JNC

Oh dear. Any sense of how long this will go on for?

Lovely photos @Rob S thank you very much for being there to document and share. looks like a wonderful, emotional send off for a fantastic dancer who will be sorely missed. I’m glad she will be staying to coach dancers though - she was brilliant in coaching the Godmother role for the Cinderella insight. What an intelligent, thoughtful, beautiful dancer. (and I also agree Tierney Heap and Stix-Brunell would have been excellent in this bill!)

are they doing printed ones for the special occasion? I hope everyone has enjoyed (are enjoying!) Laura’s performance and look forward to reading all about it.

“silent movie ham” seems mean spirited even if he is entitled to an opinion of course. I did actually agree with all of his review in the round though, and while this phrase isn’t fair (whispers and ducks for cover) I don’t think Morera was dramatically strong in this compared to other performances I’ve seen from her so I can sort of see where Christiansen is coming from. she brought such character and backstory to Cinderella compared to every other cast I saw (3 others) in a role that didn’t require it quite so much. So for a role that is almost entirely character I’m not sure why I remained unmoved. I think in part it was due to the choreography and “story”, and use of the filming that meant I couldn’t really feel it, and I felt the lighting meant I struggled at times to see Morera’s face properly. I remain increasingly disappointed this is her farewell/retirement performance.

I went with an open mind and I was even looking forward to Untitled after the positive reviews and intriguing costume design. To be honest, I knew in advance I probably wasn’t going to love any part of this bill, and had it not been for one of Morera’s last performances I wouldn’t have booked. Untitled Well the short review is I didn’t hate it, but didn’t love it. My overwhelming emotion was boredom! I thought the dancers fantastic as always, particularly (the under-utilised Hamilton) and I liked the costumes actually which reflected the set design and art inspiration well. Without getting too deep into things, is this work ballet? I don’t want to open the can of worms about McGregor’s position as it got quite heated but to me (an untrained person!) this did not feel like ballet. My personal opinion is whilst I respect McGregor’s talent (even if he is usually not to my tastes), there’s a separate issue of should the Royal Ballet’s resident choreographer be someone who isn’t really/primarily a ballet choreographer? Someone may come in here and tell me I don’t know what I’m talking about and it is ballet; or even if he’s not he’s talented so who cares. Well there’s other dance forums for non-ballet works and so I would like to see a ballet choreographer in McGregor’s role. Whatever you think of Wheeldon I think his work is identifiable as ballet? So his position (even if to be honest I’m not overly impressed by any of his work I’ve seen, generally I like it but don’t love it) makes sense to me. To me I feel we don’t have a Balanchine/Ashton/MacMillan of our generation (maybe Forsythe is the closest?) and we should be encouraging those, not any old dance choreographer (as successful and talented as they may be). I’d be happy to have McGregor and Pite etc choreograph for the Royal Ballet, but this is different to holding the resident choreographer position. One of the things I love about ballet (and dance more generally) is that it often reflects music. Whether it is music personified, amplified, my favourite works and favourite dancers have a relationship with the music (think Symphony in C, Scenes de Ballet or Sleeping Beauty). The music here felt like background music to an apocalyptic film and didn’t really align with the dancers the way I want dance/music to work together. I also dislike dance pieces where I find there is too many different isolated things going on on stage (as I don’t know where to look or how they relate!). That’s not to say you need to have group ensembles all the time but even if you’ve got different things happening I feel it should someone feel all like part of a wider piece (think like dances at a gathering) not random pas de deux happening at the same time for the sake of it. Anyway my thoughts ended up being longer than expected (!) but overall I wasn’t a fan of Untitled and wouldn’t be interested in seeing it again. Corybantic Games This I enjoyed more than untitled and thought there was some inventive choreography in there (use of handstands, effective use of grouping/partnering). Dancers were great as usual. Didn’t enjoy it as much as Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour or DGV, but found it ok. It’s something I would be interested in seeing as part of a triple if other components tempted me, but not something I’d go out of my way to see. Anastasia Well this was unrelentingly bleak. I was expecting it but it was still grim watching to be honest. I haven’t seen this or Acts 1 and 2 of Anastasia previously, and thought it may have played better with the first two acts. It felt like watching act 3 of Manon alone - I love manon, probably my favourite (full length) MacMillan but I wouldn’t want to watch act 3 of it standalone. Morera was fantastic as expected, and so was Hirano. I felt the video was a bit overused and distracted from the dancers at the start, and it’s hard to understand who Gartside’s character is unless you read the synopsis. Some good MacMillan classic lifts but not anything that betters work in Manon/Romeo and Juliet etc. it just felt a very odd choice both as a stand-alone act and as a retirement piece to be honest. Also I know ballet isn’t just meant to tackle happy subjects, and it is important to reflect on real life but knowing Anna Anderson was a fake, and using real life footage of the Romanov’s felt a bit tasteless to me to be honest. I can see it’s an interesting subject on the one hand, and I think exploring difficult real life situations and real people in dance can work excellently (see Woolf Works, also Broken Wings ENB did based on Frida Kahlo) but this just felt a bit exploitative to the tragedy of the Romanovs to be honest. In some ways I wish I hadn’t seen this bill as it was overall a disappointed and I’m glad I saw Morera in Cinderella. Also I’m sure there doesn’t need to be but it felt an odd jumbled programme without a theme or link. I feel other mixed bills have worked better either with a link (eg the excellent “Russian” bill of symphony in C, Firebird, and a Month in the Country) or the bill with Medusa / Flight Pattern / within the golden hour may not have had a clear theme but I felt the works were a good mix of abstract/storytelling/ballet/contemporary. This bill felt disjointed and overall lacking in joy, both musically and choregraphically. Without being too grim it’s probably the worst evening I’ve had at the ROH! Which isn’t meant to sound too damming as usually I do have an excellent time but this just felt a bit too pointless and relentless, and Corybantic was actually ok but not good enough to save the evening I’m afraid. I think the only “ballet” evening I’ve enjoyed less is Akram Khan’s Creature which was incredibly bleak, with awfully loud jarring music and no real beautiful choreography (so disappointing as I really liked his Giselle). And again, beautiful doesn’t mean happy as I’m always moved by the despair of Manon Act 3, and works like Pite which provide thoughtful insights on some less happy topics (and not strictly ballet for me either?) but also have purpose and coordination across the stage. It’s a bit depressing to end the season on this when last year we had Ashton…

I’m not criticising guests/critics/colleagues attending, I think it’s great they’re there (and would expect them to be also!). I don’t have any evidence one way or another but my point was rather the Linbury is a small theatre and so I could be wrong but I sense an extra night or two for everyone to get to see something would be appreciated - particularly because in my experience not many (if any?) tickets are held back when general booking opens. London has 6 million people plus a million or two more given train connections to SE? Surely there are enough people who are interested to fill some more nights? if the whole point of the Linbury is to be more affordable, and open up more experimental works to a wider audience, this seems to (unintentionally) conflict with a large proportion of tickets not available to the general public. It could easily be solved by adding more shows, I could be wrong and maybe 1-2 more nights of BRB would have led to empty seats but I was just voicing my thoughts out loud. (And also thinking about how this affects Sarasota at the Linbury next year and pretty much trying to reconcile not getting a ticket for that.)

I also assumed it was a clever move by ROH to put Nela/Vadim post Christmas for Nutcracker to ensure those sell well. That aside it’s good to mix up who opens which show and those two do get a lot of first nights! I’m glad Osipova has four DQs as I imagine she will be (one of) the most popular casting choices for that! Good to see a mix up of partnership as well with Sambe. I’m not sure I’d see them together in a classical (tutu) ballet but maybe their Giselle could be interesting…(let’s see how DQ goes first!)

I agree this is a good initiative and congrats to Carlos for delivering it and the dancers for their performances! the standout and highlight for me was Eric Pinto Cata and Olivia Change Clarke in La Sylphide, both technically lovely but also with good character presence. Riku Ito was also brilliant in Diana and Acteon (and stood fair against Hirata as a principal so props to him, she was also magnificent). To be honest some of the pieces selected didn’t work for me but I appreciate the thought behind the mixed selection even if not to my tastes. I think the Linbury is the perfect venue for these types of works but whenever I’ve gone it seems a reasonable chunk of the audience are critics/dance VIPs (either dancers of the company and or people like O’Hare and Mason or if I guessed I’d say high level patrons). Of course I would expect to see them there and it’s nice to see them there but considering the size of the Linbury and limited runs of work there I wonder how many people always miss out on tickets to things shown there.

@Emeralds yes I am aware, I was lucky enough to see Bonelli’s retirement and that was very special - I know seeing Laura’s not quite final performance will not be the same as her retirement, but expect it to be moving and very worthwhile nonetheless, I think my comment referred to the fact that whilst I can’t make her final performance many will go and I expect she will get the full flower throw etc then as well and rightfully deserved!

I’m a friend and haven’t received anything. That said I’ve already booked once so maybe not their target. Ironically given where I thought I might rank my ballet preferences, I’m looking forward most to Untitled now! To be honest I was never much looking forward to Anastasia but had to see Laura in it (sadly not her final performance, but there will be enough people there and yes expect flower throws, speeches on stage etc). Corbyantic games I’m not sure about - I liked within the golden hour but Wheeldon’s work has never really ‘wowed’ me. I feel he’s quite consistent whereas with McGregor I’m either quite impressed (Woolf Works act 1) or a bit bored (Dante Project act 2).

I think Untitled looks quite good actually (pure aesthetics based off the photos as I’ve not seen it yet) so actually looking forward to that. unsure about the other two works but trying to keep open minded until I actually see them. perhaps controversially I’m glad they didn’t do the full length Anastasia as I’m not sure I’d enjoy that all. At least with three different acts/ballets you have different flavours (even if you don’t love them all!). I do agree it would have been nice for a retirement performance to have been Morera in all three acts though, whether a full length piece or her in different works (say one Ashton, another more contemporary) - but that may have been too much as usually you do mix casting among one acts as they’re perhaps more gruelling (if you know the dancer doesn’t necessarily need to return to another act!)?

Has it been confirmed if the McGregor casting is the same every night?

I have messaged you! Thanks

It’s great to see this has sold so well (completely sold out in Birmingham too). Hopefully it it’s good it’ll get revived quickly next year. There’s a lot of good potential here so will watch reviews with anticipation as sadly I don’t think I can go to this one!

Ticket now found, thanks!

also they can be informative about the works for those who want more information, provide information on the companies and have great photos of the production (and my favourite are always the backstage rehearsal shots of dancers). I’ve been trying to reduce buying programmes for productions I’ve already seen (or won’t buy for usually contemporary productions I end up not liking on the night) but often can’t help myself if there is new content/photos. I get an unproportionate amount of happiness seeing them all lined up with their red spines and flick through them regularly. It may be irrelevant but I’m also someone who isn’t a fan of kindles and much prefers the physical thing as a tangible object!

Regarding seat views, not foolproof but I use this website: https://seatplan.com/london/sadlers-wells-theatre/seating-plan/ Not every seat will have a photo/review as it relies on uploads from the audience but overall I find it generally quite helpful (and better than nothing!).

But the big question is will the general public want to pay that much for DQ? Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, (and to some extent Beauty but less so than the others?) will sell for higher prices. I can’t remember how well DQ sold last time but it’s also irrelevant to a point as the prices were much much lower then I think (at a memory guess I’d say around 30% less, although I’ve not seen the banding yet but I’d hazard a guess I paid around £30 for the amphi ticket that is now £52). In any case very excited for Osipova and Sambe. I also think Magri and Corrales is a good partnership (I very much enjoyed their Coppelia) so pleased to see they get the cinema relay and a matinee so I will try and catch one of those! I’m glad Osipova gets 4 performances as I imagine she will be the most popular to book for. Not surprised Nela and Vadim get 3 as well given their popularity also. Interesting that O’Sullivan/McRae are the other couple to get more than 2 though, particularly as it’s a debut for O’Sullivan. Also good to see Acri get a principal role, I’d guess he would work well with Takada.

Thanks! I think I just like getting ahead of myself and planning very early!

Yes I do still miss the physical cast sheets. I print out the shows I attend now but it’s just not the same. I tend to print them out in booklet format so then I can fold them in half and stick them in the programme (if I buy one, otherwise they just get filed in between programmes/books!) like I did with the old cast sheets but the size dimensions and flat paper just don’t have the same appeal. It would surely boost revenue for them to charge 50p for them as they’d make profit (?) and overall paper would still be saved as they’d likely be printing much fewer each performance.

Thanks both! This forum is great for this information but if you’re not part of it I just think ROH should provide this information on its website so people can roughly plan how much they can/want to spend in advance of booking opening!

I’m sorry this has probably already been asked before but is there a way to see the pricing map on the website before tickets sales are live? Interested in the pricing/bands for Don Quixote! Very intrigued by the Sambe/Osipova pairing!

If anyone is looking to get rid of a ticket to this please let me know, I happen to be in London and would be interested to see this.

Prodigal son is one of those programmes cancelled due to covid that sadly seems unlikely to make a reappearance. Wasn’t Monotones also due an outing?

I am going and with an open mind as I’ve not seen any of the works. I can’t make Morera’s last night sadly but aiming to catch her penultimate performance.