Summary Opening Festival RB 1999 - 2000 Season Opera 1999 - 2000 Season Education / Outreach Ticket prices Public Access Studio Theatres ROH Strategic Plan

An Opening Festival of events is planned for November and December 1999. This will build steadily in momentum towards the Millennium, encompassing the opening of the 1999/2000 seasons by The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera in December, and will include:

• Two performances of a special Opening Programme featuring
  The Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera and the Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House with Plácido Domingo, Deborah Polaski, Stig Andersen and Robert Lloyd
  Wednesday 1 December
  Saturday 4 December

• A new production of Verdi’s Falstaff by Graham Vick, conducted by
  Bernard Haitink, with Bryn Terfel in the title role
  Opens Monday 6 December

• A Celebration of International Choreography by The Royal Ballet with works by choreographers from around the world including Maurice Béjart, William Forsythe, John Neumeier, Twyla Tharp and Glen Tetley, alongside new works from the British choreographers Ashley Page and Siobhan Davies, who is working with the Company for the first time.
  Opens Wednesday 8 December

• The first performances by The Royal Opera of György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen
  Opens Friday 10 December

• A concert featuring Angela Gheorghiu and Roberta Alagna in celebration of the Royal Opera House’s reopening
  Monday 27 December

• The first performance in a new free lunchtime Chamber Music Series
  Monday 6 December

• Special public performances by participants in three of the Royal Opera House’s long-running education projects, Write an Opera, Chance to Dance and
  Monday Moves.
  Thursday 2 December
  Saturday 4 December
  Monday 13 December

• A Children’s Day, a Practical Ballet Day and a Family Weekend for people who live and work in Covent Garden
  Monday 22 November
  Sunday 5 December
  Saturday 18 & Sunday 19 December

• A programme of Study Days and events for education professionals and the public
  Begins Sat 13 November

• A celebration of Millennium Eve with The Royal Ballet in The Nutcracker and a daytime programme of events for all the family
  Friday 31 December

The Opening Festival will bring world-class productions by The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera back to the Royal Opera House stage, placing performance at the heart of all the Companies’ activities in the new theatre.

At the same time, it will begin to demonstrate the full potential of the new theatre, with events throughout the building and set the agenda for its continued future use after the opening period.

The first people invited into the building will be two groups attending Study Days on two consecutive Saturdays, 13 and 21 November. These intensive days, aimed predominately at teachers, will focus on The Royal Ballet’s production of The Nutcracker and The Royal Opera’s production of Gawain, both of which will be performed as BP Amoco Schools’ Matinees during this run of performances.

Further one-day events planned during this period include a Children’s Day, with participation by dancers of The Royal Ballet, on Monday 22 November. This will be followed later by an open Study Day on Falstaff, and a Practical Ballet Day, both of which take place on Sunday 5 December, and a Family Weekend on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 December. The latter two events are particularly aimed at people who live and work in Covent Garden.

Two preview performances of The Royal Ballet’s Celebration of International Choreography for invited audiences of staff, builders, arts professionals and arts students will be given on Tuesday 23 and Wednesday 24 November.

These are followed by two performances of the special ballet and opera Opening Programme on Wednesday 1 and Saturday 4 December.

This programme will be equally devoted to ballet and opera, and will feature The Royal Ballet, The Royal Opera and the Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, conducted by Bernard Haitink and Anthony Twiner.

The first part of the programme will present highlights from The Royal Ballet’s history at the Royal Opera House, with excerpts from many ballets associated with the great choreographers and artists from the Company’s past. The second part will include the Overture to Weber’s Oberon, followed by concert performances of the finale of Act I of Wagner’s Die Walküre, and the final scene of Beethoven’s Fidelio with Plácido Domingo, Deborah Polaski, Stig Andersen and Robert Lloyd.

Following the Opening Programme, there are public performances by participants in three of the Royal Opera House’s longest-running education projects:
Write an Opera, which was launched in 1985, (Thursday 2 December), Chance to Dance, which will be entering its ninth year (Saturday 4 December) and Monday Moves, at the culmination of its tenth anniversary year (Monday 13 December). These events will typify both the ongoing work that takes place on these projects and reflect the focus of education programming in the Studio Theatre.

For Write an Opera, a class of nine and ten-year-olds from St Clement Danes School in Covent Garden will perform their own opera which they will have devised during the Autumn term. Following the established format of the project, teachers from the school will join others participating in the annual Write an Opera Teachers’ Course in August. They will then work with their pupils during the Autumn term on all aspects of the production of an opera to create their own work for performance in the Studio Theatre. Over 200 schools in the United Kingdom and abroad have participated in Write an Opera during the past thirteen years, leading to more than 300 performances. This performance by St Clement Danes will mark the first performance of a work inspired by the course at the Royal Opera House.

The children performing in Chance to Dance will be drawn from the four centres that the project has expanded to include since its launch: Brixton, Fulham, Peckham and White City. They will be joined by graduates of the scheme who have since been accepted into vocational ballet schools to continue their training.

Participants in Monday Moves will demonstrate aspects of their ongoing work and perform a short piece especially devised for the occasion.

The free Chamber Music Series in the Studio Theatre is launched on Monday 6 December with musicians drawn from the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. A regular series of recitals on Wednesday lunchtimes will begin in January and will feature individuals and ensembles drawn from the Royal Opera House’s performing companies, and young artists from outside the organisation.

New schemes will continue to be launched after the initial Opening Festival, including a programme of courses commencing in January that will provide a combination of master-classes and coaching session for adults of varying abilities. These will range from practical help for the ‘tone-deaf’ in the Find Your Voice series to opportunities for pre-professionals to be coached by Royal Opera staff and singers, and include From Page to Stage, a series focussing on the transfer of text-based productions from book to performance.

The 1999/2000 seasons of performances by The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet open on Monday 6 December with Graham Vick’s new production of Falstaff, designed by Paul Brown.

On Wednesday 8 December The Royal Ballet’s opens its season with A Celebration of International Choreography, with works by choreographers including Maurice Béjart, William Forsythe, John Neumeier, Glen Tetley and Twyla Tharp to create short new works for the Company. The programme will also include new one-act works by Siobhan Davies and Ashley Page.

The season continues with the first performances by The Royal Opera of György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, opening on Friday 10 December, directed by Peter Sellars with sets by George Tsypin and costumes by Dunya Ramicova, in the version revised by the composer for the 1997 Salzburg Festival.

The Royal Opera House will further celebrate its reopening with a concert by Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna on Monday 27 December and a special Millennium Eve matinee of The Nutcracker with The Royal Ballet on Friday 31 December 1999 with accompanying daytime events for all the family.