jmhopton

SkyArts are showing Northern Ballets Casanova Friday 10th Feb 7am.

Well, the NW train service strikes again (not literally this time but the result is the same). Network Rail have now announced rail works cutting off Preston for 4 successive weekends (except for Sat March 11th). the 'complexity' of upgrading switches and crossings means the railway must close between Wigan North Western and Lancaster. The closures will occur on Saturday, February 18, and Sunday, February 19; Saturday, February 25, and Sunday, February 26; Saturday, March 4, Sunday, March 5; and Sunday, March 12, with no trains serving Preston on these dates. So, having had to cancel seeing Vadim this Friday as one of our dogs was ill and we had to cancel going to Cheltenham where I'd booked a coach, my visit 4th of March to see Fumi is now under threat unless we can re-schedule the Cheltenham visit. Going to the theatre is supposed to be a pleasure but these days it involves military manoeuvre type planning. I don't blame the strikers at all (no prizes for guessing whom I do blame!) but it does make life stressful as you're never sure if you're going to get to a performance or if you can then get home on the correct day.

Skyarts are showing Rhapsody/Two Pigeons again Tues 31st Jan at the usual unfriendly time of 7am. Also Rumpelstiltskin by Ballet L'ORENT Wed 1st Feb at 6am.

Fabulous that the BRB Don Q is being shown at last (unlike the RB Ashton triple!) Was very impressed with it when I saw it in Birmingham and thought the sets in particular far better than the RB version. Good to see Margot again as well. You wonder how much ballet will be shown on the BBC when BBC4 is closed down as most of its ballet seems to be shown there. Let's hope it keeps going for a while yet.

Yes we certainly are Janet! If the government wanted to get serious about levelling up, the coach service (or lack of it) would be a good place to start. The irritating thing is it used to be quite good pre covid. I don't know why they think no one now wants to travel by coach from Preston but do want to travel from Cheltenham which has its pre covid service virtually intact. Anyway, I've booked my seat for the 3rd and hope the coaches don't now decide to strike!

Just had an email from Avanti asking me if I'd 'like something different'. I felt like replying 'Trains would be nice'!

Thanks Scherezade. I'm determined to make it! I think it's going to be via the coach from Chelt. I don't know why the coach service is so good from Chelt and so abysmal from Preston. There are loads from Manchester but no direct coaches from Preston to Manchester apart from a Flixbus service which is actually the London coach but doesn't get into Victoria until 19.20.

Thanks LinMM and MJW. it's more or less what I thought. So I can rule out waiting for possible trains and either have an extra night or get the coach from Cheltenham. Despite the ongoing building work the latter is looking a more attractive option as my fallback cheap London hotel is temporarily closed. I hope Vadim appreciates all the worry and hard work that goes into seeing him dance! Worth it though!

No, is the short answer by coach, I'm afraid, Balletfanp. There used to be a very good coach service Preston to London. OK it took 7 hours but I could knock an hour off that by getting off at Golders Green and getting the Northern Line to Euston. Then covid came and now National Express only have one coach a day and that leaves Preston at 3.15am! I've checked Manchester and Birmingham from Preston and it's the same coach for all 3. Megabus too only has 1 coach a day and that doesn't get in London until about 9.05pm. Something called Flixbus stops at Finchley Road at 18.45 so cutting it far too fine for getting to the ROH. In these circs I usually go to Cheltenham and get the excellent coach service from there but the builder has currently turned the house into a disaster area by doing much needed work on the roof, and ripping out the kitchen, preparatory to installing a new one so I don't know if that's feasible. Just checked Vadim's other performance on 20th Jan and it's sold out though there are now a few expensive tickets available on 3rd Feb which was previously sold out. (wonder if that's people returning them because of rail strike?) Having just cancelled two Jan performances I really didn't want to miss seeing Vadim but it looks as if it will be having to risk Chelt or staying over 2 nights. Has anyone tried travelling during a train strike? Is there any sort of minimum service running? Presumably you won't know until the day. I wouldn't bother so much if it was for the return journey but don't want to risk waiting hours on a station to no avail. Apparently both ASLEF and RMT are striking so it sounds fairly comprehensive.

Bad news for us Vadim watchers as ASLEF have announced a drivers strike Feb 1st and 3rd. Have tickets and accommodation for the 3rd. Don't know what I'm going to do. I thought it was being resolved.

Was just going through the ROH streaming offering again preparatory to cancelling my subscription (my free 3 months Friends subscription ends Wed) when I noticed at the bottom of the offerings page, opposite where it says Easily Watch on your TV they have removed A Month in the Country from their selection of offerings (below Sleeping Beauty) and replaced it with the opera Cendrillon. Yet another indication there don't appear to be plans to release it anytime soon. Given the lack of intent to stream it (why?) you wonder why it was there in the first place.

Sun 22nd Jan BBC4 Romeo and Juliet: beyond words. The Balletboyz abridged version of the RB Romeo and Juliet filmed about 3 years ago and starring Francesca Hayward and William Bracewell. I thought at the time they were supposed to be going on to film Manon and Mayerling but I haven't heard anything about this lately. Has anyone else? May be a way of getting Vadim's Mayerling on film! (Though I suspect they'll probably do Manon first if they do film them.)

I didn't mean to imply it wasn't any good. I'm sure it's wonderful for anyone who enjoys modern ballet and a chance to see an unusual programme. Just not my sort of thing. However, I've just realised in my disappointment I didn't read on. Apparently, Australian Ballet are also doing a 60th Anniversary Celebration 'showcasing The Australian Ballet in some of it's signature repertoire'. So, perhaps I'll get a tantalising glimpse from The Merry Widow, leaving me wanting more.

You just beat me to this, oncnp! Just logged on to post this. I must admit to being so excited when I saw Australian Ballet were coming as they're one of the few Companies that perform The Merry Widow; the only favourite ballet I've never seen live. Then I saw what they were doing; a modern triple bill, Kunstkamer, 2-6 Aug 🙁. Ballets by Sol Leon and Paul Lightfoot, also Crystal Pite and Marco Goecke. The Carlos at 50 is on 26-30 July. No rep. details yet though it says 'he will be joined by friends and guest artists from the Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Acosta Danza'. Both appear to be in the main auditorium and booking opens whenever your summer booking period starts. Friends 14th March, Young ROH 12th April and public 13th April. Just a reminder that the RB school performance also in this booking period and is on Sunday 16th July at 3pm and lasts about 3 hours.

Well, I'm a Friend and didn't receive an email, though a non Friend kindly forwarded it to me. However, I had already booked for 2 of the 3 nights though ironically I had already made up my mind to cancel them and be refunded. I did debate briefly whether to do as Dawnstar suggested and return and re book at a discount but decided the other extras of hotel and train fare were still too expensive. I'm attending 3 other SBs and several Cinderellas so that will suffice. I think the ROH did miscalculate the prices for Jan in particular, for reasons Capybara already mentioned; too soon after Christmas and Nutcracker, and very few tourists. In addition there is also a cost of living crisis which couldn't have been anticipated when the programme/prices were agreed, possibly over a year ago. Also, something else that's probably played a big part in people's decisions (it did mine) is the potential problem of getting to the ROH, not to mention getting home afterwards, as there may be both train and bus strikes but nothing announced yet so you can't even plan ahead.

Had a reply from Customer Services re streaming the Ashton triple. Graham Boland is always very pleasant but couldn't give any information as it when it would be available. He said he would pass my wishes on, but as I've asked Kevin and Alex more than once I don't think they can be in any doubt! Just can't understand what the delay is when it's a new item no one will have and you would think attract new members to the streaming. Perhaps MJW is correct and they're waiting for most of the Friends free 3 months to expire before making them pay to re-join.

Friday 6th Jan BBC2 2pm Red Shoes. Excellent1948 film with Moira Shearer, Robert Helpmann and Anton Walbrook.

Sat 7th Jan SkyArts 6am Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake.

Yes I agree with much that Janet has to say about BRB and Northern Ballet. Like JM365, up until now I haven't seen a lot to tempt myself to Birmingham with what Carlos has programmed. I'd love all of the Ashton suggested by Janet. David Bintley was always very protective of his balletic heritage, especially Ashton and De Valois and programmed them regularly. Carlos hasn't done that until now but times have been difficult and he's early days into his tenure. Hobsons Choice would also be good. For Northern Ballet I too would love to see the Gable Christmas Carol and Romeo, also the Giselle they did in 1990 which I thought really terrific, far better than the Kirov version I saw a few months later. Unfortunately it was superceded by other NB versions I wasn't so keen on so it would be great to see it again.

I think I'm seeing this production at the Grand, Blackpool on Fri 13th Jan so I'll report back. Re abbreviations, it took me ages to work out elsewhere on the Forum that SPW is Sir Peter Wright!

Oh dear! Yes Dave a Christmas triple would be great as would Coppelia instead of Nutcracker though perhaps Nutcracker is still needed to swell the ROH coffers. I too wondered about more Balanchine, I'd love to see Symphony in C again; brings back lovely memories of seeing it in a great triple with Firebird and Month in the Country. Was that 2019. I'm with you about Prodigal Son, Dave. I do like the way these days Kevin has differentiated between triple content, tending to go for all modern or all traditional. Going back 10 years or more, triples seemed to inevitably contain something I really wanted to see, something just about OK and something I didn't want to see at all. I much prefer his new programming and hope it continues into the new season.

Happy New Year, everyone!! As we're now officially in 2023 I'm going to start a thread for people's ballet wishes in the 2023/24 ballet season. As the new ballet seasons start being announced about April presumably most ADs will have finalised their programme but you never know, there may still be mixed programmes that haven't quite been decided on, or perhaps we can provide food for thought for 2024/25. As you'll probably know my main wish will be more Ashton and Vadim!! But seriously, it would be great to have another mixed Ashton bill as the last one was so wonderful. Having seen the Ashton Foundation rehearsals featuring Daichi in Patineurs and Letitia Dias in Les Rendezvous I'd love to see both of them staged again. I don't think I've seen Les Rendezvous live and it seems ages since Les Patineurs was done. Possibly both with the Dream or Symphonic Variations or Facade. Not sure if that would work timewise but there are loads of Ashton I'd love to see. Full length, La Fille would be wonderful as it's been absent for too long. Am wondering if releasing Sylvia for streaming means there is any chance we may see that again next season. One lot of performances in ages (and not filmed!) is terrible. Other ballets, my favourite ballet is Onegin. I was thinking it wasn't that long since it was staged at the start of 2019 but of course that will be 4 years ago this spring. When I spoke to Kevin at the stage door last time he said he wouldn't leave it so long to stage it again (5 years last time, possibly) so it could be staged and the female ballerinas especially always say how much they enjoy it and so many new principals since 2019. Of other ballets I'd like to see Don Q. I know BRB staged it this year but I don't see why RB couldn't stage it next season. There have been too few 'fun' ballets staged after covid. I suppose we should be getting Manon if the rolling Macmillan programme continues which is fine as I'd enjoy seeing it again. Be good if the RB could stage more Robbins like Afternoon of a Faun as I do like his choreography, possibly instead of more 'new' offerings but I suspect that's not going to happen even if the Robbins will be new to most ballet goers. Failing that would be good to see The Concert again. Anyway, that's enough from me. I'll probably think of all sorts I'd forgotten when people start adding their own wish lists. Over to you!

Yes indeed Don Q Fan. I am seriously thinking about cancelling the 2 Sleeping Beauties I have booked in Jan. The tickets were £70 each but the added cost of trains, accommodation and a couple of meals out means I won't get much change out of £400. Given I have 3 other SBs booked and several Cinderellas I feel I have to start economising. Instead I will go to my second performance of Ballet Theatre UK Beauty and the Beast at the Lowther Pavilion, Lytham (near Blackpool) on 17th Jan. A fabulous production, very professional, and a net outlay of £15.

Thanks Sim. All the very best to all the Mods and Forum users for a happy, healthy and balletic New Year. I'm sure there'll be many wonderful performances for us all to attend and discuss. Can't wait!

I'm pleased that you're enjoying the ROH streaming system DVDfan and I'm sure you're not alone in this. It is a great initiative and I don't know of other major opera houses who have launched anything similar, so we'll done ROH. My criticisms are personal to me in that so far I already have most or all of what has been streamed and I thought the Ashton triple was promised for release in the autumn (though of course no mention as to which autumn!) An image from Month in the Country is even used in their promotional publicity! So hopefully we'll see it sometime next year. It would also be great to see some non official recordings that haven't been used for cinema broadcasts but that doesn’t seem to be happening either, probably because of copyright problems.