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Thanks for this information Amelia.

I wonder why? She is still dancing Manon tomorrow night, isn't she? Ah well, Anna-Rose is a worthy replacement!

Perhaps you only live twice??

Dawnstar you must never apologise for how a performance makes you feel, or not feel. Art affects us all differently, and that is part of the reason it’s so amazing. There’s no right or wrong! I added my comment above to thank you for having taken the trouble to write your thoughts as soon as you got home! I really enjoyed reading your and Jenny’s thoughts, especially since they were different from each other. A great example of what this forum is about!

Ditto to Dawnstar...

I second that; thanks so much for your continuing reports on what's happening Stateside. I read this one with particular interest as I have never seen this ballet live.

Exactly...he enters quietly, humbly, no fuss, no flourish...an early indication of his personality/character.

Yes, some were near me as well. I have never seen applause for Des Grieux’s entrance before, and I found it wholly inappropriate.

I agree with Capybara and RichardLH. I have never got anything much from Bolle (except that he is tall and handsome!) and last night was no exception. His dancing was ok, his partnering was ok, but having recently seen Vadim Muntagirov and Matthew Ball in the role, it was nothing like those performances. His finest moment was at the end of the ballet, when his despair at Manon's death was deep and heartfelt. That final pdd was taken very slowly, to the point where I almost thought it would stop altogether. Nunez was fine and I really liked her Acts 2 and 3, but for some reason she never quite does it for me in the MacMillan repertoire. She is such a beautiful and natural classical dancer, but, for me, she lacks the 'edge' required to convey a MacMillan role. I really liked Sambe's Lescaut, which made much more of an impression this time. That might have been because he has grown into the role more since last time, but also he didn't have the foil of Yasmine Naghdi to compare against. Yuhui Choe was fine as his Mistress, but didn't stamp any real authority onto the proceedings. Itziar Mendizabal is another Mistress whose presence I really feel. Very good support from the whole cast; I never tire of looking at all the shenanigans going on in Act 2. I love the way, when Manon makes her entrance, all the girls give her dirty looks and are jealous. I noticed a couple of them looking down at their own dresses in disgust, and one of them thereafter sinking a glass of wine thinking 'ah well, this is as good as it's ever going to be for me, so I will drink instead." Such richly detailed interpretations of even the smallest role. Speaking of richly detailed, I agree with everyone above that Gary Avis as Mr GM once again gave a tour de force and indeed almost stole the show. What an incredibly gifted actor he is. He really gets into the character, and his evil is there for all to see, from beginning to end. Neither Bennet Gartside nor Christopher Saunders made any kind of impact for me, but here, I was so angry at GM. Well done Gary; I could watch him for days on end. How lucky we are to have him on our stage.

They have known for a while that she would not be able to dance tonight. I for one really missed her as her Mistress was wonderful last time around. We knew who she was, what she was, what she was thinking, what she was feeling. She really made this character an important part of the ballet, which doesn’t always happen.

No it isn’t. She has had it for a while which is why I don’t understand the lack of cast change information on the website.

Sadly, due to injury, Yasmine Naghdi is being replaced by Yuhui Choe as Lescaut's Mistress this evening...even though the ROH website is still showing Miss Naghdi as dancing. All being well, she will be back for Concerto.

How I would love to see Naghdi/Muntagirov do the entire Swan Lake together....

Wow...I hope I win the Lottery before then!!

Thanks so much for your review and the link, Duck. I too hope for a DVD!!

Thanks for that very interesting review, Stucha.

Lizbie these unsold tickets are for SW, not Manon! That surprises me as Osipova’s name usually ensures good ticket sales.

Yes my daughter noticed the altered lighting and didn’t much like it. I will pay more attention on Wednesday night!

The dancers and everyone else working so hard to present these wonderful performances deserve better. How ironic that they wanted to try to push out the regulars by hiking up the prices, and as always it is the regulars who are continuing to pay increased prices to keep attending the ROH. If we weren't going there would be a lot more empty places. Where is the replacement audience they were supposed to be attracting?? Something has clearly failed, at least in this instance.

Hmm indeed.

Speaking of unsold seats, I was saddened and disappointed to see so many empty seats at the Birmingham Hippodrome last Saturday night for BRB's spectacular production of Giselle. World-class dancing, stunning sets, beautiful music.....what is wrong with people?? I mean, if this Giselle can't sell out the Hippodrome on a Saturday night, I don't know what's going on either! Are people starting to batten down the hatches because of Brexit uncertainty, I wonder? The good folks of Birmingham really missed out.

Did anyone see the Delia Mathews/Tyrone Singleton debuts last night? Am off to Birmingham this afternoon to see Gittens/Lawrence so will report back!

Thanks so much JM... I didn’t know about this. I look forward to listening to it.

I am thinking that our late and much-missed friend and fellow mod John Mallinson is sitting up there with the gods of ballet and blessing us with Dances at a Gathering. Some of you may remember that about ten years ago he and I started a campaign on this forum saying that at the end of the season we would chain ourselves to a tree or a railing outside the ROH and stay there until Dances was brought back into the rep of the RB. Lo and behold, it was so....and he and I always laughed about it being thanks entirely to us !! So I will be attending, for my own pleasure but mostly in honour and memory of John, who would have loved to see this piece again.

I would love to see Prodigal Son again, but only if it's on first in the triple. Nothing would ever induce me to sit through Live Fire Exercise again...that's 40 minutes of my life that I would never get back. I would rather not sit through CGs again either, but it's preferable to the other one. So....I will wait and see.