Grateful for any suggestions for the following poll...

One advantage is for the seats where you cannot see a thing, (tall seats in the balcony for example?). This way, the people sitting there may have more of a chance enjoying it.

Juliet.

Questioner: Well, Clive, how did it go tonight?
Manager: I thought the boys and girls played a blinder. The team work was wonderful, the attack was overwhelming and there was no doubt who came on top - it was Beethoven
Question: What pleased you most about the playing tonight?
Answer: Well I liked the way the themes were distributed so unselfishly. No-one held onto them for too long, each section picked the theme up and ran with it, and it had tremendous drive and passion
Question: Any particular stars tonight?
Answer: Well you've got to single out Andrew Marriner - what a great clarinettist. And of the young stars, well David Pyatt has got to be the best first horn in any British Orchestra.

It has possibilities. You can imagine Judith Mackrell interviewing Ross Stretton post-performance before throwing to a vox-pop of ballet.coers at the side of the Floral Hall.....

But seriously -the experience of going to the ballet has changed. And it will change more. Audiences are more interested in background and explanation - and one cannot but feel that video will become part of the experience in some way, if not necessarily in the Main House ....

John Tusa's "Art Matters", in which the essay appeared, was published by Methuen in 1999. The ISBN is: 0 413 73890 6

As for LCD video at every seats - there is no arguement against except cost because if you do not like it then do not use it! But I think that there are bigger priorities for the ROH. But if Albert Vilar wants to install them - then let him do so!

Hey, if you can choose the camera angles, maybe there could be a slot where you could slip in a blank cassette and then you could take home your very own personalised souvenir of your evening out. Then you wouldn't have to write notes afterwards, and it would be easier to check bits to write a review for Bruce

In ballet, what if the video displayed the dancer's name as s/he came out to do a solo? (And I love Jim's idea of the video. Of course, they could charge for that -- new money maker!)

The article Brendan cited reminds me of Professor Schickle and his PDQ Bach series. He did a play-by-play on the first movement of Beethoven's 5th that is hilarious, and made me think of the possibilities for ballet. I used to have a piece called "A Swan is Down, Ladies and Gentlemen..." but it got lost in one of my computer changes.

The possibilities for back-of-the-seat interactivity are endless. Could we talk back to them? Something on the order of, "Wipe that grin off your face, straighten your shoulders when you turn, please, and remember you're supposed to HATE the fellow"? We could get out a lot of frustrations that way.

Or even "Can I take you somewhere for dinner after the performance?"

With all the possibilities of zooming and such — on a very small screen no less, who will have time to watch the live dance. What if while fiddling around with the video you miss something important on stage? The figures on the screen will be so very small. How to jump back and forth visually between the stage and the screen.

As much as I love seeing ballets on t.v. - sometimes better angle of view, replay the good parts, pause while getting a snack, the drawbacks are just as valid - too small people in any kind of a wide shot (unless one has a really big screen).

And if the guy next to you is playing with his video, won't that kind of extra movement be distracting to the patron that is just sitting still watching?

I see the video screen for opera — with less stage movement and where it would be nice to see a close-up of the singers face — the video screen could be a nice thing. But not for dance. Too much going on on stage to pay attention to the video screen. May as well stay home and see it on tv.

Just some thoughts...

Lara

Just what I ewas thinking! Might as well pay the ROH the price of the ticket and have it piped by cable straight into your TV at home. That way you would save the cost of getting to London, which for me is usually more than the ticket! And you could have your drinks while watching it rather than pushing and shoving at the bar.

I'm not too sure about this... the arguments in favour of surtitles for opera make sense, but since opera is a complete pile of knickers, I'll move on.

It would only work for ballet pre-performance and during the intervals giving biogs, history of the production, and of the house etc. During a perfomance is another matter -sitting next to a fidgety person or one who insists on doing their armchair port de bras when you're trying to watch the performance is already an annoying distraction, having someone scanning in the hope of finding 'Match of the Day' will only add to that.

Pete, another of Trog's suggestions was that dancers who failed to please the audience could be hooked off the stage by means of a shepherd's crook around their neck...

But I do think the identification of a dancer as he or she did a solo would work. The way they do it on the news -- show a photo, caption: "John Smith," "Dr. No," or "Mother of accused rapist" as identifier underneath. That would solve the Program Rustling problem (since people would no longer have to pull out flashlights and/or turn pages frantically, trying to find out who's dancing.)

Q: Interactive videos on theatre seats?

Totally naff: 58.3%
Worth considering: 20.8%
Excellent idea!: 14.5%
A gimmick: 6.2%
other: 0%

It appears we think seatback videos for ballet-watching is not a good thing
at all. A bit unfair, given that they are designed to be discreet and
invisible to other audience members, but there you go.

I loved some of the suggestion though - Jim's idea of recording the show
yourself for home viewing and Brendan's earphones and alternative selection
of viewing. But think, Brendan - what if you chose to watch a comedy film
and as a result kept bursting into loud guffaws during, say, Giselle...

All this is more prettily(!) available on the Mini-poll page:
http://www.danze.co.uk/survey/balletco_mini_poll.shtml