annamk

Actually there are performances in June so I guess that explains it.

No Akane Takada 🥲 And where are Reece Clarke and Natalia Osipova ?

So would I, I absolutely LOVE it. Sadly not seen on the main stage since 2012 so perhaps it has been ditched ? ENB have a lovely version which last had an outing in 2018, maybe the new director will revive it. Frola would be sensational as James - I can live in hope !

My friend remembered him from the school and we were also wondering why the RB didn't take him given his obvious talent but like you @capybarawe thought he would not have had these opportunities so early. We were sitting quite near the stage for his performance and he showed no discernible sign of any nerves. Some of the lifts in the White Act are quite challenging: the point at which he has to support his partner at her waist with one hand as she turns from her deep backbend and the high presse lifts (not sure about my terminology) it all went incredibly smoothly. The audience were very enthusiastic, loud bravos at the curtain call, a standing ovation in the stalls and why not, they deserved them 😃

A friend and I went to Amsterdam for a couple of nights lured by the prospect of Giselle with Olga Smirnova and newly joined ex Bolshoi principal the Italian Jacopo Tissi. We saw 2 performances on Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th October. The production of Giselle which I’ve not seen before is credited to Rachel Beaujean and Ricardo Bustamante - in addition to the usual acknowledgements to Petipa, Coralli and Perrot. And what a fine job Beaujean and Bustamante have done. It’s traditional, more or less what we’re used to seeing both in terms of scenery, costume and choreography with only some small changes, additions, and a few short passages of unfamiliar music. On Wednesday evening the leading roles were danced by Jessica Xuan and Davi Ramos. She has been a DNB principal since 2020 while he was making his Albrecht debut. He’s a tall, long limbed Brazilian who went to the Royal Ballet School upper school after being noticed at the Prix de Lausanne. On graduation in 2019 he joined DNB (junior company initially) where he’s been enjoying a swift rise, having danced Siegfried earlier this year and already the RB equivalent of a Soloist. Jessica Xuan was a sweet and delightful Giselle. She has a soft dance style, beautiful port de bras and a lovely musicality. Davi Ramos was equally Impressive. His solo dancing was tremendous and his partnering exemplary: secure, quietly confident, unshowy and courteous, always paying attention to his Giselle rather than falling into the young man’s trap of showing himself off. Quite remarkable for such a young, inexperienced dancer. The famous Albrecht solo choices in this production are a variable number of entrechats preceded by travelling brisees. Myrtha is this cast really impressed us although we didn’t get a cast sheet and can’t find a full one online so are sadly unable to credit her here. Similarly Hilarion was also notable although his story telling was perhaps slightly more muddied than his dancing. The corps were excellent on both nights. No noisy pointe shoes in evidence. We particularly liked the long length costumes for the Wilis which gave them a distinctly ghostly bridal air. On both nights the pd4 soloists gave clean and musical performances. The four on Thursday were Yuanyuan Zhang, Edo Winjen, Naira Agvanean and Sho Yamada. Thursday evening was much anticipated and more than lived up to our expectations. Olga Smirnova and Jacopo Tissi are an ideal physical match. Tall, slender, fine boned, elegant, they epitomise a classic classical dancer. And of course they can dance. Their white act pdd was stunning as were their solos: it’s all unshowy, understated, beautifully controlled and musical. For Albrecht’s solo, Tissi entered with a single series of travelling brisees the speed and beauty of which simply took my breath away. His subsequent entrechats were beautifully done and entirely in service of the story. In this cast Hilarion was danced by the explosive Giorgi Potskhisvili, like Davi Ramos he’s a young dancer who’s enjoying a stellar rise. Earlier in this run he made his Albrecht debut which we would love to have seen. He was a perfect foil for the classicism of Smirnova and Tissi and gave a superbly acted and danced performance. I’ve been following him digitally and this was the first time seeing him live in a major role, he will certainly be a big draw for future trips to Amsterdam. In summary the company looks in great shape with a number of principals at the top of their game, some hugely appealing up and coming young dancers and evident quality in the lower ranks. It was interesting to note that much of the dancing particularly the soloists finished absolutely on the music. We wondered if the conductor had a better eye on the stage than is often the case. Certainly from our viewpoint he appeared to be higher up than for example the conductor at Covent Garden. But I could be wrong about this. The Smirnova/Tissi performance was being filmed and is due for a cinema release some time in the New Year I believe. Fingers crossed that we can catch it in the UK.

I know you’ve made this point before and I don’t understand why you think it. Surely the Royal Ballet is a classical ballet company ? These forays into whatever genre one calls The Cellist are not the core of the company. I know the rep includes much MacMillan which isn’t pure classical ballet either but it’s lived happily enough alongside work like Sleeping Beauty for many years now. In any event works like the Cellist are clearly not what most of the audience want to see on the main stage as the truly dreadful ticket sales indicate. At the moment it rather looks like The Dante Project could suffer the same fate. There was a time when I’d go to multiple performances of every programme at the RB but the programming for 23/24 is incredibly unappealing and so far it appears I’m not alone in finding that.

How exciting - I’d love to hear about the performance if you can post something.

Well @Bruce Wall I’m sincerely glad you enjoyed the Cellist double bill - I’m not even going to see it having found both works mediocre on their premieres. I have to take issue with your contention that it’s each to his own - I’m paraphrasing here. If you hadn’t seen a month of Balanchine I suspect you might be rather less enthusiastic about what’s on offer at the Royal Ballet this Autumn and as for each company dedicating themselves towards the audience they are serving I suggest that the ticket sales for The Cellist indicate that the audience here is not overly wowed by what Kevin O’Hare is offering and that a programme including Balanchine and Bobbins might well have sold much better.

That is me too !

Just bumping this up.

I know we've discussed the pricing a lot already but @JNC your post really reminded me again how wrong I think the Amphi pricing in particular has gone. £99 for the top price Amphi seat for Manon and more than £100 for Don Q. Those seats are cramped and too far away from the stage to justify that pricing. The Friends and Public seem to be voting with their feet - at the moment the Amphi sales for most performances of Manon are virtually non existent even after public booking. Although of course the performance is still a long way off but wasn't there a time when pre sales would be much better and Amphi seats used to be seen as value for money ? Fortunately there are other options for ballet lovers. ENB's Our Voices at Sadlers Wells was brilliant and much better value for money, as is Giselle at the Coliseum in January. BUT even though Giselle pricing is lower than the RoH there are many many unsold seats and I have to admit I am waiting for a ticket offer because there are so many casts I want to see.

I'm sure Ratmansky is very happy about that.

SC C77 described as restricted view because it's next to a pillar but is fine. £9 Message me if interested.

Tickets now spoken for

Selling D22 and D28 £5 each, circle standing places. The Limit preview performances - note cast is Rudd/Rye

Is it not possible I wonder for the RB to schedule more mixed bills with a lot of principal roles. There are so many principals currently that it seems impossible to give everyone enough stage time in full length ballets. I was thinking that even with Lauren Cuthbertson, Francesca Hayward and Sarah Lamb not cast in Don Q there are still not really enough shows to go around. I know Marianela Nunez and Natalia Osipova had more scheduled performances but they are better known and their ticket sales are better. Reading the reports from New York it seemed to me that the principals have been dancing much more regularly than the principals do in London, but maybe I am mistaken or maybe it's just because it was the 75th anniversary. Perhaps this kind of triple bill scheduling needs a company the size of NYCB.

I did it all on line, it was very straightforward. The person who buys the ticket makes the transfer to your account.

I resold tickets on their resale site and got a refund - I live here in London.

Looking for 1 or 2 tickets if anyone has any they can't use. Thank you.

Could part of this apparent scheduling inbalance re Nutcracker be that both Fumi and Yasmine are making their Manon debuts in January and that's a huge role to learn, whereas Lescaut's mistress is a considerably lesser undertaking that Mayara has danced before ?

Has anyone been to any of these performances and if so what did you see ? Did you have to arrive early to get a place ? I think there have been a couple already - one was opera with a cast sheet on the website but no detail on the other. https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/live-at-lunch-dates

I think you’ll be able to find some clips on YT of the incomparable young Osipova/Vasiliev in the Bolshoi production and I’d recommend anyone with Shklyarov in the Mariinsky production. There are small differences in the choreography for Basilio and Kitri which somehow make the whole a much more thrilling experience. I absolutely love and miss the Kitri/Basilio exit at the end of Act 1. He carries her high above his head weaving through the corps. The whole thing is grander as is the way of Russian ballet productions.

Leo Dixon as Espada 😀

Now we will all be madly checking the website every morning just in case 😂

A friend pointed out that the first two programmes at Paris Opera Nallet seemed to sell out. The top price tickets are the same as the RB so I wonder why this is: is it the ballets themselves, are there fewer seats to shift overall, are there more cheaper price tickets, do people in Paris have more money, are there fewer alternatives ?