Monica Mason has been giving details of her plans for the Royal Ballet in the coming year at a ROH press conference this morning. Here is the new season at a glance:

Quite an eclectic mix of programmes there....sort of what we were expecting, I suppose. I'll be very interested to see how the DTH dancers fit into the company. I wonder if they are coming over to dance the Balanchine programme in particular?

I'm very surprised that they are allowing Isadora to surface again in any form; I didn't see it, but I remember the critics roundly savaging it...usually there is at least one critic who disagrees with the others, but not in this case. Maybe they will change it? I know this has been discussed on another thread, but I'm just musing out loud really.

Samodurov is ex-Kirov. I saw him as Albrecht in New York a few years ago opposite Asylmuratova, and quite like him.

Agree.

>I notice that Prince of the Pagodas
>has disappeared without trace, though.

Well spotted - a pity: but could they cast it these days?

I feel a bit undewhelmed: it's not as rich or as varied as I'd anticipated.

http://www.ballet.co.uk/links/dancers_kirov_men.htm#vyacheslav_samodurov

Cinderella - top price £85 (matinee £55)
Mayerling/SB/R&J - top price £83 (matinee £52)

Here are sample 2002-3 prices:
Sleeping Beauty - top price £77 (matinee £50)
Manon - top price £73 (matinee £44)

I might have a heavy cold and be a mere journalist not a financial expert but these prices to me seem to have GONE UP. mI wish they would just admit it rather than try to pretend prices offer better value than the previous year when the increases are higher than property values! And a day after we hear the ROH was awarded more money from the Arts Council.

Sorry if I'm ranting but these prices are ludicrous. Attracting new audiences? They have to be kidding.

PS Plus points - recruiting new males dancers as company members rather than hiring guests, getting casting info this early

Minus points - losing Muriel Valtat, bringing in Marquez for Bayadere (because the RB is short of female principals or promising young dancers . . .?)

This must be a new meaning to the word that I wasn't previously aware of. To hold - meaning to add £8 to the price of

>I might have a heavy cold
>and be a mere journalist
>not a financial expert but
>these prices to me seem
>to have GONE UP. mI
>wish they would just admit
>it rather than try to
>pretend prices offer better value
>than the previous year

Yes, I'm really worried. Given that every single price band seems to have gone up, I'm assuming that the £28 will be the mid-amphi, which is now well beyond my pocket. And I will repeat yet again that until the ROH closed in 1997 those seats were a maximum of £13. So much for "give us the Lottery money and we'll reduce seat prices"!

>Sorry if I'm ranting but these
>prices are ludicrous. Attracting new
>audiences? They have to be
>kidding.

Quite. Unless I can get some restricted-view tickets it looks as though they'll be losing some of their old ones.

Overall I'm pleased to say that it was a less cantankerous and more good natured affair than last year - reflecting the higher esteem that Monica Mason is held in I think. Making presentations and answering questions were Mason, Bull, Pappano and Hall.

Ballet performances in 2003/04 = 143
Opera performances in 203/04 = 141

This is the first time anybody can recall ballet doing more than the opera - great stuff... although within this ballet are doing 21 matinees to the Opera's 7. Overall there are more matinees as a direct response to people from out of London.

Monica started by noting that there had been a weakness on the Male principal side since Dowell's time and she had looked to sort it - hence the 3 new senior men coming in. In all cases she talked straightforwardly and her words about David Makhateli typified this. She was candid in saying his first performance in Manon struggled but thought it was understandable given the Opera House stage and that in the second performance (less likely to be seen by critics) he had done incredibly well. It was the same on the new Sleeping Beauty where she was very disappointed by the gremlins on the first night which seemed to cause a "Carabosse cloud" to descend on the performance. She noted that changes have been already been made to Sleeping B and more were being planned - all in consultation with Makarova of course. However she thought the production had brought out a beautiful quality to the RB dancing.

Isadora is a totally changed concept - so if you hated it before you might not next time! (my words not ROH's)

The new Cinderella designer was going to be Luisa Spinatelli... however the feeling was that the designs looked like they might end up being too near those of the new Sleeping B and more contrast was really needed... they are a couple of weeks off being able to announce the new designer.

More to say but later on RB

Bull talked about ROH2. ROH2 is about new audiences and low ticket prices and giving people room to experiment. Bull is on the lookout for an associate dance company. More money is coming from the Arts Council for programing in the Clore and Linbury but this will not hit until 2004/05 - so its a gradual build still. On the dance side Cathy Marston gets a programme or two(!).

A good thing is that in May 2004 RB will put on a programme in the Linbury with works by Vanessa Fenton, Alastair Marriott, Robert Garland, Matjash Mrozewski and Cathy Marston. Cathy was mentioned verbally but I see her name does not appear in the release.

Tony Hall continues to make great play of holding more then 50% of the tickets per performance below £50 - third year running. Also 220 seats in the Stalls and Stalls Circle are to be reduced in price by 6-7%. Some more expensive seats on popular nights will go up however.

Also announced were relay performances - big screen video's - which BP will sponsor for 5 years and 4 cities are to host - Liverpool, Sheffield, Belfast and Gateshead (I think!). There are also some Paul Hamlyn performances - max ticket price £12, though only 3 performances rather then a week of cheap performances we had earlier. They would like to do Prom performances again but need a sponsor with £0.5M to make it happen.

That's it for now - more later.
(and do excuse typos!)

It's a long read and so that thread is locked - comments here please... ta

(and thansk to Brendan for sorting!)

This thread has Polyphonia sandwiched in the Agon triple - and the full release says Prodigal Son. Was that a late change?

Yes but assume this makes Dowell the bossy sister - always visualised him as the timid one. That's why I'd imagined Mukhamedov as the bossy one.