Mary

I did wonder if this was a free drink, or if they just 'would love to see me' having a drink...

😀

I manage well with my inexpensive ( about £50) Aculon TO2s, bought from a little shop in that yard opp. the British Museum- where the LRB bookshop is: they had a good range of reasonably priced bins, and it was on the way to ROH one day. but might have gone...

(There is also a very expensive optics shop there that I tried first but it was starting at £500...)

I find these light, comfortable and do the job and it isn't the end of the world if I lose them out and about.

I don't see the problem: a dancer portrays a character with the whole body - and a lifetime of finely honed skill..age is irrelevant.

in my view.

My sympathy, that's what happened to me booking Friends+

i logged out, went in again, and got my most important tickets, then out and in again- a long, slow, frustrating and very annoying process. Frustrating, because, I kept getting in - then it would suddenly throw me back to the beginning.

Seems to be showing at quite a few Picturehouses but not near me alas, but I might even travel to see it.

excellent news, yes- thanks Beryl.

Where is this showing - ?

Do you mean Saturday October 8th?

Thanks...noted!!

😑

Lucky you! I got bounced around all over the place, sent back to the back of the queue 3 times ( must have done something wrong..)

but got some tickets in the end...

What browser were you using?

It is absurd that booking the train tickets has become more difficult and anxiety-provoking than booking the theatre tickets for  a long-awaited first night....

Last time I travelled on Avanti trains it was a bad experience and I'm sorry to hear it has clearly got worse - time the franchise was removed. What a terrible system we have. The knock-on effects for so many people are incalculable- it needs to change!  I don't drive and life is certainly getting more and more difficult to organise these days- meanwhile, the bad effects of too much motor traffic continue unabated or will get worse as people have to drive instead; but it isn't just individuals is it,  it's organisations, work, businesses that are affected - as all this uncertainty will affect tickets sales, and therefore hotels, restaurants and, more importantly,  people working or going to important family events or medical appointments and so on and on.

I have often seen the King slip into the theatre after lights down. It is encouraging to know that he really is interested in the arts.

My friend who works for Macmillan was bewildered to be told to cancel a fund-raising  Macmillan coffee morning and charity bike ride  as a 'mark of respect'- Not what HMQ  would have done, I feel sure.

It does seem odd to cancel concerts and cause so very much trouble and money loss where it really can't be absorbed at the moment...ah well it's a strange time- but hard to believe the Queen would have wanted this.

35 minutes ago, FionaE said:

super programme, bravo Nehemiah Kish.  I do hope a second round of these galas can be produced at some point with some other Nureyev specialties included. 

I second that. It was far better than - 'some other galas' I've been to: very thoughtful programming. Using Drury Lane was appropriate and  a lovely idea- but it must have been difficult to struggle with the immoveable set issue and- OK, it wasn't perfect in the end  - but the stage and orchestra concerns many people are mentioning hardly bothered me as I was so rapt by the dancers. I saw so little for 2 years I am still thrilled to see top quality live ballet and so grateful people are putting it on at all.

I can't begin to imagine what a headache it must be to put on something like this, especially at the moment- all the shenanigans of travel, insurance, finance, publicity, ticket sales, injury, illness, theatre rules oh lord...! outside the supportive structure of a company... so very many thanks to Mr Kish and his team.

Yes, I thought Monica Mason seemed perhaps  a bit under the weather (in which case, I hope she is better soon.)

I agree with JNC's perfect summary :  the introductory words were a little too brief..in particular, Monica Mason could have said something about what was so important about Nureyev as a dancer and what it was like to dance with him.

Great evening overall and Frola..what footwork... Muntagirov-divine elegance -  Corrales - raw excitement- exemplifed different aspects of Nureyev v beautifully.

There was a lively bustling atmosphere in the theatre- well managed by lots of well trained staf -  but a perfectly behaved audience too. 

It greatly cheered me up.

But lots of proper ballet. And some fabulous dancers! Tasteful presentation. V good live orchestra. 

Corrales was on fire

Great fun here!

Haven't been here for ages...it's looking v smart! 

I have a full price seat too...

It's happened to me several times...... and sometimes I have got the cheap last-minute seat. 

Isn't that life.

And times are very strange and difficult.  I don't think it's underhand.. just a shame and sad. 

Looking forward to some photos..........

This discussion has made me book some more tickets- once again the Forum dents my bank balance.

It is not even my favourite ballet, by a long way- but it does have some superb moments.

I shall never forget Jonathan Cope in particular - and Edward Watson.

I found mine by searching Nureyev in my email.. glad it isn't just me -and it was from

'norepy@lwtheatres.co.uk'

they say e-ticket to be sent 24 hrs beforehand.

On 26/06/2022 at 13:48, FLOSS said:

It was a time when it was not fashionable to sneer at the arts as elitist or complain that subsidies only benefited the middle classes.

A time that seems sadly far off. I find the philistinism in this country is getting worse and it's very depressing these days- a country where a politician ( Angela Rayner) can be laughed and sneered at simply for going to an opera performance -  as if that is somehow a political issue in itself (OK, Glyndebourne, but really is it all that different from Glastonbury or Wimbledon that we are all supposed to follow avidly..)

I am not that old but I was brought up to believe the arts were for us all regardless of who we were - but now it seems ballet, opera, claassical music are just for 'posh' people.

Smooth for me too.

But- is there some simpler way to go back and forth to a simple list of productions in the appropriate booking season ?  It is good to have the drop down list of dates for the production being booked, so one can go straight to another date- but when I then tried to move on to another ballet, it was back to square 1- or is that me just being slow and missing a trick?