San Perregrino

7 hours ago, alison said:

Very sad to hear this.  Also very sad to see that the BBC, despite its links to him, didn't see his death worthy of a mention on the news this evening.

I heard it on the BBC radio news yesterday. 

if anyone has a spare or can't use their ticket, please DM me.

thanks

To see Sarah Lamb dance anything is a memory to cherish.  Her performance last night is another such cherished memory as will be her two upcoming performances. I urge anyone who wants to see her dance Odette/Odile to do so during this run.  Much as we want dancers to go on forever, Time waits for no man or woman.

Reece Clarke as Siegfried literally enveloped her with his love at points during the evening as their connection was both visible and emotional. 

Was it my imagination or had the courtiers withdrawn or receded more than usual from the stage in Act III in order to create the space needed for Reece to soar in his solo sequences?

6 hours ago, Fiona said:

Why does the word "re-imagining" fill me with dread!!

Well, I saw London Tide at the NT last night. An ‘adaptation’ of Dicken’s ‘Our Mutual Friend’, this version has been given a woke ending along the same lines as ENB’s Raymonda.

Much as Raymonda abandons a man she might love, instead leaving to ‘find herself and her destiny’, in London Tide, Lizzie Hexham doesn’t marry the man she thinks she might love but instead heads out to ‘find herself and her destiny’.

Can we expect the same for Ballet Shoes or some gender swapping of the characters perhaps? 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-68856354.amp

The Judas Tree as I’m keen to watch things that I haven’t yet seen.

5 minutes ago, FionaM said:

all I could find was a subscribe button.  No listing of the new season?  🤔 

I had to faff around a lot with the calendar. I couldn’t find a simple list. 
@Bruce Wall can you help? Thanks 

15 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said:

https://kglteater.dk/en/shows?f-type=ballet

 

Link still not working. I think it’s possibly got something to do with booking not opening tomorrow and/or there being a queuing system in operation. 

Royal Danish Ballet 2024/2025 season includes:

Giant Steps: Balanchine Evening: Serenade, The Four Tempéraments, Symphony in C.

The Princess & The Pea

Bournonville’s (Englund and Hübbe) A Folk Tale

Blood Wedding (new work by Eukene Sagues)

Balanchine’s Nutcracker 

Wheeldon’s Sleeping Beauty

Hübbe’s Don Quixote

The Great Gatsby (new work by Arthur Pita)

i don’t think the prices are expensive for central London in mid-December.  They range from £20 for rear stalls up to £72 for front stalls depending on the performance with the weekend being slightly higher.

The price range for Richmond in late November and Woking in January is broadly similar. Richmond also has premium seats inc drinks & nibbles at £105.

For comparison stalls seats for:

A Christmas Carol at the Old Vic range from £25 - £180

and for:

ENB Nutcracker at the Coliseum range from £85-£115 (child reduction is available)

9 hours ago, Birdy said:

The show was sold out within a minute of ticket sales starting

I’m always surprised with events that present/showcase students that parents dont automatically receive a pair of tickets or at least ‘first refusal’ to buy some ahead of the general public. 
Were it a ‘grown up’ evening sponsored by ‘X,Y & Z S.A.or Ltd’ I’m sure these sponsors would have received an allocation. In this instance I’d suggest parents are the equivalent of the sponsor.

It wouldn’t surprise me if R&J was programmed along the same lines as Swan Lake this season i.e. spaced out from March until June with things inbetween, say another full length like Onegin and, in my dreams, there’d be a Triple that included my favourite ‘Symphony in C’.

Separating Alice from Cinderella with Maddaddam would certainly help even out the ‘sweetness’ quotient of the first two thereby potentially attracting a different demographic. 
The scheduling of Maddaddam and Onegin could easily be reversed too.

Is Like Water For Chocolate due for a revival?

11 minutes ago, capybara said:

 

Not the way I look at it.

The soliloquy between Acts 1&2 is gorgeous, his Act 3 variation can be spectacular. The rest is partnering an Odette or an Odile who completely obscures Siegfried from view for much of the time.

@Mary’s version (see above) would sort the dancing issue for me nicely. But not the ending 🤔

 

As I said he’s got a lot to do once out of the starting gate. Partnering is dancing surely as it’s integral to the choreography? 

Another random thought is, in an era where obviously great store is given to chaperoning princesses and young women, why is Odile allowed to disappear alone with Siegfried running off after her and what could the pair of them possibly be doing together out of sight of their elders? 

2 minutes ago, Mary said:

; I would also:

change Benno's Act 1 costume so he looked less like Buttons in a pantomime;

cut about half his dancing in Act 1  and give it to Siegfried ( I find it very frustrating when Siegfried just teases us with tiny bits of dancing here and there);

It randomly crossed my mind last time I watched SL what would the reaction be if, rather than saying no to dancing with his sisters, Siegfried decided that a bit of a dance might be just what he needed to dispel his melancholy tendencies…? though perhaps then he wouldn’t need to slip off to the woods and the lake which would make it a shorter ballet as he wouldn’t see the swans. 

Personally I’d keep the Benno dancing because it means better opportunities for more male dancers. Siegfried does have a lot to do once he’s out of the starting gate. 
As far as costumes go, I’d get rid of all black tights and shoes. A lot of the choreography especially in Act 3 is lost to view because black blends in to the richness of the Palace background rather than standing out. What’s the point of making all that effort for the audience not to be able to the skill involved? 

40 minutes ago, Sim said:

But I would like it more if Siegfried had put up a good fight,

A bit hard to do if you’ve been knocked unconscious. This Siegfried has shown us in previous scenes that he’s under his mother’s thumb and somewhat afraid of Von Rothbart at court. So having him taken out the action with a single blow sort of makes sense. 

1 hour ago, Sim said:

He should be up, fighting VR

That would be the obvious man triumphs over monster macho fight, the St George slays the dragon etc

Much more subtle is the girl power of the massed swans rising up in revenge for Odile’s death.

Perhaps Liam Scarlett foresaw that times were changing and so gave us this seemingly unconventional ending. 

53 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

Thanks. It's useful for knowing approximately when in the season each of them will be on. Interesting to see they're reviving the new Carmen immediately, especially considering there are a lot of performance this season & the latter part of the run currently has quite a lot of the more expensive tickets still available.

Equally baffling is that it looks like Hansel & Gretel is being revived.

32 minutes ago, Rob S said:

Oooo David Donnelly as Von Rothbart this evening!!! 
 

https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/43/swan-lake-by-liam-scarlett/cast-list/54699

Is it Taisuke Nakao’s debut as Benno?

Good to see Liam Boswell & Madison Bailey will dance Neopolitan too. (First time this run I think?)

I dont know the answer to your question as such.

Here’s a few musings:

Perhaps the balcony being closed off on opening night would give a negative impression and the producers have decided that there are enough less affluent ballet fans to buy up the tickets so I’ve put the balcony on sale.
Perhaps those lucky to have balcony seats are a ‘reserve pool’ on hand to be ‘upgraded’ on the night to fill any empty seats lower down to give the ‘full house on opening night feeling’. 
Making cheap seats available at the start of the run can help with promoting the show to the widest audience through social media and word of mouth. And/or whetting the appetite to encourage people to come again and buy a more expensive seat.

Again group bookings may have taken up the first two dates that you mention, either at a discounted rate or maybe they have been invited by the producers. Again the combined power of young fingers and social media can be a huge promotional asset if harnessed correctly.

In the case of BRB Sleeping Beauty at the Mayflower in Southampton earlier this year, once all seats in the stalls and dress circle had sold for a date, the gallery was then put on sale. This might happen with the balcony at the Coliseum. 

4 hours ago, art_enthusiast said:

 

I am so looking forward to seeing it for the first time in December. I have wanted to see this version since I saw that ending of Billy Elliot where he performs in it.

And one can’t help but wonder if a RB dancer will be a guest casting like Matthew Ball was to great effect in the 2018/2019 run at Sadlers Wells. (I can’t believe it was that long ago!). 

25 minutes ago, JNC said:

around July (for general booking)

it was August 2nd in 2023. 

8 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

The "due to demand" is their phrase and not mine

in this context it was my phrase, I didn't pick it up from any earlier postings.

9 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

but were persuaded to stay longer since many people are away on holiday during that bank holiday week.

possible, but I find it unlikely given the logistics of organising something like this can be years in advance.

the " hey, (our ticket sales are very low so) let's stay an extra week as some people who might buy a ticket are on holiday" premise seems farfetched to me at least.

14 minutes ago, art_enthusiast said:

I don’t suppose there was ever a Red Shoes ballet?

yes:

"The Red Shoes is a ballet choreographed by Matthew Bourne using the music of Bernard Herrmann. It is based broadly on the 1948 film The Red Shoes by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. The set and costume designs are by Lez Brotherston."

and though not a ballet, as part of its 2024/2025 season the RSC is presenting:

"The Red Shoes Kimberley Rampersad directs a magical new staging of the classic fairy tale The Red Shoes for families, adapted by Nancy Harris with music by Marc Teitler."

including Joseph Taylor from Northern Ballet.  I wonder if this will be during the summer break for Northern as dates for the LCB tour are:

Bath Theatre Royal (July 17-20)

Cambridge Arts Theatre (July 23-25)

Latitude Festival (July 27)

Cheltenham Everyman (August 2-3)

Windsor Theatre Royal (August 9-10)

Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and five further cities in China to be announced (August 16 - September 1)

York Theatre Royal (Sept 6-7)

Sadlers Wells London (Sept 11-14)

2 hours ago, Emeralds said:

It was originally scheduled to end with the Sunday 1 September matinee but has now been extended by a week. 

I suspect this extension was already lined up at the original planning stage and is more of a marketing tool.  it can't be claimed as 'due to demand' as there are plenty of seats left for the original dates.