The Royal Opera House Guidebook. The Royal Opera House

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      The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden is the permanent home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet, the Royal Opera Chorus and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. This fine building is a living centre for great operas, ballets and music, performed to world acclaim. The richness of the international repertory of established classics and exciting new works expresses the character and achievements of all those who have striven to place the Royal Opera House at the centre of the nation's cultural life.

      The present theatre was built in 1858. It closed 1997–9 for radical rebuilding and is now one of the most architecturally impressive and technically advanced opera houses in the world. The majestic red, cream and gold auditorium and its immense proscenium arch framing the famous main stage, remain intact, while the much extended complex incorporates the Linbury Studio Theatre, the Clore Studio Upstairs and spacious public areas including restaurants, bars and a roof terrace. There are two full-size opera rehearsal stages, and extensive spaces for ballet rehearsals and classes.

      This souvenir guide describes the Royal Opera House as a working theatre and one of London's landmark attractions. For up-to-date information about Royal Opera House activities, including performances, educational programmes, exhibitions and guided tours, visit www.roh.org.uk

      Carmen, The Royal Opera (Director Francesca Zambello). Bizet's opera is one of the most popular of all operas and has been performed at Covent Garden more than 500 times.

      THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE STORY

      The theatre has a rich and turbulent history central to the development of opera and ballet in Britain. The present building is the third on this site, refurbished at various times to meet changing demands. Its evolution over three centuries is inseparable from the commercial and artistic ambitions of successive impresarios and a host of pioneers of opera and ballet. The establishment of the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet companies at the Royal Opera House after World War II, and the support over the decades of the Arts Council, National Lottery Funding and generous private philanthropy, has secured the place of the Royal Opera House in world culture. The House's great performing companies, both resident and visiting, also owe their existence to the artistic achievements of great musicians, conductors, composers, choreographers and performers, whose work spans three centuries.

      THE FIRST THEATRE

      The story begins in 1732, when theatre manager John Rich built his Theatre Royal on the site of the present opera house (not to be confused with the other Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, which dates from 1663). The principal opera house at the time was the Italian Opera in the Haymarket, about a mile away.

      Both the Drury Lane and the Covent Garden theatres had taken the name Theatre Royal, since both functioned by virtue of Letters Patent granted by King Charles II after his restoration to the throne in 1660. Charles issued Letters Patent to licence a limited number of theatres to prevent them being openly critical of the monarchy. But the arts have always found ways of getting their messages across, and theatres continued freely to present plays and satires critical of the Crown and government.

      The Covent Garden theatre was financed by the enormous profits earned from Rich's production of John СКАЧАТЬ