jmhopton

Phrased my previous post very badly. hadn't really forgotten I'd just seen Alex last Saturday (apologies Janet). I really meant to say has he danced it before this current run and my query about finding out about previous cast runs still stands if anyone can help.

Has Alex ever danced De Grieux before? I know there is somewhere on the ROH site that you can find out these things and a link to it has been mentioned previously on this Forum but I forgot to bookmark it and of course trying to find anything useful on the new ROH website without assistance is just a complete waste of time.

For me first choice would have to be Osipova/Muntagirov. Not only do you have the excitement of Muntagirov's debut in the role (which for me at least promises to be one of the ballet events of the year) following on from his amazing Lensky but you also have the added attractions of Hayward/Ball as Lensky and Olga. What more could anyone want?! I just hope Matthew isn't too tall for Francesca as he must be at least a foot taller. Wasn't there a bit of a height issue when she danced it with Golding? Anyway I'm confident it will be an amazing, possibly definitive performance. Having said that Naghdi/Bonelli must run it close, especially with Joseph Sissons as Lensky, probably his most prominent role yet and partnering Anna Rose O'Sullivan who I can imagine to be a really perfect Olga. I intend to go to both casts but if I had to choose it would have to be Muntagirov/Osipova. However, given the RB perform this splendid ballet so seldom I really would urge FionaE to attend both casts. It is criminal neither is being filmed. I'm only hoping when Reid Anderson sees the amazing dance/acting I'm sure both casts will produce he will relent and let the RB film it at its next run. Clutching at straws I know but it's all the hope I've got.

I too was at yesterday's matinee and while being totally absorbed in the terrific dancing of the soloists and principals it is interesting to pick out some of the more unsung but still technically excellent dance actors in the RB. I too noticed Teo Dubreuil who is one of my favourites and I hope is soon promoted. It was great to see Joseph Sissons too as a beggar (always a favourite and can't wait for his Lensky) though I was slightly disappointed not to see him as one of the 'three gents' in the second act. Francisco Serrano was a beggar again following on from his excellent beggar in Don Q. Another great character I'd like to see promoted. Enrico Montes was a great gent and always manages to bring a great sense of character to whatever role he inhabits. Everywhere you look in whatever ballet you watch the RB have such a great breadth and depth of talent in every department at the moment. As for the principals.... words almost fail me. Francesca Hayward (I nearly wrote Francesca Manon!) was absolutely terrific. Is there nothing she can't do? For me she is definately one of the great dance/actresses of her generation and I'm so pleased I saw her Manon again. Her dancing expressed every emotion and did those beautifully expressive eyes. Possibly even better than last time. Alexander Campbell is a great partner and a beautifully romantic De Grieux. Coralles and Magri made hugely impressive and charismatic debuts. Indeed Magri reminded me a bit of Laura Morera when she made her entrance. Another Manon I've never seen but going to rectify that this Wednesday. Had a great day out with a friend who'd never seen Manon and never been to the ROH before. She immediately became a huge convert to both and it was so refreshing and heartwarming to see both the beautiful building and outstanding performance through the eyes of someone who'd never seen either before.

This ticket has now been resold.

Disappointing the timescale is so limited. I'm in London on the 23rd to see Morera/Bonelli Manon and I might have been interested but the timescale at 5.30 pm to 8pm is really too tight and would be very rushed.

http://www.roh.org.uk/seasons/2019-20 Try this RHowarth. I find it invaluable. If it still works. Sometime the ROH send me these links after I've asked for them and they work at the time, then when I try them at a later date they stop working and you get 'This page cannot be displayed' or something similar. So now when I get something really useful like this I save it to my task bar so hopefully it will function until next summer.

... To return to Manon. I was at the ROH matinee last Saturday and it was like returning home after a long absence. I sank down in my seat, kicked off my shoes (metaphorically I hasten to add!) and settled down to enjoy the perfect performance I've come to expect from the Royal Ballet. Vadim was on fire and gave the most passionate yet nuanced performance I've seen him give as De Grieux. While Sarah Lamb isn't my favourite RB dancer I thought she was excellent as Manon, all her personal dilemmas clearly etched on her face and in her movements. The way she held herself so stiffly in the second act as if she was trying to blank out the way she was being passed around as if she was a commodity not a person was heartbreaking. I thought Ryio, Itzibar and finally Gary as an extremely loathsome gaoler (hardly typecasting!) excellent also. The only person I didn't think was quite as good as usual was Christopher Saunders as M. GM. I'm not sure why as he's usually my favourite GM. Perhaps I'm used to seeing him in close up at the cinema broadcasts. He was still very good but perhaps not quite as good as I remembered. Anyway it was a wonderful performance enhanced by seeing many of the cast at the stage door afterwards being their usual friendly and pleasant selves. Now I can't wait to see Hayward/Campbell and Morera /Bonelli.

I did suggest it to Kevin O'Hare in my letter to him. Although I had a polite acknowledgement of my letter he didn't address any of the points I raised including this one. I suppose this sort of performance takes a lot of organising and quite a lot of what they're doing is in the current rep. So it may not be thought suitable to do it in a gala type performance in London. Having said that some is new and would be great to see.

I'm afraid my opinion of Hallberg's dancing is closer to Nevsky's than Kevin O'Hare's. That said I've only seen him 'live' twice; once at the Fonteyn Gala doing the Romeo and Juliet pas de deux with Osipova. The other occasion was the Act One of Giselle where Ball took over splendidly in the second act after Hallberg's injury. So neither occasion was particularly ideal. However at one point I was really concerned about his partnering in Romeo. Some lifts look strained or off balance and I found myself thinking if he is like this for a relatively short pas de deux how will he stand the pace for a full length ballet, especially Manon with the very physical pas de deux right at the end of a strenuous three act ballet? Still, on the plus side it's helped my bank balance a bit as I wasn't remotely tempted to see him in Manon though I wouldn't have minded seeing Osipova, and if she'd had Shklyarov as a partner you couldn't have kept me away!

I have personally found myself underwelmed with most of Matthew Bourne's productions I have seen (not very many as I tend to avoid them). The exception was the triple bill of his earlier works that I saw in Blackpool last year which I thought was very inventive and which I enjoyed far more than his full length works. However, I was considering going to see the Red Shoes at the Lowry, partly to see Adam Cooper and partly because of the music score as the Red Shoes score is my husband's favourite music score. The casting link above doesn't refer to specific performances. Is Adam dancing the role of Boris Lermontov in every performance?

I have a spare ticket for this performance, it is K48 in the amphi, end seat with a single armrest and uninterrupted view of stage. it is priced at £27 as I think I got it as part of an amphi package but I will accept £20.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but the above lecture was livestreamed from Gresham College on Tuesday and is still available. https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/diaghilevs-beginnings This is part of a lecture series on the Ballet Russes. The others are :- Tuesday 29th October 6pm. The Ballet Russes: courting the exotic Tuesday 21st January 2020 6pm. The Rite of Spring: a failure and a triumph. Tuesday 18th February 2020 6pm. The Ballet Russes: playing with the past. Tuesday 7th April 2020 6pm. The Ballet Russes: turning French Tuesday 12th may 2020 6pm. Diaghilev and Prokofiev: return to emotion There are many years of lectures available on the site covering a wide range of interests.

Delighted with the confirmation of a Christmas day broadcast. However, I don't know if a tv broadcast in itself will generate a 'huge new audience'. I would have thought those disinclined to watch ballet won't bother with it unless it has well targeted advance publicity showing it is somehow 'different' to a traditional ballet. Surely showing it in a variety of mainstream cinema outlets like Cats would generate a wider audience and interest in ballet.

Is it only being shown at Curzon cinemas? The nearest to me is Knutsford and that's an hours drive away not something I want to do late at night in December. I can't see it being shown either by Vue or Odeon cinemas anywhere which are our local cinemas. If it is being shown at such a few cinemas hopefully that means it will be on TV over Christmas which will be wonderful. Does this mean Francesca will be on at the cinema three times in December as I assume she'll be Clara in the Nutcracker repeat? This must surely be a world record for a ballet dancer. Also the Royal ballet will be on at the cinema two nights in a row with the repeat Nutcracker screening on the 17th December.

Can anyone give any indication of the prices for Onegin, especially the cheaper stalls circle, please? If they were compared with autumn prices are they more comparable to Manon, Sleeping Beauty etc? Many thanks.

Looks like yet another RB event not publicised on the ROH own website. When will they learn that not everyone is a slave to social media? Some people manage perfectly well without Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. What's wrong with publicising ROH events on their own website. I have the News page saved as a Favourite but for all the news it contains these days I may as well not bother.

When you see a season like this you realise how far the Bolshoi have fallen repertory wise since then I was referring to the repertory they bring to London not what they do at home. The 2006/7 rep. they did here was so varied and interesting; so many 'new to us' ballets to see and they still sold out. It just seems a great contrast to what they've brought here in the last 2 or 3 visits where there have been very few 'new to us' ballets despite having quite a few in their repertory.

Whoops. Never thought of that. Sorry I don't know how to delete. Could a moderator please do it for me or remove personal details from the letter. Many thanks. Joan

Many thanks for all who have replied. The consensus seems to be upper circle so I'll go for that if we definitely stop overnight before the triple bill at the ROH.

Might be able to see Giselle at Sadlers Wells this November and was wondering about seating as I haven't been there for ages. Is it better to be on the back row of the lower circle or nearer the front of the upper circle? I don't usually sit in the stalls as I'm not very tall and dread getting someone tall in front of me.

Edris Stannus to Ninette de Valois.

https://www.victorhochhauser.co.uk/page/bolshoi-ballet-2007-summer-season.php This gives the Bolshoi Coliseum season in 2007, for me a season that will never be bettered and not a Tchaikovsky ballet in sight, including Swan Lake! Just Bayadere, Spartacus, Don Q, Bright Stream, modern triple bill and UK premiere Ratmansy's Corsaire; wow! When you see a season like this you realise how far the Bolshoi have fallen repertory wise since then. In 2006 they also premiered both Bright Stream and Pharoah's daughter. I don't know why they were at the Coliseum but throughout the 1990s Hochhauser seasons were always at the Coliseum and it was only after the re-opening of the Opera House in 1999 that seasons were more usually at the ROH. I vividly remember the excitement of seeing Acosta in Spartacus one night and then the next night the debut of Osipova/Vasiliev in Don Q. The atmosphere was electric and you could hear the audible gasps round the auditorium as Vasiliev did some of his amazing leaps. At the end they got a 'pop concert' type reception and I thought one man was going to fall out of his box he was jumping up and down and shouting so much! It must have been a bit of what it was like when Nureyev appeared early in his career.

I started to get very over-excited at the mention of Sylvia on the Ashton dvd with visions of Vadim and Marianella Nunez but then realised it will probably be the Darcey Bussell version which I already have. Criminal the recent version wasn't filmed and I'm keeping everything crossed for this to be rectified the season after next.

Lovely pics DonQfan and fully agree with everything you said about the Osipova/Vasiliev performances being really special and benchmarks for the role. The first time they danced it together over here was at the Coliseum in (I think) 2007. They then did future shows in 2010 or 11 at the ROH of both Don Q and Flames of Paris and brought the house down every time. Amazing performances that I consider myself very privileged to have seen and will treasure as a standard of excellence for ever. That said, they might have contributed to my finding this year's Bolshoi performances on the whole lacking in the excitement of previous visits. I've always been a huge fan of the Russian Companies. Indeed it was seeing the Kirov (as they were then) in 1990 in Manchester and then the following week in Birmingham that directly led to my current love of ballet. For me the Kirov ruled supreme during the 1990s courtesy of the regular Hochauser visits and stars of the calibre of Konstantin Zaklinsky, Alytynai Asylnuratova, Faroukh Ruzimatov and Igor Zelensky. Through them I was introduced to ballets I'd barely heard of such as La Bayadere, Le Corsaire, Don Quixote, Fountain of Bakhchisarai and many of the Diaghilev ballets courtesy of their Ballet Russes seasons. Later in 1999 the Bolshoi gave their first season for a while and we saw a bolder, more masculine style of dance and dancers such as Nina Ananiashvilli, Sergei Filin and Svetlana Lunkina and ballets such as Spartacus, Bright Stream, Pharoah's daughter and Flames of Paris. As the Mariinsky rather seemed to wane the Bolshoi got stronger under the amazing directorship of Ratmansky and his newly choreographed ballets and amazing stars such as Osipova and Vasiliev. However, I've found the last couple or so visits by the 'Big Two' Russian Companies have failed to excite me they way they used to do. Whether this is because of my increasing attachment to the UK Ballet Companies, especially the Royal Ballet and because I have come to appreciate a more subtle style of dance, coupled with more complex, psychological plots and need for acting abilities not just technique - I don't know. By comparison with the Royal Ballet in particular (as unfortunately I haven't seen nearly as much of BRB, ENB and Northern Ballet as I would have liked) the Russian Companies' rep. seems very narrow and lacking in emotional depth (or at least that's what we get to see) When I think of all the fine performances I've seen by the Royal Ballet over the last year; Winter Dreams, Month in the Country, Romeo and Juliet, Mayerling, the Medusa triple, Two Pigeons, etc., Spartacus and Swan Lake seem very narrow by comparison. I know you can't judge a Company's rep by what we see here, and obviously they only bring ballets they think will sell well as the season is such a huge capital outlay, but they do usually bring 5 different programmes for the 3 weeks; 4 with half a week each and Swan Lake which has 2 half weeks. This time we only really got 2 and a half ballets with Bright Stream (their most interesting offering) only getting 2 performances. My husband and I did enjoy seeing both performances of Bright Stream again as we haven't seen it for a while though the original cast of Filin and Alexandrova as the Ballerina and Ballet dancer are hard to beat as was Gennady Yanin's incomparable accordion player. However I'm afraid neither of us were really impressed by either of the Don Qs we saw on Friday and Saturday evening. Perhaps we were thinking back to Osipova/Vasiliev; also the last RB Don Q we saw only a few months ago was Osipova/Muntagirov which was almost equally special. So the bar was set high for the Bolshoi and for us they just didn't measure up to it. At the first interval on Friday Terry looked at me and said 'I'm underwelmed'. On the Saturday he said 'I'm even more underwelmed'. This more or less summed up what I'd thought too and being underwelmed didn't come cheap as it cost us hundreds of pounds for tickets, rail fares and hotel accommodation. I was particularly disappointed in Krysanova as I thought she would really 'nail' Kitri. But her first entry and solo, which for me really sets the tone for the evening seemed rather half-hearted and lacklustre. The jumps weren't really high, the back bends (where she arches her back in full jump) weren't that accentuated; it just seemed lacking in sparkle and panache though it did get better as she went on and her fouettes were excellent. Motta Soares was OK and seemed pleasant personality wise but I didn't think his performance currently had the the 'wow factor' necessary for Don Q. In his solo he did attempt the Vasiliev move where he jumps, turns and sort of hangs in the air but they didn't have Vasiliev's height and polish. However, it may come. On Saturday night Rodkin couldn't even manage the one-handed lifts (he had to use two) and I don't know if he forgot his handkerchief for the 'death scene' but it wasn't in evidence. The death scene itself seemed rather rushed and didn't get the laughs it usually does. He did attempt the Vasiliev 'scissor jumps' in his solo though not as successfully as Vasiliev. Also the introduced dance in the tavern scene (itself not nearly as good as Acosta's) with the 3 men and a lady seemed completely out of place and from another ballet (which it was as it was very similar to the one Ratmansky did for Flames of Paris). However, the Don Q one wasn't nearly as well choreographed. In fact the only time either evening I got the 'wow factor' and my heart started racing and I got really excited was when Anna Tikhomiromova danced the first variation. As this lasted all of two minutes it's a bit of a reflection on how I viewed the rest of the ballet! As DonQfan said 'why wasn't she given the chance to dance Kitri?' Why hasn't she been promoted in the Company? She is still only a First Soloist which is below their Leading Soloist. Presumably this is where she was when the Bolshoi came in 2016. She doesn't seem to be getting the recognition and parts she deserves. In fact she seemed to have smaller parts this time than in 2016 though as I didn't see any Spartacus' or Swan Lakes that is only a guess on my part. I missed her street dancer in Don Q which seemed to be the only sizeable part she had in either Bright Stream or Don Q. So apart from quite enjoying Bright Stream this visit didn't do much for us personally though obviously it's only our opinion. I know many others felt differently. I do feel the big Russian Companies might be trading a bit on their name and 'brand' though perhaps it's just my tastes have changed over time. Anyway, spent hugely on the Royal Ballet's new season and am really looking forward to seeing great performances and debuts which hopefully will not disappoint.