Ballet: Coppélia

Last night, I was off to the Opera House, for the Royal Ballet's production of Coppélia - one I'd never seen. Another one I was wise to book for - this seems to have been the last performance, and sold out completely. And I can just about walk from the office - mind you, by the time I left, it was a fast trot! culminating in me arriving sweatily at the opera house door, with five minutes to spare. So they waved me through the bag check. I had an e-ticket - they don't always do that, curiously - and the nice lady pointed me straight to the lifts, where I joined a bunch of other slightly panicked people in trying to see how many people the opera house lifts really can take! Upstairs, an usher told me that Door 5B (which I was closer to) was just as good as Door 5A.. yes, it just plonks you at the wrong end of the section, so you have to trot over to the other side. Never mind, I was just nicely seated and gathering my thoughts when the lights went down.

Nice cheap ticket in the slips. But you do get a bit stiff from looking to the side all the time, and you do miss the action at the corner of the stage. So we missed the prima ballerina's entry - I know this because she got an individual round of applause: this was a feature of the evening. But hey, nobody minds you leaning forward in the slips (the back row is quite a bit higher and can see past you), so it isn't too bad. And it was a lovely production - quite appropriate for the (post-) Christmas season, all light and glittery, dancers in gorgeous, brightly coloured costumes: and an interesting twist in that the story revolves around a man who makes life-size dolls. So you get lots of funny, jerky dancing, with people pretending to be animatronic.

Not one to tax yourself over the plot of, just enjoy. But maybe this production deserved a more direct view. Mercifully, I was too far from home to walk, so had a much more relaxed trip on the bus.

Had to go to bed early - to be up for a meeting that, as usual, didn't happen. And tonight, the RSC's production of Measure for Measure, at the Barbican. Set in decadent 1900s Vienna. Much less far to walk - and I'm lovely and close in the new office!