The Royal Opera House – Dinner beside Swan Lake

One of my birthday presents last year was to go and see Swan Lake at Covent Garden. While I love ballet, for me it has to be traditional ballet, all the way.

I’ve wanted to see Swan Lake for years and earlier in the year we had an opportunity to see the Matthew Bourne production in which all the swans are danced by male ballet dancers. I didn’t enjoy it at all. Not because of the juxtaposition of the male swans, but because it wasn’t traditional ballet. It was more like a contemporary dance version of Swan Lake. Yes, there was the iconic music and there was a little traditional ballet. But, I’m afraid it wasn’t for me.

The Mariinsky Ballet’s production, though was just the ticket. Absolutely fantastic! At one point, I think, there were about forty or so swans on stage. Spectacular.

It was truly beautiful to watch.

As you can see I was also transfixed by my evening meal!

As it was a birthday treat Caroline had arranged for us to have our evening meal at the Royal Opera House too. We sat up on the mezzanine level, above the bar area and we were able to gaze down as the expectant audience arrived for pre-show drinks.

The table which we dined at was ours for the evening, or rather, for the two intervals in the production.

Before the show, then, we dined on our starters and main course.

The dessert was reserved  for the first interval.

A truly magical evening.