Royal Ballet Casting for Autumn 2023-24

[LinMM]

At the moment I keep seeing Facebook video posts from ROH of extracts from the Chicken Dance from Fille which given the current circumstances regarding this ballet I find infuriating!! 

[Dawnstar]

1 hour ago, capybara said:

With hundreds of tickets for Don Q still unsold and an amazing evening like last night to capitalise on, I see that the ROH’s IG post today is about …… yes, you’ve guessed it, coffee 😨
 

 

The same on Twitter this morning, and when I went on the ROH's Flickr account to see if they had posted any Don Q production pics there were still only the 8 rehearsal photos posted a couple of weeks ago while the latest post is 299 photos of "Restaurants and FOH, autumn 2023".

[emmarose]

On 01/10/2023 at 12:41, capybara said:

With hundreds of tickets for Don Q still unsold and an amazing evening like last night to capitalise on, I see that the ROH’s IG post today is about …… yes, you’ve guessed it, coffee 😨
 

It reminds me of a comment on the thread about the Orchestra: that without the performers, the ROH would simply be a large cafeteria. If that isn’t to be it’s fate, they need to get their various departments working with the same artistic priorities in mind.

 

It's really quite unbelievable, isn't it? It seems the dancers themselves are better at selling it via their personal Instagram accounts than the company.

 

They should be sharing the fan reactions as other productions do, but nope.

[alison]

Has anyone managed to piece together any more of Wednesday's casting than the two leads, please?  I haven't got rid of my ticket (one of only two) yet, but with the tubes as well as the trains out it's going to be horribly difficult to get there (and back), and I'm wondering to what extent it will be worth it, or whether I should just hold out for the cinema relay.

[art_enthusiast]

2 minutes ago, alison said:

Has anyone managed to piece together any more of Wednesday's casting than the two leads, please?  

 

Would love to know this as well - it will certainly be a pain to get there!

[capybara]

19 minutes ago, emmarose said:

It's really quite unbelievable, isn't it? It seems the dancers themselves are better at selling it via their personal Instagram accounts than the company.

 

They should be sharing the fan reactions as other productions do, but nope.

Prompted by one such Instagram post, I’ve just been on line to buy ‘an extra’.

 

I simply cannot believe that the performance I was booking for had over 200 seats still not taken.

[emmarose]

14 minutes ago, capybara said:

Prompted by one such Instagram post, I’ve just been on line to buy ‘an extra’.

 

I simply cannot believe that the performance I was booking for had over 200 seats still not taken.

 

And that's exactly the problem, the more people with eyes on it the more sales they'll get, and SM is a cheap way to promote it and they're just not and there's so many dates with so many tickets left, you could have your pick of seats at a lot of them.

 

But they want to promote coffee? Maybe it's a larger profit margin for them and that's where they want to focus from now on...

[San Perregrino]

1 hour ago, alison said:

Has anyone managed to piece together any more of Wednesday's casting than the two leads, please?  I haven't got rid of my ticket (one of only two) yet, but with the tubes as well as the trains out it's going to be horribly difficult to get there (and back), and I'm wondering to what extent it will be worth it, or whether I should just hold out for the cinema relay.

@alison

Different cast tomorrow than the cinema relay.

The cinema relay will be Matthew Ball and Mayara Magri. Tomorrow night it’s Marcelino Sambe with Mayara Magri covering for Natalia Osipova.
Espada might be danced by, amongst others, Joe Sissens or Calvin Richardson who must surely be in the mix this season. Hirano danced on Saturday (Nuñez/Mutagirov cast) Edmonds danced the General rehearsal (Nagdhi/Ball cast) and Zucchetti has declared himself for the O’Sullivan/McRae cast whilst Lukas BB is dancing later in the run.

Edited October 2, 2023 by PeterS

[JohnS]

Picking up some comments about the Cellist and Dante from the Don Q thread, I hadn’t realised just how many seats remain unsold - for some performances it looks as if half of the seats are unsold. I appreciate there’s some time for the first performances but opening night for the Cellist is 20 October with Dante 17 November.

 

When the season was announced I’d been a bit disappointed that we weren’t seeing Dances at a Gathering with the Cellist again as I thought that made for a fabulous double bill and where the casting (both casts for Dances) was a dream. I’ll be happy to see Anemoi but I don’t think it has the appeal of Dances at a Gathering.

 

But irrespective of the relative merits of the other part of the double bill, prices have rocketed. In March 2020 for the Cellist I paid £61.50 for Stalls H4 albeit that was taking advantage of a subscription package. The same seat this month is £110. For Dante in October 2021 I paid £73.80 for Stalls H4, again part of a subscription package. That seat is £130 when Dante opens in November.
 

Is this an apples and pears comparison? I don’t know what use was made of subscription packages but I think comparing what I actually paid with what I would have to pay now is valid and it certainly makes me look closely at what tickets I buy. And I’m sure many people look askance at the increases in prices they find they are having to pay.

 

I do hope the ROH are able to sell the spare tickets with minimal discounting: the dancers and all who make performances happen deserve full houses; and we all benefit from the buzz of a packed house where an appreciative audience is engaged with the live performance. 

[zxDaveM]

I think that if you've been coming regularly (or even a lot) over the last few years you have become accustomed to the pricing of your favourite seats, and the variations of those seats between popular productions, and new or less public aware type ones. So when the cost of those go up - even by a little - you'd notice. When they go up a LOT, then you tend to object.

If however, you're a newbie comparing prices to a top west end show, for example, you might be less put off by the new prices as you were unaware they used to be cheaper (and/or unaware of any view restrictions). And lets not forget the mantra - it's the new audience members they want (for the Arts Council brief)

PS - I wonder how long it will be before they experiment again with £28 standing spots

[Emeralds]

I know the seats I just bought for Manon have gone up by a lot and that for the same price, the last time Manon was around I could have sat in the  front row (not front of the Slips, but front of that side of the amphi) and now I'm sitting  in the last row! (Worth it though, to see the casts I wanted and in a safer, more comfortable seat). Am trying not to think too often how much the prices have risen- if I did I probably wouldn't attend any show at all! I hope they will use the revenue fron the price rises to restore the pay of dancers, musicians and other artists, crew, etc who took a pay cut to help ROH stay afloat during the pandemic. 

[Rob S]

Just had an email about a cast change for 28th Oct and 11th Nov...Akane Takada is replaced by Meaghan Grace Hinkis as Kitri.....that is quite a change!! (that I'm really interested to see!!)

Edited October 6, 2023 by Rob S

[capybara]

15 minutes ago, Rob S said:

Just had an email about a cast change for 28th Oct and 11th Nov...Akane Takada is replaced by Meaghan Grace Hinkis as Kitri.....that is quite a change!! (that I'm really interested to see!!)

 

Really upset for Akane. She is a lovely Kitri and would have been a great 'match up' for Luca.

I do hope that she recovers soon.

[Rob S]

The cast change is now on the booking page too so it wasn't a typo

[Richard LH]

21 minutes ago, capybara said:

 

Really upset for Akane. She is a lovely Kitri and would have been a great 'match up' for Luca.

I do hope that she recovers soon.

Oh dear...poor Akane, yet another injury. I did wonder if she was OK after she missed her last performance in  Japan this summer.☹️

[Sim]

I am so sorry for Akane.  She has had such bad luck these past few years.  😢

[Emeralds]

Poor Akane! That's really unlucky- she's worked so hard but missed out on so much. Wishing her a speedy and full recovery.

[Jamesrhblack]

Very sad for Akane Takada, but a lovely bonus for Meaghan Grace Hinkis after she lost out on her Sugar-Plum Fairy debut last season.

[Richard LH]

31 minutes ago, Sim said:

I am so sorry for Akane.  She has had such bad luck these past few years.  😢

Indeed. I really don't want to keep building up my Credit balance at the ROH for this reason.....😬 

(Meaghan Grace Hinkis sort of flagged this up a few days ago on her IG page when she referred to some big news on the way, followed by a Spanish dance emoji...)

Edited October 6, 2023 by Richard LH

[art_enthusiast]

46 minutes ago, Emeralds said:

Poor Akane! That's really unlucky- she's worked so hard but missed out on so much. Wishing her a speedy and full recovery.

Indeed. I really hope she’s back for Manon.

[Dawnstar]

2 hours ago, Rob S said:

Just had an email about a cast change for 28th Oct and 11th Nov...Akane Takada is replaced by Meaghan Grace Hinkis as Kitri.....that is quite a change!! (that I'm really interested to see!!)

 

I suddenly wish I could see this cast. I can imagine Hinkis being a good fit as Kitri personality-wise. It's also nice to see a different dancer getting a go at a role rather than dancers already cast doing extra shows, as has been the case for the other Don Q cast changes & as is usually the case for lead cast changes.

[capybara]

1 hour ago, Dawnstar said:

 

I suddenly wish I could see this cast. I can imagine Hinkis being a good fit as Kitri personality-wise. It's also nice to see a different dancer getting a go at a role rather than dancers already cast doing extra shows, as has been the case for the other Don Q cast changes & as is usually the case for lead cast changes.

I think that some choices of substitutes depend on the amount of lead in time available to rehearse someone new before a show.

 

The other side of the coin is that under-used Principals would probably welcome additional shows. For example, Yasmine Naghdi will have completed her two Kitris on 14th October and then has, I think, a gap before her first Nutcracker on the 19th December.

 

But everyone on here must already have had enough of my banging on about several Principals being seen on stage too infrequently.

[alison]

But on the other hand I imagine a lot of us agree with you. (I've been complaining about it on and off since last century)

[San Perregrino]

Whilst I agree on one hand that today’s principals have too few performances, on the other I wonder if, like in the tennis world for example, better nutrition and sports/dance fitness and rehabilitation from injury is creating a bottleneck at the the higher echélons of the company.

In the past might some of the current ‘senior’ principals have retired by now making way for those coming up behind them. Are we in danger of having a ‘lost generation’ of principals who never get the promotion they might have once received. Much as there is a generation of tennis players who have been deprived of winning a grand slam because medical science has prolonged the playing careers of Roger, Rafa, Andy and Novak. Perhaps a mandatory retirement age needs to be introduced like with the Paris Opera Ballet? It might also trim the wages bill? 

[alison]

God forbid. And how old was Lesley collier when she retired in the early nineties?

[bridiem]

4 minutes ago, alison said:

God forbid. And how old was Lesley collier when she retired in the early nineties?

 

Unbelievably, it seems that she was 48 (retired July 1995). I find that impossible to believe; maybe my maths is even worse than I thought...

[alison]

Anyway, I don't think I can recall any dancer who I would have said deserved promotion to principal being "bed-blocked" by other dancers not retiring.

 

(And to continue the tennis analogy, I wouldn't want to see subpar players winning Slams simply because the competition is substandard following the non-availability of the "Big 3 / 4". Some of the Masters 1000 results have been quite bad enough.)

[Emeralds]

4 hours ago, art_enthusiast said:

Indeed. I really hope she’s back for Manon.

Agreed! Also her Sugar Plum Fairy dates for Nutcracker on 4 & 11 January, as well as The Dante Project in November and December- while the casting hasn’t been announced for roles other than just Dante himself, Akane did work with McGregor to create a role in the original cast, and it would be really disappointing if she wasn’t fully recovered enough for the revival. Sending her lots of healing vibes. 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀

 

That said, toi toi toi to Meaghan Grace Hinkis and Luca Acri on their double debut! 

 

 

[capybara]

31 minutes ago, PeterS said:

Whilst I agree on one hand that today’s principals have too few performances, on the other I wonder if, like in the tennis world for example, better nutrition and sports/dance fitness and rehabilitation from injury is creating a bottleneck at the the higher echélons of the company.

In the past might some of the current ‘senior’ principals have retired by now making way for those coming up behind them. Are we in danger of having a ‘lost generation’ of principals who never get the promotion they might have once received. Much as there is a generation of tennis players who have been deprived of winning a grand slam because medical science has prolonged the playing careers of Roger, Rafa, Andy and Novak. Perhaps a mandatory retirement age needs to be introduced like with the Paris Opera Ballet? It might also trim the wages bill? 

An interesting perspective @PeterS

Not necessarily relevant to DonQ, as some Principals are not dancing it anyway, but a half way measure might be for more senior artists who have taken the lead roles numerous times in a given ballet to ‘stand down’ in order to make way for others.

 

This wouldn’t necessarily be a popular move but, in combination with other approaches and imperatives, it could help to manage opportunities in a company bursting with talent.

[Dawnstar]

2 hours ago, capybara said:

The other side of the coin is that under-used Principals would probably welcome additional shows. For example, Yasmine Naghdi will have completed her two Kitris on 14th October and then has, I think, a gap before her first Nutcracker on the 19th December.

 

I had a horrible feeling when I made my comment that I'd get a reply telling me that actually the already cast Principals need more shows, so apologies for my previous post.

 

Can anyone currently see the casting for The Cellist on the ROH's website? I was thinking about changing the date I am booked for so went to check which other dates the cast I want to see is due to do, only to find that I can only see the Anemoi casting and not the Cellist casting.

[Rob S]

3 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

Can anyone currently see the casting for The Cellist on the ROH's website? I was thinking about changing the date I am booked for so went to check which other dates the cast I want to see is due to do, only to find that I can only see the Anemoi casting and not the Cellist casting.

 

I can no longer see the Cellist casting on the website but can say at the time of booking the casting for Cellist performanes I booked was Cuthbertson on 20/10, 23/10, 2/11 and Magri 21/10, 1/11

[Dawnstar]

7 minutes ago, Rob S said:

I can no longer see the Cellist casting on the website but can say at the time of booking the casting for Cellist performanes I booked was Cuthbertson on 20/10, 23/10, 2/11 and Magri 21/10, 1/11

 

Thanks. At least it's not me going mad somehow not seeing it! I'm assuming unless/until announced otherwise that the Anemoi & Cellist casts are still matched up with 3 dates apiece. I need to wait until I know if there will be train strikes at the end of October to know which Don Qs I'll be seeing to then know when best to fit in the double bill, so I guess I'll just have to hope the Cellist casting will have reappeared by that time. (Busy praying there won't be a train strike on 28th but I have a horrible feeling there will be...)

[capybara]

10 minutes ago, Dawnstar said:

 

I had a horrible feeling when I made my comment that I'd get a reply telling me that actually the already cast Principals need more shows, so apologies for my previous post.

 

Can anyone currently see the casting for The Cellist on the ROH's website? I was thinking about changing the date I am booked for so went to check which other dates the cast I want to see is due to do, only to find that I can only see the Anemoi casting and not the Cellist casting.

No need to apologise, @Dawnstar. This would be a very dull forum if there weren’t contrasting views. It’s good that you are interested in seeing Meaghan Grace Hinkis as Kitri.

The ‘disappearance’ of the casting for The Cellist is seriously weird as I looked at it only a few hours ago. IIRC the first cast (Lauren Cuthbertson etc) coincides with the Anemoi cast where Mariko Sasaki is the first-named dancer (4 shows). Mayara Magri’s group for The Cellist aligns with Hannah Park’s for Anemoi (3 shows).