HelenHelen

Has this been mentioned already? I was just doing my diary and noticed that Cinderella casting is live: https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/cinderella-dates No Cuthbertson or Hirano from the principals, and only Sissens and Richardson from the (current) first soloists.

Hayward/Corrales

Nunez/Muntagirov

Kaneko/Bracewell (yay)

O'Sullivan/Sambe

Naghdi/Ball

Osipova/Clarke

Takada/Sissens

Magri/Richardson

Lamb/McRae

I would be thrilled to see Melissa Hamilton as a principal. I figured hope was lost, but would love to be wrong.

Promotion to principal: the top rank seems quite crowded with no announcements about retirements. I hope to see Joseph Sissens here one day but not sure if it will happen this season.

Promotion to first soloist: I feel like Mariko Sasaki and Lukas B Braendsrod have been dancing above their pay grade for a while. A few I would hope are still on their way up but might have to wait a little longer: Leo Dixon, Annette Buvoli and Leticia Dias. (And eventually: Joonhyuk Jun, Sae Maeda and Taisuke Nakao.)

Promotion to soloist: Julia Roscoe (I thought she was already a soloist!), Marco Masciari, Daichi Ikarashi, maybe Liam Boswell - I wouldn't be surprised to see Viola Pantuso skip a rank to end up here after the season she has had. (This has made me think a bit about how difficult it must be for an artistic director to keep everyone happy if dancers feel like they're being overtaken/realise they're not on the path to juicy roles or solo parts etc - so glad that's not my job.)

Promotion to first artist: Viola Pantuso, Marianna Tsembenhoi and, with her Alice leading role coming up, Ella Newton Severgnini.

1 hour ago, Linnzi5 said:

It does seem, if I may be so bold, that surely it would be better to have the seats priced lower to start with then the 40% code would not be necessary!

Exactly! I would've booked for the Kaneko/Muntagirov cast as well originally if the front side amphi seats had been £29ish when booking opened instead of £49, like they are now that I've been emailed a discount code. But instead I booked only the Nunez/Ball cast and went on a £14 ticket. Anyway, now it's too late for me to change my rota/plans and use this offer. My preferred seats were still available when I got the email offer yesterday, and even two days before the Nunez performance. 

1 hour ago, Rob S said:

Many of the dancers are posting a lovely backstage pic of the cast and Kevin O'Hare with special guest Harry Styles 🙂

That's not the first time he's been at the opera house this season: Melissa Hamilton posted a photo with him to her Insta stories fairly recently, and she was in rehearsal clothes so I wondered if there might be a Harry/RB collaboration in the pipeline. But perhaps he's just a fan and actually has some free time to see things.

How am I supposed to sleep after that...?

I thought I'd have to miss this performance because I had a standing ticket and I'm not up to standing for that long at the moment. "It's fine," I told myself. "You've seen them both separately in this run, who needs another Swan Lake so soon anyway?" But then I read the reports on this thread about the first Kaneko/Muntagirov show and the fomo kicked in: secured a seat just in time.

I'm so happy I managed it!! Her Odette was divine, so fragile and full of sorrow and yearning. But I just love malevolent Fumi as Odile, so sultry. Her debut with Federico Bonelli was sizzling, her partnership with William Bracewell was/is gorgeous, and I thought tonight was sensational. 

It was such a joy to sit back and luxuriate in the Act III pdd with no fear that she and the exquisite Vadim wouldn't fly through it. Just dazzling. I love how they both seem to find so much time and space in the music when they move - Vadim especially in that beautiful solo as Act I becomes Act II, and as his Act III variation ended, in total harmony with the conductor. 

I really hope Kaneko gets filmed as Odette/Odile one day, and that it doesn't count against her that her current partners have had the cinema/streaming treatment already.

Heaven. 

(Also: cute kiss! Ha. Made me forget that I was peeved at the woman in front who took a sneaky photo of the corps in Act IV - I was close enough to be distracted by the screen light before she dimmed it, too far away to do anything about it. Thanks both!)

Ticket sold! Thank you

Hello,

I'm selling my balcony standing spot because I've managed to find an affordable returned seat for this performance (injured and not recovered enough to stand).

C64, restricted view - £14 face value. I will return it to the box office at 7pm today if no one fancies it.

Thanks!

58 minutes ago, bridiem said:

I'm very grateful to @hephaistion03 for posting this info, but astonished that the RB/ROH allows it to be known (by anyone other than those involved) before the announcement tomorrow.

The media embargo is 8am tomorrow. Perhaps they figured everyone else's post was as unreliable as mine is in southeast London at the moment, and didn't think the prospectus stood a chance of arriving before June.

A Lucia discount code for £30 tickets for Monday's performance was posted in another thread, if that is useful for anyone. The offer price then appears when you choose a seat, seems to work all over the auditorium.

14 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Thanks Richard LH 

It’s going to be difficult to know what to book first on 27th!! 
I don’t suppose you can tell me how May 15th Winters Tale is looking …only if you have a mo! 

Swan Lake for June 25 in the first screengrab, The Winter's Tale for May 15 in the second (if this uploads properly...)

1 hour ago, Henry said:

May I ask?  Will Mr O'Hare now have a spare contract for a new principal?  Who would you like to see?  

I think the money, if it can be spared, would be better spread around promotions elsewhere. There are some soloists who seem ready to become first soloists and some first artists who deserve a higher rank, in my opinion. Possibly too early in the season for promotion predictions, though!

Just now, Emeralds said:

Just realised that means no Alex Campbell for any of the Ashton ballets in June!  (Sob). 

This too, and I'm now kicking myself for not booking to see him and Hayward together in Cinderella, thinking that they were both still young enough to be around the next time!

Too soon for him to retire!! I agree that he has been woefully underused recently and can't blame him for doing things with his own production company and thinking about life after performing. It sounds like it was too good an opportunity to pass up. I am sorry not to have a ticket for his final show but it seems fitting that, although not as originally cast, he has Francesca Hayward alongside him - theirs has been a special partnership.

3 minutes ago, alison said:

Was there a Manon in 2019?  I only ask because I have a 2018 Manon ticket sitting on my bedside cabinet at the moment.  (£4 - so must have been a rear amphi standing, I suppose.  Those were the days ... )

I went once in May 2018 and twice in October 2019. In 2019 my front side amphi ticket was £18 instead of the £49 they wanted this time around...

Laura Morera had this to say about Hirano in a retirement interview with Culture Whisper: "We have a lot of love for each other, because we've done a lot together, we know each other really well, we're both of a similar age, and a similar status in the company, and he is a wonderful partner!"

To be fair to the ROH team on this occasion, that video looks to have been created by Time Out - Time Out can add the ROH Instagram account as a collaborator when the team uploads content, so it appears on both accounts. (There is a "bar" that should be "barre" too.) Someone should have been aware this was going to happen, asked to review the clip and sent it back for an edit, though.

It's been sold out for months but they released some more tickets last night via the official V&A website!

15 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

A friend of mine, who sees a lot of theatre but ballet only occasionally, is thinking of seeing SL & has asked my opinion on which cast to go for. I suggested Nunez/Muntagirov as the safest bet, with Kaneko/Muntagirov, Naghdi/Ball & Lamb/Hirano as other possible options. I thought, for my own interest, I'd try asking on here if more experienced ballet viewers agree with my suggestions or not?

I think you've given great advice. When I started going to the ballet a critic friend told me to pick the dates danced by the first night cast if I didn't know who I wanted to see. I've seen all of these Odette/Odiles and been happy - such secure technique and no worries about whether they'll make it through the demands of Act Three. I was truly moved and dazzled by Kaneko/Bonelli in 2022 and the 2018 opening night of Nunez/Muntagirov.

I'm hoping to see two SL combinations I haven't seen yet: Naghdi/Ball and Kaneko/Muntagirov - who spent the summer performing in galas together and will have done Manon by then - this time. (And a repeat viewing of the lovely Cuthbertson/Bracewell pairing if I can find something affordable, because I'm greedy.) But I'd also tell anyone who asked for advice to go for Nunez/Muntagirov as the safest bet.

I usually finish work at 7pm - and have to be prepared to scrap my evening plans if we're not done - so for completely selfish reasons I'm not keen. Ticket booking happens months in advance of performances so I prefer to book midweek to have a shorter journey there after work, and to keep my weekends free for friends and parties/avoid closures on the Overground etc. Interested to see how the NT trial performs, though - I did a lengthy survey from them about this sort of thing and pricing earlier this summer. I live in London and don't wfh much (by choice), so I'm sure there are plenty of other perspectives to consider. 

1 minute ago, Linnzi5 said:

I don't think the increase for yours sounds awful but I think it's about a 20% increase? I guess mine is a similar amount too? Mine just sounds worse!  🤣 I think my maths is correct? 🤫

You're correct and normally I'd be huffy about that, but I was expecting it to be so much worse! Welcome to 2023, hey. (I know things are really tough for arts organisations and they need to raise money...)

5 hours ago, oncnp said:

Seat map for Swan Lake and Danses concertantes mixed. A few seats not priced but better than last time. 

 

To add: if you click on the un-color-coded seats some will show a price 

 

Select your own seat (roh.org.uk) (Swan Lake)

 

Select your own seat (roh.org.uk)  (Danses concertantes mixed)

Phew, "my" front side amphitheatre seat is £35 for Swan Lake when it was £29 for the 2022 run. A relief after the prices for Don Quixote (£52) and Manon (£49). I can't understand the logic. Is that because they have noticed a difference in sales for those affected zones or because they know Swan Lake will sell out and make its money without requiring discounts, who knows.

Here's hoping the seat map stays the same by the time booking opens. I won't be booking multiple casts like last time (four plus SCS for the Ukraine gala, oops) so I will keep my fingers crossed for a Kaneko/Bracewell pairing and hope I can resist further temptation (or at least book an SCS spot that's not behind a high seat for another cast).

Long-time lurker... Unfortunately I had a repeat of the July fiasco for Friends booking this morning where it said I'd reached my limit after choosing one ticket, then said my basket was empty, then the spot was unavailable to rebook. This was despite doing everything in the booking advice outlined in the Friends email beforehand. Why can't the tech just work? Eventually got it to work on my mobile browser. I was trying only for Manon this time, at least, so I haven't had the rage I had after losing a basketful of prime SCS spots in the summer!

Sad to see a repeat of the Don Quixote price increase for my preferred side amphitheatre seats. Last time I saw Manon in October 2019 I sat in C36 for £18, so I can't stomach (or afford) £49, unfortunately. How are those seats for Don Q or Manon priced more expensively than The Nutcracker?! 

This time I was after two tickets, and there were no pairs left in SCS or balcony standing, and I haven't found the upper slips comfortable recently. All this means is that I've booked for only one cast instead of two: Kaneko/Muntagirov edging it for me over Naghdi/Bracewell because of Joseph Sissens as Lescaut. Hopefully I can pick up a solo seat for the other pairing in Friday Rush to avoid severe fomo.

If anyone is after an Osipova/Sambe Don Quixote SCS spot - I've just returned my spare ticket for Wed Oct 4.