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Royal Ballet 2018/2019 Winter Season Casting


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The whole thing has been a joke.  You couldn't even access the casting details on the individual performance pages unless you were qualified to be booking already, just got some sort of drop-down list that went something like:

"Masha - Nunez

Masha - [whoever else is doing it - you see, I haven't even worked that out!]

Principal - Hamilton

The Concert - Cuthbertson

Principal - Muntagirov

Principal - Hirano

Blue Skater - Corrales

Les Patineurs - Hay"

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Delurking to ask a quick question, which I hope is alright. Does anyone know, based on previous runs, if the ROH announce cast members for roles in Don Quixote other than Kitri and Basilio in advance of the performance, and if so approximately how much in advance? I am thinking about seeing it but would prefer to make a choice of performance based on more than just two cast members. I've been seeing opera at the ROH for 14 years but have only recently seen my first ballet there so I am finding the lack of full advanced casting information available for ballets, compared to opera, is making booking decisions harder.

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Welcome to Forum Dawnstar!!

Until very recently you could see advanced casting on the website but unfortunately and much to regulars irritation and chagrin they seem to have decided not to reveal hardly ANY casting until public booking opens. 

I believe if you are a Friend you would have access a bit earlier because you can buy tickets earlier.

However if you want to know who is cast in all the main roles apart from the main two  I'm not sure if you can find this out anyway until the night although either from a programme or cast slip etc. 

You could try asking in the Box office I suppose ....they may have access to info that's not on website but doubt it somehow. 

I think this is correct info but others may know more than myself!!

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I'm not sure how you would book now for Don Q tickets if you want more names before deciding, once the run is under way you can use Instagram to find out who is likely to be in a performance you have booked but generally that only gives you a day's notice if you haven't booked anything yet. If a dancer you follow posts that they danced in a particular performance or you read about them on this forum  you could assume they'd be in the future performances with the same named leads

One of the dancers posted a photo of a form detailing the pool of 12 dancers that will be the three shades in La Bayadere but it wasn't grouped in such a way that you can tell who will be dancing on what day, so I at least know I have a 3 in 11 chance of seeing a particular dancer in the one performance I'm seeing

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Thank you for your replies LinMM & Rob S. I don't know if I'm spoiled by opera casting information but it does seem a bit odd that we're expected to book for Don Quixote with no idea of who will be playing the title character! At least with Mayerling casting for all the main characters was available so I knew that if, as indeed turned out to be the case, one of the dancers I was interested in seeing ended up not performing then there still would be several others. I also (for theatregoing in general, I haven't done much ballet going) am someone who doesn't always book performance justfor the leads - for instance I once booked for a Nozze di Figaro because of the Marcellina, which I can't imagine many people do!

 

I'm guessing this also means that when booking opens for Romeo & Juliet in January that we probably won't know the Mercutio, Tybalt, etc.?

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6 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

it does seem a bit odd that we're expected to book for Don Quixote with no idea of who will be playing the title character! 

But this is a ballet where the title character is not one of the principal dancers. I don't really think many  people would decide on a date to book based on which of the wonderful Character Principals at the RB will play Don Q.

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5 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

Thank you for your replies LinMM & Rob S. I don't know if I'm spoiled by opera casting information but it does seem a bit odd that we're expected to book for Don Quixote with no idea of who will be playing the title character! At least with Mayerling casting for all the main characters was available so I knew that if, as indeed turned out to be the case, one of the dancers I was interested in seeing ended up not performing then there still would be several others. I also (for theatregoing in general, I haven't done much ballet going) am someone who doesn't always book performance justfor the leads - for instance I once booked for a Nozze di Figaro because of the Marcellina, which I can't imagine many people do!

 

I'm guessing this also means that when booking opens for Romeo & Juliet in January that we probably won't know the Mercutio, Tybalt, etc.?

 

Yes, I'm also someone that doesn't book a performance for the leads, my first trip to the ROH earlier this year to see Manon was for who was dancing as Lescaut's mistress...I paid very little attention to any of the other roles at the time of booking. Mayerling is the one that I've seen with the most names available before and after booking opened, followed by the Nutcracker...Swan Lake was just Odette and Siegfried. I don't know if it was better in previous years, I can't imagine you'd be told who the four cygnets will be but at least who Rothbart is. Given how much the tickets are you'd think they would tell us as other roles in Don Q give quite a significant contribution in terms of dancing content

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5 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

But this is a ballet where the title character is not one of the principal dancers. I don't really think many  people would decide on a date to book based on which of the wonderful Character Principals at the RB will play Don Q.

 

I know what you mean but I would hope to know at least the names that would typically appear on the back of the dvd of the performance....for Don Q that is admittedly quite a few; Kitri, Basilio, DQ, Sancho Panza, Espada, Mercedes, Gamache, Lorenzo, Queen of Dryads, Amour and Dulcinea.

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Well I have said this before, and I also don't know how detailed advance casting was in previous years,  but it seems to me that notwithstanding a few recent glitches the RB is trying to give us ( Friend or not) as much advance casting information as it reasonably can. Certainly much better than any other company.

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13 minutes ago, Richard LH said:

But this is a ballet where the title character is not one of the principal dancers. I don't really think many  people would decide on a date to book based on which of the wonderful Character Principals at the RB will play Don Q.

 

I gathered that Don Quixote does not do masses of classical dancing but based on the synopsis on Wikipedia he is involved in all of the acts so presumably has a reasonable amount of stage time? I've booked to see The Nutcracker in January to see Gary Avis as Drosselmayer, having been very impressed with his erformance in the cinecast the year before last, so I'm one person who has made booking based on a principal character artist rather than the principals.

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Actually Dawnstar looking at the casting on the Spring casting thread I see it does only have the two leads only at the moment....but when booking starts opening may be more roles will,be shown.

Its interesting that link in the first post in the thread .....I can only see it for a short time and then the pages start blacking out!!

This could be because it's recognised I'm not really privy to this information as a Joe Public!!

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2 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Actually Dawnstar looking at the casting on the Spring casting thread I see it does only have the two leads only at the moment....but when booking starts opening may be more roles will,be shown.

Its interesting that link in the first post in the thread .....I can only see it for a short time and then the pages start blacking out!!

This could be because it's recognised I'm not really privy to this information as a Joe Public!!

 

Given the amount of discussion on that thread about the importance of the role of Mercutio, including a very persuasive arguement that he is the third lead character, I would have thought that at least that role would also be announced. As there are several title role pairings that I'd be potentially interested in seeing but I'll probably only be able to afford the one visit then knowing who is playing other roles would be a useful way of helping to decide which cast to see.

 

The page didn't black out for me when I looked at it a few days ago but maybe it's decided to be more exclusive since!

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8 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Actually Dawnstar looking at the casting on the Spring casting thread I see it does only have the two leads only at the moment....but when booking starts opening may be more roles will,be shown.

Its interesting that link in the first post in the thread .....I can only see it for a short time and then the pages start blacking out!!

This could be because it's recognised I'm not really privy to this information as a Joe Public!!

 

La Bayadere starts tomorrow and it still only lists N, S & G, just as it did before booking opened in July...I just have to assume that the people in other roles in Saturday's performance will be the same for the performance I see next Friday

Edited by Rob S
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2 hours ago, Dawnstar said:

Delurking to ask a quick question, which I hope is alright. Does anyone know, based on previous runs, if the ROH announce cast members for roles in Don Quixote other than Kitri and Basilio in advance of the performance, and if so approximately how much in advance? I am thinking about seeing it but would prefer to make a choice of performance based on more than just two cast members. I've been seeing opera at the ROH for 14 years but have only recently seen my first ballet there so I am finding the lack of full advanced casting information available for ballets, compared to opera, is making booking decisions harder.

 

I've checked  two previous runs.  In the first run (2013) the additional roles weren't announced until the final rehearsals had taken place. 

 

In 2014, an indication of the additional casting came less than two weeks before the first performance was due to take place.  There was an announcement on the ROH news pages November 14 of that year.  This announcement named only  the dancers who'd be making their debuts in the roles .  The rest of the additional casting was due to be announced on the website three days after this initial announcement - i.e. 8 days before the first performance.

 

Here's the item from the news pages in 2014: http://www.roh.org.uk/news/additional-casting-confirmed-for-don-quixote

 

 

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12 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

I gathered that Don Quixote does not do masses of classical dancing but based on the synopsis on Wikipedia he is involved in all of the acts so presumably has a reasonable amount of stage time? I've booked to see The Nutcracker in January to see Gary Avis as Drosselmayer, having been very impressed with his erformance in the cinecast the year before last, so I'm one person who has made booking based on a principal character artist rather than the principals.

You're certainly not alone in booking to see Gary Avis, Dawnstar!

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13 minutes ago, Rob S said:

 

I know what you mean but I would hope to know at least the names that would typically appear on the back of the dvd of the performance....for Don Q that is admittedly quite a few; Kitri, Basilio, DQ, Sancho Panza, Espada, Mercedes, Gamache, Lorenzo, Queen of Dryads, Amour and Dulcinea.

 

Rob I don't think I've ever seen pre-season casting for Don Quixote that includes all the characters you mention. At most Kitri, Basilio and the Don.

 

Dream sequence Dulcinea is usually danced by Kitri, as it is supposedly because of her resemblance to his ideal (Dulcinea) that the Don helps Kitri.

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6 minutes ago, Sophoife said:

 

 

Rob I don't think I've ever seen pre-season casting for Don Quixote that includes all the characters you mention. At most Kitri, Basilio and the Don.

 

Dream sequence Dulcinea is usually danced by Kitri, as it is supposedly because of her resemblance to his ideal (Dulcinea) that the Don helps Kitri.

 

I think the Don Q DVD must be particularly helpful, the Mayerling dvd just states three roles as does La Bayadere and Swan Lake, of course the leaflet inside is much more informative

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I'm so sad that the prices for R&J will be so high. I'm not even a regular as I cannot afford to be. I feel like the price rises are less about attracting a new audience and more about just wanting more revenue. They are using it as a poor justification. I am a teacher living In Oxford and I barely have enough after food, travel, rent etc. To see this special ballet from a decent seat I will have to save for months.

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I've moved all the discussion about today's booking into the dedicated thread here: 

I think I've got everything.  If you want to have a moan (or even give praise, you never know!) about booking, please use that one, so that this one can stick to casting information.  Thanks!

 

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58 minutes ago, Bluebird said:

 

I've checked  two previous runs.  In the first run (2013) the additional roles weren't announced until the final rehearsals had taken place. 

 

In 2014, an indication of the additional casting came less than two weeks before the first performance was due to take place.  There was an announcement on the ROH news pages November 14 of that year.  This announcement named only  the dancers who'd be making their debuts in the roles .  The rest of the additional casting was due to be announced on the website three days after this initial announcement - i.e. 8 days before the first performance.

 

Here's the item from the news pages in 2014: http://www.roh.org.uk/news/additional-casting-confirmed-for-don-quixote

 

Thank you for the detailed information. I hadn't realised that information from 4 years ago would still be on the ROH's website. So basically the likelihood of getting  casting information beyond that of Kitri & Basilio more than a few days in advance is low to non-existant. I may save my money then as I don't want to spend £60+ not knowing who most of the cast will be. (£60 looks to be the minimum price for any seat nearer the amphitheatre where you can see a reasonable amount of the stage. I happily sit side stalls circle for opera, knowing that I'll at least be able to hear the singers when I can't see them, but I imagine ballet from the same sort of viewing angle is an awful lot more problematic.)

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1 hour ago, aliceinwoolfland said:

I'm so sad that the prices for R&J will be so high. I'm not even a regular as I cannot afford to be. I feel like the price rises are less about attracting a new audience and more about just wanting more revenue. They are using it as a poor justification. I am a teacher living In Oxford and I barely have enough after food, travel, rent etc. To see this special ballet from a decent seat I will have to save for months.

I know what you mean. I have started embracing the amphi, which I generally like a lot. However, Maylering for instance was hard from there because all women looked alike.

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  • 3 weeks later...
30 minutes ago, Fonty said:

Also, does anyone know who the two dancers performing the White Couple will be/is likely to be in Les Patineurs? 

 

 

 

Claire Calvert told on her IG account that rehearsals for Les Patineurs and Winter Dreams would start this week (or better have started this week). Maybe we get a hint someday...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh well I've never seen her in this role either so that's a bonus! And anyway Naghdi is Naghdi...thanks for info Sim.

 

Now just hope Hay is dancing....I did read he has had in the past some problem with his shin bone which may be an ongoing thing he has to deal with but don't really know if it is that on this occasion. If not able to be him wonder who will be put with Akada? 

 

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Yes Akane Takada....amazing what the brain can do with words on occasions!!

 

As it happens Sim this is presumably not common knowledge as whatever way I go into this on the website it still says Hayward is dancing!!

 

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5 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Yes Akane Takada....amazing what the brain can do with words on occasions!!

 

As it happens Sim this is presumably not common knowledge as whatever way I go into this on the website it still says Hayward is dancing!!

 

Yasmine mentioned in her interview with Gramilano that she is making her debut in the role.  

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