Paco

I agree and that's why I never miss a performance with her at the RB. She has that kind of genius that only very few ballerinas have in the World. Furthermore, thanks to the partnership they have progressively built together during the past three years, yesterday even Reece Clarke did some innovative steps when he was dancing with her (like a kind of reverse jeté in the tavern scene, that I could not name exactly but was very subtle and well synchronized with what Natalia was doing at the same time). I was not bothered by the very personal characterization of Osipova's Kitri. On the contrary I come to the RB also, and perhaps chiefly, for that! But yesterday I felt that she did not have the same physical easiness as usual. If I come back to her Act III variation for instance, it started extremely well, but then in the second part of the variation she only played a kind of pantomime, a smart and rather funny one, but I was missing steps and dancing at that point. Even the fouettes of the coda were not the usual Osipova's fouettes, with her stratospherical energy and precision. And during the performance I had the impression of cautiousness each time she had to perform some jetés or some abandons in the arms of Basilio, which is quite unusual for her and their partnership. All this gave me the impression that she was not in a comfortable physical condition compared to her usual performances at the RB, but perhaps I am wrong. Nevertheless, even in a so-so condition, I would still die to attend a performance with her, no doubt about it!!

I fully agree!!! For me this afternoon's performance was Reece's performance. Everything was amazing in his dancing: the goldsmith precision of his jumps and jetés, notably in the Act III variaiton, the extraordinary partnership/ complicity with Natalia Osipova (those crossed looks, the way he almost "eats" her when he looks at her, those cute kisses), and most of all the surprinsing character that he has created: His Basilio is not only seducer, feline, player, he is also full of that Spanish virilism that few best Basilios truly have: In a way, Clarke's Basilio also holds some Espada DNA in his character. This is a very original approach and reflects the talent of a smart artist. Natalia Osipova started very well the performance, with her usual electrical/ sunshine energy, devouring the stage like a volcano and showing her usual amazing technical easiness and charism. However and unfortunately, the more the performance went ahead the more tired she started to be, showing sometimes breathing difficulties and chiefly some caution in jetés and moves, caution that is unusual compared to what she is used to doing. Compared to her former performances of Kitri here or in Paris or at la Scala, and compared to her unforgettable superlative performances at the Royal Ballet, this Saturday was somehow under-powered, terminating in a half-delivered variation at Act III, where she ended with a pantomime instead of the expected choreography, showing a most probable physical bad confition this afternoon. Perhaps it was a mistake to dance in Dubai on Wednesday, take the flight back and jump onto the stage only 24h later, chiefly for a engaging ballet like DQ and at 37 y-old. However, thanks to a very good partnership with Reece and a strong monitoring of the technical difficulties, she and him managed to provide the needed excitement that we expect in a DQ performance, and it was globally a much enjoyable matinee. Moreover I discovered the so charming and magical Cupidon of Ashley Dean. How amazingly musical is her dance, it was a delight and I will keep her name in my record, hoping to see one day at the RB in characters like Clara or Coppelia. Once again, at the end of this performance I consider this production of DQ as a very good one: full of smart details, very theatrical. Much better than most other productions of this ballet. Bravo to Carlos Acosta !

Thank you for these explanations. Now I understand better why Mr Meyer said he was making an exception to the Scala Ballet usual rules

Tonight at la Scala, at the end of a performance of Cranko's Onegin with Roberto Bolle, the wonderful ballerina Nicoletta Manni has been appointed Etoile. So happy for this great artist, who is unfortunately not famous outside Italy despite an amazing talent.

Like most of you I don't understand the secrecy about the 7th. Previous evenings with the presence of the Royal family have always been announced as such - usually with rocketting prices and outlining it as a special gala. Actually my first experience of the ROH was as a child in the 70s and was indeed a Royal gala: My parents had bought extremely expensive tickets for a Carmen performance in the presence of the Queen. I was 8 years old, it was the first opera of my life. Indeed I never knew what I loved the most: the opera itself or the global experience, with the national anthem and all extraordinary atmosphere around that special evening (though from the Amphitheatre I could not see the Queen, who was seating in the Grand Tier). The last time I attended a performance at the ROH with the presence of a member of the Royal family, it was Aida a few years ago. At the time Prince Charles was attending the performance from the Royal box, and I was disappointed that there had not been any national anthem, only a very discrete written announcement in the cast sheet, nothing more. In France it happens to meet the President family at the theatre. Usually they come anonymously. It happened to me twice to be seated right behind them at the Comédie Française. Very discrete, no announcement, but at the end of the performance there has been the inevitable selfie battle from spectators...

Absolutely. There are very few venues in the World which benefit from touristic attraction just for the building and its history: La Scala, la Fenice, Sydney, and Garnier (before the Ukranian war the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky were also attractions). Sadly enough for the ROH, the ROH has never been a touristic attraction. For a tourist looking for entertainment at the end of the day, London is the city of Musicals. I know plenty of friends who are ready to pay a fortune for whatever Musical in London, but just do not know that there is also an opera house in the same district! And this is the case even for melomane. The same friends have of course targeted la Scala as a "must see" during their stay in Milan. But not in London. This explains to some extent that la Scala is always sold out for ballets (despite stratospheric prices, much worse than ROH), though the company is of lower quality than the Royal Ballet.

Exactly and this is an important concern for the future. And it is the same at other companies: Who will be the star at La Scala Ballet once Bolle has definitely retired (which apparently is not for tomorrow fortunately)? Nicoletta Manni is an amazing artist, but apart from ballettomanes "nobody" knows her (even my French and British ballettomane friends don't know her). Same in France: Even members of my family who never attended a ballet in their life knew the names of Noella Pontois, Patrick Dupond, Sylvie Guillem, Marie-Claude Pietragalla, Nicolas Le Riche ... (and not to mention Nureyev). Today there is a marvelous artist Dorothée Gilbert: Who knows her in France except ballettomanes? She approaches the end of her brilliant career though... And same for Russia, the USA, etc. At Amsterdam it was not so difficult to buy seats for Smirnova's Giselle ... I don't know why we have reached this situation, but perhaps it is the problem with social media: Social media of ballerinas only speak to people who are already passionate of ballet. Whereas 20 years ago, the Sunday Times and equivalent were publising 2 pages about Carlos Acosta or Tamara Rojo and readers were not only ballettomanes.

Strange: Last week Magri, now McRae. These are not muscular injuries, these are slides. Could there be something wrong at one point of the stage floor?

Totally agree (also regarding the decreasing attractiveness of opera casts, this is a global issue Worldwide). At Paris Opera we have experienced this pricing issue 15 years ago, when they started to increase every year the price of the cheapest seats (and decrease significantly their quota in the auditorium), chiefly at Bastille. The result has been a progressive decline of regular attendees, those passionate of opera and/or ballet who were used to attending several casts for a same ballet or opera. The marketing transparently voiced out that "fans" were not an interesting target and that tourists/ occasional spectators were the most interesting audience for Paris Opera. Promoting more and more the kind of "champagne evening at Paris Opera" at very expensive prices. This resulted in slow, latent, progressive decline of sales, from auditoriums previously sold at 100% to 95%, 94%, 93% .... With fantastic novlangue communiqués every year "we have reached an unprecented 94% filling", "we have reached a triumphant 93% capacity..." (uuuh, yes but 3 years ago it was 97% wasn't it???). Then sales of subsciptions started to decrease as well (the equivalent of ROH former packages). Then the institution started to propose last minutes discounts of performances which sales were catastrophic. Then the audience started to understand that it was not useful anymore to book far in advance, because for sure there would be discounts at the last minute (except perhaps for a Netrebko or Kaufmann show, and except at Garnier which has limited capacity and is a Worldwide touristic attraction). When the Covid-crisis and touristic crisis happened, the impact at the reopening was sideral because suddenly the Paris Opera had lost its "best audience target", the tourist Champagne-evening at Paris Opera... and could not anymore rely on passionate/ fans as they had gone away to other venues (Théâtre des Champs Elysées, ROH chiefly for the Ballet, various venues in Germany or Italy or French provincial theatres etc.). I am afraid this could be the future of the ROH with the current pricing strategy. But the situation is even worse here because, contrarily to French cultural instiutions, when the ROH is in fnancial trouble the governement does not always come to the rescue. We could see it during the Covid-crisis when it had to sell some artistic works of the building to avoid bankruptcy. This would never had happened at Paris Opera where financial losses would be immediately covered by the State. So the ROH is somehow trapped: Because of its post-Covid difficult financial situation (which is fortunately improving, but not fast enough due to the unexpected inflation on costs), It needs to schedule those looooong runs of Swan Lake and Nutcracker (and, last year, SB) - and the equivalent Tosca, Traviata or Aida for the opera-, to secure the cash machine, and it has to try to increase the revenue by seat. Globally it has to find money by all means, it is a matter of survival. And the more it increases prices, the less tickets it sells, so it is a vicious circle... The worst signal that I have seen since September is the empty tables at the foyer restaurants: This is really a warning signal that something is going wrong, and it is directly linked to the economic context. The issue is not that Stalls best seats are now priced over £150, the issue is that some Amphitheatre seats jumped from £50 to £95 or more. The issue is not that there remain a hundred or more empty seats in the Stalls, the issue is that even Amphitheatre is only sold at 65%. This is the real signal that something is wrong in pricing strategy.

Regarding Bolle, I find normal that he is in RB casts. For me he is almost part of the RB family. He has been dancing many times with the company, and was even in the DVD of Sylvia. He regularly invites Principals and First soloists of the RB to perform in his galas in Italy and elsewhere (even the January 1rst TV show on RAI1) and really seems to enjoy dancing with them and making them participate to his projects. As such he gives me the impression that the rehearsal studios of the ROH are, in some way, his second home. And the audience ovations when he performs here also show to what extent he is most welcome at the ROH. Years ago, in the 2017-2019 period, Marianela Nunez often posted on social media, with lots of enthusiasm, that she was loving dancing with him, and I would not be surprised that it was her choice to ask KOH to feature him in the Manon run of 2019. I attended the 2019 run and was really impressed by the very special partnership between her and Bolle, it was something very different than with other partners. I would not say "better", just "different". One can't deny that there is really an extraordinary fit in their partnership and I really understand that KOH has once again scheduled performances with them together. Moreover, globally I like very much that the ROH give us the chance to see dancers who still have amazing technical and physical conditions at 50+: Acosta last July, Bolle several times, Ferri in M&A and Woolf Works...

Yes that would have been a very interesting casting, I totally imagine him in that character (more a "partner" role than purely a dancing role)

Agree

Fantastic performance tonight! Mayara Magri absolutely amazing in the Act II variation (never seen before such a perfect and effortless "diagonale ballonné") as well as in the last Pas de Deux (outstanding fouettés). She started the performance with a spectacular and unfortunate fall (she initiated her step too fast and just flew and hurted the floor head first), but apparently, and fortunately, without injury. After a Act 1 where she obviously was a bit tensed after this fall, she delivered both Act II and Act III with tremendous passion, virtuosity, energy and charisma. Kitri is really part of her DNA, she IS the character and plays it so naturally. She has something which reminds me the young Osipova when she was dancing this character at the beginning of her career: Same charisma, outstanding technique and enthusiasm to dance. Her Kitri is probably on the verge of becoming a reference in the next ten years of history of ballet, and the video captation that is scheduled at the end of the month will be an important milestone for this production at the Royal Ballet. Her partner Marcelino Sambé was close to perfect as well, and Sissens almost stole the show in his various variations: an impressive Espada, both theatrically and technically. Excellent corps de ballet (as usual I would say...) and fantastic orchestra conductor, who adopted dynamic tempi (with a spectacular accelerando for the Kitri fouettés). The Carlos Acosta production is excellent: I love the fact that he transformed this ballet into a true theatrical story instead of the usual succession of variations. In a way, this DQ is close to the Bolshoi one: There is the same precision in details, every dancer even in the corps de ballet is a character and plays a distinctive role. There is the same explosion of life and energy. Outstanding performance overall!

This cast is absolutely amazing! Magri as Mercedes, Richardson and Sissens as matadors... Sometimes I am not sure whether the RB audience are aware they are living a golden age of the company...

I attended La Forza yesterday night. About 15 to 20% of seats were unoccupied, but this is not exceptional: I remember having seen, 15 years ago, a Luisa Miller and a Werther with less than 2/3 of the auditorium sold. What was a very significant warning signal yesterday, was the almost empty restaurants during the intervals: at the Piazza (Amphitheatre), only the terrace had clients while the inner restaurant was empty, and at the Paul Hamlyn Hall there were plenty of unoccupied tables (at the mezzanine). This is really the signal that something wrong is happening in terms of gap between prices and ability of the audience to pay such prices. Furthermore, part of the economical model of the ROH is based on the revenues from the foyers. If these decline, there will be trouble in the budget...

This summer Mayara Magri has posted videos (on Instagram) of the DQ Pas de Deux in various galas where she has been dancing. What I have seen is extremely exciting and very promising for next October performances. Having also booked tickets for Osipova's November performances, I am glad to have the possibility to see Magri in October. With Sambé it will be thrilling!

She is replaced by Mayara Magri for DQ October 4 and 7. Still scheduled for November performances (with Clarke), at least at this stage.

The creation of Oscar looks exciting and I hope it will be also performed elsewhere in Europe later (Royal Ballet hopefully). Regarding the remaining part of the season, it's ok but I must admit that I am bored with so many pieces about Carmen, be it as ballets, musical theatre, etc. At this point every creation on this story does not anymore bring something new. It would be much more exciting, for a new ballet, to explore other topics.

I come back to this forum after looong summer holidays (that's so French 😉 ...) Regarding the question "Have I changed my ROH ticket purchase patterns", related to the price increase, in fact I have made trade off, but at the expense of other venues. This means that this season I plan to attend as many Royal Ballet performances as previous years, but probably less at other venues, as my budget is not unlimited... At current outsanding level of the RB, I could not decrease my attendance: For me the Royal Ballet is currently the best of the best of European companies, only challenged by the two most famous Russian ones. It is not only a matter of fantastic Principals (there are also fantastic Principals in Milano, Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg...), but mostly the Corps de ballet and, globally, the general mindset of the company which is, under KOH management, above all standards I have ever seen since 30 years of attendance of ballet in Europe. So, as prices are increasing, I have to choose and I will definitely not sacrifice purchases at the RB. So I plan to buy less tickets elsewhere (Amsterdam being probably the sacrificed one, just because they never publish casts sufficiently ahead of performances, resulting in unability to book hotels and trains at low price). I know I am not the only French audience to have such trade off, I have French and German friends who are also currently spending huge amounts in RB tickets (+ travel), at the expense of other companies.

Yes, don't hesitate to call the box office. They are aware of that issue of isolated seats and disapprove it. Usually they solve the problem and sell you the seat you want.

Hi Arucaria: Loge 2 seat 4 : seat 4 is a 2nd row isn't it? A 2nd row in extreme side you will see nothing, except if you stand up during the whole performance. Loge 4 seat 1 : part of the stage wlll be hidden by the pillar. But at least, seat 2 is a first row, so you are able to bend over easily and try to see a little better than at Loge 2 seat 4 Globally both seats are bad for a ballet (for an opera it is ok if you come mostly for the singers and accept to miss part of the visuals) But no worries. On POB website there is a ticket exchange service (see in the menu sthg like "services"). Where you can resale your tickets and buy better ones. Just be patient, most returns come 3 or 4 weeks before the performance.

Lucky you! Because usually there is a shortfall of cast sheets as soon as at 7:05 for the performance of 7:30... The cast sheets management at Paris Opera is really a scandal that irritates me every time I go to this venue, be it Garnier or Bastille. I would much prefer that they adopt the ROH policy of web cast sheets, at least we would get the information

I love almost all RB Principals. Usually, what I do is: first see a "traditional" outstanding approach of the piece (Nunez or Naghdi or Kaneko or Lamb or etc.), then "well, now let's see what Natalia Osipova will do with this character". So I always attend two or three performances of a run, including one with Osipova. I never miss an Osipova performance, it is so unique, so exciting and stimulating! I loved the fact that in Woolf Works I could see, on the same Saturday, Alessandra Ferri in the matinee (the creator of the piece), and Osipova in the evening. Two completely different approaches (but both, of course, validated by McGregor), so exciting!

She did, in La Bayadère (Cesar Corrales, alternating with Muntagirov). At that time Reece Clarke was not yet Osipova's RB partner. It was good, but for me the alchemy is much higher with Clarke. Because Natalia Osipova is not only brilliance and energy, she is also mostly romantic and has a kind of fragility in her personality, which matches extremely well with the sweet, gentle charisma of Mr Clarke.

Some of them speak English, with a limited vocabulary and a charming French accent, but sufficient to understand your need and provide you a suitable solution. There remain one or two box office members who do not speak English, but they understand if you speak a few French words. Globally, the staff who answers at the phone is very kind and always tries its best to give satisfaction.