No cast sheets at Covent Garden

[bangorballetboy]

This link takes you to the ROH cast sheets page (this is also the page to which you are directed by using the QR code at the ROH).  All cast sheets appear here and they seem to have them going back to September 2021 so, if you have difficulty in finding the cast sheets, I'd recommend bookmarking the page.

[Guest oncnp]

The performances may be listed on the cast page, but not all of the links work. (Giselle, R&J and last year's Nut takes you to this year's page)

[LinMM]

I’ve just seen that they go back to September 2021 for both opera and ballet which is pretty good. 
I’ve never had a problem accessing the cast lists except that sometimes when it’s very late on the performance day itself I can’t print off beforehand!! But not a huge deal if have phone with me. 
 

[JohnS]

Many thanks bangorballetboy. I’d been searching ‘Cast sheets’ which had worked well in the past but wasn’t working the last couple of days for me.

[Pulcinella]

I ind if you put ROH cast sheets in to Google that brings up the correct page. Looking for it on the ROH site takes forever.

[Emeralds]

3 hours ago, bangorballetboy said:

This link takes you to the ROH cast sheets page (this is also the page to which you are directed by using the QR code at the ROH).  All cast sheets appear here and they seem to have them going back to September 2021 so, if you have difficulty in finding the cast sheets, I'd recommend bookmarking the page.

The list is there, but the casting for some old performances has disappeared or been removed, although the dates are still on the list, eg Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Magic Flute, to name just three, from last year.

 

Selling a small run of cast lists (eg A5 size) on recycled paper, would raise some money for the opera house, makes no difference to carbon footprint if patrons are expected to print them off at home themselves, and a paper version would not disappear  if kept at home inside the programme, unlike these online ones. 

[alison]

I suppose this is as good a thread as any to ask a question which has been bothering me for some time.  Having just updated myself with all the cast sheets for the shows I've been to over the past couple of months, so that I could print them out, I do find it very frustrating when accessing more than one cast sheet at a time.

 

You go onto the cast sheets page.  You then select the production, and that gives you a dropdown list of all the available dates, so you select performance A, and this generates what appears to be a new web page with the casting on it.  Only trouble is, when you click on the Back button in the hope of getting back to the dropdown list so you can select another performance, instead it takes you back to the cast sheets page, and you then have to select the production again, and rinse and repeat ...  Very frustrating and time-consuming, but I suspect this is just another symptom of the assumption that Covent Garden patrons are only once-per-production visitors, at best

 

Oops, sorry, just realised that I didn't ask the question: has anyone found a way round this that allows you just to switch between the individual cast sheet and the date list?  I'm hoping that I'm missing something somewhere ...

[Lizbie1]

9 minutes ago, alison said:

Oops, sorry, just realised that I didn't ask the question: has anyone found a way round this that allows you just to switch between the individual cast sheet and the date list?  I'm hoping that I'm missing something somewhere ...

 

Have you tried right click > open link in new tab?

[Emeralds]

38 minutes ago, alison said:

I suppose this is as good a thread as any to ask a question which has been bothering me for some time.  Having just updated myself with all the cast sheets for the shows I've been to over the past couple of months, so that I could print them out, I do find it very frustrating when accessing more than one cast sheet at a time.

 

You go onto the cast sheets page.  You then select the production, and that gives you a dropdown list of all the available dates, so you select performance A, and this generates what appears to be a new web page with the casting on it.  Only trouble is, when you click on the Back button in the hope of getting back to the dropdown list so you can select another performance, instead it takes you back to the cast sheets page, and you then have to select the production again, and rinse and repeat ...  Very frustrating and time-consuming, but I suspect this is just another symptom of the assumption that Covent Garden patrons are only once-per-production visitors, at best

 

Oops, sorry, just realised that I didn't ask the question: has anyone found a way round this that allows you just to switch between the individual cast sheet and the date list?  I'm hoping that I'm missing something somewhere ...

I hope I understood you correctly, Alison-do you mean you just want to refer to/read the same cast list again but it keeps taking you back to the main page? My device automatically predicts the last few cast lists I looked up. I can only suggest copying and pasting the link in a new window. Alternatively, photographing the cast list (which is what I do for performances as it’s fastest method for me in the auditorium on my particular device). 

[zxDaveM]

I *think* it's because you open a PDF file for the casting from the drop menu, but using the back button takes you back a web-page, rather than back to a part of the web-page (the list). If you right click on the back button, you can see what I mean from the list of visited web-pages

[alison]

Interesting thought, thanks, Dave.  It does look like another webpage rather than a PDF on Windows 10 with Edge, though - at least, the URL doesn't have "pdf" at the end.

[zxDaveM]

If you print-to-save it does download as a PDF though, so I would assume it's in that format already (not a web developer, so not 100% on safe ground here)

[alison]

You can save any webpage as a PDF these days, though, so I'm not sure whether to read anything into it.

[Don Q Fan]

For years in the German theatres I have been to I've paid 50¢ for a cast sheet and Hamburg and Venice definitely still had cast sheets for sale this year. ROH and any others could easily have them available and just charge 50p. 

[JNC]

Yes I do still miss the physical cast sheets. I print out the shows I attend now but it’s just not the same. I tend to print them out in booklet format so then I can fold them in half and stick them in the programme (if I buy one, otherwise they just get filed in between programmes/books!) like I did with the old cast sheets but the size dimensions and flat paper just don’t have the same appeal. 
 

It would surely boost revenue for them to charge 50p for them as they’d make profit (?) and overall paper would still be saved as they’d likely be printing much fewer each performance. 

[Rachel H]

I was given a physical cast sheet with my programme both shows I attended in Hamburg earlier this week. I got the feeling they didn't have a lot of them, but still lovely to have one, and keep it as a souvenir etc. Managed to see 'Tales of Hoffmann' (opera), and 'The Glass Menagerie.'

[Sophoife]

We were given printed cast sheets at the Opéra Bastille for the Béjart programme.

 

In Denver, Colorado Ballet's free programme booklet also included accurate casting. Apparently they insert a loose page if anything changes.

 

Australian Ballet is sadly using online cast sheets only and even worse not all the named roles are listed.

 

At Don Quixote in Melbourne I was reduced to bailing up one of the dancers and demanding information, as the only roles named were (in order) Don Quixote, Sancho Panza, Kitri, Basilio, Lorenzo, Gamache, Street Dancer, Espada, and Queen of the Dryads. I had to ask for Lead Romani, Cupid, Lead Bridesmaid, Kitri's two Girlfriends... although to be honest I'd already known who all but the Romani were.

 

In Sydney, by contrast, the online cast sheet named (in order) Don Quixote, Kitri, Basilio, Sancho Panza, Gamache, Lorenzo, Street Dancer, Dryad Queen, Espada, Lead Romani, Cupid, Lead Fandango woman, Lead Fandango man, Lead Bridesmaid, and both Girlfriends.

 

Loud complaints had been made by many including me on the disrespect shown to the dancers by failing to name them.

[Paco]

5 hours ago, Sophoife said:

We were given printed cast sheets at the Opéra Bastille for the Béjart programme.

Lucky you! Because usually there is a shortfall of cast sheets as soon as at 7:05 for the performance of 7:30... The cast sheets management at Paris Opera is really a scandal that irritates me every time I go to this venue, be it Garnier or Bastille. I would much prefer that they adopt the ROH policy of web cast sheets, at least we would get the information

[MAB]

I have never been to a performance at the Bastille nor at the Garnier and not been handed a cast sheet and that includes performances of the Bejart programme and Dante Project a couple of weeks ago.

 

Seeing as the ROH cast sheets used to carry up market advertising on the back, I'm surprised they are so ready to forgo a source of revenue.

[bridiem]

7 hours ago, MAB said:

Seeing as the ROH cast sheets used to carry up market advertising on the back, I'm surprised they are so ready to forgo a source of revenue.

 

I would also give more credence to the stated aim of saving paper if they didn't still produce long printed programmes. Perhaps those should also become digital? A lot of people don't want a programme anyway, after all; but everyone should at least know who's dancing. So really the cast sheets with a short synopsis on them should be the priority, whereas they are the option that's been relegated to digital.

[capybara]

1 hour ago, bridiem said:

 

I would also give more credence to the stated aim of saving paper if they didn't still produce long printed programmes. Perhaps those should also become digital? A lot of people don't want a programme anyway, after all; but everyone should at least know who's dancing. So really the cast sheets with a short synopsis on them should be the priority, whereas they are the option that's been relegated to digital.

But the long printed programmes can attract advertising revenue and sell at a profit!

In a way, one can’t blame companies for going down that route.

[bridiem]

2 minutes ago, capybara said:

But the long printed programmes can attract advertising revenue and sell at a profit!

In a way, one can’t blame companies for going down that route.

 

Yes, of course, so I don't blame them for continuing with the printed programmes. I just think that they're therefore paying lip service to saving paper when in fact they can't make that their priority. (And as MAB said, there was advertising on the cast sheets too, which would surely have generated a profit.)

[JNC]

57 minutes ago, capybara said:

But the long printed programmes can attract advertising revenue and sell at a profit!

In a way, one can’t blame companies for going down that route.

also they can be informative about the works for those who want more information, provide information on the companies and have great photos of the production (and my favourite are always the backstage rehearsal shots of dancers).

 

I’ve been trying to reduce buying programmes for productions I’ve already seen (or won’t buy for usually contemporary productions I end up not liking on the night) but often can’t help myself if there is new content/photos. I get an unproportionate amount of happiness seeing them all lined up with their red spines and flick through them regularly. 
 

It may be irrelevant but I’m also someone who isn’t a fan of kindles and much prefers the physical thing as a tangible object!

[MAB]

There is an assumption here that all patrons are English speakers.  That is not the case.  I rarely buy programmes abroad, unless they are packed with pictures, my priority is to find out who is dancing/singing.  I'm happy to pay a small charge as in Germany and Switzerland.  I can't help feeling that this inexplicable practice diminishes the experience of the overseas visitor.

[bridiem]

2 hours ago, JNC said:

also they can be informative about the works for those who want more information, provide information on the companies and have great photos of the production (and my favourite are always the backstage rehearsal shots of dancers).

 

I’ve been trying to reduce buying programmes for productions I’ve already seen (or won’t buy for usually contemporary productions I end up not liking on the night) but often can’t help myself if there is new content/photos. I get an unproportionate amount of happiness seeing them all lined up with their red spines and flick through them regularly. 
 

It may be irrelevant but I’m also someone who isn’t a fan of kindles and much prefers the physical thing as a tangible object!

 

So do I - I wasn't seriously suggesting the programmes should go digital! Just highlighting the inconsistency in the ROH's approach.