Joanna

I saw the performance last night and for me it was 90 minutes of joy. When the orchestra and Gavin Sutherland arrived in place the audience completely erupted with clapping and cheering and there was a pretty celebratory feeling to the whole evening. I love galas anyway, and there was a great mixture of classic show pieces, for instance the pas de trois from Le Corsaire and the Black Swan pas de deux from Swan Lake, and more contemporary pieces which are particularly associated with ENB (duet from Dust and the pas de deux from Broken Wings). For me the highlights were the Le Corsaire pas de trois (which was thrillingly danced by Shiori Kase, Joseph Caley and Francesco Gabriele Frola) and Playlist (Track 1,2). There is something so exciting about seeing the control and athleticism of top rank male classical dancing against a pulsing beat. I was also very pleased to see the Three Preludes pas de deux again, which I had never seen before the ENB 70th anniversary gala. I have to say that I enjoyed every single piece included during the evening. As Irmgard says, it was a showcase for the whole company, but I become more of a fan every time I see Jeffrey Cirio. From a Covid point of view, entry and movement around the Festival Hall was well organised and as there is so much space in the auditorium anyway, it felt very safe. As I was there on my own, I also rather liked the fact that there was no interval (and the 90 minutes certainly raced by). I would certainly recommend going to see Solstice if you get the chance. Every time I see ENB I decide I must see them more, and I do hope that there are more opportunities to do so over the coming months.

From checking the Maryinsky TV site each day, they appear to be on for a week. There seems to be a new production added every day (opera, ballet or concert) and as one is added one drops off the list. Raymonda looks like it will be deleted some time on Tuesday 9th.

I've just seen an announcement on Facebook that the ROH is closing its doors due to the current situation. I double checked the website and it now says the ROH is closed. I was hoping to go on Sunday as well but it is not to be. The thought of the ROH being closed for any length of time makes me feel far sadder than my holiday probably not happening 😕

Many thanks Capybara. I'm happy with that compromise for the price!

I'm going to go to this this afternoon but haven't booked a ticket yet (I too was holding off to see if there were any offers). Price wise I'm looking at either the Stalls seats nearest the Choir (on either side) i.e. the cheapest block of Stalls seats, or the front row of the Rausing Circle. I imagine that from the Rausing Circle I will get a decent view of the patterns but will miss out on facial expression, but I'm wondering why the Stalls seats nearest the Choir are some £30 less than those further around, and if there is a significant lack of view of the main action (the seats aren't described as restricted view but I imagine there must be some loss of facility involved to justify the price difference). Would anyone who has already been be able to clarify this for me?

Thanks Richard. I've been lurking for a long time and very much enjoying the discussions. I thought it was about time I contributed!

I've been taking my recently turned 10 year old to the ROH for a few years now and we've generally had pretty reasonable views from the Amphitheatre for the price. I've looked back over where we've sat and we've had decent views from any of the following areas , with the caveat that she's needed a booster cushion (not only is she only 10 but she's on the small side). If you want a low priced seat in a central position then you will be looking at around Rows R and S upwards. The seats are pretty steeply banked and we've generally found that, with me occasionally swapping seats with her to avoid a tall person in front (and a booster cushion) the view is fine, especially for a ballet which is more of a spectacle and where the story is well known, such as Sleeping Beauty (and thus no reliant on being able to clearly make out facial expressions). We recently saw Romeo and Juliet from seats S60 and 61 and then from S54 and 55 the following week, and the view was fine. We sat in T60 and T61 for Sleeping Beauty in 2017 (when she was 7) and she sat on my knee for the first act as she was struggling to see and we weren't aware of the booster cushions. A very kindly audience member passed us one for the second act and all was fine from then on. Again, not bad seats for the price and for a 10 year old the view should be okay. We also liked seats R 74, 75 and 76 and there was no one behind which meant that, if my daughter had had problems with the view, she could have knelt on her seat. It's difficult to make out expressions from here particularly (which was a bit of a problem when we sat here for Winter Dreams which is so emotion driven) but it was possible to get full enjoyment from the other two ballets in that bill. My current favourite cheap seats are towards the side of the Amphitheatre as it is possible to sit lower down (and thus get better views of the dancers' faces) and the price (for Romeo and Juliet which is probably a reasonable guideline for the Sleeping Beauty prices) is lower than for the central section of the Amphitheatre. You can sometimes find some of the action to the far side of the stage cut off but I think the view/price ratio is great. I have seen Romeo and Juliet from both seats D38 and D37 and was able to see pretty much all expression from here. Again, with a booster cushion a child would be fine. I've found my children were so excited about going to the ROH that actually seeing the ballet was only part of the overall thrill! In addition, I've always found the staff unfailingly lovely with children. I hope this helps.