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 Royal Opera House - as was |
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This page documented Covent Garden before the rebuilding and also discusses that rebuilding when it was started, rather then the delivered reality that is covered on our current page. We are keeping this page because we are terribly nostalgic and in years to come it might be fun to have a wander through the way it all was... Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Bow Street, London WC2E 9DD Box Office: 0171 304 4000. {The Box office itself is situated in Floral Street} General: 0171 240 1200 Catering: 0171 836 9453 Friends 0171 212 9340 The Royal Opera House (ROH), which is also known as Covent Garden, is currently closed and being refurbished. It should open again in the winter of 1999. What follows is about 6 months old, but it still gives a good appreciation of what is happening. The Royal Opera House is home to the Royal Ballet and also hosts occasional seasons by the Birmingham Royal Ballet. The future is a little uncertain because the building closes in July 1997 for a 2-3 years of refurbishment, and there has been more than a little uncertainty (not to say intrigue!) about what is happening. The mists have mostly cleared now and I have a subsection on the Redevelopment of the House. Seats Unless you are very desperate I would not recommend the stalls at the Opera House. The rake on the seats is insufficient and you often see more of the person in front of you than the stage. Better seats are to be had in the Stalls Circle, Grand Tier and Balcony. These will cost somewhere between £30-£50. If you have a special occasion you might consider getting a box. The Grand Tier boxes cost about £220 and the view is not that good. On the other hand you do have space to move around a bit and you can have a rather good 'flunky' deliver you food, wine, Champagne and coffee in the intervals. None of this is particularly cheap (reckon on £15-£40 a head). An alternative is to try and book a table in the Crush Bar - this is upstairs on the same level as the Grand Tier. The final point is that the Opera House is effectively split in two. The posh folks downstairs and the rest of humanity upstairs in the Amphitheatre and Slips. The latter have a side entrance and never-ending concrete steps to get to their seat; not at all an impressive start if you have never been before. Final, final point; each late October the Midland Bank Proms season hits the house with cheap 'seats' in the stalls. For more information on the Opera House and access to it try the following Unofficial Opera House site.
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Royal Opera House Redevelopment With less than a year before the Opera House closes the management are increasingly keen to start telling us all about the redevelopment plans. Recent performance programmes have included a bookmark ( ROH Development News 1 ) giving more details, but this was generally at an overview level and left me with more questions than it answered. However it included a name to contact for further information; Madeleine Watson (on 0171 212 9518)... Madeleine was very pleasant and more to the point most helpful and knowledgeable. What follows is a distillation of the chat with Madeleine and the printed details. Please note that some of the details of the redevelopment and its timetable might change; if any particular aspect of the redevelopment is critical to you it might be best to check direct. I intend to update these details as new information becomes available. When does the Opera House re-open? I seem to recall that the house had the intention of opening on the 1st January 2000. The commitment is still there to plan and work hard to achieve such a timetable but for the moment they are not prepared to commit to a specific opening date - not commit to the outside world at any rate. The plan is for the RB to start to reoccupy the building in the autumn of 1999. They will actually open with previews rather than a ‘Big Bang’ Gala. That will come after 2 or 3 weeks of previews. Some of the opening celebrations are likely to be televised. The feeling is that the nation will then be able to see what its got for its National Lottery and Arts Council money. Where are RB playing while the House is closed? Finding homes for the opera and ballet while the house is being redeveloped has been a sorry tale as one thing after another has fallen through. The plans are now however mostly firm. There are good bits and bad! The bad is that performances in London will sink below 100 and what there is will be concentrated into short seasons rather then spread out. The good news is that the dancers like this(!) and that there will be more small works on display. The plan to use the Royal Albert hall has fallen through; they pulled out for reasons not divulged. The House are sorting another location but will not reveal details until the contracts are sorted. The Royal Albert Hall is where the 1997/98 season was due to kick-off, so they don’t have long to agree things. {the latest word is that they are likely to use the Hammersmith Odion (as sponsored by Labbats...)}. Christmas is likely to be at the Royal Festival Hall. The House is clearly hurt by accusations that in using the Festival Hall they are accepting a cast off of English National Ballet who have now rejected it as a regular performance space. There is talk about the Hall / staging being modified (in a way that ENB never achieved!) to make it a much better place for dance. How meaningful this is we will have to see. We then have to wait for a summer season at the Coliseum before we can see the larger ballets again. In the interim there will be a season of smaller works at the Barbican and much more will be made of Dance Bites. This time the company will split in two and tour separately at many more locations than the customary 3. The regions will not however see the company all together; there is no stomach to find the extra funding for it and in any event it would upset those who traditionally tour the regions (BRB and ENB etc). What Facilities will the Ballet have in the new Covent Garden? For the first time the ballet will have a permanent home all in one place. There will be three new full size rehearsal rooms (currently they have one full size and two smaller ones) and one of these will be capable of seating 200 for Friends and educational events. There will be completely new and purpose built changing and physio facilities. The prima ballerina will now only have to share with 2 or 3 rather than the 5 or 6 currently! As part of the overall redevelopment a 400 seat Studio Theatre that will be used for smaller and newer works. This to my mind is the most significant part of the package and heralds a hopefully much more diverse repertoire than we have perhaps been used to. As they say, the need to fill 2000 seats each night is a major inhibitor on new work at the moment.
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Midland Bank Seasons at the Royal Opera House For some years now the Midland Bank has sponsored a proms season. What this means is that 544 stalls seats come out and 700 promenaders are let in, usually for around £12. While the price is great for the view you get, things can be more than a bit of a crush, not to say rather hard on the bum. The secret is to get there early and when let in to secure a space by a wall - your back will thank you dearly later!. You are not allowed to bring cushions in either; so take an inflatable pillow!! This years season runs from the 24th October to the 2nd of November and I'm pleased to say that ballet features once again (for the last 3 or 4 years its all been opera). You normally get tickets by applying on a special booking form/leaflet. This year its being published in August - ring the Royal Opera House booking number for details of how to get the leaflet.
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Friends of Covent Garden Address: Friends of Covent Garden, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9DD Tel No: 0171 212 9340 Some events open to the general public are organised by The Friends of Covent Garden. That will generally be made clear and a link has hopefully brought you here. The reason is that the normal Royal Opera House box office does not handle ticketing for these (relatively small) functions. You get tickets by writing to the Friends at the above address and marking on the envelope the nature of the tickets you want (like "In Focus"). Include your address, a daytime tel no and an SAE. Cheques should be made payable to "The Friends of Covent Garden" Follow this link to get to the main Friends of Covent Garden section, where there is lots more information about what they get up to.
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