Elektra

January 12, 2024 - January 30, 2024

Description

Klytämnestra plotted with her lover Ägisth to murder her husband King Agamemnon. Her daughter Elektra sent her brother Orest away to protect him. She is now an outcast in her mother’s home, and her unkempt appearance and repeated honouring of her dead father provoke Klytämnestra’s anger. Elektra longs only for revenge. Her sister Chrysothemis is desperate to escape from the palace. Klytämnestra is wracked with guilt and Elektra tells her it will only be assuaged by the queen’s own violent death. News comes that Orest is dead. Then a mysterious man arrives at the court.

 Elektra recognizes the man as her brother, Orest. She is overjoyed. Orest begins to take his vengeance by brutally murdering his mother. Ägisth arrives, unaware of what is happening. Orest strikes him down too. Orest is acclaimed by the court and Elektra finally performs her dance of triumph, which has its own deadly conclusion.

Source:: https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/elektra-by-christof-loy-details

Der fliegende Holländer

February 29, 2024 - March 16, 2024

Description

A man doomed to sail the seas for all eternity unless he finds true love, and a woman determined to save him. 

Praised in The Independent as ‘an immersive and immersing experience’, Tim Albery’s brooding and atmospheric production situates the action in a modern coastal town. Henrik Nánási conducts Wagner’s first undisputed masterpiece, featuring Elisabet Strid as Senta, in her House debut, while Bryn Terfel returns as a memorable Dutchman ‘whose soul goes fathoms deep’ (Financial Times). 

Source: https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/the-flying-dutchman-by-tim-albery-details#about 

Madama Butterfly

March 14, 2024

Description

When the young geisha, Cio-Cio-San, marries American Naval Officer Pinkerton, she believes she is entering a real, binding marriage for life. Forsaking her religion and community, she learns all too late that for Pinkerton, their marriage is merely an illusion – with tragic consequences.

With a score that includes Butterfly’s aria, 'Un bel dì, vedremo' (‘One fine day’) and the Humming Chorus, Giacomo Puccini’s opera is entrancing and ultimately heart-breaking. Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier’s exquisite production takes inspiration from 19th-century European images of Japan.

Asmik Grigorian and Hrachuhí Bassénz share the role of Cio-Cio-San, with Kevin John Edusei conducting.

Source: https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/madama-butterfly-by-moshe-leiser-and-patrice-caurier-details#background

Madama Butterfly

March 14, 2024 - April 03, 2024

Description

When the young geisha, Cio-Cio-San, marries American Naval Officer Pinkerton, she believes she is entering a real, binding marriage for life. Forsaking her religion and community, she learns all too late that for Pinkerton, their marriage is merely an illusion – with tragic consequences.

With a score that includes Butterfly’s aria, 'Un bel dì, vedremo' (‘One fine day’) and the Humming Chorus, Giacomo Puccini’s opera is entrancing and ultimately heart-breaking. Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier’s exquisite production takes inspiration from 19th-century European images of Japan.

Asmik Grigorian and Hrachuhí Bassénz share the role of Cio-Cio-San, with Kevin John Edusei conducting.

Source: https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/madama-butterfly-by-moshe-leiser-and-patrice-caurier-details#cast-and-creatives

LARMES DE COUTEAU / FULL MOON IN MARCH

April 26, 2024

Description

In Bohuslav Martinů's surreal Larmes de couteau (1928) a young woman considers two prospective lovers.  She is besotted with a hanged man, but her mother urges her to marry their neighbour, Satan. Dada meets foxtrot, jazz, ragtime, and blues, in this one-act opera with a flavour of Kurt Weill and café-théâtre. 

A bored swineherd attempts to seduce a cruel queen in order to become king.  After winning her hand, she has him beheaded, and her shadow dances with his head. There are echoes of Turandot and Salome in John Harbison’s adaptation of text from WB Yeats for his rarely performed piece Full Moon in March (1977).   

Source: https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/les-larmes-de-couteau-full-moon-in-march-by-bohuslav-martinu-and-john-harbison-details#background

Andrea Chénier

May 30, 2024

Description

At a glittering party in 18th-century Paris, the poet Andréa Chenier delivers an impassioned denunciation of Louis XVI. Five years later, the Revolution has given way to the Terror, transforming the power balance between Chénier, his beloved Maddalena, and Gérard, the man who could destroy him... 

Jonas Kaufmann headlines David McVicar’s spectacular staging, under the baton of long-time collaborator Antonio Pappano – who conducts Giordano’s epic historical drama of revolution and forbidden love in his last production as Music Director of The Royal Opera.

Source: https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/andrea-chenier-by-david-mcvicar-details#cast-and-creatives

Icons Rediscovered: Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker and Iolanta

November 08, 2023

Description

In the magnificent setting of the Royal Albert Hall, Vasily Petrenko enchants with two of Tchaikovsky’s most magical scores: Iolanta and Act II of The Nutcracker.

A blind princess, a doting father, and a miracle cure that can only act through the power of true love. No composer knew how to tell stories and tug at the heartstrings better than Tchaikovsky, and his melodious, fairytale one-act opera Iolanta leaves audiences reaching for their handkerchiefs every time. Vasily Petrenko loves it, and for this one-off semi-staged revival at the Royal Albert Hall, he has gathered a truly world-class cast: singers who have known Tchaikovsky’s music all their lives.

Rigoletto

September 23, 2023 - December 20, 2023

Description

Synopsis:

The Duke of Mantua is a serial womanizer. At a palace party, not content with the married Countess Ceprano, the Duke reveals he is also infatuated with a mysterious woman he has seen in the church.

The hunchbacked jester Rigoletto jokes that the Duke should have the Countess’s husband murdered. Count Ceprano vows to kidnap Rigoletto’s lover as punishment. Chaos descends when the elderly Count Monterone arrives and confronts the Duke for seducing his daughter – a third woman! Rigoletto takes his jesting too far, and the old man curses him.

Rigoletto’s so-called ‘lover’ is in fact his daughter, Gilda, whom he keeps under lock and key at home. She has secretly fallen in love with the Duke of Mantua, who came to her church in disguise. Gilda is kidnapped by Count Ceprano and delivered into the Duke’s clutches. Rigoletto engages an assassin to exact his revenge. But before the day is out, the old man’s curse will exert its deadly power.

Source:: https://www.roh.org.uk/tickets-and-events/rigoletto-by-oliver-mears-details