From various interviews more than a little is already known about next season already and Brendan pulled it all together in the following thread:
http://www.danze.co.uk/dcforum/news/1224.html

Hurrah for the return of Pagodas. But Nutcracker again!

Here is the early news of the new season.

It will open on October 24th with a triple bill consisting of the Christopher Wheeldon ballet, which will be seen here in May; Mark Morris's GONG, created for ABT last year; and Mats Ek's Carmen.

Mayerling, the first of five ballets by Kenneth MacMillan in the new season, will be performed between the 29th October and 16th November.

Anthony Dowell's production of Swan Lake returns in November and December, and will be followed at Christmas by The Nutcracker.

The first triple bill of 2003 will consist of Ashton's Scenes de Ballet, Macmillan's Winter Dreams and Kylian's Sinfonietta.

The first full length work of 2003 will be Macmillan's Manon. This will be followed in March by Makarova's new production of The Sleeping Beauty.

Angelin Preljocaj's three act ballet Le Parc will be given in April 2003 and will be followed by Kenneth Macmillan's Prince of the Pagodas.

The final triple bill of the year will feature a new ballet by David Bintley; Ashton's Scenes de Ballet; Macmillan's Song of the Earth.

Ross Stretton's introduction to the new season is available on a pdf file on the Royal Opera House website

For convenience here is the relevant text.

THE ROYAL BALLET 2002/03. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ROYAL BALLET 2002/03 SEASON BY ROSS STRETTON, DIRECTOR OF THE ROYAL BALLET
The quest for new choreography is continuous, occasionally frustrating, sometimes deeply rewarding, but always immensely challenging. It is one that must be pursued relentlessly
but hopefully, one that can bring inspiration and fulfilment along the way.

This Season I am delighted to be able to include in our programme six ballets new to the repertory created by some of the finest choreographers in the world today. David
Bintley, Mats Ek, Jiří Kylián, Mark Morris, Angelin Preljocaj and Christopher Wheeldon are all recognised as being amongst the foremost exponents of their art form and I am enormously grateful that they have found time to work with the Company this
Season. The diversity and range of their work will undoubtedly provide many exciting challenges for the dancers.

The 19th-century classics are the cornerstone of any great classical company’s repertory. In the autumn, Anthony Dowell’s production of Swan Lake returns, to be followed at Christmas by Peter Wright’s version of The Nutcracker. In March, completing the trilogy of Tchaikovsky ballets for the Season, I have invited Natalia Makarova to stage a new production of The Sleeping Beauty for the Company with designs by Luisa Spinatelli.

In May, we pay homage to our founder, Dame Ninette de Valois, with a triple bill that includes a world premiere from David Bintley. Now Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, Bintley was admired greatly by de Valois both as dancer and choreographer and he will dedicate the ballet, his first work for The Royal Ballet in ten years, to her. The remaining ballets in this programme are by the two choreographers most closely associated with The Royal Ballet, Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan.

Another focus of the Season will be the work of Kenneth MacMillan, whose extraordinary contribution to the dance world we remember on the 10th anniversary of his untimely death in 1992. Three of his full-length works, Manon, Mayerling and The
Prince of the Pagodas, all of which were created for The Royal Ballet, will appear during the Season. His one-act masterwork Song of the Earth, which he created for the Stuttgart
Ballet while he was director there, and Winter Dreams, one of his last works for The Royal Ballet, are also included.

This Season, in addition to the programme on the main stage, the artists of the Company will continue to explore further opportunities as dancers and choreographers, and extend
their skills into other such areas as arts administration through their involvement in the ongoing projects in the Clore Studio Upstairs and the Linbury Studio Theatre. There is
so much on offer throughout the House during the forthcoming year. Please join us in celebrating the best of the past and present and in heralding the future.

THE ROYAL BALLET 2002/03 REPERTORY

WHEELDON BALLET
Christopher Wheeldon
Supported (2002) by The Dalriada Trust

GONG
Mark Morris
Supported (2002) by the Benefactors’ Circle

CARMEN
Mats Ek
22, 24, 25, 28 October, 4, 5, (8 schools mat) November at 7.30pm

The Season opens on 22 October with ballets by three contrasting choreographers, beginning with Christopher Wheeldon. Wheeldon has established himself as one of the finest classical choreographers of his generation. He began his career at the Royal Ballet School later joining The Royal Ballet. Now as Resident Choreographer with New York City Ballet, his work has won acclaim across America both on stage and screen. His latest work, which has its world premiere in May 2002, will undoubtedly build on the huge success of his previous Royal Ballet creations including Pavane pour une infante défunte in 1996 and There where she loves for The Royal Ballet ‘New Works’. Wheeldon’s new
ballet uses James MacMillan’s orchestral composition, Tryst, which received its premiere in 1990 at the St Magnus Festival. Designer, Jean-Marc Puissant, will be working for the first time with The Royal Ballet, following last year’s successes designing
for David Bintley’s The Seasons for Birmingham Royal Ballet and Wheeldon’s VIII for Hamburg Ballet.

Mark Morris will work with The Royal Ballet for the first time in bringing a ballet created for American Ballet Theatre. First seen at the Metropolitan Opera House in 2001, GONG is a ballet for ten women and five men. GONG is very much an ensemble piece incorporating an Indonesian texture from the music, costumes and
choreography, resulting in an elegant balletic and formal piece. Mark Morris has set the ballet to Colin McPhee’s Balinese inspired Tabuh-Tabuhan. McPhee, who worked with the Institute of Latino Musicology in California, composed and first performed this score in Mexico City in 1930. Morris brings costume designer Isaac Mizrahi back to the Royal Opera House for the second time. Their previous collaboration being the critically
acclaimed Platée performed by The Royal Opera in 1997.

Mats Ek is famous for his vividly theatrical alternatives of the classics and his take on Bizet’s celebrated opera CARMEN in no exception. Created a decade ago for the Cullberg Ballet, a
predatory Carmen leads the potent sexual games, while the pathos of the piece is left to rest with Don José. Mats Ek uses Georges Bizet’s score, transcribed for strings and percussion by Rodion Shchedrin, with designs by Marie-Louise Ekman that take a
modern perspective on traditional Spanish motifs. Charles Barker conducts.

MAYERLING – a ballet in three acts. Kenneth MacMillan.
29, 30 October, 1, 2, 7, 11, 13, 14 November at 7.30pm
16 November at 7pm.

As part of the international celebration of Kenneth MacMillan
Revival sponsored (1992) by The Friends of Covent Garden
Mayerling is the first of five ballets by Kenneth MacMillan in this Season, part of the international celebration of Kenneth MacMillan marking the 10th anniversary of his death. Last performed at the Royal Opera House in 1994 this three-act ballet is based on the true story of the Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince Rudolf. The double death of Rudolf and his mistress, the 17-year-old Mary Vetsera, at the royal hunting lodge of Mayerling in 1889, has been shrouded in mystery and intrigue ever since. The ballet places Rudolph at the centre of his corrupt and hypocritical court society, through his drug addled liaisons we see his descent into the arms of Mary Vetsera, his ruthless
mistress. This emotional study of deeply flawed characters is MacMillan at his best, swinging wildly through a landscape of hatred, love and desire towards death. Mayerling is set to music by Franz Liszt, arranged and orchestrated by John Lanchbery, with
libretto by Gillian Freeman and period designs by the late Nicholas Georgiadis. Barry Wordsworth and Graham Bond will conduct.

SWAN LAKE – a ballet in four acts. Marius Petipa after Lev Ivanov. Production – Anthony Dowell
November, December 2002
Sponsored (1987) by The Linbury Trust
Revival sponsored (2000) by The Linbury Trust

The enduring love story of a princess turned into a swan by an evil magician is danced to one of Tchaikovsky’s most memorable scores, with timeless choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. Tchaikovsky was commissioned to write Swan Lake for
the Bolshoi Ballet in 1875, and the first version of the ballet, choreographed by Wenzel Reisinger, made its premiere in 1877. This began a rather chequered history, Joseph Hansen revised the ballet shortly after, only to be dropped completely six years
later. In 1895 a new version choreographed by Lev Ivanov and Marius Petipa was danced by the Kirov Ballet and this is now considered the definitive version. Over time there have been countless new versions created both in the tradition of the original and as wildly abstract approaches. Anthony Dowell’s production, set in Russia at the turn of the 20th -century, was created reinstating rarely performed choreography based on
notations made in St. Petersburg before the 1917 revolution. Swan Lake is a ballet filled with spectacle and virtuosity performed against Yolanda Sonnabend’s Fabergé-inspired
designs. Charles Barker conducts.

THE NUTCRACKER – a ballet in two acts
Lev Ivanov and Peter Wright
December 2002, January 2003
Production – Peter Wright
Revival sponsored (1999) by The Friends of Covent Garden
Peter Wright’s revised staging of The Nutcracker returns to the repertory for the Christmas Season. The story, based on Hoffmann’s tale, tells how Drosselmeyer, a mysterious magician and maker of clocks and mechanical toys tries to break a curse that turned his nephew into a nutcracker doll. One magical Christmas Eve, the audience is drawn into a world of fantasy where Drosselmeyer has enlisted the help of a young girl,
Clara to break the curse. There is grand battle between clockwork soldiers and the mice led by the Mouse King. With the defeat of the Mouse King, through Clara’s intervention, the curse is broken and the Nutcracker is transformed to his true self. He and Clara then travel through the magical Kingdom of the Sweets for a magnificent celebration with Drosselmeyer. Tchaikovsky’s sparkling score has all the magic of Christmas, and Julia Trevelyan Oman’s nostalgic designs will enchant adults and children alike. Valerie Ovsyanikov conducts.

SCÈNES DE BALLET
Frederick Ashton
Sponsored (1991) by The Friends of Covent Garden
WINTER DREAMS
Kenneth MacMillan
part of the international celebration of Kenneth MacMillan
Sponsored (1991) by The Friends of Covent Garden
SINFONIETTA
Jiří Kylián
Supported (2003) by The Friends of Covent Garden
January 2003
Frederick Ashton described Scènes de Ballet as ‘just an exercise in pure dancing’. This
one-act ballet, choreographed to Stravinsky’s score of the same title, is a complex and
lively piece. Choreographed to the geometric studies of Euclid, Ashton intended that
this ballet could be viewed from any angle and still ‘work’. Scènes de Ballet is a homage to
19 th -century classicism with designs by André Beaurepaire. Last performed at the
Royal Opera House in 1992 it makes a welcome return this Season.
Winter Dreams began as the ‘Farewell’ pas de deux, danced by Darcey Bussell and
Irek Mukhamedov, specially commissioned to celebrate Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth
The Queen Mother’s 90 th Birthday at the Palladium. Kenneth MacMillan extended this
to a one-act ballet, with Winter Dreams making its premiere in February 1991. Inspired by
and using the same characters, it is a study of the melancholy in Chekhov’s Three Sisters.
The ballet, with subtle period designs from Peter Farmer, is danced to selected works
from Tchaikovsky arranged by Philip Gammon and with additional music based on
traditional Russian themes, arranged for guitars and mandolins by Thomas Hartman.

Jiří Kylián’s one-act ballet Sinfonietta enters The Royal Ballet repertory for the first time, set to Janáček’s eponymous score with designs by Walter Nobbe. A very physical and uplifting piece, Sinfonietta is the second Kylián work to be danced by The Royal Ballet. In 1984 the Company first performed his one-act ballet, Return to the Strange Land. The Czech choreographer, discovered and nurtured by John Cranko, is celebrated for his
fluency of movement and the broad emotional range his ballets cover. Charles Barker will conduct this programme.

MANON – a ballet in three acts
Kenneth MacMillan
January, February, March, May 2003
part of the international celebration of Kenneth MacMillan
Sponsored (1974) by The Linbury Trust. Revival supported (2003) by the Friends of Covent Garden. Kenneth MacMillan’s Manon has been one of the Company’s signature works since its creation in 1974. Based on Abbé Prévost’s L’Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut this magnificent ballet follows the fall of the central character, Manon, from Parisian courtesan to a fugitive in the Louisiana swamps. Despite falling in love with a
young Parisian, Des Grieux, Manon agrees to a financial arrangement that her brother has made with a wealthy but elderly gentleman, Monsieur G.M. A victim of her own avarice, she persuades Des Grieux to cheat Monsieur G.M. out of more money at a card game. When they are discovered she is arrested as a prostitute and deported to America, followed by her lover. The ballet ends in a crescendo of rape, murder and Manon’s
spiral into madness. Emotionally charged, Jules Massenet’s music, arranged by Leighton Lucas, from songs, piano pieces and arias (though none from his opera Manon) follows the protagonists through soaring heights of ecstasy to the depths of
despair, all portrayed against Nicholas Georgiadis’s sumptuous regency designs. Graham Bond conducts.

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY
New Production - a ballet in three acts
Production - Natalia Makarova
March, April 2003
Supported (2003) by The Jean Sainsbury Royal Opera House Fund
Natalia Makarova will re-create the enduring fairytale, The Sleeping Beauty, the story of a Princess and her household sent into a slumber by the embittered and evil fairy Carabosse. A favourite with all ages, this new production of The Sleeping Beauty will be danced to Tchaikovsky’s original score with new designs by Luisa Spinatelli. Makarova, acknowledged as one of the greatest exponents of ballet, began her dancing career with the Kirov Ballet in 1959. After her defection to the West in 1970
she danced with nearly all of the world’s greatest ballet companies, and then pursued a stage career as a musical and comedy actress, for which she won an Olivier Award. The Sleeping Beauty will be her second production for The Royal Ballet. Performances will be conducted by Valery Ovsyanikov and Charles Barker.

LE PARC – a ballet in three scenes. Angelin Preljocaj
April 2003 Supported (2003) by the Benefactors’ Circle.

Angelin Preljocaj, a classically trained dancer before studying contemporary dance, created the three-act ballet, Le Parc, for the Paris Opéra Ballet in 1994. It explores the various codes of conduct for love throughout the 17th and 18th -century French
literature, from the innocence of inspirational love to licentiousness. Preljocaj takes the ballet through an evolving landscape as the games of love are played out, and the strategies of the lovers are laid bare for the audience. Danced against a highly symbolic and pastoral set by Thierry Leproust, with lavish costumes from Hervé Pierre, Le Parc uses some of Mozart’s most exquisite orchestral music alongside sound creation by Goran Vejvoda.

THE PRINCE OF THE PAGODAS
A ballet in three acts. Kenneth MacMillan. April, May 2003
Part of the international celebration of Kenneth MacMillan
With support from The Britten Estate Ltd.
First performed at the Royal Opera House in December 1989, MacMillan’s The Prince of the Pagodas is danced to Benjamin Britten’s score, commissioned by John Cranko for his original ballet in 1957. When Kenneth MacMillan began the delicate
process of strengthening and re-structuring the ballet’s narrative he employed the help of travel writer and novelist Colin Thubron, who initially thought ‘re-plot a ballet? How
can you?’ However, The Prince of the Pagodas, often described as a combination of King Lear, Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella, was re-created and enriched to offer a mature approach to the fairytale genre. The story follows an ailing Emperor who decides to divide his kingdom unequally between his two daughters, Princesses Épine and Rose. Épine, the slighted daughter, lays a curse on the empire, transforming her sister’s beloved
Prince into a salamander. Britten’s score was heavily influenced by Balinese music which he used as an authentic integration rather than a façade, in many ways making this work
pioneering at the moment of conception. The oriental theme is followed through with Nicholas Georgiadis’s vivid designs. Richard Bernas will conduct.

SCENES DE BALLET
Frederick Ashton
Sponsored (1991) by The Friends of Covent Garden
NEW BINTLEY BALLET
David Bintley
SONG OF THE EARTH
Kenneth MacMillan
May 2003
part of the international celebration of Kenneth MacMillan
David Bintley returns to choreograph a new work for The Royal Ballet. In 1980 Bintley began his choreographic relationship with the Company with Adieu, a successful debut followed by nine other ballets including Galanteries, the ever-popular ‘Still Life’ at the Penguin Café, and Tombeaux, the last ballet he choreographed for the Company. Ashton’s Scènes de Ballet opens the programme with MacMillan’s the third part. Song of the Earth is set to Mahler’s great song cycle Das Lied von der Erde, the
composer’s poignant farewell to the joy and beauty of the world, which uses settings of ancient Chinese poems. In this ballet, music, poetry and choreography combine to show that whilst our individual lives are short, the earth is in an eternal process of renewal. MacMillan’s imagery captures the essence and atmosphere of the poems and matches the elegiac beauty of Mahler’s score. Song of the Earth uses designs by
MacMillan’s lifelong collaborator, Nicholas Georgiadis. The programme is conducted by Barry Wordsworth.

EXHIBITIONS AT THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE
SEPTEMBER 2002
KENNETH MACMILLAN: PRINCIPAL CHOREOGRAPHER OF THE
ROYAL BALLET (1977-1992)
The choreographer Kenneth MacMillan explored in his work subject matters and human relationships and behaviour in a way that changed the face of ballet. His works include dramatic dance dramas which portray searing, passionate and sometimes
destructive relationships and behaviour. He trained at Sadler’s Wells (now the Royal) Ballet School and joined Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet in 1946. In 1952, he choreographed his first ballet Somnabulism, which was the highlight of the first evening of choreography given by the Sadler’s Wells Ballet Choreographic Group. Ninette de Valois commissioned him to create a ballet to Stravinsky’s Danses concertantes in 1955, the beginning of a long and fruitful relationship which was to lead to MacMillan becoming Director of The Royal Ballet from 1970 – 1977 and its principal choreographer from 1977. He died unexpectedly in 1992, during a performance of his Mayerling by The Royal Ballet at the Royal Opera House, in the theatre which had been his home. On the tenth anniversary of his death, the Royal Opera House Archives are mounting a retrospective of his early choreographic works for the two Royal Ballet companies, which were also the beginnings of his collaboration with designer Nicholas Georgiadis and dancer Lynn Seymour. The exhibition on the ground floor of the theatre, in the Vilar Floral Hall and the Amphitheatre Corridor will include costumes, head dresses, set and costume designs and photographs from Danses concertantes, House of Birds, The Burrow, Agon and The Invitation as well as from MacMillan’s first full length ballet Romeo and Juliet.

2003
RUDOLF NUREYEV
Rudolf Nureyev was the first high-profile Russian ballet defector to leap to freedom in the West in 1961. Shortly after, Ninette de Valois invited him to appear with Margot
Fonteyn and The Royal Ballet in Giselle in 1962 and it was to be the beginning of a legendary partnership. Following the tenth anniversary of Nureyev’s death in 1993, an exhibition will recall the roles Nureyev danced with The Royal Ballet as well as ballets he staged for the Company. The exhibition on the ground floor, the Vilar Floral Hall and Amphitheatre Corridor will include costumes, set and costume designs and photographs.
2003

The Linbury Studio Theatre
This Season, the Royal Opera House will present two new works specially commissioned for the Linbury Studio Theatre: Babette’s Feast, an opera for schools by John Browne, and for Christmas The Wind in the Willows, a family entertainment developed and
choreographed by William Tuckett.

Clore Studio Upstairs
In the Clore Studio Upstairs, the established ADI programme will continue to offer a range of small-scale performance as well as creative and developmental opportunities to individual independent artists and ROH artists and personnel.

ROYAL OPERA HOUSE PRICING STRUCTURE 2002/03

For the 2002/03 Season our primary objective has been to keep at least 50 percent of the seats for all performances regardless of repertory under £50. In order to offer a broad range of prices to our audiences and to reflect in greater detail the differing demands for certain repertory we have introduced several new pricing levels for individual productions. For example there is a new price band for two opera productions, Sophie’s Choice and Wozzeck. There is a total of 11 performances of these two productions, which will have a top price of just £50. The Royal Ballet performances of Le Parc will also have a price range from £3 to a top price of £44. We do however recognise that there is
a higher demand for tickets for certain mainstream repertoire in both ballet and opera, and this is reflected in a new price category for three operas and three ballets.

This new pricing structure means that for the 2002/03 Season:
• 58% of all tickets for performances by The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet cost
£50 or less
• 54% of all Royal Opera tickets cost £50 or less
• all seats for the 11 performances of Sophie’s Choice and Wozzeck will cost £50 or less
• 63% of all Royal Ballet tickets cost £50 or less
• 31 performances by The Royal Ballet have a top price of £50 or less
• All seats for ballet matinées will cost £44 or less – an increase of just £2
• Nearly 500 seats for all ballet performances cost £14 or less (theatre capacity 2262)
• More than half the House for a new production of full-length classical ballet will cost
£45 or under
• Lowest price for any ballet, regardless of repertory is just £3
• The Royal Ballet’s performances of Le Parc will have a top price of just £44
• Cheaper Friday and Saturday prices remain for the majority of productions
• Prices for some productions of The Royal Opera start as low as £2
• As in 2001/02 Season more than 480 seats for any performance of standard opera
will cost £20 (there are 10 standard operas)
• Half the House costs £50 or less for second year running
• Schools’ matinées will remain at £5
• 67 day seats are available for every performance

In the 2002/03 Season there will be 138 performances by The Royal Ballet and 150 performances by The Royal Opera.

PRICES FOR THE ROYAL BALLET 2002/03 SEASON
The Sleeping Beauty
Mon – Sat £3, £6, £8, £14, £26, £37, £45, £55, £62, £70, £77
The Nutcracker, Manon, Swan Lake
Mon – Sat £3, £6, £8, £11, £25, £35, £43, £53, £58, £65, £73
Mayerling, Coppèlia, The Prince of the Pagodas
Mon – Thurs £3, £6, £8, £11, £23, £32, £40, £50, £55, £62, £70
Fri – Sat £3, £6, £8, £11, £23, £32, £40, £44, £48, £53, £58
Ballet Mixed Bills
Mon – Thurs £3, £6, £8, £11, £23, £32, £40, £44, £48, £53, £58
Fri – Sat £3, £4, £6, £8, £19, £28, £32, £35, £40, £45, £50
Ballet Matinee
£3, £4, £6, £8, £15, £19, £25, £30, £34, £38, £44

Bruce was at the, by all accounts, highly interesting ROH press conference and will have more later. Meanwhile The Evening Standard has an editorial about the new season (written, one suspects, by Norman Lebrecht It is not online).

"The Royal Ballet should begin to find its feet in the post-Guillem era - though the jury is still out on whether its Australian director Ross Stretton (known internally as 'Stressed Rotten') will escape relegation. One way or another, the ballet will bloom."

Can anybody expalin the "post-Guillem era" reference? Also referenced is the search for a replacement for Colin Southgate.

It's not in the published programme, but that goes through to May only. After that there will be international touring (nothing given away but one would assume the US?) and a short summer season. Coppelia could just be in that I suppose.

I was also at the press conference, and made a few notes - I expect Bruce will have some different points to add later.

Antonio Pappano, before talking about the opera season (there were more dance critics there than opera people) said that he's new to the ballet world but is keen to learn more, by watching both from the audience and at rehearsal. He hopes to work with the ballet from his second season. He realises you can't just put a symphony conductor in the pit and expect him to be able to conduct ballet. He also said he and Ross Stretton are very conscious of the perception that the orchestra does not play so well for ballet as it does for opera, and they are talking about ways of addressing this.

The programme: there are 20 different operas, with 6 new productions, in 151 performances; the ballet has 7 full length works and 3 triple bills, with 132 performances. Some pressure was put on Stretton as to why there were so few different programmes, compared with past years, and particularly so few triple bills, but there was no real answer.

Injuries: Ross Stretton was very keen to set the record straight. He said that 7 of the injured dancers have been off all season with injuries dating back to before his time. He is now trying much more actively to manage injuries and to prevent long term damage by taking people out for a short time rather than letting them dance through minor injuries so that they turn into major ones. Deborah Bull confirmed that this was happening. Stretton said that the contemporary work - specifically Forsythe - was not the cause of the current crop of injuries: all the dancers involved in it had been given Pilates training prior to starting on the rehearsals, and all of them had come through the rehearsals and had danced in the stage performances.

New dancers: (don't know if this was on the ROH website or not) By the start of next season there will be 88 dancers in the company, more than ever before (I think). Recruits include Robert Tewsley (as we've known for some time!), and Isobel McMeekan from BRB.

I'm sorry but there have been dancers on stage injured so I don't quite believe him when he says that he is encouraging dancers not to dance through injuries!

For him to bring this up at a press conference for next season seems very strange to me!

Also seems carzy to have Bintley, Ashton and MacMillan used in a homage to Madam - couldn't they have shown some of her work?

Well to be fair it was not Ross Stretton who raised it. I think however he was keen to respond and challenge what have been pretty widely held views outside of Covent Garden.

He talked in terms of managing injury as well... something dancers have kind-off done for themselves in the past, but with more support available a better job should be done for the future.

+ve points
While Ross Strettons words in the release start with the new, he was at pains in his verbal introduction to the year to start with what RB were doing around the MacMillan legacy, followed by the Classical rep and then the new. One got more of a sense of balance in his words than has hitherto really been heard. The season of course reflects balance or even less new than was perhaps expected.

Pappano really was at pains to talk about wanting to learn about the ballet and tackle, with Ross Stretton, the noted concerns about the orchestra not playing so well for the ballet. A good start I thought.

-ve points
There were two Exocet's launched as questions - the ROH enjoy, or rather don't, that kind of relationship with more then a few in the audience I fancy. The first was based on an analysis of the total ballets performed under Dowell and in the first two years of Stretton's term. The average for Dowell was about 24 different pieces a year but Stretton is 17 this year, 15 next year. This is mainly driven by a loss of Mixed Bills in the season. However this statistic was coupled with the very real increase in ARTS council grant to help the company move themselves and the art forward. More money, less pieces - why? It's a legitimate question and one put with great passion and, having worked out the sums, some indignation. But everybody on the panel (Hall, Stretton, Pappano) is a new boy and there was no effective answer other then to say they were only accountable for the last year (when a great and prudent job had been done all around etc) and not for before. Well that's kind of true, but its not good or effective and the institution really has to know how to deal with questions like this. It certainly made everybody think.

neither +ve or -ve
The second 'Exocet' was on dancer injury levels. Here, Stretton was pretty trenchant about the position and convinced that RB is no worse than others and that he had given particular attention to the health of his dancers. His turn to be a bit indignant and it was a sterling defence I thought. I guess there will be lingering doubts while injury levels remain high though.

Overall it wasn't one of the most temperate briefings I've ever attended. I guess both 'sides' struggle to understand how the other can be so daft / silly / arrogant etc.

Now I just want to sit back and let the 2002/03 season details wash over me. There is though new work, new productions and old favs returning and I still thank some God for placing me near London in the scheme of things.

My initial reaction to this, on a skimmed reading, was that there was some quite good stuff there. Then I printed it off to read it more thoroughly. My first thought (well, actually, it was my second thought: my first was "give me a red pen, someone, so I can edit this properly!" One of the conductors appears to have had a sex change) was somewhat worse. A total of 10 programmes and 138 performances. Now, estimating, say, a maximum of 6 performances for each of the triple bills, and the 8 we're given for Mayerling, that leaves over 100 performances to be distributed between the remaining 6 programmes. You don't need to be a mathematical genius to realise that that means mid-teens or even early-twenties in terms of number of performances for the rest.

What I think it was that made me end up feeling so depressed about next year's programme is the lack of variety, especially in the "big" ballets of which there will be so many performances. I criticised ENB here a few years ago for doing virtually nothing but the big Tchaikovsky ballets over a relatively short period, so think I should do the same here, but with knobs on, given the greater variety of options the RB has. None of the former ever appeals to me sufficiently to go to more than a couple of performances at the very most, and neither, I'm afraid, do any of the full-length MacMillan works: I still haven't developed a liking for Prince of the Pagodas, and Manon and Mayerling I really go to only because of the quality of the casts, rather than because I actively like them. This current season's full-evening ballets have represented a rather better range, I think. Looking back through my Royal Ballet season programmes (remember the days when we just got a fold-out sheet of paper like a map, rather than 60-odd pages of glossies?), I think the last time I felt so flat about a prospective new season was somewhere in the early 90's, when my collection of programmes shows that I went to only a couple of performances other than to programmes I'd already seen in the preceding couple of years. My immediate reaction to the press release is that I hope there are lots of other ballet performances within reasonable distance of London next year, because I think I shall be going to see rather RB fewer performances than I have done at least since I've been reading ballet.co, and probably for a few years before that as well . I hope that anything in the summer season will be a bit more appealing.

Anyway, here are a few other points I've picked up on:

It's really stretching a point to claim 6 ballets new to the repertory for next season when 2 of them will actually have their RB premieres *this* season.

I find the MacMillan tribute rather disappointing - I think I'd expected rather more in the way of one-act works than we've actually got, and surely a whole triple bill devoted to him wouldn't have been impossible?
The Company's founder choreographer, Frederick Ashton, is represented by only one work in the whole season, worse than in the current season, and not only that, but it only runs for 20 minutes.

With regard to Makarova's new production of Sleeping Beauty, it still occurs to me to wonder precisely what she will be doing to the choreographic text. Presumably if the current production were just being redesigned, which is really all it needs, then she wouldn't be involved. Given that the RB's text has always been treasured as "authentic", I wonder what will take its place?

Pleased to see the introduction of some Mark Morris to the programme - can't comment on the rest of that triple bill as we haven't yet seen the other two works in this season. BTW, do I remember correctly from a RB study day on Prince of the Pagodas some years ago that Colin McPhee's music in some way inspired Britten's score, or am I imagining that?

Pleased to see Mayerling back (I really want to see Kobborg in this), and even more plea