The Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House was opened to the public in May 1858, with a performance of Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots. Winter and Summer seasons of opera and ballet were given and between seasons the theatre was either closed or used for film shows, cabaret, dancing and lectures. The opera hosue reopened after the war in 1946, with a gala performance of The Sleeping Beauty.
Other performers and performances to take place at the Royal Opera House include: La Fille du Regiment, The Royal Ballet and Carmen.
Covent Garden
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La donna del lago is one of the most lyrical of Gioachino Rossini’s operas, with expansive ensembles and shimmering orchestration. It is based on Walter Scott’s 1810 poem The Lady of the Lake and features a libretto by Andrea Leone Tottola. Although its premiere in Naples in 1819 was a success it was rarely staged throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries. John Fulljames’s new production provides an opportunity to experience an underperformed gem.
Politics and religion are dangerously entwined in Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlo. Based on a 1787 play by Friedrich Schiller, Don Carlo was first performed at the Paris Opéra in 1867. Verdi made extensive revisions to the opera over the following 20 years. This production by Nicholas Hytner follows the five-act 1882 version – Verdi’s final thoughts on the work.
Acclaimed choreographer Liam Scarlett was appointed as The Royal Ballet’s first ever Artist-in-Residence in 2012. Last seen on the main stage with the beautiful and provocative Sweet Violets, he introduces his first full-length work: a deliciously dark retelling of the Grimm Brothers' fairytale Hansel and Gretel.
Kenneth MacMillan brings a contemporary interpretation to Sergei Prokofiev's classic score. His version of the ballet draws out the emotional and psychological intensity at the heart of the tale. Romeo and Juliet contains three passionate pas de deux: from the lovers' first meeting and the famous balcony scene to the devastating final tragedy. The lovers' story is set against a wonderful evocation of 16th-century Verona: a bustling market place erupts into a violent sword fight and a lavish ball is held at an elegant mansion.
Coliseum, London On Thursday a great silence settled over London's dance world. For 10 days we'd been in the grip of Hurricane Natalia, and then suddenly she was gone and we were left dazedly trying to reshape our certainties. London has seen Natalia Osipova before, in Don Quixote , Le Corsaire and other hokey spectaculars with the Bolshoi, but her dancing in this two-week season with the Mikhailovsky Ballet of St Petersburg , alongside on- and offstage partner Ivan Vasiliev , was of another order altogether.
