JNC

Is casting for the Linbury usually announced in advance? Curious as to who will be in the Monotones mixed bill. With only four performances I feel I am probably unlikely to get a seat though! Do Linbury performances get included in Friday Rush or not?

Rob - I think the whole point of the forum is for people to share their views (of course only if they wish to do so!) and agree with annamk that I enjoy reading reviews. I personally don’t have a good technical knowledge of ballet and wouldn’t be able to describe particular movements/positions, which whilst certainty they can add additional detail for those who do know (or those who want to find out more), it doesn’t detract from anything if you don’t! (If that makes sense!). I for one find it really interesting the different responses people have (eg Osipova/Hallberg seemed to have a lot of contrasting reviews, and one person was brave enough to say they didn’t enjoy Naghdi/Ball as much as the others had despite the countless glowing reviews). Dancers are all different, and we as the audience also have different preferences and notice different things and that’s part of what makes it so interesting!

Osipova was a marvellous Juliet - very 'bouncy', youthful exuberance, such energy! Even up in the amphi you could feel her emotion. I always forget how high she can jump (Bolshoi!) and that there is great technique behind the energy. Hallberg was very clean and elegant and yes, a bit more reserved. There were a few moments where their partnership came alive through their closeness in the pdd but they did seem a bit mismatched at times (Osipova coming from the angle of young crazy love and all over the place, and Hallberg seeming a bit more serious). Hallberg was good - you could tell he's got fantastic technique and is incredibly elegant. However, I felt he seemed to struggle with some of the earlier higher lifts (they just didn't look effortless and he seemed conscious of Osipova's weight - not that she would be heavy! - and or not dropping her). You could tell the immense respect they feel for each other in the curtain calls, which in some ways I found more moving than in the ballet itself (not sure this is a good thing...). Overall I enjoyed it and glad I was able to see their partnership live. I also saw Hayward and Corrales and I think I preferred their version of young passionate love (although I went to see their debut which was incredibly promising but I felt one of their second or third performances would have really been better to go to as that's when it seemed to have really ignited!). Also Hayward and Corrales had the excellent supporting cast of Sambe/Ball etc which I think added an overall element of a fantastic performance. Perhaps I always feel I'm missing something a bit with RJ because it's not one of my favourite ballets - I find there to be not enough 'pure dance' (I prefer Manon or one of the classic ballets in this respect). I don't think it necessarily helps perhaps that I'm also up in the amphi which means I struggle to catch a lot of facial expressions which makes me feel that I often miss certain nuances etc. I am going to try and catch the live screening of Ball/Naghdi as this may help me feel the passion being able to see their faces! Coincidentally I am also going to see Osipova/Hallberg in A Month in the Country so it will be interesting to see them again for comparison - I didn't book for them but it will be interesting. I doubt I'd necessarily book to see Osipova/Hallberg again in future as I have other casts that I prefer but I wouldn't rule it out and think perhaps Hallberg would be suited to other types of roles the involve more princely/elegant characteristics rather than the young fiery passion of Romeo, so perhaps Sleeping Beauty or even the 'good' and pure Des Grieux would play to his strengths more.

Thanks for explaining! I wonder if it would really be so odd for a female dancer to be taller than the male - would it really look *that* bad to affect casting? It would be interesting to see if anyone has seen something a performance where the female has been taller! Whilst I've never seen McRae and Takada perform, one reason I haven't booked is because I agree that I think they look a bit odd paired together. I feel Takada would work with almost any of the other principals! So I personally find it odd that height seems to dictate so much, and feel it's a bit of a shame when it may limit who dancers are paired with or whether they are even cast for certain roles. I actually really like Nunez and Muntagirov as a pair - because they are such happy, sunny dancers with excellent classical technique so I think they work really well together. Agree that it would be nice to mix up the pairings sometimes though!

Curious as to why this is? Is it a height thing, or is it simply because the dancers like working together and KOH (and possibly the audience) etc like to have set pairings? Or a combination of all of the above?

Penelope - I think I was typing my comment before I saw yours! As you can see I echo most of what you've said in my comments and agree that whilst it's nice to have some clear partnerships (e.g. Nunez/Muntagirov, Naghdi/Ball) I also think it's good to mix things up a bit - and this as I've already said should apply to Osipova as well!

I think this is my point - if he becomes Osipova's primary (or only) partner I don't really think that's in the spirit of guesting. Obviously if dancers have a great partnership (think Fonteyn Nureyev as the most famous example) that should be nurtured but at the same time surely Osipova can/should find a good partnership amongst all the RB's amazing male dancers? I think I'm happy to see him a few times a year as clearly they like working together but wouldn't want him to necessarily come back every season and have Osipova only partner him. Unless of course he does become an RB principal (not suggesting this is likely), but then that comes back to the point that he wouldn't only be expected to partner with Osipova! Also agree that if the standard of dancing isn't up to what we expect from RB and a dancer of this level generally (I think it's perhaps a bit unfair to compare him to what he was pre-injury) then yes, he probably shouldn't be guesting (or perhaps a very rare guest one or two performances every six months or so with Osipova if that's what they both want and they sell well?). Anyway I'm excited to see them tomorrow and whilst I except a very difference performance to the one I saw with Hayward/Corrales I hope it is just as good but in a different way!

John I agree that Anna-Rose is very much a dancer with exciting opportunities and I look forward to seeing her more and more (and clearly KOH agrees looking at Autumn's casting!). I saw her as Amour/Cupid in DQ and was astounded that she's 'only' a soloist - her technique was spot on. Very much hope she gets promoted as she deserves it!

I saw Magri in Two Pigeons as the Gypsy Girl. Great personality and flair, but she did miss a few steps/noticed her timing was out at some points. I think she's got great potential and know that everyone has their off days (I believe she was filling in for Laura Morera on this day in fact so appreciate that she stepped in last minute to do a show she wasn't originally supposed to do, although she had been in cast in the role she was probably a bit exhausted from all the shows!) and dancers are only human. However I feel she isn't (in my non specialist opinion) ready for principal level (at least not yet) and I'd be very surprised to see her promoted this year. I also felt a little disappointed with her Queen of the Dryads in DQ (again, I believe she wasn't supposed to be dancing that evening but there was a cast reshuffle) as similarity I saw great potential but something didn't quite work for me. Perhaps I just don't like her style (which is to take nothing away from her as a clearly excellent dancer) but we all have our preferences. I see her as a great strong character artist in future (not necessarily the rank, just that she seems to me to be suited to more dramatic characters rather than pure classic roles) and hope she develops her skills. Although I won't be seeing her in it I see her potentially doing very well as the Firebird with her fantastic expressions, will be interesting to hear what others report on this.

I think from instagram etc it looks like Mayara Magri will be replacing her (at least Magri is rehearsing for the firebird role). Agree it's annoying that we have to rely on social media (and this forum) for casting changes. I mean both the forum/instagram etc are brilliant tools for discussion and keeping updated on ballet but casting announcements should be coming from RB first and foremost rather than trying to scrabble around the internet looking for clues for them!

Xandra that is such a lovely description! I was lucky to see Hayward and Naghdi dance together in Within the Golden Hour recently and found them both exquisite though as you say, different, and I think you've described the difference very well! It's interesting as there are so many roles which I think they would both be perfect for (Aurora, Swanhilda, Giselle etc) but they would bring a certain difference to each role. That's the beauty of dance I suppose, the same movements can be translated in such different ways. I guess the only solution is to see them both as much as possible! I think we're so lucky to have so many talented dancers in the RB right now (although less lucky for my bank balance...)!

For June 5th - Symphony in CFumi Kaneko will replace Lauren Cuthbertson Yuhui Choe will replace Akane Takada I hope Lauren isn't unwell! Due to see her in A Month in the Country on the 12th so hope she is back by then. Takada seems to have been off a long time, I hope she's ok and is back soon!

I know some people think the discussion about Hallberg is off topic however I think it raises an interesting point re guest artists and 'how much' they should perform, and this is the casting thread after all! I think it's a fine balance between having a variety of guest artists who can bring that something unique (as every dancer is unique!) versus as others have mentioned the inevitable downside of this is that casting diversity/opportunities are limited in the 'home ranks' as there are only a certain number of performances available. In the case of Hallberg clearly he and Osipova enjoy dancing together and have a special partnership. I haven't seen him dance yet (though I am due to go tomorrow and look forward to it with interest based on what others have said). I think the fact that he is dancing in Manon and SB means I am favouring the argument that perhaps he is guesting 'too much' (in my opinion). I feel one key role (over a number of performances) a season is an excellent flavouring, but more than that feels like they are more than a 'guest'. Just my opinion however and others of course may disagree. It'll be interesting to see if he gets cast in anything in the following seasons - if not, my argument collapses but if so I wonder if he'll become a regular feature at Covent Garden?

Thanks for sharing Richard LH! I'm sad to be missing Hayward in Manon (I'm off on holiday!) but will see Lamb instead as I've not seen her before, and her Manon seemed to get good reviews. Excited for Hayward/Naghdi in SB. Also looking forward to Hayward in Coppelia, would loved to have seen Anna Rose as well as I think she'd be perfect for the role, but unfortunately as it's the Christmas period I'll likely be out of London - but will try and see Morera instead (another dancer I haven't seen before!). Interesting that Osipova hasn't been cast for Coppelia as wasn't it one of her well known roles at the Bolshoi; and I think she'd be great in it actually (the dramatic and 'exaggerated' side of Swanilda?). I wonder why if casting is finalised to this level that they can't release it to the website? Perhaps it's supposed to be a perk of being a friend that you know casting earlier but this isn't mentioned as a benefit in their membership options. As someone else has already said, it's also odd that they can release this level of casting detail (e.g. for Manon Lescaut's Mistress and G.M.) whereas on the website it's usually just Manon/De Grieux/Lescaut. Perhaps this is a poor example though as Manon is first up so they likely have more detailed casting available for this one! It'll be interesting to see if once it does go up on the website, if they'll list the same detail! Overall I'm pretty pleased with the Autumn's offering, lots of role debuts!

Still no casting details a week after they were due! I wonder if this means we have to wait till next week.... By then it'll only be a month for advance booking for Friends, so surely they must be out soon! First the delay to announcing the whole season itself (was a reason for this ever given?) and now this. Wonder if this is what is to be expected for the future. I guess we can still be grateful that RB do announce casting in advance, unlike ENB.

Thanks Richard, I just prefer not to have multiple bookmarks but yes perhaps I'll change my mind if it all gets too annoying!

Think this is a valid point - also as others have mentioned the 'value for money' aspect needs to be considered (e.g. things like upper slips and standing tickets should be substantially cheaper rather than a nominal difference). Another thing is the proportionate increase - for example seats that used to be £30 now costing £45 vs seats that used to be £85 now costing £95 for example, both have increased but not proportionality. (I've made these numbers up by the way so this isn't a real example but illustrates the point!) As someone who tends to sit in the seats around the £30-45 mark and seeing that these same seats are likely to be near £70 for productions like sleeping beauty you can present statistics in a favourable light that isn't a reflection of what's going on. Yes it makes sense in terms of revenue for sleeping beauty/nutcracker etc to charge more as they will sell out and I'm somewhat ok with this (allow these to fund newer productions as well as keep showing 'less popular' and 'less profitable' productions), but I think it needs to be a reasonable amount more, not a substantial amount more. I guess it's impossible to have the balance perfect for everyone but I do think (at risk of being controversial) that price increases should hit the most expensive seats first before the cheaper/middle seats.

I too hate the new website, and have emailed ROH to tell them so. The old one whilst less 'flashy' was easy to use. Clear separation of dance/opera/insight etc performances, all on one page requiring minimal scrolling. And why it takes so much effort to find the very handy 'seasons' page which helpfully lays out all opera/ballet for the year by season (which you probably wouldn't know about/be able to find if you weren't already familiar with it) is honestly so confusing. I also asked ROH for the option of the 'old' website to still be available (and parts of it still are in a weird hybrid, for example the 'mixed programmes' page and i you search for a production, the layout results are similar to the old style). I thought the whole point of digital accessibility was to minimise clicks and make it as quick and easy for people to find stuff. Anyway for those who are interested ROH did get back to me and said: "Very many thanks for your email about the recent changes to the Royal Opera House's website. I have passed your comments to our Webteam. They are listening to all feedback and will factor your comments into the improvements we want to make in the future." Whilst it doesn't resolve the problem at least they have responded so customer service hasn't completely gone. I now resort to searching for specific productions using the search function either on the main page, or on google as I can't be bothered to go via the 'tickets and events' page as it's just so not user friendly!

Diverging from the above, I've been told that casting announcements for ballet should be available from this weekend...

Thanks very true!

Thank you, I wasn't aware! I have so far been a bit reluctant to stand but I should at least give it a try I suppose, especially with the ever-increasing prices..!

Sorry a related/unrelated question - Linbury tickets aren't part of the Friday rush are they? That means if you can't get a ticket on whichever booking day you are assigned to (friends, student, general etc) you just have to hope for a return? Do they have to keep a set number of tickets aside for the Linbury on the day tickets go on general sale? I remember reading elsewhere on this forum that 20% of tickets at least are supposed to be available on general sale date (in all price ranges) but I also remember reading the drama around La Forza... How have people found booking Linbury tickets so far? I haven't actually seen anything in there yet but would like to see some next season!

Slightly diverging from topic so apologies if this isn't the right place but I'm curious regarding promotions - is there a 'limit' to the number of principles in the sense of a 'one in one out' system? Or is it purely at the discretion of Kevin O'Hare? I presume there have been years where no-one has bene promoted to principal? My thoughts are that I think Fumi Kaneko is a wonderful dancer and would love to see her as principal, though agree with Sim that perhaps she needs a few more principal roles next year under her belt before a promotion. Agree that Anna-Rose should be promoted to first soloist. But to link into my first point, whilst every dancer is unique I wouldn't want to necessarily see a 'top heavy' RB (which is difficult when you want to reward talent!).

Thanks all for your insightful comments! I’ve just spent a while reading them all and have tried to reply to all in a coherent way but even if I don’t specifically name-check you I really appreciate your contributions. Alison thanks - I did actually search the forum first to ensure I wasn’t duplicating anything but searched under ‘membership’ rather than friends! I’ll certainly have a read of that topic. I am actually a member of Young ROH at the moment yes, and certainly wouldn’t want to lose the student amphi and student standby options - I have emailed ROH to ask if I would still be eligible for those if I became a Young Friend too - I sense the answer would annoyingly be no, in which case I’d stick with student priority as we do get a day’s head start on booking above general (although not as favourable as friends certainly). Would be odd if they couldn’t let me have both as I am eligible for both but I sense the purpose of Young ROH is to get those who (are perceived as having) less finances involved, which then doesn’t fit with you having enough to pay to be a Young Friend perhaps? Although I would see it as prioritising and budgeting but not sure what they’ll say! If it’s a no, I think I’ll stick with Young ROH for now as the student amphi performances (usually at least two ballets) make it worthwhile. For those who are interested, student standby actually is really rare - I’ve only ever seen it for a few operas (La Boheme, La Traviata, Billy Budd I think) and only for Mayerling, The Two Pigeons and current Medusa ballets over the past year. So I would say more than 60/70% of the programme never comes up for standby sale. Saying that, student standby/amphi is the first and so far only time I’ve seen operas, so it’s done its job of introducing me to opera. I definitely prefer ballet but wouldn’t be opposed to going to a few operas in future. So Young ROH definitely works and I think is a great scheme! To reply to the SCS tickets - no, students don’t get special access to these so they must be going to the premium friends if they’re not available by the time friends are booking. At the moment I’m not looking at other memberships, I do go to a few ENB performances a year but tend to stick to the cheaper seats anyway so sense it wouldn’t be worth it. Plus with ENB (and with ROH) I do like to see what dancers will be dancing so sometimes don’t book until quite last minute which means priority booking isn’t really worthwhile for ENB. Josephine/Geoff - thanks for the additional info on what rehearsals consist of, good to know. Bangorballetboy - that is really useful info on the packages thank you! I don’t know if you (or anyone else) are able to say what classes as ‘top price’ seats in the amphi? Looks like packages aren’t really an option for me anyway, as I alternate between going solo and going with one or two people so packages wouldn’t really facilitate this. Furthermore if ‘top price’ is what I may think it is, then financially it’s probably a no too. To conclude - if I hear back from ROH that I am able to continue being a Young ROH (student) member and also have the benefits of Young Friend, then it’s certainly become a highly tempting option as I do like to book a lot of ballet and as others have mentioned, I do tend to have a preference on what dancers I see. It’s a shame I wouldn’t be able to really go to any rehearsals however, and disappointing that a lot of insights get booked up anyway (should the ROH not stagger some things to ensure things are available for general booking and also therefore ‘lower’ tiers of friends?). I also don’t buy anything in the shop, and it’s a shame they can’t extend discounts to programmes as surely this wouldn’t cost them much (if anything maybe more programme sales!) and gives members that little additional benefit. If I’m not allowed to be both, I think I may stick with Young ROH for now for the student standby and (minimal) priority booking, and then upgrade to Young Friend once I’m no longer a Young ROH. Although I may reassess if I find it’s near impossible to get anything in the Linbury… One more question - it mentions that after your Young ROH expires, you are put onto some sort of graduate membership with ‘similar’ deals to Young ROH. I’m wondering if anyone has any more information about this (the thought has suddenly stuck me that perhaps in the first year you may even get discount on a Young Friend membership if you were previously a part of Young ROH to entice people to sign up?). That would certainly be ideal! If no one knows I may be tempted to ask ROH themselves what the ‘graduate’ offers entail, though I can’t imagine they’ll be as good as either Young Friend or Young ROH so apart from perhaps some discount on the Young Friend membership I literally have no idea what it may be! Thanks all again for all your comments, and I hope it’s been a useful discussion for others who may be wondering the same thing!

I generally tend to sit in the central amphi, depending on the performance rows P-L have ranged from £20-66! I imagine sleeping beauty will be the higher end of this if not more. From here you generally get a good view and the rake is steep so I’ve not had issues with anyone in front blocking a view, though if people lean forward it can be annoying (and I tend to say something, most people are unaware). Whilst you get a good clear view of the stage and all action, it is near impossible to see facial expressions and I would rely on opera glasses for those. You don’t need opera glasses to feel the expression and emotion projected by the dancers’ through movement but it’s nice to see the faces sometimes! I also think in future I may mix it up and move to the amphi sides in order to get a bit closer to the stage, especially for more narrative ballets like R&J and Manon, where the facial expressions are really important (to me anyway). For Swan Lake and La Bayadère (think the ‘classic’ scenes where the corps are all in synchrony) at risk of being controversial I think facial expressions are less important and I would prefer a more central and further away seat to one on the sides. I think a lot of whether you sit central and further away (to see direct lines/choreography synchronisation) vs closer but on the side (perhaps missing some of the choreography lines but closer to the dancers) is of course personal preference (and may vary by ballet type). You can also try and have the best of both worlds with opera glasses. I’ve not seen sleeping beauty in years so need to have a think about where I might sit, I feel I may treat myself and go twice - one more central amphi and one at the sides to compare. My first ballet was actually sleeping beauty so I hope your ten year old has a lovely time! I love seeing (well behaved) children at the ballet as you can often hear them excitedly discussing with their adults at intervals, they must find it so magical!