Beryl H

The website now shows Melissa Hamilton replacing Lauren Cuthbertson.

The Swan Lake live from the Mariinsky looks very interesting, the website gives Ekaterina Kondaurova-Odette, Timur Askerov-Siegfried, and Xander Parish in the pas de trois. I might go and see this, the Brighton Odeon has the 3D version and the prices are quite high, £22.50 top, such a good cast though.

I've always liked Roland Petit's choreography, I find it stylish although it can be rather quirky at times, never seen Coppelia so look forward to it, with or without Sergei Polunin. Prices are high again but there is a small reduction for OAP's and others, any little perk from the Coliseum is welcome!

The Shanghai Ballet is indeed coming to the Coliseum August 14-17th with Jane Eyre, it's on the website, if they had waited another week or two, instead they are competing with the Bolshoi's Swan Lake and Flames of Paris!

I took it to be Hansel and Gretel's real mother, and the photo the same, I thought the Witch put his head in the oven too out of remorse, Hansel and Gretel escaped but find their house sold, and then the Sandman came up from the lair to do what? I only read the story on Wikipedia last week, my parents must have kept the Grimm stories from me, think they were right

I thought last night was an exciting theatrical experience, took me a while to get used to the Linbury set-up but think I must have had one of the best views from the front row of the Upper Gallery, could see everything although I had to bend over the railing sometimes. I imagine some people had horrible views. The ballet is dominated by the spectacular set design and lighting effects which worked perfectly, more than can be said of the sound system at first! The music was great at establishing moods but didn't lend itself to dance particularly, because of this and the lack of floorspace the dance element took second place, although there were some pieces that I remember, Steven McRae's solo's especially the first when he emerged through the fridge, the pdd for Laura Morera and Bennet Gartside that starts the second act, and a very creepy pdd for Brian Maloney and James Hay in the second act! The second act was shorter and tighter than the first, I'm still not exactly sure about the ending though. What really stays in my mind is that spooky shed at the bottom of the garden!

I can't actually remember seeing one, maybe it was in a different edition to mine.

Well, a few quotes, "I want to single out Rupert Pennefather, a dancer who has made this role his own", "he slowly unravels the loneliness and pain that drive the Prince ", "creepy yes, but utterly irresistible in Pennefather's multifaceted and unusually romantic performance". The review also praises the thrilling pdd's with Elizabeth Harrod and Melissa Hamilton, this was at Friday's performance.

Thanks for the link to the music, I knew I had seen it somewhere before. Have just read a rave review for Rupert Pennefather and his cast in today's Times, hope to see them on 10th June.

There's a marvellous photo of him in Seventh Symphony in today's Times obituaries, a lovely tribute.

I looked Dan Jones up on the Internet and found he composed the soundtrack for Shadow of the Vampire, I have the DVD of this and find the music very evocative and mesmerising, sounds very exciting,

There are more "last few tickets" available right now, every performance. Any news about the music?

There are 1 or more £11 tickets for the Saturday matinee at the moment.

I agree will all the comments about last night, what a great dancer and partner Matthew Golding is (I have the Don Q DVD so knew what to expect) Zenaida Yanovsky is such a pure, statuesque Nikiya, the first time I've seen here in this role, Itziar Mendizabal also rose to the occasion with great technical assurance in the difficult pdd, what a difference a really exciting Solor makes. The audience was extra noisy during the scene change last night, but I've heard worse at the Coliseum! I do find the rather dim lighting and gauze drop makes the Shades scene hard to see from further back, looking forward to seeing the Bolshoi's production without it (I hope).

Boston Ballet are bringing 2 great triple bills but the prices are higher than ENB (where I sit in the Dress Circle and Balcony at any rate) and I can't see them selling well unless we have the usual offers, the Coliseum has created this problem where everyone sits and waits for offers instead of booking in advance, I don't know how to solve it unless prices are reduced for triple bills as they are at the ROH, I would have thought SW would have been much better for this Company anyway.

I can't believe it's 35 years since I first saw Mayerling, and last night was a good marker, a new untried Rudolf who only got to dance it as a replacement, let's hope Bennet Gartside is given more performances in future runs to consolidate the hard work put in, at times he was up there with the best, the first pdd with Mary Vetsera in particular, what an ending to the second act that is! I've never seen a performance that didn't work, due to the power of the choreography, plus the fact that this is a real story, I think this is why it always brings out the best in the dancers.

I saw both of yesterday's shows with the exception of the matinee Petite Mort, due to train problems I arrived at the start of a long interval! I have the DVD of this work and have grown to really enjoy it, all the dancers at the evening performance looked gorgeous, this is a very intimate work and great to see ENB dancing in a completely different style. Ivan Putrov gave a good debut as the Young Man in the Petit, strange how new this ballet looks considering it dates from 1946, in the evening Nicolas le Riche and Tamara Rojo turned up the temperature as expected! Strangely I thought Etudes did look dated, I agree with those who think it seemed better years ago at the RFH, for myself I didn't see half so much ballet then and had no videos or DVD's, nowadays I see so much more and have become fussier! Shiori Kase was delightful, especially in the pdd partnered by Arionel Vargas, as she was in Nutcracker, both men were good too, all these were debuts, and then the evening surprise of seeing Alban Lendorf, great attack he brought to the ballet, agree James Forbat danced very well, did he do 32 fouettes or was I dreaming? Fantastic day, just a shame about all the empty seats although it was lovely sitting at the back of the Dress Circle with nobody in front of me for rows and rows, great view.

I was going to post it looks bad for Mayerling on 25th April, and having just checked Mara Galeazzi replaces Alina Cojocaru, other casts the same.

Fredrik Rydan Touring Company from Sweden Swan Lake Reloaded Tchaikovsky meets Street Dance London Coliseum August 6-10th !

Yes, that's who I was thinking of, Angel Corella, I saw him dance with Alina Cojocaru, I can't remember who partnered Laura Morera in the same run.

Lovely to have these photos, I saw Kobayashi/Kish/Choe last night, with Kuneko and Takada as well it was all very exotic, thought Hikaru Kobayashi very soulful and delicate as Nikiya, glad I got the chance to see her. Yuhui Choe and Nehemiah Kish are having a busy time at the moment, looking forward to seeing them tomorrow in happier roles in Alice!

The Sunday Times magazine has an article (haven't read it yet) with photos of Sergei Polunin's tattoos and scratchmarks, if anyone wants to dash out and buy it!

I'm looking forward to Thursday, I only booked Alice to see Beatriz Stix-Brunell and Rupert Pennefather, I have seen both before, but will be very happy to see Yuhui Choe, I've always thought she should have danced it, like Nehemiah Kish in this too.

The ROH website has a very long line of names against Flames of Paris and Jewels, and I don't think Merkuriev will be dancing what we call the main role in Flames, he's also down for another role on Friday evening, Saturday looks like it will be Landratov. Dimitri Gudanov and Artem Ovcharenko are also dancing both nights, there are several main roles in this ballet, even so it's a very long list.