Thank goodness that it was all a slightly tasteless joke: I can now announce the real programme which, I hope you will agree, serves as a fitting celebration of Her Majesty’s fifty years as Sovereign. Nearly all the choreographers are, naturally, British and the theme is, unsurprisingly ‘royalty’:

The Sleeping Beauty (Petipa/Tchaikovsky) – The Prologue.
(This item evokes the famous photograph of The Royal Family in the Royal Box watching the Sleeping Beauty after the 1946 re-opening of the House. It will also allow the Royal Ballet’s soloists to shine. The costumes will, of course, be Oliver Messel’s. In this extract, the fairies bestow their gifts upon the young princess)

Selected items from ‘The Prince of the Pagodas’ (MacMillan/Britten)
(Continuing the royal theme, this section includes the solos for the four regal suitors, as well as those for both Princess Epine and Princess Rose. It will allow four of the company’s up-and-coming male soloists to shine, in addition to the contrasting roles of the two princesses. We are delighted that Anthony Dowell has agreed to recreate his role of the Emperor)

Air pas de deux from ‘Homage to the Queen’ (Ashton/Arnold)
(Ashton’s Coronation ballet is represented here by this delightful pas de deux for the Queen of the Air and her consort, originally created for Margot Fonteyn and Michael Somes. We are delighted that this piece marks Sarah Wildor’s return to the company. )

The final scenes from ‘Checkmate’ (de Valois/Bliss)
The Royal Ballet’s Founder is represented here by her chess ballet. Here, the Black Queen kills the Red Knight and closes in on the Red King. Drama and tension from this 1930s ballet that remains a period masterpiece in the repertoire.

Nursery Suite (Ashton/Elgar)
Sir Fred’s evocation of the two princesses playing in a garden whom he espied from the top of a London bus. It ends with the elder assuming a cape and looking to her future as Queen. The piece will, of course, be danced by students of the Royal Ballet School

Pas de Deux Impérial / Kchesshinskaya pas de deux from Anastasia (MacMillan/Tchaikovsky)
Sir Kenneth’s take on Petipa in the divertissement from Act 2 of Anastasia. Originally created for Sibley and Dowell, this pas de deux evokes the splendours of the imperial ballet, with a typical MacMillan slant.

Rhapsody (Ashton/Rachmaninov)
(No Royal Gala would be complete without this piece; joyous and celebratory, it was, of course, the great choreographer’s 80th birthday present to Her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and is a fitting close to the evening’s festivities)

Final tableau from The Firebird (Fokine/Stravinsky)
The coronation of the Tsarevitch and Tsarevna in what must be one of ballet’s finest evocations of the majesty of monarchy.

Oh yes… And then I woke up and it was all a dream…

Going backwards I'd include the equivalent pdc from Scenes de ballet.

From the 90s, the pdd from Winter Dreams.

And something from Still Like at the Penguin Cafe (the zebra section ? )

Oh God no, the poor woman had to sit through that at the re-opening gala, don't make her suffer it again! That ghastly music makes me want to scream and break windows!

Not to mention Gloriana, which I saw mentioned somewhere else the other day. But then, I wonder how many of these Stretton would even know about, as a new AD with no previous knowledge of the company.

Or perhaps Bintley has done one too?

Do we have an indication yet as to which excerpts are being performed - I know not from the desirable assemblage at the top of this thread, but from the pot pourri of this season's rep?

The text says "The Royal Ballet will perform excerts from their repertory over the past five decades of the Queen's reign including Carmen, Don Q, Marguerite & Armand, Onegin, Remanso, Romeo & Juliet and Tryst".

The text says that the cast includes Benjamin, Bussell, Cojocaru, Cope, Kobborg, Rojo, Yanowsky, Yoshida , Acosta, Bolle, Guillem, Le Riche and Murru (but Rojo at least is injured).

I'm very taken by the reference to 'the last five decades' and wonder just where Remanso, Carmen et al fit in all of this....Exactly the same list was promulgated earlier as highlights from this season's works. If you get critcised, change the marketing, not what you're doing, seems to be the message.

>I'm very taken by the reference
>to 'the last five decades'
>and wonder just where Remanso,
>Carmen et al fit in
>all of this....

Yes - note from today's email flyer that Bayadere and Leaves are Fading have crept into the proceedings.

I do agree that the programme is very disappointing - for those of us ar least who are RB regulars - but most of the paying gala audience will proably not be regulars so it will all be fresh to them at least.

It takes skill to construct a gala programme that ends with two failed attempts to start the applause.

Stage management need shooting - opening Birthday Offering had a a black drop left hanging mid air so the dancers had to duck under it. They also couldn't shift the wall from Remanso so after a wait had to bring down a drop so Don Q could start - thereby limiting the depth of the stage.

No Benjamin and Tewesley.

Bussell & Bolle best in R&J. Waste of Yoshida in Vertiginous... (that was fun but it outstayed its welcomed, dancers trapped inside the music).

My wife liked the Tryst pdd and the Carmen excerpts best (sheis more of a Rambert fan) and commented that they had managed to make the auditorium and foyer look like a village hall - lots of bunting and flags, fortunately no balloons, smart white flowers, especially the 12 feet high column in the crush room.

Unappreciative corporate audience, some very elegant ladies.

Onegin opening of act 3 roused everybody but a messy corps - Saunders excellent.

Acosta quite spectacular in Don Q: Nunez pretty good. Putrov nul in Bayadere bronze idol - none of the thrill that Kumakawa brought to this - very safe performance.

Leaves Fading pdd - Cojocaru & Kobborg (I think) well done - but too long and soupy.

Nice to have a varied programme, the defile was jolly, but it did not build or have real energy. Toadying speech at the start by Stretton facing all ways on tradition and innovation, the RB echoing the Queen's qualities.

Audience ettiquete awful - appaluding the national anthem.

Spotted the Devonshires, the Hesletines with the Isaacs. Beryl Grey in a grand tier box.

Yet last summer everyone said how fabulous they looked as they came back from the USA! (and I have to agree, the last night of the season just fizzed and sparkled, and I was even impressed by dancers I don't really care for much)

This leads me to agree with Katherine that the mix of styles really is doing the company physical harm, and with others (a) that the narrow range of casting is doing 3/4 of the company psychological harm and (b) that the prevalence of non-heritage works is doing the whole company artistic harm.

Just out of interest, who danced Birthday Offering? Did they do the whole piece or just the pdd? They haven't performed it much in the last 15 yrs, and the last time was oo I think at least 4 yrs ago so I would think that they'd had a bit of trouble bringing that to stage.

In any case, I hope that HM is able to look back on last year's trip to the ballet and think to herself "Well, at least Mummy and Margaret and I had one hell of a night out then". I suspect that if HM were more knowledgeable about ballet she would be thinking "thank heavens Margaret didn't have to see this!"

Didn't they do it complete at the Barbican in 1998 for the de Valois centenary.

Despite negotiating the scenery that shouldn't have been hanging there the entree was more polished than I saw them do it sometimes in the 80s.

I was wondering how much HM could actually see, given that Deborah Bull said she would be in the Royal Box, as opposed to centre Grand Tier, which was what I'd assumed. Can you even see the back of the stage for the wall in Remanso from there? Suspect she must have missed some of Darcey Bussell in Tryst as well (and in the R&J balcony scene?).

Watching on the big screen in the Piazza, it seemed that the majority of the programme had been chosen specifically to leave us squinting through the gloom trying to pick out the dancers - Remanso was an interesting exercise in trying to recognise Messrs Bolle, Cope and Watson from their limbs alone (dark tops and shorts against a dark background), ditto Vertiginous, Tryst was pretty dark, Carmen looked underlit, R&J is of course set at night ... need I go on? The only bright spots (literally) were Birthday Offering and the Don Quixote pdd.