Repeated Orthographic Howlers

Can't the ROH afford a dictionery?

Thanks to reader David for pointing out these gems on the video page of the ROH website.

First up we have the opera more usually known as Il barbiere di Siviglia:

 

and both the plural of ballet and the name of one of its greatest choreographers eluded whoever wrote the blurb for Onegin:

 

Comments

[Mark Berry]

My favourite, some years back, was 'Figaro' being described as an 'opera buffer'.

[mamascarlatti]

Holy mackerel! Grocer's apostrophe at the ROH!

Must be the pervasive influence of their esteemed legal department, he he.

[Yoshiyuki Mukudai]

They are playing anagram, I'm afraid. So, no need to edit an Oxford Robster Dictionary. ;-)

[Howard]

Like rose-red lips without a smile
The Russian language I consider vile
Without such faults...

(Eugene Onegin, ch 3, stanza 28)

[Nikolaus Vogel]

John Crank!!!! Priceless! Hehehe.

I don't use the RO website because it crashes my computer - it must be the world's worst opera website. Why can't they have a simple diary of events like most other opera companies do?

[Drel]

I agree with the above post about the lack of a proper, collective events calendar :P

[Manou]

There IS a proper collective events calendar on the ROH website - you have to click on BOOK NOW for it to appear.

[Ruth]

It gets better. Somebody from the ROH has just posted on Facebook an ad for the Insight Evening for "Adrianna Lecauver".

[Jim]

Manou: why hide it behind a booking portal? I wrote them about how irritating it was not to be able to find out about future programming without registering or something like that. No doubt but that it is a very unfriendly website. Does that affect their sales? I don't know, but I hope so.

[Brian]

The average website / IT guy doesn't know about the finer things of life, especially things in a foreign language.

Dyslexia rules KO!

Someone at the ROH isn't checking the site contents thoroughly.

[Rannaldini]

It took them long enough to spell the word "sorry," as I recall I.M.- let's not push them too far too soon.

[Sheri]

They must have taken Captain Typo, the "in-house counsel", off of Officious, Mistake-Riddled Letter Production duties and put him in charge of Mistake-Riddled Website Blurb duties! Soon, he'll be in charge of Mistake-Ridden Hand-Lettered Temporary Signage at the Opera House.

[Manou]

Jim - you are right, one should be able to see the full calendar immediately. I just wonder whether the present situation is because you see different calendars if you are just a casual visitor or a Friend, as you would be given different booking options depending on whether you were entitled to priority.

Rannaldini - au contraire. It seems to me that the ROH reacted very quickly to the whole sorry fiasco and apologized in commendably swift fashion.

[inter mezzo]

@Manou Can you see the full calendar then? I only see productions for which booking is open - no dates in May or June for example.

[Sarah]

My impression is that, unlike opera houses such as the Vienna Staatsoper or the New York Met where the whole season is displayed through until May/June 2011, the ROH displays only what is currently bookable to either a Friend or what Manou calls 'a casual visitor' and that does not include operas later in the season. The way I access those is by reading the red book sent to us Friends at the beginning of the season, but that doesn't help anyone who isn't a Friend.

[Vecchio John]

Though it is a bit of a pain all of the dates for the rest of the year are on the original PDF announcing the full season, even though this lurks down in the press release section.

Exemplary sites are the Zürich Opera, and the Paris Opera, though it is not easy to find the booking dates for that one and which have a habit of changing. The Paris on-line booking is even more nail biting than the ROH.

[Giuseppe W]

Today is ticket day at Covent Garden for non-friends - total disaster again, the whole site crashed while I was ordering, but the heroic Maria Perez of ROH's "Box Office Online Sales" has already reinstated my Tannhauser tickets. So it's not all bad.

[Nikolaus Vogel]

@ Sheri - haha @ Captain Typo! That's made my day.

[Manou]

@Inter mezzo: No, I cannot see the full calendar, which is probably hidden away somewhere. They only show the bookable dates, which do vary according to whether you are a Friend, a Premium Friend, or No Friend.

They have this "Help" page

http://www.roh.org.uk/booknow/stepbystep.aspx

but I would agree that not everything is as clear as it should be.

Other Opera Houses seem more difficult to navigate - I expect if you are used to the idiosyncrasies of the ones you use more often, you find them easier to deal with!

[Helen]

Dear Intermezzo, Thank you for pointing out the problems with the ROH site, although when doing it you might think to check your spelling of 'dictionary'. Helen

[inter mezzo]

thank you for your observation Helen - I took particular care with my spelling in this post......

[Miriam]

I agree with everyone who says it would be much better if you could view the whole season in calendar format as on other opera house websites. I do not see why it should be impossible to do this and then add the booking links to the events when they become bookable as the Paris opera does. Many people for various reasons need to plan a long time ahead and would not think of looking for a pdf hidden away in the Press Releases, and a calendar is the most user-friendly way to view it.

@ Vecchio John (and anyone else interested), here is a link to the booking dates on the Paris Opera site:
http://tinyurl.com/33zjjo4
but I think it would be better if they had this information on the details for each production.

What I don't like about Paris is that the site seems to take a long time to load up and also, at least last time I booked, it does not let you choose your own seat and what the system thinks is best might not be what you would prefer. Plus you cannot buy the *really* cheap seats online.

The Zurich site is very good, but it is a much smaller house and probably never has the volume of people trying to book all at once that you get in London and Paris. I like the fact that you can book for the whole season right at the beginning. Can't think of anything I don't like really apart from the prices!

[Samuel]

"The way I access those is by reading the red book sent to us Friends at the beginning of the season, but that doesn't help anyone who isn't a Friend."

Sarah,Operabase has a full overview of the whole ROH season, click on a date for casting details. However when the ROH updates casting, these are not always updated on Operabase, but it does give a clear view of whats on for the year ahead.

Regardless of booking periods, the ROH could offer something similar via its website.

http://operabase.com/view.cgi?lang=en&cal=wulor_1011

[Sarah]

Thanks Samuel. Your advice about the link to the complete ROH season was so helpful. With the operas conveniently colour-coded, one can see at a glance what's on.