The Royal Opera House will launch its first ever Cinema Festival on Monday 3 December in the newly refurbished Linbury Theatre in the heart of Covent Garden. Children can go free to all Saturday and Sunday cinema matinée performances and to The Nutcracker on 3 December. Launching with the live screening of The Nutcracker on 3 December and running until 6 January 2019, the Cinema Festival will feature 21 titles that celebrate the breadth of ballet and opera repertory shown in cinemas since our first broadcast ten years ago. Tickets on sale Thursday 8 November at 10am.

Production photo of The Nutcracker © ROH. Photography by Tristram Kenton, 2013
Specially curated, free-for-children screenings include The Nutcracker live (3 December, 7.15pm), La Fille mal gardée (8 December, 2pm), The Magic Flute (9 December, 4pm), Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (15 December, 2pm), Cendrillon (16 December, 4pm), both Anthony Dowell's and Liam Scarlett’s versions of Swan Lake (22 December, 2pm, and 5 January, 2pm, respectively), The Winter’s Tale (23 December, 4pm) and Romeo and Juliet (29 December, 2pm). Richard Jones’s staging of La bohème (30 December, 4pm) and Giselle which brings the cinema festival to an end on 6 January at 4pm.

Further highlights include The Royal Ballet’s Sylvia (7 December, 7pm, featuring former Royal Ballet Principal Darcey Bussell and Guest Artist Roberto Bolle), John Copley’s acclaimed Royal Opera production (which ran for 41 years) of La bohème (8 December, 7pm, featuring Hibla Gerzmava and Teodor Ilincai), La traviata featuring soprano Renée Fleming and tenor Joseph Calleja (15 December, 7pm), Otello (21 December, 7pm, featuring German tenor Jonas Kaufmann) and Manon, featuring current Royal Ballet Principals Sarah Lamb and Vadim Muntagirov (28 December, 7pm).

Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet. commented
‘I’m very excited to open our first cinema festival, which features heritage and contemporary works from both The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera. I look forward to welcoming the next generation of ballet and opera fans into the House to explore our world and to feel something new with each performance. I hope the free children’s tickets will give those who have never tried opera and ballet before a lifelong enjoyment of these wonderful art forms.’

Cinema festival audiences will be the first visitors to enjoy the brand new, state-of-the-art Linbury Theatre, which opens in January 2019. The cinema festival has been thematically curated by Kevin O’Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, to showcase world-class opera and ballet at its best and to offer something special for younger audiences.

Tickets cost £10-£17 for adults and are free for children aged 5 to 15 years old for The Nutcracker on 3 December and all Saturday and Sunday matinee performances. We ask for a maximum of two children with any one adult. Tickets available from Thursday 8 November at 10am. To book tickets see button above.

The following productions will feature in the Royal Opera House Cinema Festival in the Linbury Theatre

Monday 3 December, 7.15pm – The Royal Ballet’s The Nutcracker, 7.15pm, LIVE (rating 12A) – free for children
Friday 7 December, 7pm – The Royal Ballet’s Sylvia featuring Darcey Bussell and Roberto Bolle
Saturday 8 December, 2pm – The Royal Ballet’s La Fille mal gardée featuring Natalia Osipova and Steven McRae – free for children
Saturday 8 December, 7pm – The Royal Opera’s 1974 production of La bohème directed by John Copley (2009 revival) and featuring Hibla Gerzmava and Teodor Ilincai
Sunday 9 December, 4pm – The Royal Opera’s The Magic Flute, featuring Siobhan Stagg, Mauro Peter, Roderick Williams and Mika Kares – free for children
Friday 14 December, 7pm – The Royal Opera’s Gloriana featuring Susan Bullock and Toby Spence
Saturday 15 December, 2pm – The Royal Ballet’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, featuring Lauren Cuthbertson – free for children
Saturday 15 December, 7pm – The Royal Opera’s La traviata, featuring Renée Fleming and Joseph Calleja
Sunday 16 December, 4pm – The Royal Opera’s Cendrillon, featuring Joyce DiDonato and Alice Coote – free for children
Friday 21 December, 7pm – The Royal Opera’s Otello, featuring Jonas Kaufmann, Maria Agresta and Marco Vratogna
Saturday 22 December, 2pm – The Royal Ballet’s Swan Lake in the version by Anthony Dowell, featuring Natalia Osipova and Matthew Golding – free for children
Saturday 22 October, 7pm – The Royal Opera’s Tosca, featuring Angela Gheorghiu and Jonas Kaufmann
Sunday 23 December, 4pm – The Royal Ballet’s The Winter’s Tale, featuring Edward Watson, Lauren Cuthbertson and Sarah Lamb – free for children
Friday 28 December, 7pm – The Royal Ballet’s Manon, featuring Sarah Lamb and Vadim Muntagirov
Saturday 29 December, 2pm – The Royal Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet, featuring Lauren Cuthbertson and Federico Bonelli – free for children
Saturday 29 December, 7pm – The Royal Opera’s The Flying Dutchman, featuring Bryn Terfel (no interval)
Sunday 30 December, 4pm – The Royal Opera’s La bohème (2017 production, directed by Richard Jones), featuring Nicole Car and Michael Fabiano – free for children
Friday 4 January, 7pm – The Royal Opera’s Nabucco, featuring Plácido Domingo
Saturday 5 January, 2pm – The Royal Ballet’s Swan Lake in the new version by Liam Scarlett, featuring Marianela Nuñez and Vadim Muntigarov – free for children
Saturday 5 January, 7pm – The Royal Opera’s Don Giovanni featuring Mariusz Kwiecień, Alex Esposito and Malin Bystrom
Sunday 6 January, 4pm – The Royal Ballet’s Giselle featuring Natalia Osipova and Carlos Acosta – free for children

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