Don Q Fan

She was and I think Thiago was her Franz (before he was a Principal) I have just checked my spreadsheet and it must have been before 2007 as its not on my spreadsheet for performances I have seen which I started in 2007. Wow I really thought it was 2007 or 2009.

Sigh why didn't ROH list the opera and ballet separately on the press release and finish with a calendar of all performances on the back pages. Great to see Onegin back and the new Swan Lake which I've yet to see live. Coppelia, Manon and SB I will probably pass if those prices are correct. Typically they've got a good triple in June with, I am presuming, very few performances again just like this year's triple so another bun fight for tickets. Doncaster tour - not the most obvious place, but it's up north so that's good. No Balanchine. Virtually no Main Stage Ashton. Very disappointing. That's me off to Europe for Balanchine✈️

I saw Marianela as Coppelia must have been 2007 or 2009.

😮Spits tea out say whaaaat!!! Ouch!

Any idea when we might expect the ROH 19/20 season to be announced? I've never known it so late as this year.

I'm still waiting for ROH to declare their season too.

Judging from Nunez's Instagram feed she's doing a lot of away dancing at the moment as has Muntagirov. Presumably they are allowed in their contracts. Nunez has been in Italy Poland and further afield recently.

And Alina Cojacaru dances in Illusions Like Swan Lake on 16 and 18 May at Hamburg - Luckily I managed to get a ticket for 16th can't wait!!

Yes where you sit definitely affects enjoyment I think. I saw the Christmas triple bill from the Ampi and then Balcony it was so much more enjoyable from the Balcony for me. I think the first ballet I sat in the ROH stalls was Coppelia (with Marianela) in row H and I was amazed how good it was but I prefer overall to be high up as I love to see the patterns in the choreography. Just lately I find it difficult to get into any ballets I see, maybe it's ballet fatigue.

I went both times (one was a day trip and the other a week long tour) as part of escorted tours as I speak no russian. Our guides were both very good. On the week tour the guide never really let us out of her eyesight apart from one afternoon - and then with strict instructions to be very careful on the Nevsky Prospekt - only one guest had an attempted theft the whole trip. This was 2004 so not sure if it is any better now but best to have your wits about you anyway. One weird thing was that a young Russian videoed the whole trip and then played the video to guests on the bus ride to the airport it was played on an unsecured fold up table on the bus - not very Health and Safety pc!! Needless to say the video could be bought by anyone who wanted a copy!

I believe there is now a Faberge Museum - the items therein are what were bought from Forbes - I saw Forbes in NYC and it was fabulous so if you like the Russian Imperial Easter Eggs go see!!! When I went we took an escorted tour for safety reasons as I don't speak Russian. Our very efficient guide took us to Hermitage/Winter Palace, Peter Paul Fortress, Admiralty, Yusopov Palace (Rasputin), Catherine Palace (Amber Room!!), Alexander Palace, Pavlovsk, the Peterhof was done en route back to the airport so we got no time to fully explore the gardens plus it was early April and they were only just removing the winter covers off the statues and fountains. It is a huge city with HUGE buildings so hone in on what you really like - the Winter Palace was fab but I didn't get much out of the bits of the Hermitage we saw as the art works were not to my taste for eg. Hotels might have special access too the one we stayed at offered guests access to the Golden rooms at the Hermitage for a fee. At the Mariinsky OLD theatre don't get stalls tickets they're awful as no rake whatsoever and I could not see Giselle as had huge man in front, so get a seat on one of the tiers. We also went to Valery Gergiev's restaurant - just for a dessert - it was lovely the curtain ties were made of pointe shoe ribbon with pointe shoes on the end! An interesting quirk was they weighed the ice cream at the Mariinsky on an old fashioned set of grocers scales when I went LOL!! Definitely try the local blinis with caviar! Enjoy!

I just looked at Les Pats triple out of interest as Arizona has always appealed as a State to visit, but the tickets are SO dear - on a par with ROH I think! Over $100 for the front row circle and $128 at the back wow!

Her Giselle with hubby Sarafanov afew years ago at The Coli was fabulous.

I SO agree about Novikova.

I have Fonteyn's signature in 2 books and that is her signature as above.