TSR101

Ah Mods out in force, curiously silent when one of their own was aggressive and rude. Sorry but advance casting insight does provide an advantage, it allows you to get the right seat for the right performance ahead of those who might be waiting to book. Thus before further seats are sold. It also limits any need to suffer a £4 cost, to change, if you hadn't booked already. Thus the email to friends was a specific advantage given to a limited group of people. Whilst the advantage is arguably not as great, it is therefore clearly comparable to the advantage of lower prices given to a specific group via the Macmillan offer. The rationale being used for the latter, was that ROH had not specifically given permission to enable it to be shared (although they hadn't done or said anything to prevent it being shared or to suggest they didn't want it shared). That rationale applies if you apply the same puritanical logic. As such your argument Mods + friends, is just wrong. I am not going to not say it, just because you don't like it sorry. The decision making is inconsistent and the decision on the offer was asinine - like this casting, it should have been freely allowed to be shared.

The email with casting was to Friends of the ROH. So it was clearly intended to go to Friends as they could have used their wider mailing lists they use for other things (like general promotions) to inform everyone about the casting update. Furthermore, there is nothing to suggest that Gramilano got it from the ROH, they could as easily got it from here (they will definitely monitor this site). So whilst they have published an article on it, there is nothing to suggest ROH have put the information out to the general public, nothing on their social media I can see, no news update on the website, and the booking page is blank. Gramilano certainly would not have felt obliged to not release the information however they got hold of it. I would assume the intention was to tell friends in advance of any general update of the website. Non-friends are lucky, if moderators were to be consistent with their fatuous rationale on not allowing the posting of the Macmillan offer code on to the forum, they would remove all of these posts until casting was officially announced by the ROH to the public.

I assumed that casting wasn't up to give Friends an opportunity to book now with casting known before it was made public (I am rather surprised the puritanical moderators haven't banned us posting the Friends casting given ROH hasn't given permission for its onward publication, like they did with the offer code).

I personally do not think there is any justification for the unnecessary duplication caused by running two sets of triples with repeated programming. Rhapsody was last on in 2022 - there has not been that much ballet at the ROH since it was on (even more madness to put Rhapsody in both programmes). This should be a Les Rendezvous/The Dream/Short Works programme.

Ashton casting is now out...

Don't they only give the cast out a few weeks before - by which most of the tickets have been sold?

Didn't they only just do Giselle and Bovary at the end of this season (they may still even be doing Giselle).

I did notice this and wondered whether it had any meaning.

Is this actually true? I sat near a couple there to see their daughter debut and they had had to pay for tickets, they weren't given them, everyone around them thought that was poor form from the RB!

Surely more annoying for those seated next to her!

Is he really that much smaller than Sambe?

I for one would never have guessed that you would be happy with Don Q being on the programme... 🙂

Not to restart the argument I found both Fiona and Geoff's words a bit too strong. I think Fiona's words were a bit over the top based on the evidence available and a little agressive in tone, and Geoffs defensive/aggressive in return. In terms of her performance, I think Osipova was as I described wild during her performance. I had a real feeling of her not being in control, but pushing to keep the energy high and to keep going. However, to be honest, I don't think really you can make the judgments on her as a dancer based on a gala (this is my fundamental disagreement with Fiona's points). I think it's fine to critique this performance but it is what it is, a thrown together mix of bits of ballets, underprepared between other proper ballet performances. All in all, it was perfectly enjoyable wild energetic fun. I have though had more concerns about Osipova as a dancer in recent years. Whilst she still is a good emotional dance actress, her physical abilities seem to me to have declined more rapidly than some of her peers (Nunez being a slightly older ballerina who has managed to maintain her physical ability remarkably well). This has led me to ponder how long she would go on doing the big classical works and whether she would transition to a full time touring ballet 'star' doing her shows. I would say that I missed her Manon and she withdrew from the Don Q performance I had most recently so it's possible she has demonstrated her physical abilities in these that I have missed.

Hmm a far less attractive programme than POB from my perspective and I am also not sure that this really makes the most of the dancers that this company currently has at its disposal.

POB has a mandatory retirement age of 42 (which is what Myriam has reached). I presume the rule is due to French labour laws and the grant of a pension at 42 but I mean imagine the Royal Ballet forcibly retiring Marianela next year! Sarah Lamb would have been retired last year! Possibly the pension conditions may limit whether they could join another company/how much they perform.