Some important new announcements regarding the Royal Opera House. I suspect that some traditionalists will be unhappy. <P>The <A HREF="http://www.danze.co.uk/dcforum/news/1264.html" TARGET=_blank><B>full details are available on ballet.co</B></A><P>

I read that article on ballet.co.uk and i'm thinking ...what next?? i'm all for new things ( up to a point ...Matt Ek isn't one of them!) but TV screens in the backs of seats..god no.I mean next there will be screens all round the place so that we can get a good look at the performance on the stage!!<BR>As for forming a new mini company , christ thats 3/4 of the company away already!!Alina isn't far from that age (28 is the cut off) , i hardly think they will move her to the other company she is one of the reasons we all go to see the ballets!!!<BR>Then there is the point of putting Debbie McGee in co-charge of the new company..has anyone seen her ballet Imaginaire?? i have and i don't think much to the ballets it has produced so far...i mean what will she have the older members doing , pretending to be trees or butterflies..i mean come on , you need the older members with the younger ones they can teach them so much....and it wouldn't look right with just young people in the company...what would they do for character artists...get someone from White Lodge to play the part??<BR>sorry...gone on a bit too much there ....<BR>

Come on Sugar plum.... I think we are the 1st of april aren't we ?

marc29, are you saying....you can't mean...surely you're not implying....are you intimating....do you actually believe that I would be complicit in directing our valued readers to a SPOOF?<P>Well I thought it was all true. Cross my heart and hope t.........

Ha ha ha...well, I was fooled up the reference to "BalletNitz" which was an entrechat too far for credibility. That and the "sponsored by Allbran" bit. <BR>Still, that means that I did believe the earlier references to a Seniors' company. As someone else said, careful - you don't want to give the ROH Management any ideas...

How could you Stuart!!!!!!!!<BR>I thought it was true , well come on Mr . Villar has donated large sums before and they were thinking about putting TV screens in the back of seats , as that was in a newspaper some time ago...so yes i thought your e-mail was true.....as for Matt Ek we still have to sit through his Carmen and anything else he will do for the royal ballet!!!...so to be honest your e-mail in a way was true!!

The best jokes are always the ones closest to the truth. Agreed, both announcements were scarily close to possibility. I wasn't fooled though, because I have come to look forward to the annual brilliant con.

It was being sponsored by Woolworth that gave it away. Otherwise everything seemed quite sensible, I thought.

Well i forgot it was April 1 st...but i won't be caught again!!

Thank you for taking it all in such good spirit sugar plum. If it's any consolation I have been caught out by some humdingers in the past.<p>[This message has been edited by Stuart Sweeney (edited April 04, 2002).]