Armenian tenor Arsen Soghomonyan has withdrawn from singing the role of Don José in Carmen on 16 and 20 July for personal reasons.
The role of Don José will now be sung on 16 and 20 July by Polish tenor Arnold Rutkowski, making his Royal Opera debut.
Arnold Rutkowski has sung for companies including Hamburg State Opera, Stuttgart State Opera, Berlin State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Paris Opéra, Opéra de Lyon, Royal Swedish Opera, Norwegian National Opera, Polish National Opera, Finnish National Opera, Bolshoi Theatre, Mariinsky Theatre, Vilnius City Opera, Greek National Opera and Opera Australia. Along with Don José his repertory includes Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto), Riccardo (Un ballo in maschera), Rodolfo (La bohème), Mario Cavaradossi (Tosca), B.F. Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Lensky (Eugene Onegin) and Shepherd (Król Roger).
The rest of the cast remains unchanged.
