Beryl H

I think this had to happen, apart from the huge loss of money involved in moving people down to the Upper and Dress Circles, the Coliseum staff must be sick and tired of all the extra work.

I've looked and some of the prices are lower than usual for BRB, they have to be or they will lose some of their regular ballergoers, I think you can get into the back of the Upper Circle for £15, but I too don't like it, the last 2 occasions I was moved down I had to change seats to get a decent view!

In fact many is the time I've sworn never to go to the Coliseum again but I always relent!

I'm glad I went to last night's performance, it was so much more enjoyable than the opening night although the dancers themselves have been excellent, everyone smiled more and after sincere apologies for the lack of Cleopatra, Andris Liepa relaxed and was asking us if we were enjoying ourselves and picking out his Mum in the audience!

Sadly the Balcony was closed and I was in the Upper Circle, okay seat as I was able to play the musical chairs game that seems a part of the Coliseum now, the sound though was much worse than from the Balcony, although Scherezade was better quality.

Mikhail Martynyuk was good in the Polovtsian Dances, but I would like to add to the congratulations for Xander Parish, and Yulia Makhalina, don't know what the Season would have done without them!

The Ballets Russes continue with Petrushka next week, funny thing to be watching in a heatwave though.

I really want to see this, good to have the dates especially as there are so few performances.

I'm looking forward to seeing Carlos Acosta and Marienela Nunez dance the pdd from Sheherazade in two week's time at the Coliseum.

The Isabelle Fokine and Andris Liepa reconstructions of Firebird and Sheherazade are in the repertoire of the Mariinsky, I like the designs for Firebird, especially the epilogue where the city of domes appears on a moving backcloth, couldn't see any of that from mid Balcony on Tuesday, did it happen?

I saw Beatrix do Alice too, fairly recently and thought she was brilliant! Isn't it interesting how even knowing nothing about dance and not understanding WHY a certain dancer really catches my eye, it often tends to be the same ones that knowledgable dance people like too! Suggests it really can be a universal thing.

Thank you capybara for those dates, I shall investigate

I saw Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Yuhui Choe dance Alice and think they are the best too. I've always thought what you say about not knowing anything technically about ballet but instinctively knowing when something is special is true, this happens when I go to the opera, which I know nothing about, when I want to applaud the most so do the opera fans! 

I can't wait to read the critic's reviews, the Coliseum website shows no changes to the original so many thanks for posting up the details here, I can't believe there was no stand-in for Ilse Liepa in what was the centrepiece of the Season, the technical hitch needing a long wait followed by an unscheduled interval didn't help, making the evening into a very long 3 hour event, no programme available so many people were completely in the dark!

Lovely to see Mikhail Lobukhin, Yulia Makhalina and of course Xander Parish, was pleasantly surprised to see him twice, and the audience was appreciative, Andris Liepa must have felt under pressure but he coped well, also good to see people in the Balcony again, don't want to see it closed down completely.

I have a ticket for Saturday evening too and I've bought my rail ticket, at least Les Sylphides and Polovtsian Dances are new, and I hope the question marks as to who is dancing the Golden Slave turn out to be Ivan Vasiliev

There are a lot of male roles, Conrad is the lead but doesn't dance the virtuoso variations in the pdd, they are danced by Ali, so if Vadim Muntagirov dances with Alina, which role will he do?

I have seen previous seasons and they are the complete versions, with the exception of Cleopatra which is new and appears to be a ballet about the creation of Fokine's Cleopatra (second version) so can't speak for that. Firebird is a good production based on the original designs, also Scherezade, but Spectre, Les Sylphides and Polovtsian Dances are new to London .

Pace Aileen, I'm not sure that Yuhui Choe is being side-lined. With featured roles in Jewels and Rhapsody, the casting is probably commensurate with her First Soloist status. If she had been given Giselle, then Laura Morera would not have been, and that would also have occasioned upset. Kevin O'Hare's apparently stated belief that there were too many principals is borne out by the fact that even having lost four Giselles, the RB only has programming space to bring in two new ones. This is not intended to discredit Yuhui Choe, who is,I think, a most lovely dancer. However, as I wrote in an earlier post, she does seem to have stalled a little, and if there is to be a new Aurora, which is to be hoped for, but not a given as Osipova will certainly do some of what would have, as it were, been Rojo's shows (and am I correct in thinking that Cojocaru wasn't cast last time), then I am fairly sure it will either be Fumi Kaneko or Akane Takada (whose scheduled debut had to be cancelled a couple of seasons ago). Does anybody else think that the TBC for the Steven McRae Don Q might turn out to be Osipova?

I certainly hope the TBC is Natalia Osipova although Kitri is a role she might be trying to get away from.  No disrespect to Roberta Marquez as I've booked to see her with Alexander Campbell but I do hope that a different dancer will partner Steven McRae, perhaps Yuhui Choe or Akane Takada.

Although I don't think Coppelia is one of Roland Petit's best ballets, Sergei Polunin's effortless brilliant dancing (he does those gravity defying horizontal leaps seen in Le Jeunne Homme et la Mort) and Anton Domashev's flair and artistry as Coppelius (it could have been Petit dancing) made this an exciting evening, these two men rather overshadowed Kristina Shapran's Swanilda, although the choreography was partly to blame, I did miss the traditional version.  No cast lists were available but the 3 main names were posted up in the theatre, there were no soloists, just the corps de ballet.

Good to see something different, hope it's a success for them!

I'm not sure whether to book for the mixed bill in November, or see Jewels instead (can't really afford both). I know you can't book for it yet, but I'm torn about whether bothering with Jewels. My experience with Balanchine has been a bit underwhelming so far, but I understand that with a good cast the Jewels acts can be pretty awesome.

I think you have to see Jewels a few times before really appreciating it, also strong casting helps, I'm looking forward to seeing the Bolshoi casts especially Olga Smirnova in Diamonds.  I thought Emeralds was rather dull the first time but now like the quiet wistful quality it has.

Well, yesterday the Balcony was closed all day and I was indeed moved down to the Upper Circle in the afternoon and the Dress Circle in the evening, I even got an aisle seat after asking for one for the evening. Seems that the Wimbledon Ladies Final was a disappointment too, so didn't miss too much, very nervous about the Men's Final today!

Meunier, please don't bring up savings rates. I'm still shocked after a visit to Santander on Friday, can't even get an appointment to speak to anyone til next week, I soon won't have any savings!

Oh dear! I wish I hadn't booked full price tickets several months ago, especially as it clashes with Andy Murray in the Wimbledon final. 

I know how you feel, I'm going to miss the ladies final today which I thought was going to be a boring walkover for Serena Williams and now isn't, and booked a Balcony ticket and now find I could have sat in the Dress Circle for half price! Perhaps I'll get moved down anyway!

I think this is another reason why ticket sales are so low at the Coliseum, everyone is reluctant to book in advance, the same thing happens next week as I paid full price for Coppelia, and could now get half price! 

I know the moral is "WAIT" but that isn't always possible for people travelling to London.

I liked Yulia Makhalina, I remember a wonderful Corsaire she danced with Andris Liepa at the Coliseum, he was guesting with the Kirov in their production.

If you book online you get 3 tickets for the price of 2, even in the Balcony, the problem is you see Cleopatra 3 times!

I have the Blu-Ray of Zakharova and Hallberg in SB and they are technically superb, they dance with rarified elegance and are a good matching couple, they don't act very much though, this doesn't bother me when faced with such perfection.

As for SL, I'm only going for the dancers, Maria Alexandrova, who is my favourite Bolshoi ballerina, and Olga Smirnova who sounds very special, hope to see her also in Bayadere and Diamonds.

I read that Angelina Vorontsova would be resigning at the end of the Bolshoi Season 3 days ago in the July issue of Dancing Times, usually a very accurate source of information, there's also a good article by Graham Watts about the general Bolshoi situation.

I had no problem getting a ticket, there were only about 10 of us there, shame as it had been packed for Nutcracker, the picture was crystal clear,  it gave me a view of the singers I could never have got at the ROH,  thoroughly enjoyed it although I could have done with more actual songs (or arias), the only problem was a background rumble, I heard it as soon as I entered the cinema and it did mess up the quieter music. Thought the student dancers were very poised in the masque, and the other dancers fantastic in the Whitehall scene, especially the Volta, some difficult steps and lifts to do. 

Many thanks, this is such a good introduction to the opera, much better than anything on the ROH website, like many people my interest in music, especially dances, of this period was due to The Six Wives of Henry the Eighth on the BBC, followed by Elizabeth, David Munrow and his Early Music Consort of London did so much to popularise this music and I have several CD's.

Thank you both, it does sound fascinating and I like anything about Elizabeth the First and the music and dances of that period.

I might go to see Gloriana at the cinema on Monday, if anyone sees it before then I'd be very grateful for their thoughts, the ROH has put 12 photos on Facebook and one of them shows a ballet couple.

Diana Vishneva also dances the Firebird on a DVD called The Kirov Celebrates Nijinsky.

I like the Scala Raymonda, Bolshoi Flames of Paris, the RB McGregor triple bill, POB La Bayadere, the Dutch Don Quixote, that's 5 that I often watch.

I'm really into the Mayerling mood now, having seen the last two, can't help feeling the real life characters would seem rather dull compared to all the exciting RB dancers!  I also noticed last night just how brilliant and elegant Thiago Soares' actual dancing was, and he is the most human Rudolf to my mind, I'd seen Rupert Pennefather and Melissa Hamilton last time round, they are making this ballet their own now. Also extra special were Itziar Mendizabal and Marienela Nunez as Larisch, I noticed the role more this week, especially liked the way Itziar felt real concern not just for Rudolf but for Mary too, not so vindictive as usual.

I noticed it hasn't been mentioned here: the Nutcracker dates involving Cojocaru and Kobborg (Dec 24 mat, Dec 31 eve) have been recast with other pairs from the run - Lamb/Pennefather and Osipova/Bonelli.

 

Still no news for Alina's dates in Don Q and R&J. Perhaps we might get Osipova in Don Q after all? Would be exciting to see her with McRae...

I've booked hoping to see Osipova in Don Q, or perhaps Yuhui Choe or Akane Takada, hope they don't change Steven McRae! BTW this morning I couldn't book any amphi tickets for him on 18th October, only slips, must be one of those student nights.

I saw both performances yesterday and liked Raven Girl very much, although the design is mostly black and grey I was able to just about see everything, I think the lighting must have been increased since the first performances, it didn't trouble me as much as I had assumed it would, seeing it from central mid and rear amphi made it more like watching a film.  Thought there was some fascinating choreography, with cuts and even more lighting it could make a good centrepiece in a triple bill, the designs and videos were very imaginative  and deserve to be seen.  Both casts were extremely good, probably the first had the edge, Sarah Lamb was magnificent, she had also danced beautifully with Valeri Hristov in Symphony in C at the matinee. Ryoich Hirano had a good day too as the Raven Prince in the afternoon then with Zenaida Yanovsky in the evening, they dance so well together.  Loads of great dancing,  a little gem that sticks in my mind is Yasmine Naghdi and Sander Blommaert as the 19th century couple in Raven Girl, haven't a clue what is was about but they looked exquisite!

Polunin is supposed to be dancing the opening evening (11th) and the two weekend matinees (13th and 14th).  The first two performances I believe with Kristina Shapran, and the final with Erika Mikirticheva.

My money would have been on him dancing all the evenings, but this is a good ploy to get people to book for the matinees

Hope you are right though as I've booked for the 11th.