The Royal Opera House today launches its 2019/20 Season, unveiling an exciting range of new commissions, world premieres and much-loved revivals, supported by a diverse range of ticketed and free daytime events, activities and festivals for people of all ages.
In the first full Season since the completion of the Royal Opera House’s three-year Open Up renovation, The Royal Opera Company unveils a host of innovative new work, with 13 new productions, including two world premieres, in the Season ahead.
Building on the success of 2019’s Berenice, Director of Opera Oliver Mears brings more Handel to the Company’s repertory with Barrie Kosky’s new production of Agrippina. Handel performances continue with the Jette Parker Young Artists, who take centre-stage in a brand-new production of Susanna, performed in the West End’s newest and most intimate space, the Linbury Theatre.
The Company continues to build on the success of Billy Budd by staging two Britten masterpieces. David McVicar directs a new production of Britten’s last opera Death in Venice, and Natalie Abrahami and Michael Levine stage a new production of one of the composer’s best-loved operas, The Turn of the Screw, in the Linbury Theatre.
The Royal Opera also unveils a programme of work specifically designed for family audiences, including Antony McDonald’s new production of Gerald Barry’s wild and witty Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, and a world premiere: composer Jules Maxwell’s adaptation of Shaun Tan’s The Lost Thing, directed by Ben Wright. Staged with Candoco Dance Company, this ground-breaking new commission will feature a cast of disabled and non-disabled singers, dancers and musicians.
Building on the huge success of Olivier award winning Kát’a Kabanová, The Royal Opera stages the third opera in its Leoš Janáček cycle, Jenůfa, directed by Claus Guth with a stellar cast that includes Asmik Grigorian, who makes her Royal Opera debut in the title role, and Karita Mattila as Kostelnička.
In a co-commission between the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and The Royal Opera, composer Matt Rogers and librettist Sally O’Reilly bring the world premiere of She Described It To Death to the Linbury stage.
The Jette Parker Young Artists Programme welcomes five new singers and one stage director onto the Programme for the 2019/20 Season: their work will showcase world-class talent at its best, both in the Linbury Theatre and on the main stage.
The Royal Ballet draws on its rich cultural heritage while embracing the diverse and contemporary in its 2019/20 Season. The Company unveils five new productions, including four world premieres and co-productions. The Company will celebrate international partnerships and award-winning artists and companies from across the globe.
Alongside classics such as Manon, The Sleeping Beauty and Liam Scarlett’s critically-acclaimed production of Swan Lake, The Royal Ballet joins forces with Birmingham Royal Ballet in a Heritage programme capturing the unique history of the Company and the extraordinary choreographic creativity of Ninette de Valois, Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan. The Royal Ballet also partners with CCN Ballet de Lorraine to mark the Merce Cunningham centennial in a production of Cross Currents, which will see three dancers from The Royal Ballet join forces with dancers from Paris Opera Ballet and Royal Ballet Flanders in the first visit to Paris in 15 years. The Company is also looking forward to the long-awaited return of repertory classic Coppélia at Christmas, in its first staging by The Royal Ballet for more than a decade.
The Royal Ballet celebrates the contemporary with four world premieres, including new commissions from Liam Scarlett, Cathy Marston and Pam Tanowitz, who makes her Royal Opera House debut. Wayne McGregor presents the world premiere of The Dante Project in collaboration with Thomas Adès, Tacita Dean, Lucy Carter and Uzma Hameed.
The new Linbury Theatre provides a world-class stage for The Royal Ballet and a host of pioneering national and international artistic companies. Female choreographers lead the programme, with new work from Pam Tanowitz, Morgann Runacre-Temple and Sharon Eyal. Mlindi Kulashe makes his choreographic debut with Northern Ballet, and Carlos Acosta’s company Acosta Danza performs new, Cuban-inspired work perfectly suited to the state-of-the-art Linbury Theatre. In a co-production between The Royal Ballet, Rambert and BBC Films, Rambert also perform the world premiere of Aisha and Abhaya, a modern fairy tale with choreography by Sharon Eyal.
The Royal Opera House’s programme of free and ticketed daytime festivals, activities and events encompasses almost 200 separate events over the course of the next Season, and will include free lunchtime performances, the continuation of its popular Opera and Ballet Dots programme (for children aged three months to five years) as well as 11 Family Sundays, which welcome diverse new audiences to our art forms.
The Royal Opera House’s national learning programme, which has engaged more than 35,000 students, 531 schools and 1,255 teachers across the country so far this Season, has bold ambitions for 2019/20. The Royal Opera House will partner with Doncaster through ‘Doncaster Creates’ (Doncaster’s Culture Development programme), Cast (Doncaster’s £22m performance venue) and Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council. Through the ROH National Learning Programme, the Royal Opera House will work with every school in Doncaster over three years, staging a mass community engagement performance in summer 2020. Alongside this, The Royal Ballet will perform in a gala in Doncaster, and the ROH’s popular Chance to Dance talent development programme will also continue.
Cinema highlights from the 19/20 Royal Opera House season include: The Royal Ballet’s Coppélia, The Sleeping Beauty and Swan Lake, and opera broadcasts featuring world-renowned opera stars such as Jonas Kaufmann (in Fidelio), Bryn Terfel (in Don Pasquale) and Nina Stemme (in Elektra). Free culture returns to communities across the country, from Aberdeen to the Isle of Wight as through our BP Big Screens we share three world class productions free of charge in 19/20. Full details and titles to be announced later this year.
Opera and ballet for the 2019/20 Season
Don Giovanni
The Royal Opera
Co-production with Israeli Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, and Houston Grand Opera
Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto: Lorenzo da Ponte
Sexual intrigue, jealousy, wit, anger… and retribution! The new Royal Opera Season begins with Mozart’s engaging masterpiece, which follows Don Giovanni, the women he serially seduces, and the vengeance that finally catches up with him. The opera is renowned for its ever-shifting portrayals of complex characters, fast-moving action and mix of the comic and the heartfelt. A cast of international singers – both familiar and making Royal Opera debuts – under conductor Hartmut Haenchen perform the glorious arias and ensembles of this opera favourite.
Creative team
Conductor: Hartmut Haenchen
Director: Kasper Holten
Set designer: Es Devlin
Video designer: Luke Halls
Costume designer: Anja Vang Kragh
Lighting designer: Bruno Poet
Choreographer: Signe Fabricius
Fight Director: Kate Waters
Cast
Don Giovanni: Erwin Schrott
Leporello: Roberto Tagliavini
Donna Anna: Malin Bystrom
Donna Elvira: Christine Rice
Don Ottavio: Daniel Behle, Emanuele D’Aguanno
Zerlina: Louise Alder
Commendatore: Lars Woldt
Masetto: Leon Košavić
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Performances
16 September–10 October 2019
Main Stage
Live cinema relay Tuesday 8 October 2019
Sung in Italian with English surtitles
Werther
The Royal Opera
Production owned by Opéra national de Paris
Music: Jules Massenet
Libretto: Édouard Blau and Paul Milliet
Generous philanthropic support from Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet (Production Principal), Professor Paul Cartledge and Judith Portrait OBE
Juan Diego Flórez and Isabel Leonard lead the cast in Massenet’s operatic version of The Sorrows of Young Werther, the classic by Goethe that helped define the Romantic age. This is a story of obsession and passion that begins quietly, but drives relentlessly on to a shattering conclusion. The naturalistic production by Benoît Jacquot is redolent of the story’s mid-19th-century origins, but the human emotions portrayed are timeless. The music – wonderfully melodic, richly scored and atmospheric – is conducted by Edward Gardner.
Creative team
Conductor: Edward Gardner
Director: Benoît Jacquot
Set designer: Charles Edwards
Costume designer: Christian Gasc
Lighting designer: Charles Edwards
Cast includes
Werther: Juan Diego Flórez
Charlotte: Isabel Leonard
Albert: Jacques Imbrailo
Sophie: Heather Engebretson
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Performances
17 September–5 October 2019
Main Stage
Sung in French with English surtitles
Agrippina
New to The Royal Opera
Co-production with Bavarian State Opera, Munich, and Dutch National Opera
Music: George Frideric Handel
Libretto: Vincenzo Grimani
Generous philanthropic support from Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet (Production Principal) and Charles Holloway
Agrippina is the ultimate political operator – outrageous and blatant in her pursuit of power. In the title role, Joyce DiDonato heads a specialist cast in Handel’s early operatic success, a calling card when he moved to London. The score boasts a succession of brilliant Baroque jewels: one after another come the bright, sparkling arias, here performed by a cast also including acclaimed British singers Iestyn Davies and Lucy Crowe and directed with characteristic invention by Barrie Kosky.
Creative team
Conductor: Maxim Emelyanychev
Director: Barrie Kosky
Set designer: Rebecca Ringst
Costume designer: Klaus Bruns
Lighting designer: Joachim Klein
Dramaturg: Nikolaus Stenitzer
Cast
Agrippina: Joyce DiDonato
Nerone: Franco Fagioli
Poppea: Lucy Crowe
Ottone: Iestyn Davies
Claudio: Gianluca Buratto
Pallante: Andrea Mastroni
Narciso: Eric Jurenas
Lesbo: José Coca Loza
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Performances
23 September–11 October 2019
Main Stage
Sung in Italian with English surtitles
The Intelligence Park
New production, The Royal Opera
Co-production with Music Theatre Wales; in association with London Sinfonietta
Music: Gerald Barry
Libretto: Vincent Deane
Gerald Barry creates operas like no other – brilliant, surreal and often laugh-out-loud funny. Not seen in London since 1990, Barry’s first opera The Intelligence Park comes to the Linbury ahead of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground on the Main Stage later in the Season. The setting is Dublin in 1753, where a composer’s work on an opera is disrupted and intensified when he falls in love with the lead castrato, who at the same time elopes with the composer’s fiancée, causing fantasy and reality to collide. The music, scored for chamber orchestra and conducted here by Jessica Cottis, is startling in every aspect of its range, making extravagant virtuoso demands of the six performers.
Creative team
Conductor: Jessica Cottis
Director and designer: Nigel Lowery
Cast
Robert Paradies: Michel de Souza
D’Esperaudieu: Adrian Dwyer
Sir Joshua Cramer: Stephen Richardson
Jerusha Cramer: Rhian Lois
Serafino: Patrick Terry (Jette Parker Young Artist)
Faranesi: Stephanie Marshall
Production made in association with London Sinfonietta
Performances
25 September–4 October 2019
Linbury Theatre
Sung in English
Manon
The Royal Ballet
Generous philanthropic support from the Jean Sainsbury Royal Opera House Fund, Marina Hobson OBE, John and Susan Burns and Kenneth and Susan Green.
Choreography: Kenneth MacMillan
Music: Jules Massenet
To begin the new Royal Ballet Season, a wealth of talent from the whole Company is on stage for MacMillan’s modern classic. This interpretation pulls no punches as it follows the journey of the original good ‘bad’ girl of the title and her young lover through a world of 18th-century opulence and its dark underside. The detailed settings and rich characterizations have ensured that Manon has become an enduring favourite of the repertory of the Company and indeed the world. Grand, louche, heartrending – the temptations and torments of love, from depravity to ecstasy, propel a gripping, emotional and beautifully choreographed ballet.
Creative team
Orchestrated by: Martin Yates
Originally compiled by: Leighton Lucas with the collaboration of Hilda Gaunt Designer: Nicholas Georgiadis
Lighting designer: Jacopo Pantani
Conductors: Koen Kessels, Paul Murphy
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Performances
2 October-6 November 2019
Main stage
Cross Currents/Monotones II/New Pam Tanowitz
The Royal Ballet
Merce Cunningham Centennial
The centenary of the birth of Merce Cunningham is an occasion to celebrate the extraordinary legacy of this pioneering American choreographer. He reshaped the relationship between body, movement and music, melding the classical and the innovative to explore the essence of human motion. In the first of two celebratory programmes, The Royal Ballet performs Cunningham’s Cross Currents – a trio first seen in London in 1964 – and Frederick Ashton’s Cunningham-indebted Monotones II. This short, intimate programme is completed with a new commissioned work from American choreographer Pam Tanowitz, whose modern approach from a classical base continues the fusions and explorations that Cunningham’s work exemplifies.
Cross Currents
Choreography: Merce Cunningham
Music: Conlon Nancarrow
Costume designer: Merce Cunningham
Lighting designer: Beverley Emmons
Staging: Daniel Squire
Monotones II
Choreography: Frederick Ashton
Music: Erik Satie
Designer: Frederick Ashton
Lighting designer: John B. Read
New Pam Tanowitz (world premiere)
Choreography: Pam Tanowitz
Lighting designer: Clifton Taylor
Performances
10–11 October 2019
Linbury Theatre
Dance Umbrella: The Future Bursts In
Part of Dance Umbrella 2019 and FranceDance UK
Two international companies present a second Linbury programme to mark the Merce Cunningham Centennial. Amala Dianor performs Somewhere in the Middle of Infinity, in which three dancers test borders and boundaries as hip hop, African and contemporary dance clash with creative force. CCN – Ballet de Lorraine performs two works. For Four Walls explores the fluid interactions between past and present, taking inspiration from a 1944 collaboration between Cunningham and composer John Cage. Cunningham’s Sounddance (1975) completes the programme with an ‘organized chaos’ and frenetic energy that challenges concepts of symmetry and conformity in the idea of ballet itself.
Somewhere in the Middle of Infinity
Choreography: Amala Dianor
Music: Awir Leon
Lighting designer: Fabien Lamri
Video designers: Olivier Gilquin and Constance Joliff
For Four Walls
Choreography: Petter Jacobsson and Thomas Caley
Music: John Cage
Set designers: Petter Jacobsson and Thomas Caley
Costume designers: Petter Jacobsson and Thomas Caley with Martine Augsbourger and Annabelle Saintier
Lighting designer: Eric Wurtz
Sounddance
Choreography: Merce Cunningham
Music: David Tudor
Designer and lighting designer: Mark Lancaster
Staging: Meg Harper and Thomas Caley
Performances
24–26 October 2019
Linbury Theatre
Don Pasquale
New to The Royal Opera
Co-production with Opéra national de Paris and Teatro Massimo, Palermo
Music: Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto: Giovanni Ruffini and Gaetano Donizetti
Generous philanthropic support from the Friends of Covent Garden
Royal Opera favourite Bryn Terfel heads the cast for this new production of Donizetti’s comedy of domestic drama across two generations. The witty story
of a middle-aged man whose supposed young wife runs rings around him – with her own ulterior romantic purpose in mind – has long delighted and surprised audiences, not least as presented with the sparkle of its music and the virtuoso skill of its performers. Damiano Michieletto’s exhilarating production shows how contemporary the characters still are and how immediate and touching the story remains.
Creative team
Conductor: Evelino Pidò
Director: Damiano Michieletto
Set designer: Paolo Fantin
Costume designer: Agostino Cavalca
Lighting designer: Alessandro Carletti
Video designer: rocafilm
Cast
Don Pasquale: Bryn Terfel
Norina: Olga Peretyatko
Ernesto: Ioan Hotea
Malatesta: Mariusz Kwiecień
Performances
14 October–2 November 2019
Main Stage
Live cinema relay: Thursday 24 October 2019
Sung in Italian with English surtitles
Zauberland (Magic Land)
An encounter with Schumann’s Dichterliebe
New to The Royal Opera
C.I.C.T. – Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord co-commission and co-production with La Monnaie/De Munt, Brussels; Opéra de Lille; Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc., New York; Opéra de Rouen Normandie; University Musical Society of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and Le Cercle des Partenaires des Bouffes du Nord
With the support of Lyrical Creation Fund (SACD)
Music: Robert Schumann and Bernard Foccroulle
Text: Heinrich Heine and Martin Crimp
As the Middle East blazes with conflict, a young woman waits at a European border, hoping to cross over to Zauberland – a magic land of peace and security. But when she falls asleep, she dreams of the burnt-out city she has been forced to leave behind. The Royal Opera’s relationship with director Katie Mitchell and writer Martin Crimp (Written on Skin and Lessons in Love and Violence) moves to the Linbury Theatre with a new dramatic piece for soprano, piano and four actors. Crimp and composer Bernard Foccroulle have created 16 new songs that are performed alongside Robert Schumann and Heinrich Heine’s Dichterliebe, opening up a dialogue between the 19th century and today.
Creative team
Director: Katie Mitchell
Set and costume designer: Chloe Lamford
Lighting designer: James Farncombe
Cast
Julia Bullock (soprano)
Cédric Tiberghien (piano)
Ben Clifford, Natasha Kafka, David Rawlins, Raphael Zeri (actors)
Performances
15–18 October 2019
Linbury Theatre
Sung in German and English with English surtitles
Concerto/Enigma Variations/Raymonda Act III
The Royal Ballet
Generous philanthropic support from The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund
Enigma Variations – Generous philanthropic support from Lindsay and
Sarah Tomlinson
Conductor: Pavel Sorokin
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
From The Royal Ballet’s classical origins in the works of Petipa, to the home-grown choreographers who put British ballet on the world stage, this mixed programme highlights the versatility of the Company. Petipa’s Raymonda Act III is Russian classical ballet summarized in one act, full of sparkle and precise technique, while Ashton’s Enigma Variations is quintessentially British in every way – from its score by Elgar and period designs by Julia Trevelyan Oman, to Ashton’s signature style, the essence of British ballet. Concerto, MacMillan’s fusion of classical technique with a contemporary mind, completes a programme that shows the breadth of the Company’s heritage.
Concerto
Choreography: Kenneth MacMillan
Music: Dmitry Shostakovich
Designer: Jurgen Rose
Lighting designer: John B. Read
Enigma Variations
Choreography: Frederick Ashton
Music: Edward Elgar
Designer: Julia Trevelyan Oman
Lighting designer: John B. Read
Raymonda Act III
Choreography: Rudolf Nureyev after Marius Petipa
Music: Alexander Glazunov
Production: Rudolf Nureyev
Designer: Barry Kay
Lighting designer: John B. Read
Performances
22 October–20 December 2019
Main Stage
Live cinema relay: Tuesday 5 November 2019
Die Zauberflote
The Royal Opera
Generous philanthropic support from Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet
Music: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto: Emanuel Schikaneder
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Four young lovers, the search for truth… and the glittering, dangerous Queen of the
Night. David McVicar’s production of Mozart’s fantasy-like opera is a wonderful combination of comedy and poignancy, striking imagery and utterly sublime music. The score has the immediate tunefulness of folksong alongside the heart-catching lyricism of operatic aria, with a wealth of ensembles from the profound to the celebratory, too. A young cast of rising stars combine in a revival that offers a theatrical treat packed with enjoyment for all ages.
Creative team
Conductor: TBC
Director: David McVicar
Designer: John Macfarlane
Lighting designer: Paule Constable
Movement director: Leah Hausman
Cast
Tamino: Benjamin Hulett
Pamina: Elsa Dreisig
Papageno: Vito Priante
Queen of the Night: Tuuli Takala, Christina Poulitsi
Sarastro: Andreas Bauer Kanabas, Stefan Cerny
Performances
1–27 November 2019
Main Stage
Sng in German with English surtitles
The Kingdom of Back/Mamela…/The Shape of Sound
Northern Ballet
Northern Ballet demonstrates its range and skill on the Linbury Theatre stage in a fascinating mixed programme. The Kingdom of Back is Morgann Runacre-Temple’s funny, moving and intimate portrait of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s sister Nannerl, herself so talented yet forced into her brother’s shadow. Mlindi Kulashe’s choreographic debut work Mamela... (from his native Xhosa language’s word for ‘listen’) is haunting in its exploration of themes of imprisonment and escape. The programme is completed by Kenneth Tindall’s The Shape of Sound, a beautiful response to the emotions evoked by the changing seasons, mirrored in Max Richter’s re-composition of Vivaldi’s classic Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons).
Creative team
Choreography: Morgann Runacre-Temple, Mlindi Kulashe, Kenneth Tindall
Music: Frank Moon, Jack Edmonds, Max Richter after Vivaldi
Costume designer: Kimie Nakano
Lighting designer: Alastair West
Co-lighting designer (The Shape of Sound): Kenneth Tindall
Performances
5–7 November 2019
Linbury Theatre
Little Red Riding Hood
Northern Ballet dancer Mariana Rodrigues creates a short new work on a classic fairytale, especially for children. Little Red Riding Hood is a kind and thoughtful little girl who loves her family. One day, on a visit to her grandmother, she meets a very hungry wolf in the forest who just wants something to eat. But is he really such a big, bad wolf? Join Little Red on her adventure as she makes friends and discovers the importance of kindness. Loved by audiences in the theatre and through a string of hugely successful CBeebies TV adaptations (including Three Little Pigs), this is a treat not to be missed.
Creative team
Choreography: Mariana Rodrigues
Music: Eloise Gynn
Designer: Marjoke Henrichs
Performances:
8–10 November 2019
Linbury Theatre
The Sleeping Beauty
The Royal Ballet
Choreography: Marius Petipa
Music: Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Generous philanthropic support from Kenneth and Susan Green and The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund
Original production (2006) made possible by the Linbury Trust, Simon and Virginia Robertson and Marina Hobson OBE
This production of The Sleeping Beauty has been delighting audiences in Covent Garden since 1946. A classic of Russian ballet, it established The Royal Ballet both in its new home after World War II and as a world-class company. Sixty years later, in 2006, the original staging was revived, returning Oliver Messel’s wonderful designs and glittering costumes to the stage. Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky’s enchanting score and Marius Petipa’s original choreography beautifully combine with sections created for The Royal Ballet by Frederick Ashton, Anthony Dowell and Christopher Wheeldon. This ballet is sure to cast its spell over anyone who sees it.
Creative team:
Additional choreography: Frederick Ashton, Anthony Dowell,
Christopher Wheeldon
Production: Monica Mason and Christopher Newton after Ninette de Valois and Nicholas Sergeyev
Original designers: Oliver Messel
Additional designs: Peter Farmer
Lighting designer: Mark Jonathan
Conductors: Simon Hewett, Tom Seligman
Performances
7 November 2019–16 January 2020
Main Stage
Live cinema relay: Tuesday 16 January
Death in Venice
New production, The Royal Opera
Co-production with Volksoper Wien
Music: Benjamin Britten
Libretto: Myfanwy Piper
Generous philanthropic support from Hamish and Sophie Forsyth, Charles Holloway, the Britten Syndicate and The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund
The unique resonance of Venice in 1913 is the setting for Britten’s intense and atmospheric opera about a burnt-out, middle-aged writer obsessed with youth while haunted by death. David McVicar’s major new production is the first of two Britten operas this Season, part of The Royal Opera’s ongoing Britten cycle, and features a strong contingent of British artists, headed by Mark Padmore as the troubled Aschenbach, with Gerald Finley in the multiple roles that persistently foreshadow mortality. This is a real ensemble piece, with many individualized roles, and dance integral to the story, not least in the form of the young man who is the focus of Aschenbach’s disturbing desire. Mark Elder conducts Britten’s final opera, which returns to The Royal Opera for the first time since 1992.
Creative team
Conductor: Mark Elder
Director: David McVicar
Designer: Vicki Mortimer
Lighting designer: Paule Constable
Choreographer: Lynne Page
Selected Cast
Gustav von Aschenbach: Mark Padmore
Traveller/Elderly Fop/Old Gondolier/Hotel Manager/Hotel Barber/
Leader of the Players/Voice of Dionysus: Gerald Finley
Voice of Apollo: Tim Mead
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Performances
21 November–6 December 2019
Sung in English with English surtitles
Les Beaux dormants
Le Ballet de l’Opéra national du Rhin, in collaboration with Cie Cas Public
Growing up is inescapable. Le Ballet de l’Opéra national du Rhin performs Hélène Blackburn’s family ballet freely inspired by The Sleeping Beauty – not only a classic tale, but a reflection on one of the most important stages of life too. Les Beaux dormants (The Sleeping Beauties) explores all the changes – physical and emotional – that come with blossoming adulthood: easy for some, but a nightmare for others. With its new take on a familiar work, this is an immediately engaging ballet for everyone. Rediscover the sleeping beauty ready for awakening in the heart of each of us, whether child or adult.
Creative team:
Choreography: Hélène Blackburn
Music: Martin Tétreault
Lighting designers: Emilie B-Beaulieu, Hélène Blackburn
In collaboration with Cie Cas Public
Daphnée Laurendeau, Cai Glover, Alexander Ellison, Mickaël Spinnhirny
Performances:
21–24 November 2019
Linbury Theatre
Coppélia
The Royal Ballet
Choreography: Ninette de Valois after Lev Ivanov and Enrico Cecchetti
Music: Léo Delibes
Generous philanthropic support from Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet (Production Principal), John and Susan Burns, the Coppélia Production Syndicate and The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund
Scenario: Charles Nuitter and Arthur Saint-Léon after E.T.A. Hoffmann
A classic ballet returns to the Royal Ballet repertory with Ninette de Valois’ charming and funny Coppélia – a story of love, mischief and mechanical dolls. The intricate choreography is set to Delibes’ delightful score and shows off the technical precision and comedic timing of the whole Company. Osbert Lancaster’s designs bring a colourful storybook world to life in this Christmas treat for the whole family.
Creative team
Designer: Osbert Lancaster
Lighting designer: John B. Read
Conductors: Barry Wordsworth, Tom Seligman
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Performances
28 November 2019–7 January 2020
Main Stage
Live cinema relay: Tuesday 10 December
The Lost Thing
World premiere, The Royal Opera
Co-production and co-commission with Candoco Dance Company. Based on the book by Shaun Tan.
Generous philanthropic support from the Paul Hamlyn Education Fund
What is it… and where does it belong? The discovery of something mysterious and out of place is the starting point for this new family show. Experience a musical reimagining of Shaun Tan’s beautifully illustrated book about a boy who helps a lost thing find its way home. In this enchanting collaboration between Candoco Dance Company and The Royal Opera, a cast of disabled and non-disabled singers, dancers and musicians come together to tell a story about how we are all connected.
Creative team
Composer: Jules Maxwell
Director and choreographer: Ben Wright
Dramaturg: Jude Christian
Set and video designer: Will Holt
Costume designer: Rike Zollner
Performances
7 December 2019–4 January 2020
Linbury Theatre
Sung in English
Otello
The Royal Opera
Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto: Arrigo Boito
Position of Music Director Maestro Antonio Pappano generously supported by
Mrs Susan A. Olde OBE
Generous philanthropic support from Marina Hobson OBE, Spindrift Al Swaidi and The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund
Verdi’s Shakespeare-inspired penultimate opera charts the fall of an all-powerful leader and devoted husband from the radiance of power and love to the darkness of deluded jealousy. Keith Warner’s insightful production, here in its first revival at the Royal Opera House, highlights the conflict between innocence and evil at the heart of Shakespeare’s story. Verdi’s score is one of his finest, ranging from grand ceremonial scenes to episodes of exquisite intimacy. With supreme Verdians Gregory Kunde (Otello), Ermonela Jaho (his beloved Desdemona) and Carlos Álvarez (his nemesis Iago), conducted by Royal Opera Music Director Antonio Pappano, it’s hard to imagine a more thrilling operatic experience.
Creative team
Conductor: Antonio Pappano
Director: Keith Warner
Set designer: Boris Kudlička
Costume designer: Kaspar Glarner
Lighting designer: Bruno Poet
Movement director: Michael Barry
Cast
Otello: Gregory Kunde
Desdemona: Ermonela Jaho
Iago: Carlos Álvarez
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Performances:
9–22 December 2019
Main Stage
Sung in Italian with English surtitles
The Royal Opera returns to Japan in September 2019 for the first time since 2015. Antonio Pappano will conduct Otello at NBS from September 14 to September 23 as well as Faust from September 12 to September 22.
La traviata
The Royal Opera
Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto: Francesco Maria Piave
Violetta – the ‘fallen woman’ of the title – is tested to extremes in one of the most famous of all operas. Yet it is her extraordinary strength in self-sacrifice that has engaged the hearts of audiences in this consistently popular opera. Verdi brought to this powerful story, based on real-life characters, music that soars, elates and stirs, and audiences have long been moved by it. The colour and detail of the Parisian world of its story – from the glamour of its society parties to the poverty of Violetta’s final hours – makes this a favourite among Royal Opera productions.
Creative team
Conductors: Daniel Oren, Francesco Ivan Ciampa, Maurizio Benini
Director: Richard Eyre
Designer: Bob Crowley
Lighting designer: Jean Kalman
Director of movement: Jane Gibson
Cast
Violetta Valéry: Hrachuhi Bassenz, Dinara Alieva, Kristina Mkhitaryan
Vlada Borovko, Aleksandra Kurzak
Alfredo Germont: Liparit Avetisyan, Rame Lahaj, Ho-Yoon Chung, Frédéric Antoun
Giorgio Germont: Simon Keenlyside, Gabriele Viviani, Željko Lučić,
George Petean
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Performances
17 December 2019–23 March 2020
Main Stage
Sung in Italian with English surtitles
La bohème
The Royal Opera
Co-production with Teatro Real, Madrid, and Lyric Opera of Chicago
Generous philanthropic support from The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund
Music: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
Puccini’s opera of young love in 19th-century Paris is packed with beautiful music, including lyrical arias, celebratory choruses for Act II’s evocation of Christmas Eve in the Latin Quarter and a poignant final scene over which the composer himself wept. Richard Jones’s character-led production perfectly captures La bohème’s mixture of comedy, romance and tragedy, with striking designs by Stewart Laing. The casts feature some of the greatest interpreters of Puccini’s bohemian lovers performing today and include former members of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme.
Creative team
Conductors: Emmanuel Villaume, Ariane Matiakh (Jan, Feb);
Marco Armiliato (May)
Director: Richard Jones
Designer: Stewart Laing
Lighting designer: Mimi Jordan Sherin
Movement director: Sarah Fahie
Cast
Mimì: Sonya Yoncheva, Simona Mihai, Eleonora Buratto (Jan, Feb);
Nicole Car (May)
Rodolfo: Charles Castronovo, Jonathan Tetelman (Jan, Feb); Piotr Beczała (May)
Marcello: Andrzej Filończyk, Andrei Bondarenko (Jan, Feb);
Łukasz Goliński (May)
Musetta: Aida Garifullina, Vlada Borovko (Jan, Feb); Georgia Jarman (May)
Schaunard: Gyula Nagy, Alessio Arduini (Jan, Feb); Duncan Rock (May)
Colline: Peter Kellner, Fernando Radó (Jan, Feb); Krzysztof Bączyk (May)
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Onegin
The Royal Ballet
Choreography: John Cranko
Music: Kurt-Heinz Stolze after Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Generous philanthropic support from Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet (Production Principal), Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson and the Paul Ferguson Memorial Fund and the Friends of Covent Garden
The naivety of first love gives way to the regret of experience in this narrative ballet by British choreographer John Cranko. The atmosphere of Imperial Russia is brought to the stage through the gripping story from Pushkin’s classic verse-novel, a score drawn from across Tchaikovsky’s works and historically informed designs. Cranko’s detailed choreography peoples the countryside and city settings with finely drawn characters full of emotion. The Royal Ballet is at its dramatic finest in this heart-breaking story of two people whose paths are fated to cross but never to join.
Creative team
Designer: Jurgen Rose after original 1969 designs for Stuttgart Ballet
Lighting designer: Steen Bjarke
Conductor: Valery Ovsyanikov
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Performances
18 January–29 February 2020
Main Stage
Aisha and Abhaya
World premiere, Rambert
Co-production between The Royal Ballet and Rambert in association with BBC Films and Robin Saunders.
Generous philanthropic support from The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund
Aisha and Abhaya is a modern fairytale that combines stunning film with striking choreography, performed by Rambert, Britain’s foremost contemporary dance company. This co-production between The Royal Ballet, Rambert and BBC Films
is a feast for the senses. Director Kibwe Tavares brings together the work of choreographer Sharon Eyal with music by Ori Lichtik and GAIKA. Beautifully lavish costumes contrast with the heartbreaking story of two sisters in a new world and their struggle to survive.
Creative team
Director: Kibwe Tavares
Choreography: Sharon Eyal
Music: Ori Lichtik/GAIKA
Choreography co-creator: Gai Behar
Costume designer and style supervisor: Uldus Bakhtiozina
Projection designer: Gillian Tan
Visual effects: Factory Fifteen
Performances
21 January–9 February 2020
Linbury Theatre
Alice’s Adventures Under Ground
New production, The Royal Opera
Co-production with Irish National Opera
Generous philanthropic support from Hamish and Sophie Forsyth, Charles Holloway, Gonzalo and Maria Garcia and the Contemporary Music Circle
Music and libretto: Gerald Barry
Fun, furious, frantic and utterly fantastic! The surreal world of Lewis Carroll’s Alice, both in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, is given an extra twist in Gerald Barry’s operatic treatment. At less than an hour for the whole opera, this short, sharp shot of mayhem is ideal as a family treat. Antony McDonald (of last Season’s Hansel and Gretel) directs and designs this new production – the first ever staging of this musically virtuoso opera – with more than a touch of the Victorian toy theatre. The Red Queen, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter: meet a kaleidoscope of colourful characters in this joyful, headlong rush into a world gone deliciously mad.
Creative team
Conductors: Thomas Adès, Finnegan Downie Dear
Director: Antony McDonald
Designer: Antony McDonald
Lighting designer: Fabiana Piccioli
Movement director: Lucy Burge
Cast
Alice: Claudia Boyle, Jennifer France
Red Queen, Queen of Hearts: Allison Cook, Clare Presland
White Queen, Dormouse: Hilary Summers, Carole Wilson
White King, White Rabbit, Mad Hatter: Sam Furness, Nicky Spence
March Hare: Robert Murray, Peter Tantsits
White Knight, Cheshire Cat, Mock Turtle: Stephen Richardson, Mark Stone
Red Knight, Humpty Dumpty, King of Hearts: Joshua Bloom, Alan Ewing
Performances
4–9 February 2020
Main Stage
Sung in English (and other languages)
Acosta Danza Up Close
Acosta Danza
Produced by Valid Productions
Carlos Acosta’s own dance company is drawn from the best of Cuba’s dancers and performs a distinctive repertory that combines national and international flavours in technique, choreography and music. As a Sadler’s Wells International Associate Company, Acosta Danza is no stranger to London, and on this occasion the company will be seen in a distinctive light through a programme of intimate works whose scale and mood is perfectly attuned to the performing space of the Linbury Theatre.
Soledad
Choreography and costume and set designer: Rafael Bonachela
Lighting designer: Lee Curran
Music: Chavela Vargas and Gidon Kremer (Hommage à Piazzolla)
Impronta
Choreography: Maria Rovira
Costume designer: Zeleidy Crespo
Lighting designer: Pedro Benitez
Music: José V. Gavilondo
El Cruce Sobre el Niagara
Choreography: Marianela Boán
Costume designer: Leandro Soto
Lighting designer: Carlos Repilado
Music: Olivier Messiaen
Two
Choreography and costume designer: Russell Maliphant
Lighting designer: Michael Hulls
Music: Andy Cowton
New Work
Choreography: Juliano Nunes
Performances
14–24 February 2020
Linbury Theatre
New Cathy Marston/New Liam Scarlett
World premieres, The Royal Ballet
Liam Scarlett's role as Artist in Residence is generously supported by Ricki Gail and Robert Conway
Cathy Marston is previously an Associate Artist of the Royal Opera House and Director of Bern Ballet, and much in demand internationally. The inspiration for her first work for The Royal Ballet Main Stage is the momentous life and career of the cellist Jacqueline du Pré. A new work by Liam Scarlett, The Royal Ballet’s Artist in Residence, provides the second part of the programme.
New Cathy Marston
Choreography: Cathy Marston
Scenario: Cathy Marston and Edward Kemp
Music: Philip Feeney
Set designer: Hildegard Bechtler
Costume designer: Bregje van Balen
Lighting designer: Jon Clark
Conductor: Andrea Molino
New Liam Scarlett
Choreography: Liam Scarlett
Performances
17 February–4 March 2020
Main Stage
Live cinema relay: Tuesday 25 February 2020
Susanna
New production, The Royal Opera
Co-production with London Handel Festival. Generously made possible by
Oak Foundation.
Music: George Frideric Handel
Libretto: Anonymous, based on Apocrypha, The History of Susanna
Performed by: Jette Parker Young Artists
A virtuous woman wrongly accused by two men with ulterior motives provides the dramatic core of Handel’s oratorio Susanna. It was written for Covent Garden and had its premiere on the site in 1749 but hasn’t been performed here since. Now it receives a staging in the Linbury Theatre led by members of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme. The production is part of our Handel series and follows on from Solomon and Berenice. The beautiful score is full of Handel’s subtle musical dramatizations, from arias to powerful choruses. This is a wonderful opportunity to rediscover the past through a work of Covent Garden heritage and to see talented rising artists who will become the stars of the future.
Creative team
Conductor: Patrick Milne
Director: Isabelle Kettle
Cast
Susanna: Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha
Joacim: Patrick Terry
Daniel: Yaritza Véliz
Attendant: April Koyejo
Chelsias and Judge: Michael Mofidian
First Elder: Andrés Presno
Second Elder: Blaise Malaba
Performances
5–14 March 2020
Linbury Theatre
Sung in English
Fidelio
New production, The Royal Opera
Music: Ludwig van Beethoven
Libretto: Joseph Sonnleithner, Stephan von Breuning and George Friedrich Treitschke
Position of Music Director Maestro Antonio Pappano generously supported by
Mrs Susan A. Olde OBE
Generous philanthropic support from Marina Hobson OBE, Martin and Jane Houston, Mary Ellen Johnson and Richard Karl Goeltz and the Maestro’s Circle
Beethoven’s only opera is a masterpiece, an uplifting story of risk and triumph. In this new production, conducted by Antonio Pappano, Jonas Kaufmann plays the political prisoner Florestan, and Lise Davidsen his wife Leonore (disguised as ‘Fidelio’) who daringly sets out to rescue him. Set in strong counterpoint are the ingredients of domestic intrigue, determined love and the cruelty of an oppressive regime. The music is transcendent throughout and includes the famous Act I Quartet, the Prisoners’ Chorus and Florestan’s impassioned Act II cry in the darkness and vision of hope. Tobias Kratzer’s new staging brings together the dark reality of the French Revolutionary ‘Terror’ and our own time to illuminate Fidelio’s inspiring message of shared humanity.
Creative team
Conductor: Antonio Pappano
Director: Tobias Kratzer
Set and costume designer: Rainer Sellmaier
Lighting designer: Michael Bauer
Video designer: Manuel Braun
Dramaturg: Bettina Bartz
Cast
Leonore (Fidelio): Lise Davidsen
Florestan: Jonas Kaufmann
Rocco: Georg Zeppenfeld
Don Pizarro: Simon Neal
Marzelline: Amanda Forsythe
Jaquino: Robin Tritschler
Performances
1–17 March 2020
Main Stage
Live cinema relay: Tuesday 17 March 2020
Sung in German with English surtitles
Swan Lake
The Royal Ballet
Production supported by OANDA
Liam Scarlett’s role as Artist in Residence is generously supported by Ricki Gail and Robert Conway
Generous philanthropic support from Lindsay and Sarah Tomlinson, John and Susan Burns, Kenneth and Susan Green, Doug and Ceri King, the Fonteyn Circle and
The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund
Choreography: Liam Scarlett after Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov
Music: Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky
Liam Scarlett’s glorious production of Swan Lake, new in 2018, returns for its first revival. While remaining faithful to the Marius Petipa/Lev Ivanov text, Scarlett’s additional choreography and John Macfarlane’s magnificent designs breathe new life into what is arguably the best-known and most-loved classical ballet. The entire Company shines in this eternal tale of doomed love, a masterpiece refreshed for a new generation. Tchaikovsky’s first score for ballet soars with its symphonic sweep and combines perfectly with exquisite choreography, from the grand pas de deux of Prince Siegfried and Odile to the swans at the lakeside. An intoxicating mix of spectacle and intimate passion, the overall effect is irresistible.
Creative team
Choreographer: Liam Scarlett
Additional choreography: Frederick Ashton
Production: Liam Scarlett
Designer: John Macfarlane
Lighting designer: David Finn
Conductor: Koen Kessels
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House/Royal Ballet Sinfonia
Performances
5 March–16 May 2020
Main Stage
Live cinema relay, Wednesday 1 April 2020
Draft Works
The Royal Ballet and guest companies
Drawing together companies of international renown, this year’s International Draft Works programme continues the opportunity in London to see the direction choreography is taking globally. A series of new works explore the artistic potential of movement. The intimacy of the Linbury Theatre allows you to see up close the work of choreographers at the forefront of dance development, and the dancers with whom they collaborate. This is a programme about the choreographic cutting edge – encouraging new ideas and giving insights into rising talent.
Performances
19–24 March 2020
Linbury Theatre
Jenůfa
New production, The Royal Opera
Generous philanthropic support from Hamish and Sophie Forsyth
Music and libretto: Leoš Janáček
The third in The Royal Opera’s stagings of Janáček, Jenůfa explores the lives of two courageous women struggling for fulfilment in a small rural community. Janáček movingly captures Jenůfa’s progression from hope to despair to eventual radiant happiness, while her stepmother, the Kostelnička, is one of opera’s most complex and sympathetic maternal figures. Award-winning director Claus Guth stages the first production of Jenůfa at Covent Garden since 2001. Former Music Director of Glyndebourne Vladimir Jurowski conducts a stunning score infused with the folk music of Janáček’s native Moravia, with rising star Asmik Grigorian as Jenůfa and Karita Mattila as the Kostelnička.
Creative team
Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski
Director: Claus Guth
Set designer: Michael Levine
Costume designer: Gesine Vollm
Lighting designer: James Farncombe
Choreographer: Teresa Rotemberg
Dramaturg: Yvonne Gebauer
Cast
Jenůfa: Asmik Grigorian
Kostelnička: Karita Mattila
Laca Klemen: Allan Clayton
Števa Buryja: Pavel Černoch
Grandmother Buryjovka: Elena Zilio
Performances
24 March–9 April 2020
Main Stage
Sung in Czech with English surtitles
Live Fire Exercise/Corybantic Games
The Royal Ballet
Generous philanthropic support from the Friends of Covent Garden.
Live Fire Exercise – Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor generously supported by Linda and Philip Harley.
Corybantic Games – Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon generously supported by Kenneth and Susan Green
Conductor: Koen Kessels
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
A contemporary programme opens with Wayne McGregor’s Live Fire Exercise.
John Gerrard’s slow-motion projections of explosions and music by Michael Tippett combine with choreography that requires militaristic discipline, pushing the dancers’ bodies to their limits in a series of hyper-extended ensembles and solos. Following is Wheeldon’s abstract Corybantic Games from 2018, which features an award-winning collaboration with leading fashion designer Erdem Moralioglu and is set to Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade after Plato’s ‘Symposium’. The dynamic choreography conjures up a world of antiquity that brings the pure athleticism of the dancers to the fore. A third ballet, yet to be announced, completes this mixed programme.
Live Fire Exercise
Artist: John Gerrard
Costume designer: Moritz Junge
Lighting designer: Lucy Carter
Corybantic Games
Set designer: Jean-Marc Puissant
Costume designer: Erdem Moralioglu
Lighting designer: Peter Mumford
Performances
2–20 April 2020
Main Stage
Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci
The Royal Opera
Co-production with Opera Australia, La Monnaie, Brussels, and the Goteborg Opera
Generous philanthropic support from the Patrons and Friends of the Royal Opera House
Two opera classics are drawn together in this wonderfully observed re-creation of life in a South Italian village as a travelling theatre visits and emotions erupt. The award-winning production by Damiano Michieletto presents vividly the fast-moving, shocking events brought about by secret love and uncontrollable jealousy. The music is full of Italianate melody in the great choruses that bring the villagers together in celebration and revelry, alongside the solo arias and tense confrontations that provoke violence and tragedy. With thrilling singing and intense drama, ‘Cav and Pag’ distils into one wonderful night out, demonstrating the enduring appeal of Italian opera in its most familiar form.
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Conductor: Daniel Oren
Director: Damiano Michleletto
Set designer: Paolo Fantin
Costume designer: Carla Teti
Lighting designer: Alessandro Carletti
Cavalleria rusticana cast
Music: Pietro Mascagni
Libretto: Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci
Turiddu: Yonghoon Lee
Santuzza: Liudmyla Monastyrska
Alfio: Dimitri Platanias
Lola: Josè Maria Lo Monaco
Pagliacci cast
Music and libretto: Ruggero Leoncavallo
Canio: Roberto Alagna
Tonio: Dimitri Platanias
Nedda: Aleksandra Kurzak
Silvio: Bogdan Baciu
Beppe: Mikeldi Atxalandabaso
Performances
11 April–2 May 2020
Main Stage
Live cinema relay: Tuesday 21 April 2020
Sung in Italian with English surtitles
Tristan und Isolde
The Royal Opera
Co-production with Houston Grand Opera
Music and libretto: Richard Wagner
Generous philanthropic support from the Tristan und Isolde Production Syndicate and the Wagner Circle
Christof Loy’s Olivier Award-winning production of Wagner’s most sensual opera returns for its second revival, with sought-after Wagnerians Michael Weinius and Ricarda Merbeth in their Royal Opera debuts as opera’s most famous lovers. Loy uses a simple set divided by a curtain to reflect Tristan and Isolde’s longing to escape from the prosaic everyday world – here depicted as an elegant wedding feast – into an inner world of transcendent love. Semyon Bychkov, acclaimed for his interpretations of Lohengrin and Tannhäuser with The Royal Opera, conducts Wagner’s intense and endlessly beautiful score.
Creative team
Conductor: Semyon Bychkov
Director: Christof Loy
Designer: Johannes Leiacker
Lighting designer: Olaf Winter
Dramaturg: Marion Tiedtke
Cast:
Tristan: Michael Weinius
Isolde: Ricarda Merbeth
King Marke: Franz-Josef Selig
Brangäne: Ruxandra Donose
Kurwenal: Johan Reuter
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Performances
27 April–11 May 2020
Main Stage
Sung in German with English surtitles
The Dante Project
World premiere, The Royal Ballet
A collaboration between: Wayne McGregor, Thomas Adès, Tacita Dean, Lucy Carter and Uzma Hameed
Music co-commission with Los Angeles Philharmonic
Generous philanthropic support from John and Susan Burns and the
John S Cohen Foundation.
Design role generously supported by The Estate of Howard Hodgkin
Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor generously supported by Linda and
Philip Harley
Dante’s Divine Comedy is an epic journey through the afterlife: it encompasses
the horrifying drama of Inferno and its damned, the lyrical mysticism of pilgrims on mount Purgatorio and the dazzling spheres of Paradiso with their endless configurations of light. The poem was inspired by the agony of Dante’s own exile
and traces his path from crisis to revelation guided by his literary hero Virgil and his lost love Beatrice. In this new work, The Royal Ballet’s trailblazing Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor collaborates with an award-winning team – contemporary composer Thomas Adès, artist Tacita Dean, lighting designer Lucy Carter and dramaturg Uzma Hameed – to bring us closer to Dante and his extraordinary vision.
Creative team
Choreography: Wayne McGregor
Music: Thomas Adès
Design: Tacita Dean
Lighting design (part 1): Lucy Carter, Simon Bennison
Lighting design (parts 2-3): Lucy Carter
Dramaturgy: Uzma Hameed
Conductors: Thomas Adès, Koen Kessels
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Performances
6 May–1 June 2020
Main Stage
Live cinema relay: Thursday 28 May 2020
Heritage
The Royal Ballet and guest companies
Choreography includes works by Frederick Ashton, Kenneth MacMillan
Generous philanthropic support from the Patrons of Covent Garden
The identity of The Royal Ballet – and of ballet in Britain and the world – has been shaped through more than eighty years by the extraordinary choreographic creativity of Ninette de Valois, Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan. A complement to the more familiar performances of works by these three figures on the Main Stage, this programme brings that heritage into the intimate space of the Linbury Theatre, performed by companies including The Royal Ballet and Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Performances:
14–19 May 2020
Linbury Theatre
Elektra
New production, The Royal Opera
Music: Richard Strauss
Libretto: Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Generous philanthropic support from Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet (Production Principal), Marina Hobson OBE and The Elektra Production Syndicate.
Position of Music Director Maestro Antonio Pappano generously supported by
Mrs Susan A. Olde OBE
Strauss’s thrilling and audacious adaptation of Greek tragedy receives a new staging by the award-winning Christof Loy. This uncompromising opera, about a daughter intent on bloody revenge and a mother driven to madness, has provoked critics to lively debate and both shocked and excited audiences since its 1909 premiere. Antonio Pappano conducts music that combines violence with moments of exquisite tenderness in his first Strauss interpretation for The Royal Opera since 2002. The outstanding cast includes Nina Stemme (Brunnhilde in last Season’s Der Ring des Nibelungen) in the title role, and Karita Mattila in her role debut as the haunted queen Klytämnestra.
Creative team:
Conductor: Antonio Pappano
Director: Christof Loy
Designer: Johannes Leiacker
Lighting designer: Olaf Winter
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Cast
Elektra: Nina Stemme
Chrysothemis: Sara Jakubiak
Klytämnestra: Karita Mattila
Orest: Christof Fischesser
Ägisth: Joseph Kaiser
Performances
29 May–18 June 2020
Main Stage
Live cinema relay: Thursday 18 June 2020
Sung in German with English surtitles
The Turn of the Screw
New production, The Royal Opera
Music: Benjamin Britten
Libretto: Myfanwy Piper
The intimate Linbury Theatre provides the ideal space for Henry James’s tense, classic ghost story, turned by Benjamin Britten into a major work of 20th-century opera. The story follows the malign influence of two ghosts on two children, Flora and Miles, whose governess is unable to prevent a final and deadly conclusion. Claustrophobic, psychologically disturbing and even uncomfortably voyeuristic, this new production follows Billy Budd and Death in Venice in the Britten cycle of works from The Royal Opera. It has a strong young British focus under conductor Finnegan Downie Dear and Natalie Abrahami, who collaborates with Michael Levine on direction and design.
Creative team
Conductor: Finnegan Downie Dear
Created by Natalie Abrahami and Michael Levine
Director: Natalie Abrahami
Designer: Michael Levine
Performances
3–13 June 2020
Linbury Theatre
Sung in English
Tombeaux/Preludes/Symphonic Dances
The Royal Ballet
Generous philanthropic support from the Friends of Covent Garden
Conductor: Alondra de la Parra
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
A programme of three modern works created for The Royal Ballet begins with Tombeaux, David Bintley’s tribute to Frederick Ashton and British ballet tradition. This important work was created as Bintley’s last work for the Company before he became Artistic Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet, and The Royal Ballet revives it in appreciation as he steps down from BRB. Alexei Ratmansky’s fluid and Romantic-inspired ballet from 2013 is reimagined as Preludes with solo piano music by Chopin. As a contrasting finale, Liam Scarlett’s Symphonic Dances to Rachmaninoff’s music presents the shifting moods dictated by its central ballerina against a backdrop of dramatic light and colour.
Tombeaux
Designer: Jasper Conran
Lighting designer: John B. Read
Preludes
Lighting designer: Neil Austin
Symphonic Dances
Designer: Jon Morrell
Lighting designer: David Finn
Video designers: David Finn, Leo Flint
Performances
3–13 June 2020
Main Stage
Lucia di Lammermoor
The Royal Opera
Co-production with Greek National Opera
Music: Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto: Salvadore Cammarano
Generous philanthropic support from Lord and Lady Laidlaw
In Donizetti’s operatic reworking of Walter Scott’s popular novel The Bride of Lammermoor, the composer creates one of his most memorable heroines, with
music that requires virtuoso performance – most famously, Lucia’s haunted Act III monologue. Katie Mitchell’s staging brings together elements of the Gothic thriller and social critique of its early 19th-century setting, with Lucia firmly centre stage. This is a penetrating depiction of an intelligent and resourceful woman cornered by the men around her and driven to a blood-soaked final act. Rising star Giacomo Sagripanti makes his Royal Opera debut conducting two stunning young casts, including Nadine Sierra and Venera Gimadieva as Lucia.
Creative team
Conductor: Giacomo Sagripanti
Director: Katie Mitchell
Designer: Vicki Mortimer
Lighting designer: Jon Clark
Movement director: Joseph Alford
Cast
Lucia: Nadine Sierra, Venera Gimadieva
Edgardo: Vittorio Grigòlo, Saimir Pirgu
Enrico: Artur Ruciński, Igor Golovatenko
Raimondo Bidebent: In Sung Sim, Evgeny Stavinsky
Alisa: Rachael Lloyd
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Performances:
13 June–8 July 2020
Main Stage
Sung in Italian with English surtitles
Young Talent Festival
The Young Talent Festival celebrates a wealth of emerging artists from across junior companies and premier dance schools in Europe and around the world. Across the festival, there will be performances by many companies, including ZooNation Youth Company (pictured). This is a great occasion to enjoy dance of today that also symbolizes a vibrant future for both performers and audiences.
Performances
16 June–5 July 2020
Linbury Theatre, Paul Hamlyn Hall
Madama Butterfly
The Royal Opera
Co-production with Gran Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona
Music: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
Position of Music Director Maestro Antonio Pappano generously supported by Mrs Susan A. Olde OBE
Generous philanthropic support from Marina Hobson OBE and The Royal Opera House Endowment Fund
The clash of Eastern and Western cultures proves the downfall of a young geisha in one of the most popular of all Italian operas, revived here under conductor Antonio Pappano and with a star double cast, including Ermonela Jaho, Lianna Haroutounian, Marcelo Puente, Gianluca Terranova and Gerald Finley. This beautiful Royal Opera production has striking imagery throughout – inspired by 19th-century European views of the Orient – to complement the alluring score. Puccini’s music evokes the shifting perspectives within the Japanese setting: sensual and seductive at the outset, yet brutal and heartbreaking by the end.
Creative team
Conductors: Dan Ettinger, Antonio Pappano
Directors: Moshe Leiser, Patrice Caurier
Set designer: Christian Fenouillat
Costume designer: Agostino Cavalca
Lighting designer: Christophe Forey
Cast
Cio-Cio-San: Lianna Haroutounian, Ermonela Jaho
Pinkerton: Gianluca Terranova, Marcelo Puente
Sharpless: Gerald Finley
Suzuki: Enkelejda Shkoza, Elizabeth DeShong
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Performances
22 June–17 July 2020
Main Stage
Sung in Italian with English surtitles
Don Carlo
The Royal Opera
Music: Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto: Joseph Méry and Camille du Locle
Supported by Rolex
Verdi’s grand opera captures the state splendour and religious repression of Renaissance Spain. It returns to The Royal Opera in Nicholas Hytner’s atmospheric production with spectacular sets and lavish costumes by Bob Crowley. The central characters are among Verdi’s most intriguing: crucially, the impetuous Carlos is torn between political ambition and his passion for his stepmother Elizabeth of Valois, while his conflicted father Philip II is urged by the Grand Inquisitor to make a terrible sacrifice for the Church. Verdi’s music is always immediate and inventive, from rousing choruses to intimate arias and duets, here conducted by Richard Farnes, former Music Director for Opera North.
Creative team:
Conductor: Richard Farnes
Director: Nicholas Hytner
Designer: Bob Crowley
Lighting designer: Mark Henderson
Movement: Scarlett Mackmin
Fight Director: Terry King
Cast
Don Carlos: Michael Fabiano
Elizabeth of Valois: Hibla Gerzmava
Rodrigo, Marquis of Posa: Mariusz Kwiecień, Plácido Domingo
Princess Eboli: Elīna Garanča, Ruxandra Donose
Philip II: Ferruccio Furlanetto
Grand Inquisitor: Taras Shtonda
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Performances
29 June–19 July 2020
Main Stage
Sung in Italian with English surtitles
Tosca
The Royal Opera
Music: Giacomo Puccini
Libretto: Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica
Position of Music Director Maestro Antonio Pappano generously supported by Mrs Susan A. Olde OBE
Generous philanthropic support from Marina Hobson OBE and the Sitzprobe Circle
Antonio Pappano conducts an outstanding cast in one of the best-loved and most-performed operas in the repertory: Puccini’s thrilling Tosca. From the demonic chords that open the opera to the violent twist of its shock ending, the tension never lets up. Jonathan Kent’s production, with Paul Brown’s stunning designs, perfectly evokes the troubled atmosphere of Rome in 1800. The story’s combination of Tosca’s sensuality and religious sincerity, the idealism of her lover, and the Chief of Police who is the dark nemesis of both, never fails to thrill.
Creative team
Conductor: Antonio Pappano
Director: Jonathan Kent
Designer: Paul Brown
Lighting designer: Mark Henderson
Cast
Floria Tosca: Anna Netrebko
Mario Cavaradossi: Brian Jagde
Baron Scarpia: Bryn Terfel
Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Performances
6–15 July 2020
Main Stage
Sung in Italian with English surtitles
The Royal Ballet School Summer Performance
The Royal Ballet School’s annual matinee is an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the ballet stars of the future as these supremely talented young dancers demonstrate the skills and artistry they have learned at one of the world’s great ballet schools. The programme draws on choreography from across the repertory, with extracts from classical, heritage and more contemporary works danced by students from all years in the School.
Performance
11 July 2020
Main Stage
She Described it to Death
The Royal Opera
Co-commission between Guildhall School of Music & Drama and The Royal Opera
Composer Matt Rogers’s new opera takes its inspiration from a future hindered by over-population, to which a sci-fi angle brings an intriguing solution, and new problems of its own. This chamber piece follows Rogers’s previous success The Virtues of Things (2015) and comes to the Linbury Theatre as the third Doctoral Composer-in-Residence collaboration between The Royal Opera and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She Described It to Death, a major new commission, is an intriguing opportunity to get up close to the contemporary – and possibly even the future.
Performances
17–21 July 2020
Linbury Theatre
Sung in English
Jette Parker Young Artists Summer Performance
Generously made possible by Oak Foundation
The Jette Parker Young Artists Programme continues to flourish, attracting and nurturing exceptional talent from around the world. Singers, directors, conductors and répétiteurs at the start of their careers perfect their art with coaching from some of the most highly regarded teachers and performers in opera and ballet. The JPYA Link Artist scheme offers coaching and access opportunities to a broader range of artists, with a particular focus on those currently under-represented in the Company’s talent pool. The programme works in collaboration with other organizations to promote the diversification of talent across the sector and leads initiatives to support the training of women conductors in partnership with the Royal Philharmonic Society and the National Opera Studio.
Catch tomorrow’s stars in the making in this Season’s Meet the Young Artists Week, and on our stages throughout the Season, including in the Programme’s annual chamber opera – this year, Handel’s Susanna – in lunchtime recitals at the Royal Opera House and elsewhere, and in their end-of-Season Summer Performance.
Young artists for the 2019/20 Season
Sopranos: Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, Yaritza Véliz
Mezzo-sopranos: Stephanie Wake-Edwards, Hongni Wu
Countertenor: Patrick Terry
Tenors: Filipe Manu, Andrés Presno
Baritone: Germán E. Alcántara
Bass-baritones: ByeongMin Gil, Michael Mofidian
Stage director: Isabelle Kettle
Opera conductors/Répétiteurs: Patrick Milne, Edmund Whitehead
Ballet conductors: Jonathan Lo, Thomas Payne
Link Artists
Soprano: April Koyejo
Bass: Blaise Malaba
Performance
18 July 2020
Main stage
