Royal Ballet Casting Information 2012/13 - present

[Saodan]

Over the past few months, I have been working on a website with a searchable database of casting information for the last 9 years of Royal Ballet performances, the years that are not covered by rohcollections.

 

I started keeping records for personal reference, but I know that some on this forum have shared my frustration at the lack of casting information for these years. So, here it is, if you are interested. In theory, it should contain principal casting information for all main stage performances by the Royal Ballet from the 2012/13 season to present, with some additional casting on production pages for the more recent years.

 

https://saodan1.wixsite.com/rbcasting

 

If you do have a look, let me know how it goes. It’s not pretty, but it should be functional (if my code holds up). If you find any errors shout at me nicely. If it doesn’t work for you/is confusing/you have suggestions, I can try to fix things, but bear in mind I am a ballet fan not a web developer!

 

I hope you enjoy digging into the database. If this proves to be a useful resource for people, I will try to keep the database updated as performances resume. It will remain an archive though, so past performances only. For upcoming performances the ROH is where you should go.

 

This is obviously unofficial, there may be errors, and is purely a passion project. Thank you to the mods for permission to post.

 

Dan

[alison]

Thank you very much for all your hard work, saodan.  I'm sure it'll be very useful

[Jan McNulty]

I've just had a quick glance.  It's very easy to navigate and what a treasure trove of information it is!

 

Thanks for all your hard work Dan!

[zxDaveM]

Fantastic stuff Dan - must be truly a labour of love to keep it maintained!

And thank you for the effort! 🙂

[capybara]

Wow! This is AMAZING!

[Lizbie1]

It is fabulous and *I* think it's pretty.

[JohnS]

Brilliant - thank you so much for sharing this.

[Chiari]

Thank you so much! This is so helpful

[Sim]

This is great, Dan, and so lovely to be able to look back at casting for performances we have seen, and to remind ourselves of them, or answer those niggling little questions about casting.  Well done! 

[LinMM]

Wow what an amazing compilation and so easy to use! Thanks very much! 
perhaps this needs a sort of permanent place on the Forum: “Dan’s casting at a glance!” 

[Jeannette]

Thanks so much, Dan! 💕 

[Richard LH]

Wow!  

Dan if this is a result of lockdown time, then something good has certainly  emerged from the past few months at least! 

If there is some sort of award available for "Services to Ballet Forum Members" you should get it!

This is a veritable treasure trove ...for example, after only 5 minutes of use, I discovered Onegin was cinema-screened in 2015, which makes me wonder about the apparent bar on further distribution via disc.

[bridiem]

Brilliant! And looks very handsome to me. Congratulations and thank you for sharing this, Dan!

[Rob S]

I think you've done a fantastic job.....now I just need access to a time machine to see some of these performances!!

[Saodan]

Thanks for the positive comments everyone. This started as a record of the performances I had seen and then spiralled wildly out of control! Six years of data collection and several months of fighting with code well spent I guess.

 

Thanks also to Sim and Dave for pointing out spelling errors. If anybody finds anymore, let me know. I’ve tried my best, but there is over 1600 line of data in the main collection!

 

3 hours ago, Richard LH said:

This is a veritable treasure trove ...for example, after only 5 minutes of use, I discovered Onegin was cinema-screened in 2015, which makes me wonder about the apparent bar on further distribution via disc.

 

Thinking about it Richard, this might be in error. I seem to remember that there was an illicit recording floating around a while ago. At the time I assumed (perhaps naively) it was genuine and marked it in my records, but in hindsight it probably wasn't. I have check the ROH press releases and they don’t indicate a cinema broadcast. Does anyone know? This was the year before I started following the company so I may have made an incorrect assumption.

[jmhopton]

30 minutes ago, Saodan said:

 

Thinking about it Richard, this might be in error. I seem to remember that there was an illicit recording floating around a while ago. At the time I assumed (perhaps naively) it was genuine and marked it in my records, but in hindsight it probably wasn't. I have check the ROH press releases and they don’t indicate a cinema broadcast. Does anyone know? This was the year before I started following the company so I may have made an incorrect assumption.

I must admit I don't recall a ROH Onegin film and I've seen most of the cinema broadcasts and I thought would have registered an Onegin as it's one of my favourite ballets. I think I heard there was a Bolshoi recording about that time with Lantratov which might have been shown on their TV rather than a cinema broadcast though no dvd, alas. I do think it's terrible that none of the great RB casts have been able to be filmed; such a wasted opportunity. I'm thinking especially of the very early cast with Rojo/Cooper/Cojacaru/Putrov or any of the Cojacaru casts when she was Tatiana. Not to mention the more recent casts. It does seem to be a ballet that the RB really embrace and love dancing and it would be fabulous to have a film record of their interpretation.

 

However, your efforts have been amazing Dan and I'm looking forward to having a more detailed look and having a nostalgic wallow for those days when going to the ballet was a  taken for granted experience, limited solely by finance and not by a virus.

Edited April 28, 2021 by jmhopton

[Diandri]

Wow, that's awesome & so useful especially looking at replacement casts & combinations in ballets that I missed. Remarkable use of your time Dan - I feel guilty for not having used my time more creatively!

[ninamargaret]

Most impressed. Simple to use, highly informative - just what is,needed. Thank you.

 

Regarding the Onegin recording. I did once see this showing on You Tube. I tried to watch it but it looked as though it may have been one that the ROH recorded for its archives. The quality of the recording was awful, so that even an Onegin addict like me gave up. Think it was Soares and Nunez but wouldn't swear to it.

[Richard LH]

10 hours ago, ninamargaret said:

Think it was Soares and Nunez but wouldn't swear to it.

Yes, the cast of  that (in-house) recording was  Nunez, Soares, Takada, Muntagirov, and Hirano

[FionaM]

Wow .. this is really a super resource.   The search feature is really good and you’ve recorded so much data.  A passion project of immense proportions.   
 

Thank you, thank you, thank you 👏👏👏

[Odyssey]

What a labour of love. Thank you so much for sharing this resource which is so refreshingly straightforward to use. 

[Saodan]

On the issue of Onegin, I have removed the cinema tag from the offending performance. It seems pretty clear that the recording was not intended to be released so has no place in the database.

 

Thanks again for all the positive comments. I'm glad so many are enjoying it. Any and all feedback is welcome. I want to make the site as good as it can be (or I can make it), so if you see anything that doesn’t look right let me know.

 

If you are a ballet company and would like your own casting site, I accept payment in tickets!