I’d prefer this to the work never been seen again at ROH! Anyway I don’t imagine we’ll have any production refreshes for many years given budget, I think we were lucky to have Cinderella. Although if they have the money for a full act McGregor…

15 hours ago, Blossom said:

15% off for booking 3+ Orchestra Stalls performances but excludes Alice and only brings top price down to £160. Somehow I don’t think this will be so successful. 

The package discount back in the day of “all ballet” used to apply to amphi as well - not the cheapest tickets admittedly but the mid range ones, which while they used to be cheaper than nowadays were still a little out of my budget at the time, but with the package discount even if I was paying a little more it was a bit of a treat. And it certainly swayed me to book things I hadn’t considered before, so it did work! 

I suppose they can’t really do packages anymore with such a reduced repertoire - for some booking periods there is only 2 main stage ballets programmed…

I wonder why Alice is the one they’ve excluded from the deal not Cinderella? I’d expect Cinderella to be more of a guaranteed easy sell (even at these prices unfortunately) given the name + Christmas period. 
 

Given they’ve priced Alice the same as Cinderella, are they so confident it will sell well? It’s got 17 performances in autumn, and from the page on the website people will know it’s back in summer so people keen to see both Alice/Cinderella but not flush with cash are likely to spread them out and delay it until the summer? 
 

The Encounters bill is priced quite “low” in comparison, maybe they’re already predicting it won’t be a good seller! It’s less than half the price of Cinderella/Alice! 

Thanks for sharing pricing.

It’s difficult to know exactly what is going on without the seat map but looks like they’ve increased pricing in the amphi quite significantly for Cinderella.

all I can say is, I hope Onegin and Balanchine pricing is more like Maddaddam and the encounters bill respectively…

At least it looks like I’ll only be booking one or two performances each season! 

Not sure if this is the right thread but a few more tickets for Sarasota in the Linbury have gone up if you’re quick 

@alison the higher prices are what put me off giving this a go. I’d be willing to pay those prices for a ballet I really want to see (something I’ve seen before and I know is good, or by Ashton/Balanchine where I like their choreography) but it’s not worth it at these prices for me. For non ballet regulars I think people are prepared to pay that money for the big tutu ballets, or a well known story like Romeo and Juliet, but not for this. 

To add that there’s also no matinee performances at all (apart from on a bank holiday Monday where rail travel is always a risk) so on top of the very high ticket prices I’d have to fork out for accommodation making it even more unaffordable. It’s a shame as all the casts look great, usually there’s one that I’d always gravitate to but here there’s 2, if not 3 that I would really struggle to pick between. 
 

I might try and catch the cinema relay instead! And will live vicariously through the performance by reading reports on here!

22 minutes ago, alison said:

Hang on, why do we price ballet so much more cheaply than opera?" (because the performers are salaried and not being paid high fees for guesting has always been my assumption)

when I did a tour of the ROH once, the tour guide explained the higher pricing for opera due to the sets being far more expensive than ballet sets. They said that ballet sets are mainly ornamental props/screens that don’t need to take the weight of people standing on them (think a painted backdrop).

Of course this may not be the only reason, and I hope I’m not misremembering as the tour was a few years ago now (pre Covid). I’m aware that there are a number of ballet sets that do need to take weight (think the stairs act 3 swan lake and Cinderella) - interesting these are newer sets so maybe that is feeding into higher costs for ballet with “better”/more structural sets than previously. 

4 hours ago, bridiem said:

Judging by the two articles about this in today's Links, there is a deal of confusion about this name change. One writer thinks the name of the building has changed, the other thinks there is now only one company performing at the - er - ROH. Which I think is indicative of how poorly this has been publicised (and possibly, considered).

The press release on the ROH website is weirdly hidden - you have to go to news, click the 2024/2025 season announcement page and then in the first paragraph there is a hyperlink where they announce “Royal Ballet and Opera” to it.

I read this again to see if it helped clear up confusion but it doesn’t. It’s very much saying a lot without saying anything at all,

with phrases like “The Royal Opera House describes the place we work, not who we are. The whole is always more than the sum pf its parts…”

What does this actually mean? It doesn’t clarify what the building is/will be called. 
 

Alex Beard says “ballet and opera are the real thing”. I mean…well yes they’re not imaginary and they are a “thing”…

I’m being a bit facetious but it’s actually quite worrying their official press release doesn’t really explain what this actually means for the company (companies) structurally (is it staying exactly the same but just the umbrella name changes from ROH to rbo) and the building name etc…and without being too harsh I expect someone in Alex Beard’s position to be able to provide an authoritative, clear, and dare I say somewhat inspiring message. 

whoever is in charge of their communications needs to think about the clarity of messaging and not just fluff about the building being a “nerve centre” (?!) and Beard saying not even talking about the name change in his quote! 
 

we shouldn’t have to go to other news sources for clarity about what this name change means for ROH. And the fact that some sources are conflicting shows that even in briefings and interviews given directly they’ve not sorted out a clear communication about what this actually means…

If I was ROH/Alex Beard I’d talk about why they are changing the name of the *organisation* from ROH to RBO to reflect two equally important partners (well three if you count the orchestra but they’re not in the name…!). Then I’d clarify the building name remains the same for traditional/historical reasons (or alternatively if the building name is changing I’d explain what the new name is). Then I’d go into the importance of art forms like ballet and opera and how they bring joy to so many, and then you can reference the cinema broadcast and outreach etc as you see fit. 

@Lizbie1 I agree - my posts weren’t intended to further such speculation but rather give some thoughts on why I think it’s unlikely that guesting is delaying casting announcements. 

39 minutes ago, Lizbie1 said:

I'm seeing the suggestion here that this is related in some part to giving dancers more flexibility wrt guesting and galas. Is there any basis for this?

No I think it’s just speculation, and I don’t think it makes sense logically. 
 

It’s true that dancers may know and the friends/public doesn’t - but this also doesn’t make sense to me as why wouldn’t they put out such plans (always subject to illness/injury etc). 
 

I appreciate it must be a mammoth job juggling assigning roles, looking at partnerships, thinking about rehearsal time and then coordinating that with other programmes that these principals may be dancing in and then those associated rehearsal times so it’s not an easy job, but it has to be done anyway and the further in advance they do it seems a win-win by informing friends and others interested in booking as well as having a good plan for the next few months and dancers knowing exactly when they’ll be performing and rehearsing. 

@ellyb surely early casting enables RB dancers to guest “more” in that they know exactly when their RB commitments are and can work around those. 
 

I have no problem with RBdancers  guesting elsewhere but I don’t think this should trump their full time job and RB scheduling should come first. 
 

If they announced casting at the time of premium friends booking you’re looking at anything between 3-6 months advance notice of when you’re expected to dance at the RB. 
 

If they are trying to manage dancers’ guessing preferences and that’s delaying casting (and that’s very much an IF unless someone has insider knowledge, I personally don’t think it’s this as it doesn’t make sense to me) it’s very much the wrong way to go about it and a huge disservice to UK audiences, Friends and the wider company (as principal casting will have knock on effects for partnerships and first soloist roles etc). 
 

Also perhaps I’m being overly hopeful but is this the RB trying to cover themselves? And the communication and follow up responses are badly worded? I know it’s still poor they can’t hold themselves to something they’ve been doing for years but there’s still a chance Friends will receive casting in advance of their booking period opening?

I’ll be looking for casting detail with interest - Friends booking opens on 25 June (with higher tiers the previous weeks) so I’d except ideally casting to be released early mid June if they wanted to give Friends this information in advance. Then there’s only about 2 weeks between Friends and general booking so they really ought to get casting out at some point in June to give friends even a little head start! 

Is there a particular (new) challenge as to why they can’t announce casting in advance? 
 

I’m just trying to understand where and why this could be coming from, and why they had issues with the MacMillan and Ashton castings. 

@Richard LH my summary was my impression of the messaging, you’ve put one direct quote but here’s another one from Mears 

“The whole organisation has become a lot more approachable since I started in 2017,” 

It’s not directly said in the article but I’m reading between the lines here to imply my opinion is that Mears and O’Hare are being conscious about what they are programming to ensure it’s not considered “elitist” or “unapproachable”. There’s mention of the programming of an opera dealing with “challenging” subjects such as domestic violence , racism and child abuse, and also the Linbury programme of Legacy celebrating black and brown dancers (not mentioned in the article).
 

I think there are active, conscious decisions being made with a view to challenging the conception that RBO/ROH is elitist and making it a more approachable organisation but I suppose neither Mears or O’Hare say it so directly in those terms. I should have been clearer in my original post that it was my impression of the article rather than exactly what was being stated, so apologies for that. Of course I could be 2 + 2 = 5…but given we talk a lot about ACE funding being aware of such words/criteria it’s not a stretch, but still my opinion. 

I add that I’m actually not against such programming - i’m not familiar with opera, I personally am unsure if I’d want to see something with such themes but just because it might not be my preference it’s not to say it shouldn’t be programmed and could be a valuable work. And the Legacy programme sounds like it could be really interesting, although there’s not a huge amount of detail right now. Similarly there is a balance to be struck and making sure heritage words that have artistic value aren’t discarded because they don’t fit a particular “agenda”. It’s a complicated topic with lots of nuance so I don’t want to take this thread off topic so I’ll leave it there!
 

I think the overarching point I was trying to make (which may have been expressed badly) is approachable repertoire is one thing, but if people can’t afford to see anything  due to the high ticket prices then that is elitist, and not approachable! 

Will they give Friends ability to cancel memberships if advance casting is no longer a thing?

Strictly speaking advance casting is not a privilege of membership but advance booking is and that privilege will be reduced significantly for most ballet friends! 
 

I don’t see why it can’t be provided if it used to be previously. As mentioned we all know there’s no guarantees with injuries/illness but otherwise it makes planning everything easier surely, not just for audiences but internally for the company and dancers themselves?