As far as I can recall, this is the first time that press releases/interviews for a top ROH appointment have focused on the ballet interests of the appointee, rather than opera.

<big><big>YIPPEE!!</BIG></BIG>

<small>[ 07 February 2003, 08:34 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

An important article that makes good reading. I have my fingers crossed that Tony Hall pulls it off:

Why we need an open House
Tony Hall, Covent Garden’s executive director, explains the importance of attracting a wider audience in The Sunday Times,


Some time ago, I watched Duo:logue, by the dancer/choreographer Wayne McGregor and the Royal Ballet, at our Linbury Studio Theatre. It had a profound effect on me. The audience in the 440 seats were younger and more socially varied than anything I’d seen before. They were noisy. They whooped in response to what was going on. It was electric. It helped to crystallise my perspective that we had a duty to ensure this kind of audience was as well catered for as our main one.

It’s easy to wag an egalitarian finger at the Royal Opera House and regurgitate the tired notion that it provides elite art for the elite. Dismantling this distortion is an integral part of my role here: if we fail to address it, the Royal Opera House will become fossilised, an irrelevant relic roped off in the church of “high art”.

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<small>[ 16 March 2003, 02:40 PM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

Prince takes Ballet role
From BBCi


The prince - at the Moulin Rouge premiere - enjoys the contemporary and classical arts
Prince Charles has been made president of the Royal Ballet in London, the UK's leading ballet company and school.
The prince is taking on the role previously held by his late aunt, Princess Margaret, the ballet announced on Thursday.

The Royal Ballet, housed in the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, boasts two internationally acclaimed companies and a prestigious dance school.

The prince is well-known for his broad love of the arts, enjoying contemporary movies, rock concerts and stage shows as much as classical entertainment.

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New marketing campaign to attract 18 -30 year olds to the ROH. From The Independent.

MORE

Buongiorno wins Royal Opera House deal
From PMN News

21 May 2003 -- PMN -- Buongiorno, the pan-European provider of mobile messaging services, has won a high profile deal to handle the SMS marketing campaign of the Royal Opera House in London. The Royal Opera plans to use SMS alerts to communicate with younger people in an attempt to broaden the appeal of opera.

Users will be able to register on the Royal Opera web-site to receive alerts concerning opera and ballet performances, including open-air events, television broadcasts, special offers and promotions. The Royal Opera is planning to support the SMS with a direct marketing campaign, sending leaflets to student communities in London, Liverpool and Sheffield, where live open air screenings of the ballet Manon will be shown on 26th May.

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I can't think of anything more irritating than receiving a text message while I'm in a restaurant telling me that Tosca is playing on Thursday. But then I'm over 30 - although only just.

Royal Ballet in Sheffield for free - Monday 26 April
From BBCi


A ballet performance in London is being transmitted live to an open-air audience in a Sheffield park.
The Royal Ballet are performing Manon on Monday 26 May at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.

Members of the public are invited to watch it for free on a 44 square metre screen in Norfolk Heritage Park.

This is the first time a live performance has been transmitted from Covent Garden in this way and forms part of an initiative to introduce ballet to a wider audience.

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Here is a list of all the performances from the ROH website

Ballet beamed to big screen
From BBCi


A Royal Ballet performance in London is to be beamed live to an audience at Liverpool's Pier Head. The free event - the first of its kind in the city - will be broadcast using a specialist sound system on a 7m by 5m screen.

The production of Manon will be performed at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden on Monday evening.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Community Choir will perform at Pier Head before the live link-up at 1845 BST.

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Ballet beamed to big screen



A Royal Ballet performance in London has been beamed live to an audience at Liverpool's Pier Head.
The free event - the first of its kind in the city - was broadcast using a specialist sound system on a 7m by 5m screen.

The production of Manon was performed at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden on Monday evening.

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Community Choir performed at Pier Head before the live link-up at 1845 BST.

Liverpool Soprano Rachael Russell also performed during the second interval of the ballet.

Tony Hall, Executive Director of the Royal Opera House, said: "As a Liverpudlian myself, I am delighted that such close links have been formed between Liverpool and the Royal Opera House."

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This is a real shame. It seems to me that it was worth trying. I wish £30 was "just a few pounds short of the cost of a seat in the stalls at the Royal Opera House to see the same ballet, Manon."

Ballet screening falls flat
By Paul Humphries for The Guardian

So few people turned up for a live ballet broadcast to a rundown Yorkshire estate that the regeneration agency which subsidised it could have given most of its audience free tickets to the real thing in London with the money instead.

Organisers at the Manor and Castle Development Trust in Sheffield hoped that Monday evening's performance would attract 20,000 people, and the agency put up a guarantee against loss of £35,000 to cover the cost of the free show in a local park.

But the estimated audience was only 1,000 which, if correct, would mean that regeneration funds subsided each member by nearly £30 - just a few pounds short of the cost of a seat in the stalls at the Royal Opera House to see the same ballet, Manon.

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