Missfrankiecat

Just stupendous work from Nunez and Muntagirov tonight, jaw-dropping technique and musicality - they are in a different class to the rest. I agree with Lindsay about Act 2 but some exquisite partnering from Vadim too. And they both danced Act three with total relish. Their dance chemistry is something special.

I really like them both - Joe has the more obvious charisma, hard not to watch but Calvin is a great actor with real range. Both really good technicians. How lucky to have both waiting in the wings for stardom!

I don't think the reason is anything to do with the late Queen loving attending Covent Garden - I suspect the King has been a far more regular and enthusiastic supporter of opera and ballet over the years.

Just grabbed a seat for Friday's performance - back of amphitheatre but beggars can't be choosers etc. Still worth haunting the website for returns.

Wonderful. All three are favourites of mine, along, of course, with Swan Lake dream team Nela and Vadream plus Gary Avis as Rothbert. What an opening night is in prospect tomorrow!

I can't provide documents - who other than an employee whistle-blower could? But I certainly spoke to a BRB dancer seated beside me (2nd Row Stalls Circle) for Woolf Works last year who was open that he and others had been comp'ed tickets that day if they could make it. He plainly knew others who were seated in the balcony. I should add, I have no issue with dancers and students getting free tix if not sold - frankly I think them more deserving than supporters who can afford regular paid attendance getting discounts - but it is pretty naive not to believe it is happening for the non-classical shows.

I long to see a full version of Ashton's Dream - a gap in my viewing repertoire. Francesca Hayward and Will Bracewell danced a pdd from it at the Ballet Icons gala last year and were enchanting - I thought they stole the show.

Also, I feel for a lot of people (me included) it would be a bit of a reach to watch two performances of the same ballet consecutively - although I don't think I would have booked to do so! However much I would wish to see the different dancers, there is a limit to how long I can sit still and, even more, how much concentration I can give to such emotional entertainment. Rather like an art gallery visit - there are always more Grand Masters to see, but an hour or two at a time is enough if I am actually appreciating what I am seeing. I know others on here watched both performances with pleasure but it's probably an acquired level of concentration and not for many.

@Rob S especially beautiful photos of this afternoon - the one where Lamb and Hirano are embracing is so touching. I saw Marienela Nunez featured a similar shot from the Monday performance on her Insta congratulating them both and saying she knew how much they valued dancing with each other.

@Dawnstar what a lovely gesture to send those flowers to Donnelly to mark his debut. I really enjoyed your review of Monday night. I have seen Lamb in previous runs and loved her multi-layered interpretation of the role.

I see there are a couple of [pricey] stalls tickets and two standing on the website (at 11.30am) for tonight if anyone fancies seeing the Fumi/Vadim cast.

I wonder if this is the case for me - certainly in this run of Manon - because I could not help comparing Fumi's fairly standard interpretation of Manon [total innocence and pure love defiled by machinations of men] with Osipova's much more complex and nuanced creation [which I felt tried to examine Manon's own agency in her downfall and her conflicting desires far more than any of the other interpretations I have seen - though Sarah Lamb in previous years has also conveyed this to an extent]. Had I not seen Osipova (and she's not my usual first choice) I would probably be raving about Fumi too. I thought she was technically excellent from beginning to end and I liked her chemistry with Vadim - the gorgeous Act 1 bedroom pdd was one of the most playful and charming I have ever seen. However, I really missed the complexity of the dynamics of Manon's sibling relationship compared to the Osipova/Campbell outing and, ultimately, despite all the roughing up of her appearance and some solid artistry, Fumi remained a bit too ethereal for my tastes in this role. Gorgeous dancer though. Joseph Sissens made a very good debut but it was slightly one note villainy at this stage of his journey with the role. For me, Vadim soared. I agree with Richard LH that there were a couple of tiny, almost nervous, wobbles on arabesque in his first solo - I was so convinced by his acting that I was even prepared to consider they might be deliberate because I read his opening not as confident wooing but as diffidence slowly losing his self consciousness as the sincerity of his love overcame his shyness. From there this performance soared. I know from hearing him being interviewed that he considers that he struggles with the demands of MacMillan lifts but the cleanness of his lines however torturous the manoeuvre is breath-taking. I found his acting on point throughout; I was particularly moved by the sense of his humiliation and degradation at being pulled into cheating at cards and it struck me that in many ways it is Des Grieux not Manon who is purity defiled in this story. How I wish we could have seen his interpretation alongside Osipova and Campbell to really shift the axis of the story telling.

Thanks - I was struggling to get the predictive spelling to accept an apostrophe and missed the spell correct.

Yes - very excited to see what Fumi makes of this role. Very excited to see Joe Sisson's debut as Lescault. Most of all looking forward to seeing Vadim's peerless lines again. So much to look forward to.

A few observations from last night. All the new works held my attention until the end - which isn't always the case with non-narrative dance. I thought the evening was very well thought out and presented in terms of the stylistic spread, music etc and the projected intros were really helpful in drawing me in to each project by high-lighting the creator's thoughts and aims. It seems like opinion is most divided on here re Never Known and For What it's Worth. Given it was the most contemporary piece and with conceptual music (neither of which I generally favour] I was surprised I preferred Never Known. Others have compared it to Pite but it reminded me somewhat of Ashram Khan's work. While I wouldn't rush to listen to the music again, I did find cohesion and interest with the movement and I thought this piece was really well performed. I was probably slightly influenced by the obvious delight of the performers at the positive audience reception and the glee of Joshua Junker's reaction - it must be special to perform your colleague's vision and kudos to the RB for making this possible for a talented company member. Liam Boswell and (I think) Francisco Serrano impressed with their solo. I felt far more ambivalent about For What it's Worth. I'm conscious it is presumptuous for a white woman to question a black man's success in incorporating S African street dance into more classical mode but I have to say the piece felt to me like a bland Euro-centric imitation of African dance rhythms. It was perfectly entertaining to watch as movement to music (kudos to the drummer by the way) but I also felt of all the pieces that it made the least demands on the skills of the very skilled dancers used. Apart from some pointe work and the noticeable turn-out of the women (jarring since there could be nothing less African than balletic turn-out), technique wise, there was nothing going on that couldn't have been performed by Burn the Floor or similar. Twinkle is an almost unbearably twee title and some of the steps were a bit twee too but saved by charm and humour. Glorious piano, pretty costumes and bravura performances. I always notice Viola Pantuso's gorgeous arms and neck (though she was off balance at one point) and can't wait to see her do some Ashton. Fumi's incandescent smile made her perfect star casting.

Agree with all you say here. And, while I maintain 38 is young to retire from top flight performance career, 38 is very young to land a fairly prestigious strategic role, so Alex is now well positioned for rapid career advancement in those areas. Timing is all.

Funnily enough, I was watching all the focus interviews with principals up on the ROH streaming last night and it was striking how much Alex's talked about projects away from classical dance [it was obviously recorded before The Limit was performed] and about possibilities for 'giving back' after his active dance career was over. He spoke a lot about his growing confidence that he had something to offer in roles other than performing, so it has obviously been on his mind for a while. Sorry to see him go so soon - a final Les Grieux with Frankie Haywood as Manon will be epic [they were my favourite Clara and Peter]. I envy those with tix on Friday next.

What a treat! Did he tell anything new and interesting about the performance?

Be sure to let us know how you find it, please. I haven't seen Cuthbertson in a leading role for a long time, so am very curious but there were just too many pairings I wanted to see this time.

Susan was at the Sat matinee.

With respect, I'm not sure I agree, although it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between ROH generated publicity and individual principals own efforts - in this day and age when all of us are expected to take an active role in promotion via social media etc, the point is probably moot anyway. It seems to me that, for eg, Francesca Hayward and, to a slightly lesser extent, Marcellino Sambe, have been very well promoted by the ROH of recent years. They got the Jubilee gig for eg which had a much wider audience range than any of the mainstream arts showings. Both get a lot of mainstream press coverage outside of their dancing, as does Yasmine. There is currently an unusually strong (especially for the men) roster of principal dancers and, while I 'get' individuals would like to see their favourite multiple times in leading roles, I can understand the sense in each being given the chance of a couple of performances - it builds company esprit, 'hands the baton' of teaching from distinguished predecessors (especially in MacMillan and Ashton) to as many as possible as well as spreading the burden of generating ticket sales. To me it speaks well of the ethos of a company that does invest precious time with each couple and illustrious teachers for 'only two' performances - they will take that knowledge into other companies if they leave and build the long-term legacy if they stay. As for any suggestion that the likes of Nunez, Osipova and Lamb should be denied further chances to perform these roles while they remain at the top of their game, I deplore it, not only because of ticket sales [though it was very noticeable that Nunez and Osipova performances sold much faster than Muntagirov with Fumi for eg - which surprised me as I thought he would be an equal draw with Nunez] but because they still offer the best of RB as well as offering the living template to future stars. In any event, I think people make bold assumptions about imminent retirements. I would be unsurprised if Osipova moved elsewhere in the next few years to pursue much broader dance ambitions - all the more reason to drink in her classical work now - and equally unsurprised if Nunez didn't wish to emulate Fonteyn/Ferri in dancing longevity.

I just wanted to share how much I enjoyed Saturday's matinee performance, especially Ms Osipova's breath-taking performance. Manon is one of my favourite ballets so I am looking forward to seeing a number of the castings. I have never seen NO in this role before, and she dominated this performance. To me, her Manon was naturally voluptuous, a creature of the senses from the outset, as she greedily drank in the sights and sounds of the city stepping down from the carriage on her arrival and responded to Des Grieux's declarations of ardour without pretence at naivety. Her love of material possessions was as sensuous as her love for DG - so many gestures conveyed her conflicts - I was struck by her leaving the stage with Avis -where her perfunctory touch of his face was followed by a caress of her fur collar. The other striking part of her interpretation was her relationship with her brother - I really felt that her love for Lescault was much more fundamental than in any previous interpretation I have seen and his death a major part in her decline. I was in the balcony so facial expressions were hard to read but Osipova uses her body to convey emotion so forcefully this didn't feel like a handicap. I don't always feel that she is particularly well matched with Reece Clarke but overall the partnership worked well here. I did feel there were a few tentative notes in the Act 1 bedroom pdd - I was very aware of Osipova's technique assisting the above head holds and the final fiendish combination which as resulted in so many injuries in the past was either truncated deliberately or fluffed. The third act work was outstanding from both. I found accepting Alexander Campbell as drunk Lescault was much easier than accepting him as evil, manipulative Lescault but the complicity of the sibling relationship was convincing. Avis as Mons GM was totally convincing - what a career he has at the moment! The orchestra was on fine form, I thought - it is a magnificent score.

Is anyone else going to tomorrow's matinee performance? [Osipova/Clarke]

Matthew Ball has been posting quite heavily on his instagram with some very interesting insights about the ballet and the role. I guess you have to do your own PR these days!

He's a fantastic actor - real presence and projection.