Royal Ballet 2023/24 Season - predictions/wishes

[Sim]

1 minute ago, LinMM said:

Yes Bluebird …shameful 🙄…but I did correct it …hoping nobody had seen it  ……But nobody can escape the sharp eyes of this Forum not even for two minutes lol!!! 
Thanks very much for the above Raymonda info. 
Do you think there is scope for it to return or is it just too late now and with all the modern sensitivities etc. 

If they start taking 'modern sensitivities' into the equation we won't be seeing anything much anymore.

[LinMM]

Interesting in that Raymonda info an 18 year old David Wall taking part in Act three Grand Pas Hongroise!! 
As well as obviously early careers of Michael Coleman and Brenda Last to name just a couple. Many names I did not know at all as was before my ballet going time. 
 

Yes Sim you are probably right. 
With just a few particularly sensitive adjustments I think some ballets just need a fore warning of the time it was choreographed in etc. 

I think I’ve just discovered the alter  ego of Alain in Fille just need to check spelling of his name ….it occurred to me last night while watching a you tube clip!! 

[Linnzi5]

1 hour ago, LinMM said:

My only two main wishes for next year is for a couple of Ashtons ….Fille or Pigeons…and/or a triple including The Dream , Month in Country (unlikely though), Les Patineurs, any of his one acters really ……and Onegin as the main dramatic ballet ( sorry Cranko not Macmillan as originally put 🙄) 

Im not actually that bothered about seeing Swan Lake next year ( though would miss Sims fouettés of course!) and ENB are doing Swan Lake in the round at RAH if did suddenly get desperate to see it next year. 

Id prefer Bayadere ( probably unlikely though) or Giselle though as ENB doing Giselle this year that might be too much. 
It’s a real pity the RB don’t have their own version of Le Corsair as could be an alternative to Don Q. 
I wouldn’t even mind a full length version of Raymonda for a change …. I’m sure the Royal did once have a full length version? 
My absolute dream triple though (and would love every year in some combination)  is :Dances at a Gathering,  Concerto and Month in the Country! 
I think it’s time for a new Month in the Country type ballet….a one acter so shortish and sweet and to the point…..based on some good story….there’s still plenty out there!! 
 

I would love to see Dances at a Gathering again - I just adore it. In fact, your dream triple bill is delightful. So, I vote for that! 

 

I would love Swan Lake again though. I can never get enough of it!  

[LinMM]

I was watching a video of the band AC/DC on YouTube last night looking at the antics of Angus Young ( the one in the short trousers and socks 😳) and for some reason Alain from Fille came to mind particularly with one move he was crossing the stage with as I’m sure Alain does just this move in the scene with the ring!! So obviously born a couple of centuries too soon!! 
He’d just have a guitar now instead of an umbrella! 

 

[zxDaveM]

10 minutes ago, LinMM said:

He’d just have a guitar now instead of an umbrella! 
 

 

Rocktastic!

🙂

[Benjamin]

45 minutes ago, LinMM said:

Yes Bluebird …shameful 🙄…but I did correct it …hoping nobody had seen it  ……But nobody can escape the sharp eyes of this Forum not even for two minutes lol!!! 
Thanks very much for the above Raymonda info. 
Do you think there is scope for it to return or is it just too late now and with all the modern sensitivities etc. 

Honestly I would happily have Onegin as the yearly MacMillan.

[LinMM]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Young
 

Here’s a link to Angus Young …I hope it includes the piccie!! 

[Emeralds]

Alices Adventures in Wonderland

Yugen/MacMillan’s Requiem/Symphony in C

Nutcracker

The Dream/The Two Pigeons 

Romeo and Juliet

Sylvia

Swan Lake

New Kyle Abraham/The Statement/MacMillan’s Gloria

 

That’s  a mix of predictions (some reluctantly) and wishlist.... you can guess which is which! I haven’t calculated which choreographer’s turn it is to have which slot, eg it might even be Christopher Wheeldon’s turn for a new work rather than Abraham’s.

 

 

[Sim]

3 hours ago, LinMM said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Young
 

Here’s a link to Angus Young …I hope it includes the piccie!! 

I saw AC/DC back in 1976, in Geneva, as the support group to Black Sabbath.  It was in a small venue and we were very near the stage.  I just couldn't believe Angus Young's energy.  I also couldn't hear for a couple of days afterwards!!  I saw them again in the 80s here in London (Bon Scott was still with them both times) and AY was still the same, as he still is.  It really hurt my head just watching him!!

[SheilaC]

Having heard the music again on Radio 3 at lunchtime I would love to see Van Manen's Four Schumann Pieces again. It's most unlikely that the Royal still has any rights to it, and absolutely certain that we wouldn't see Dowell in it again (one of his best ballets as a dancer) or the divine Jenny Penney..... but the current batch of dancers would be very good.

 

Other than that any of the following would be more than acceptable :

Fille, The Dream, Symphonic Variations, Scenes de Ballet, Month in the Country, Monotones, Les Rendezvous:

In the Night, Dances at a Gathering, Afternoon of a Faun:

 Symphony, Diversions, Concerto, Gloria, Song of the Earth;

Symphony in C, Apollo, Serenade, Ballet Imperial, Night Shadow, Four Temperaments, Violin Concerto, Theme and Variations, Symphony in 3 Movements;

The Firebird, Les Sylphides;

Checkmate;

Dark Elegies, Jardin aux Lilas, Pillar of Fire

_ very few would even be considered!

 

plus Onegin, Giselle, Bayadere

[LinMM]

The second singer in AC/DC Brian Johnson has had to stop performing now as he is going deaf!! 
There’s this amazing concert from the River Plate in South America when they were a bit older and Angus Young is just the same ….how he didn’t have a brain haemorrhage I’ll never know!! 
I wouldn’t be surprised if they aren’t all a bit deaf by now. 
Sorry to take this off subject but unlikely as they both are I couldn’t get the image of Angus being an evolved Alain out of my mind. 
Perhaps they could rehab Alain by making him a genius on the flute in the ballet so the others can’t play it but he can!!  Only a minor adjustment required ….not the most savant character but a genius musician lol!! 

[Jamesrhblack]

3 hours ago, SheilaC said:

Having heard the music again on Radio 3 at lunchtime I would love to see Van Manen's Four Schumann Pieces again. It's most unlikely that the Royal still has any rights to it, and absolutely certain that we wouldn't see Dowell in it again (one of his best ballets as a dancer) or the divine Jenny Penney..... but the current batch of dancers would be very good.

 

Other than that any of the following would be more than acceptable :

Fille, The Dream, Symphonic Variations, Scenes de Ballet, Month in the Country, Monotones, Les Rendezvous:

In the Night, Dances at a Gathering, Afternoon of a Faun:

 Symphony, Diversions, Concerto, Gloria, Song of the Earth;

Symphony in C, Apollo, Serenade, Ballet Imperial, Night Shadow, Four Temperaments, Violin Concerto, Theme and Variations, Symphony in 3 Movements;

The Firebird, Les Sylphides;

Checkmate;

Dark Elegies, Jardin aux Lilas, Pillar of Fire

_ very few would even be considered!

 

plus Onegin, Giselle, Bayadere

I used to love Four Schumann Pieces. And the A minor quartet is so beautiful. Of course, Muntagirov would be exquisite in it but I can also imagine its long lines and lyricism sitting well on Joseph Sissens.

[Emeralds]

10 hours ago, LinMM said:

My only two main wishes for next year is for a couple of Ashtons ….Fille or Pigeons…and/or a triple including The Dream , Month in Country (unlikely though), Les Patineurs, any of his one acters really ……and Onegin as the main dramatic ballet ( sorry Cranko not Macmillan as originally put 🙄) 

Im not actually that bothered about seeing Swan Lake next year ( though would miss Sims fouettés of course!) and ENB are doing Swan Lake in the round at RAH if did suddenly get desperate to see it next year. 

Id prefer Bayadere ( probably unlikely though) or Giselle though as ENB doing Giselle this year that might be too much. 
It’s a real pity the RB don’t have their own version of Le Corsair as could be an alternative to Don Q. 
I wouldn’t even mind a full length version of Raymonda for a change …. I’m sure the Royal did once have a full length version? 
My absolute dream triple though (and would love every year in some combination)  is :Dances at a Gathering,  Concerto and Month in the Country! 
I think it’s time for a new Month in the Country type ballet….a one acter so shortish and sweet and to the point…..based on some good story….there’s still plenty out there!! 
 

RB never had a full length Raymonda but Nureyev’s suite of dances called Raymonda Act 3 (technically a misnomer as some of the solos are not from Act 3 and one dance is a completely new creation) has been well served by being revived quite regularly, more often than many of Ashton and MacMillan’s  very good one act ballets. 

 

I also wanted to suggest Ondine and Birthday Offering, which are both beautiful ballets with unique qualities, if not necessarily “blockbusters”, but unless they are presented as part of an Ashton Festival or some special festival or event, they won’t “sell out by themselves”, which the ROH management & marketing teams expect them to do nowadays. (They also seem to expect audiences to hand over £200 or more of hard earned cash blindly without knowing who is performing, whether it’s ballet or opera, which is just simply bizarre and ignorant.) 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Emeralds

[Guest oncnp]

3 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

 (They also seem to expect audiences to hand over £200 or more of hard earned cash blindly without knowing who is performing, whether it’s ballet or opera, which is just simply bizarre and ignorant.) 

I believe casting (principal) is announced a few weeks before booking opens

[Emeralds]

11 minutes ago, oncnp said:

I believe casting (principal) is announced a few weeks before booking opens

Sorry to be misleading, oncnp, it was my little grumble directed at their marketing teams for frequently posting clips this week and last week, promoting their streaming service without bothering to credit the performers.

 

Lack of courtesy to the artists aside, I just found it bizarre that they would say, “here’s Hansel and Gretel, now hand over your monthly subscription” whereas if they said, “this is what you’re paying for: Diana Damrau singing Gretel, Marianela Nunez as Aurora, Vadim Muntagirov dancing Florimund, etc etc” then that makes more sense (and more money) from a sales point of view.

 

Many of the performers are unrecognisable under the makeup and/or  wigs so potential customers are going to think it’s not worth paying money every month for a small collection of titles featuring nobody special. 

Edited April 12, 2023 by Emeralds

[Sophoife]

8 hours ago, Emeralds said:

They also seem to expect audiences to hand over £200 or more of hard earned cash blindly without knowing who is performing, whether it’s ballet or opera, which is just simply bizarre and ignorant

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

This is what AusBallet does.

 

Subscriptions open in September of the year before (they run on a calendar year). Casting since Mr Hallberg arrived is now posted approx 2 weeks before the start of each run, previously if we were lucky it was 2 days before. So for December 2023 Swan Lake in Sydney, for which I know @Bluebird has tickets 😉, casting won't be available before late November 2023.

 

On the bad side, all we get now is online cast sheets, and that's - shall we say - rather less than complete. I had to bail up dancers leaving the theatre to confirm who, in the performance of Don Quixote I'd just seen, had danced Lead Gypsy Boy, Two Girlfriends, Lead Bridesmaid, and male and female Lead Fandango 😡

[Emeralds]

40 minutes ago, Sophoife said:

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

This is what AusBallet does.

 

Subscriptions open in September of the year before (they run on a calendar year). Casting since Mr Hallberg arrived is now posted approx 2 weeks before the start of each run, previously if we were lucky it was 2 days before. So for December 2023 Swan Lake in Sydney, for which I know @Bluebird has tickets 😉, casting won't be available before late November 2023.

 

On the bad side, all we get now is online cast sheets, and that's - shall we say - rather less than complete. I had to bail up dancers leaving the theatre to confirm who, in the performance of Don Quixote I'd just seen, had danced Lead Gypsy Boy, Two Girlfriends, Lead Bridesmaid, and male and female Lead Fandango 😡

Hi Sophoife, I was referring to the marketing teams being too lazy to list the performer names on advertising for the ROH Streaming Service, not live performances.

 

We do get names of at least one lead a few months in advance for the stage performances  -usually two leads - for ballet, except when it’s a completely new work. For opera usually more names [especially when it’s cost them a lot of money to engage an eminent singer for a supporting role]. That said, I did have to fork out AUD30 to exchange our tickets for Woolf Works because the leading cast we wanted for the second act wasn’t announced in advance  and turned out to have been scheduled for the “wrong” dates (ie not the one we bought).

 

That’s great that David Hallberg is announcing the casting earlier than previously done. He’s of course used to it from ABT, where audiences usually book for the star they want to see (and sometimes don’t even care too much about what the ballet is), and the high profile foreign guest stars are not necessarily their preferred choice.....although for some they are. Perhaps you can write in to ask them if they can put out a notice in the lobby with the complete cast, like they often do for West End and Broadway shows, where last minute switches due to injury and other reasons may affect the supporting role casting more.

[Benjamin]

1 hour ago, Sophoife said:

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

 

This is what AusBallet does.

 

Subscriptions open in September of the year before (they run on a calendar year). Casting since Mr Hallberg arrived is now posted approx 2 weeks before the start of each run, previously if we were lucky it was 2 days before. So for December 2023 Swan Lake in Sydney, for which I know @Bluebird has tickets 😉, casting won't be available before late November 2023.

 

On the bad side, all we get now is online cast sheets, and that's - shall we say - rather less than complete. I had to bail up dancers leaving the theatre to confirm who, in the performance of Don Quixote I'd just seen, had danced Lead Gypsy Boy, Two Girlfriends, Lead Bridesmaid, and male and female Lead Fandango 😡

Aus Ballet’s casting is wild, but In a good way. They announce it two weeks before the show (as you’ve already stated) but it’s a complete gamble, because the Principal Roles could range from artists from Principals to Corps De Ballet and everything in between! I’m glad that they do that to give these young artists a chance, but I wish they could announce the leads earlier than 2 weeks.

[Josette]

Returning to the topic of The Royal Ballet’s 2023-2024 season:

The Winter’s Tale. 

[Benjamin]

3 minutes ago, Josette said:

Returning to the topic of The Royal Ballet’s 2023-2024 season:

The Winter’s Tale. 

It’s The Winters Tale 10th Anniversary April 2024, I don’t see why they wouldn’t, but also don’t see why they will. Royal Opera house performance database says it was performed April, May 2014, April, May, June 2016 and February, March 2018, was a cancelled revival scheduled for 2020? 

[alison]

Not in the 2019-20 slot.  I don't think the 2020-21 season had been announced by the time lockdown started.

[JohnS]

I’d like to see a Liam Scarlett triple bill - Asphodel Meadows, Sweet Violets and Symphonic Dances.

I also thought Cunning Little Vixen performed by the Royal Ballet School together with the Royal Ballet’s Two Pigeons made for a delightful performance.

I know we have had tributes to Liam for the Swan Lake run but I think it would be very fitting to see some of his original work.

Another fabulous double programme was Dances at a Gathering and The Cellist and I’d very much welcome seeing that again.

[sybarite2015@]

I would also like to see some Balanchine ballets...Jewels, of course, or Symphony in Three Movements...or Agon...

 

 

[Lizbie1]

No surprises but a couple of ballets confirmed for next season here: https://www.roh.org.uk/schools/school-matinees

[Linnzi5]

1 hour ago, Lizbie1 said:

No surprises but a couple of ballets confirmed for next season here: https://www.roh.org.uk/schools/school-matinees

No surprises, but I am pleased - especially for Swan Lake.  

[Dawnstar]

No surprises on the opera front either but I hope they have a cast I'm happy to see for L'elisir d'amore as I quite fancy seeing it again, not having seen it for a while.

[Benjamin]

3 hours ago, Lizbie1 said:

No surprises but a couple of ballets confirmed for next season here: https://www.roh.org.uk/schools/school-matinees

Why am I not surprised! The Nutcracker and Swan Lake. Like I can have Swan Lake but just a years break from the nutcracker, please? Every other British company does it. 

[Benjamin]

Does that mean we won’t be getting Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, because I would assume that would get a schools matinee?

[alison]

2 down, what, 6 left to go?   Good spot, though, Bridie.

[bridiem]

5 hours ago, alison said:

2 down, what, 6 left to go?   Good spot, though, Bridie.

 

Lizbie1 noticed this in fact - I can't take the credit!

 

Only a week until the full announcement...

Edited April 19, 2023 by bridiem
Sentence added

[JNC]

Good spot! But why have they announced this without announcing the full season yet?

 

still confused as to why they’re holding off so late but no use in moaning and one week to go I suppose. 

[Lizbie1]

9 minutes ago, JNC said:

Good spot! But why have they announced this without announcing the full season yet?

 

still confused as to why they’re holding off so late but no use in moaning and one week to go I suppose. 

 

I've seen it happen before (hence searching this time). I imagine it has to be announced by a certain date to allow schools and then the relevant ROH department to go through the necessary steps.

 

It does frustrate me that ROH are never in much of a hurry to announce but I assume they would argue - especially in the current climate - that they need to be able to adjust their plans according to box office receipts. And as discussed further up the thread, the announcements might fall later in years where the ACE multi-year funding allocations are made.

[Benjamin]

Here’s my roundup of predictions for The Royal Ballet Season 23/24

 

It should be revealed on April 26, A week from now (date pretty likely, Source: Box office) 

 

Confirmed: (Source: ROH Schools Matinees 23/24)

The Nutcracker, Dates In December Confirmed, Possibly dates in Nov and Jan. 

Swan Lake, Dates in April Confirmed, Possible dates in February to June.

 

Not Confirmed but Likely:

 

Macmillan Rotation: 

Manon (Probably in Oct, Nov)

 

Co production Previously played by co producer:

Maddaddam (Probably in Oct)

 

Seasonally Scheduled:

Two Bills (presumably Triple Bills)

New Production of a story ballet? Previous seasons example: New Cinderella (22/23), Like Water For Chocolate (21/22), 20/21 doesn’t really count, I thought I had good reasoning for this but 19/20 doesn’t really have one either.

 

And probably some more revivals, can’t wait for this season to be announced.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Benjamin
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