Bluebird

Sarah Lamb is to replace Laura Morera in tonight's performance of The Age of Anxiety. No reason is given. http://www.roh.org.uk/news/cast-change-sarah-lamb-to-dance-in-the-age-of-anxiety-on-14-november-2014

I'm amazed that a dancer who is, I assume, under contract to ENB should be able to give up a scheduled performance with her own company in order to replace a dancer in another company

I think you’ve got this a little wrong. I was at all the performances and, although I don’t have the cast sheets to hand, I’m pretty sure of the following: The 2nd and 3rd performances were both danced by the following cast: Hamilton/Muntagirov/Naghdi/Acri/Stock/Zucchetti The 4th performance was danced by Nuñez/Clarke/Naghdi/Hay/Choe/Dyer The 5th performance (last night’s) was was danced by Nuñez/Clarke//Magri/Hay/Stock/Dyer Edited to try to highlight where my memory differs from yours

Just noticed there has also been a cast change for Ceremony of Innocence Deirdre Chapman and Bennet Gartside to replace Christina Arestis and Edward Watson in two performances (November 14 and 17). http://www.roh.org.uk/news/cast-change-deirdre-chapman-and-bennet-gartside-to-dance-in-ceremony-of-innocence-on-14-and-17-november-2014

Marianela Nuñez is to replace Fumi Kaneko in two performances of Don Q in January. Presumably Fumi's injury is still causing her problems http://www.roh.org.uk/news/cast-change-marianela-nunez-to-dance-in-don-quixote-on-3-and-7-january-2015

70 minutes (no interval)

Yes. They did La Bayadère together in the 2012/13 season.

Assuming I'm not having a senior moment, I have no recollection of Marianela Nuñez dancing it before. Yuhui Choe was in the Company when it was last done but was not cast in it. I believe that the other dancers have all joined the company since that last run.

So did Judith Mackrell in her blog (which was in yesterday's links): http://www.theguardian.com/stage/dance-blog/2014/oct/24/why-the-royal-ballet-frederick-ashton-centre-stage

The word 'value' only came up in my attempt to paraphrase Alex Beard's comments. I'm pretty sure it's not a word he used.

Well I enjoyed her performance. I found it very moving. I was, however, sitting in the amphitheatre. I accept that it's possible that those who were sitting closer might have found her interpretation too melodramatic. It can be hard to judge how to project to all areas of the House. For example, I saw her first Odette/Odile from the stalls circle seats next to the stage and found her characterisation of Odette overdone. I saw her third performance of the role from the amphitheatre and really enjoyed it.

Alex Beard has said that he has plans to close part of the terrace so as to incorporate it into the main building. He has implied that the terrace is wonderful in summer but that, for the rest of the year, it is too exposed to the elements and that the space would be of more value if it were enclosed. He made these comments during a recent interview at the London Ballet Circle.

Valentino Zucchetti has been left off the list of dancers for Symphonic Variations on the mixed bill production page for today's performance. This may be because his name appears earlier in the list as a Principal in Scènes de Ballet. If you go to the page for today's performance you'll find him listed for Symphonic Variations.

Far be it from me to defend the wild swings that have occurred in Friends’ ticket allocation in the last few years. However in the interests of accuracy I feel I have to comment here. Unless things have changed since we last had this sort of restriction, the ticket limits for most productions are for the first phase of Priority Booking. Once Priority Booking is over and before Public Booking begins, Friends have, in the past, been given the opportunity to buy tickets over and above their allocation. For a few, highly sought-after, productions (eg Andrea Chénier), ticket limits have applied up to and including Public Booking.

Wasn't it the other way round? For almost all ballet productions the recent limit has been 4 tickets per performance. The new limit is 6 tickets per production.

Currently, according to the Friends' Office, the only way of getting more than 6 tickets per production is to become a Patron - a mere £5,500 a year! I would imagine that the Premium 2 Friends (whose subscription has recently gone up to £1,900) will wonder if it's worth paying so much when the only difference between them and the next level of Friends is the priority booking (one day ahead of the Premium 1 Friends).

I assume Alison means the cast listed here: http://www.rohcollections.org.uk/performance.aspx?performance=2101&row=100 I've copied it from the ROH Performance Database and pasted it below. Apologies for the change in format. I don't know how to correct it. Symphonic Variations - 2 June 2005 Evening 7.30pm Ballet: Performance details Company: The Royal Ballet Venue: Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London Performance status: Revival Conductor Emmanuel Plasson Guest Leader Robert Gibbs Cast Dancer Alina Cojocaru Dancer Federico Bonelli Dancer Laura Morera Dancer Johan Kobborg Dancer Belinda Hatley Dancer Steven McRae Piano Philip Gammon The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

The Tube strike scheduled for next week has been 'suspended'.

The Lescaut for the Osipova/Acosta cast has at last been announced: Thiago Soares http://www.roh.org.uk/events/gtmg2 Edited to add that Lescaut is still TBA for their October 25 performance.

Just noticed this in the news section of the ROH website. If an official press release eventually arrives, please feel free to replace this post. http://www.roh.org.uk/news/koen-kessels-to-succeed-barry-wordsworth-as-music-director-of-the-royal-ballet Edited to add that I'm pleased that Barry isn't severing links with the company and will still appear as Principal Guest Conductor.

The Beauty and the Beast casting for Sadler's Wells is now on the website. It seems sensible to keep all the Sadler's Wells casting in one thread so I'd be grateful if an administrator could change the subject appropriately. http://www.brb.org.uk/masque/index.htm?act=WhatsOn&urn=31669&tsk=fullcast 14 October 2014 7:30 pm Belle: Elisha Willis The Beast: Tyrone Singleton The Wild Girl: Yaoqian Shang The Merchant: Michael O'Hare The Raven: Tzu-Chao Chou Vanité: Samara Downs Fière: Angela Paul Monsieur Cochon: Jonathan Payn Conductor: Philip Ellis 15 October 2014 2:00 pm Belle: Maureya Lebowitz The Beast: Brandon Lawrence The Wild Girl: Laura Day The Merchant: Jonathan Payn The Raven: Max Maslen Vanité: Laura Purkiss Fière: Ruth Brill Monsieur Cochon: James Barton Conductor: Philip Ellis 15 October 2014 7:30 pm Belle: Momoko Hirata The Beast: Yasuo Atsuji The Wild Girl: Yaoqian Shang The Merchant: Rory Mackay The Raven: Mathias Dingman Vanité: Samara Downs Fière: Angela Paul Monsieur Cochon: Jonathan Payn Conductor: Paul Murphy 16 October 2014 7:30 pm Belle: Delia Mathews The Beast: Iain Mackay The Wild Girl: Miki Mizutani The Merchant: Michael O'Hare The Raven: Tzu-Chao Chou Vanité: Céline Gittens Fière: Ana Albutashvili Monsieur Cochon: Oliver Till Conductor: Paul Murphy

I'd got the impression that his frequent hints to 'stay tuned' merely indicate that they're planning to announce some 'exciting news' at 9am on Wednesday.

Might it be possible for an administrator to transfer the above discussion to a new thread? I would have thought the topic important enough to have its own place on the forum. As it is, it's buried in a thread on Period 1 casting!

Possibly Tom Whitehead? I don't think he has played Monsieur GM before.

With thanks to Dansomanie, here are the full results : Best Production Classical Miniatures ( Leonid Jacobson Company) Best Choreographer Thierry Malandain (Cinderella, Ballet Biarritz) Best Company Northern Ballet Best Company Director Martin Schläpfer (Ballett am Rhein) Best Male Dancer Alban Lendorf (Royal Danish Ballet) Best Female Dancer Alina Cojocaru (English National Ballet) Best Male Young Dancer Xander Parish (Mariinsky Ballet) Best Female Young Dancer Yulia Stepanova ( Mariinsky Ballet) Best Young Choreographer Natalia Horecna Best Designer Keso Dekker (Choreartium, Bayerisches Staatsballett) Best Conductor Pavel Bubelnikov (Mariinsky Ballet, Mikhailovsky Ballet) Best Ballet DVD Dance & Quartet (Heinz Spoerli, Hagen Quartett, Zürich Ballet, Arthaus Musik) Winner of Lifetime Award Royal Danish Ballet