Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in the London district of Covent Garden. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there.

The current building is the third theatre on the site following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1857. The façade, foyer and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive reconstruction in the 1990s. The Royal Opera House seats 2,268 people and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery. The proscenium is 12.20 m wide and 14.80 m high.

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Cosi fan tutti

Nowadays Così Fan Tutte is a work that can be considered as part of the main repertoire, although it does not enjoy the popularity of other Mozart operas, like Don Giovanni, Nozze di Figaro or Zauberflöte. Nevertheless, in Bilbao Così Fan Tutte is not particularly popular and has been staged there by ABAO on only on one occasion some 10 years ago. The only other performance in Bilbao was by an opera company from Eastern Europe touring Spain almost 15 years earlier.

Last time we had artists such as Barbara Frittoli and José Bros, and here the main interest was based on the presence of Soile Isokoski, and the more than emergent mezzo - soprano Maite Beaumont, in addition to the prestigious orchestra Al Ayre Español with their leader Eduardo Lopez Banzo. Unfortunately, Maite Beaumont cancelled due to apparent health problems, although many rumours were running arounf on the subject of her cancellation. ABAO took the decision to substitute her for her cover, which could have been a more than acceptable solution if it were a cancellation at the eleventh hour, but this was not the case, since the decision was taken not less than 10 days prior to the premiere. When you have to pay over 150 euros for a single ticket, it is not a good policy to substitute a well known singer for an understudy, even one who has been singing comprimario roles (Priestess in the last Aida) for many years. Some readers may remember what Peter Gelb did in New York in October, when Joseph Kaiser cancelled Romeo just one day before the performance. Instead of taking the cover (Raúl Melo) he had Marcello Giordani step in the role. I think that there is a big difference in the way of solving cancellations between New York and Bilbao and how both managements decided to protect the interest of their customers. Despina is not very difficult to cast and the general conclusion locally is that ABAO decided to take the easy way out.

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Simon Boccanegra

With the return of Simon Boccanegra to The Royal Opera, Plácido Domingo makes his Royal Opera baritone debut in one of Verdi’s most demanding and passionate roles. Set against the class driven battle for the control of 14th-century Genoa, the opera sympathetically portrays the embattled Doge of the city as the consequences of his past lead – through an estranged daughter, her competing suitors and a life-long enemy – to his own death. The Music Director of The Royal Opera, Antonio Pappano, conducts a formidable international cast in the 1881 version of the opera, staged in Elijah Moshinsky’s classic production. The tones of fine period painting appropriate to the story create rich stage images, matching the rich orchestral colour of Verdi’s score of melody and atmosphere. Confrontations and curses, public drama and private turmoil – and running through it all is the poignant situation of a father and daughter, long parted yet rediscovering each other when it is too late for anything but tragedy to be the outcome. It all makes for a potent operatic combination of family drama and political intrigue.

Simon Boccanegra - Rehearsal
The Simon Boccanegra Rehearsal is the performance on 26 June.

There has been an unprecedented demand for tickets for performances of Simon Boccanegra and we were unable to allocate seats to all the Friends who tried to book. To ensure that as many Friends as possible are able to see the production, if you have already booked tickets for a performance, you will not be able to book tickets for the rehearsal during Friends’ priority booking.

PERFORMERS

Conductor
Antonio Pappano

Simon Boccanegra
Plácido Domingo

Amelia
Marina Poplavskaya

Fiesco
Ferruccio Furlanetto

Gabriele Adorno
Joseph Calleja

Paolo
Jonathan Summers

For opera-ballet tickets, concert tickets, theatre tickets and exclusive event tickets in the UK and worldwide. Premier Events pledges to provide the cheapest event tickets on the net.No commission, transaction charges or hidden booking fees. By law, we must charge VAT, but the price you see is the price you pay.we ensure their safe and prompt delivery to our customer.

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Simon Boccanegra

With the return of Simon Boccanegra to The Royal Opera, Plácido Domingo makes his Royal Opera baritone debut in one of Verdi’s most demanding and passionate roles. Set against the class driven battle for the control of 14th-century Genoa, the opera sympathetically portrays the embattled Doge of the city as the consequences of his past lead – through an estranged daughter, her competing suitors and a life-long enemy – to his own death. The Music Director of The Royal Opera, Antonio Pappano, conducts a formidable international cast in the 1881 version of the opera, staged in Elijah Moshinsky’s classic production. The tones of fine period painting appropriate to the story create rich stage images, matching the rich orchestral colour of Verdi’s score of melody and atmosphere. Confrontations and curses, public drama and private turmoil – and running through it all is the poignant situation of a father and daughter, long parted yet rediscovering each other when it is too late for anything but tragedy to be the outcome. It all makes for a potent operatic combination of family drama and political intrigue.

Simon Boccanegra - Rehearsal
The Simon Boccanegra Rehearsal is the performance on 26 June.

There has been an unprecedented demand for tickets for performances of Simon Boccanegra and we were unable to allocate seats to all the Friends who tried to book. To ensure that as many Friends as possible are able to see the production, if you have already booked tickets for a performance, you will not be able to book tickets for the rehearsal during Friends’ priority booking.

PERFORMERS

Conductor
Antonio Pappano

Simon Boccanegra
Plácido Domingo

Amelia
Marina Poplavskaya

Fiesco
Ferruccio Furlanetto

Gabriele Adorno
Joseph Calleja

Paolo
Jonathan Summers

For opera-ballet tickets, concert tickets, theatre tickets and exclusive event tickets in the UK and worldwide. Premier Events pledges to provide the cheapest event tickets on the net.No commission, transaction charges or hidden booking fees. By law, we must charge VAT, but the price you see is the price you pay.we ensure their safe and prompt delivery to our customer.

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La Fille du régiment

Laurent Pelly’s fabulously entertaining production of La Fille du règiment was the hottest ticket in town when it was first staged early in 2007. The wonderful combination of great performance, stylish design and irreverently witty production are all ready for this first revival by The Royal Opera, and Bruno Campanella once more conducts Donizetti’s lively and memorable masterpiece to bring out all its undeniable lyrical charm. Many of the original cast return for their roles, so Natalie Dessay will once more be singing fabulous coloratura while ironing the regimental smalls — just one of a host of musical and stage moments from start to finish that has had the audience laughing out loud.

The story has all the elements of comic coincidence and timely discovery as our tomboy heroine is forced into more ladylike circles suitable to her aristocratic birth. But while a judicious society wedding may be the intention of some, this heroine is far too spirited to give in to any wishes but those of her own heart.This is not a revival to miss if you like great singing of virtuosic showpieces, with a star cast and every number beautifully honed to hit its target — sometimes touching, sometimes lyrical, but always a delight. And in this inspired production, it is a truly memorable night of sheer fun with The Royal Opera.

CREDITS

Composer
Gaetano Donizetti

Director
Laurent Pelly

Associate Director
Agathe Mélinand

Dialogue
Agathe Mélinand

Set Designer
Chantal Thomas

Costume designs
Laurent Pelly

Lighting
Joël Adam

Choreography
Laura Scozzi

PERFORMERS

Conductor
Bruno Campanella

Tonio
Juan Diego Flórez
Colin Lee

Marie
Natalie Dessay

Sulpice
Alessandro Corbelli

La Marquise de Berkenfeld
Ann Murray

Hortensius
Donald Maxwell

La Duchesse de Crackentorp
Dawn French

Cinderella-Royal Opera House

The story of Cinderella is one of the best-known fairytales, and Frederick Ashton’s full-length version for The Royal Ballet has all its familiar ingredients. A downtrodden young girl, a glass slipper and a handsome prince combine to make the perfect piece of story-telling, and with a fairy godmother around, anything can happen: pumpkins become coaches, rags turn to ball gowns and there’s bound to be a happy ending. Ashton’s ballet draws together a wealth of wonderfully drawn characters, portrayed against the evocative themes and colours of Prokofiev’s great orchestral score.

This is a mysterious and magical fantasy world, where the comedy of Cinderella’s pantomime step-sisters – unlucky in looks and love – provides the perfect foil for the developing romance of Cinderella and the Prince. Cinderella is a family event full of the magic of not just of the fairy godmother, but of The Royal Ballet too.

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La fille mal gardée

The Wayward Daughter  is a comic ballet presented in two acts.The ballet was originally produced and choreographed by the Ballet Master, Jean Dauberval, to a musical pastiche adapted from fifty-five popular French airs by an unknown hand.

The origins of La fille mal gardée:

La fille mal gardée was the creation of Jean Dauberval, one of the greatest choreographers of his day. He was trained under the influential teacher Noverre, and is further distinguished as the teacher of Charles Didelot, known today as "The Father of Russian Ballet".

he painting showed a girl in tears with her clothes disarrayed being berated by an old woman  in a hay barn, while her lover can be seen in the background scurrying up the stairs to the safety of the loft. Allegedly this quaint work of art amused the ballet master so much that he immediately set out to craft a suitable scenario for a ballet.

La fille mal gardée in Russia:

La fille mal gardée was staged for the first time in Russia by the Ballet Master Giuseppe Solomoni for the Ballet of the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre. in 1800, a production that was later revised by Solomoni's successor, Jean Lamiral in 1808.Both productions utilized the original pastiche score of 1789, likely in adaptations prepared for each respective staging.

A production of Jean-Pierre Aumer's 1828 version of La fille mal gardée, set to the music of Hérold, was first staged in Russia at the Moscow Imperial Bolshoi Theatre in 1845 by the Balletmaster Irakly Nikitin.

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THE ROYAL BALLET SEASON 2010/11

Company classics, much-loved revivals and new commissions. The new Royal Ballet Season is rich in variety and popular appeal. Whether a familiar favourite or an exciting premiere, they all have the distinctive style of The Royal Ballet and are performed by its world-class dancers.

Vivid productions, great drama, fabulous music. The new Royal Opera Season brings together a wealth of star singers and conductors in an exciting repertory drawn from the most famous of operas as well as the unusual and little known.



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Backstage Tours

Main House Event

Visit the Backstage and the Front of House areas of one of the world's leading theatres as it prepares to open its doors for the evening performance.

The Backstage Tours include an introduction to the colourful history of the theatre, an insight into the redevelopment of the Royal Opera House and a look at aspects of current productions. As the Royal Opera House is a fully working theatre, each tour is a unique experience, and may include opportunities to see The Royal Ballet in class, or the magnificent backstage technology in operation.

Please note: All tours vary according to what is available on the day and a visit to the auditorium is not guaranteed; it is never possible to attend stage rehearsals. Remember that you are visiting a working theatre and plans may change at short notice. Photography is not permitted on backstage tours.


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Background:


Times: The tours can run three times per day Mondays to Fridays, at 10.30am, 12.30pm and 2.30pm, and on Saturdays at 10.30am, 11.30am, 12.30pm and 1.30pm. All tours last approximately 1 hour 30 minutes.


Please note: Backstage tours may not necessarily occur at all of the times mentioned above.

Italian opera

Monteverdi had moved to the city from Mantua and composed his last operas, Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria and L'incoronazione di Poppea, for the Venetian theatre in the 1640s. His most important follower Francesco Cavalli helped spread opera throughout Italy. In these early Baroque operas, broad comedy was blended with tragic elements in a mix that jarred some educated sensibilities, sparking the first of opera's many reform movements, sponsored by Venice's Arcadian Academy which came to be associated with the poet Metastasio, whose libretti helped crystallize the genre of opera seria, which became the leading form of Italian opera until the end of the 18th century. Once the Metastasian ideal had been firmly established, comedy in Baroque-era opera was reserved for what came to be called opera buffa.

Before such elements were forced out of opera seria, many libretti had featured a separately unfolding comic plot as sort of an "opera-within-an-opera." One reason for this was an attempt to attract members of the growing merchant class, newly wealthy, but still less cultured than the nobility, to the public opera houses. These separate plots were almost immediately resurrected in a separately developing tradition that partly derived from the commedia dell'arte, (as indeed, such plots had always been) a long-flourishing improvisitory stage tradition of Italy.

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Terminology

The words of an opera are known as the libretto (literally "little book"). Some composers, notably Richard Wagner, have written their own libretti; others have worked in close collaboration with their librettists, e.g. Mozart with Lorenzo Da Ponte. Traditional opera, often referred to as "number opera," consists of two modes of singing: recitative, the plot-driving passages sung in a style designed to imitate and emphasize the inflections of speech, and aria (an "air" or formal song) in which the characters express their emotions in a more structured melodic style. Duets, trios and other ensembles often occur, and choruses are used to comment on the action. In some forms of opera, such as Singspiel, opéra comique, operetta, and semi-opera, the recitative is mostly replaced by spoken dialogue. Melodic or semi-melodic passages occurring in the midst of, or instead of, recitative, are also referred to as arioso. During the Baroque and Classical periods, recitative could appear in two basic forms: secco (dry) recitative, accompanied only by continuo, which was usually a harpsichord and a cello; or accompagnato (also known as strumentato) in which the orchestra provided accompaniment. By the 19th century, accompagnato had gained the upper hand, the orchestra played a much bigger role, and Richard Wagner revolutionised opera by abolishing almost all distinction between aria and recitative in his quest for what he termed "endless melody". Subsequent composers have tended to follow Wagner's example, though some, such as Stravinsky in his The Rake's Progress have bucked the trend. The terminology of the various kinds of operatic voices is described in section 3 below.

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Opera History

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (called a libretto) and musical score. Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery and costumes and sometimes includes dance. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble.

Opera started in Italy at the end of the 16th century and soon spread through the rest of Europe: Schütz in Germany, Lully in France, and Purcell in England all helped to establish their national traditions in the 17th century. However, in the 18th century, Italian opera continued to dominate most of Europe, except France, attracting foreign composers such as Handel. Opera seria was the most prestigious form of Italian opera, until Gluck reacted against its artificiality with his "reform" operas in the 1760s. Today the most renowned figure of late 18th century opera is Mozart, who began with opera seria but is most famous for his Italian comic operas, especially The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and Così fan tutte, as well as The Magic Flute, a landmark in the German tradition.

The first third of the 19th century saw the highpoint of the bel canto style, with Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini all creating works that are still performed today. It also saw the advent of Grand Opera typified by the works of Meyerbeer. The mid to late 19th century was a "golden age" of opera, led and dominated by Wagner in Germany and Verdi in Italy. The popularity of opera continued through the verismo era in Italy and contemporary French opera through to Puccini and Strauss in the early 20th century. During the 19th century, parallel operatic traditions emerged in central and eastern Europe, particularly in Russia and Bohemia. The 20th century saw many experiments with modern styles, such as atonality and serialism (Schoenberg and Berg), Neoclassicism (Stravinsky), and Minimalism (Philip Glass and John Adams). With the rise of recording technology, singers such as Enrico Caruso became known to audiences beyond the circle of opera fans. Operas were also performed on radio and television.