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

(And yes, I know this is a ballet and dance site.. but I decided to include opera bits for the sake of completeness and also to shut Eugene up!)



Falstaff (Verdi)

New Production
Directed by Graham Vick
Designs: Paul Brown
Conductor: Bernard Haitink
Cast includes Bryn Terfel, Barbara Frittoli, Bernadette Manca di Nissa, Diana Montague, Desirée Rancatore, Roberto Frontali, Kenneth Tarver, Robin Leggate, Peter Hoare, Gwynne Howell
Sponsored (1999) by Prudential Corporation plc

Opens Monday 6 December

Le Grand Macabre (Ligeti)

First performances by The Royal Opera
Directed by Peter Sellars
Sets: George Tsypin
Costumes: Dunya Ramicova
Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen
Cast includes Willard White, Graham Clark, Laura Claycomb, Caroline Stein, Charlotte Hellekant, Jard van Nes, Derek Lee Ragin, Frode Olsen
The premiere of this production took place during the Salzburger Festspiele 1997
Sponsored (1999) by The Friends of Covent Garden

Opens Friday 10 December

Gawain (Birtwistle)

Revival
Conductor: Elgar Howarth
Cast includes Wilhelm Hartmann, John Tomlinson, Robert Tear, Constance Hauman, Anne Mason, Thomas Randle, Andrew Watts
Sponsored (1991) by The John S. Cohen Foundation and The Friends of Covent Garden

Opens Friday 7 January

La clemenza di Tito (Mozart)

First performances of this production by The Royal Opera
Directed by Karl Ernst and Ursel Hermann
Designs: Karl Ernst and Ursel Hermann
Conductor: Nicholas McGegan
Cast includes Vinson Cole, Vesselina Kasarova, Patricia Schuman, Ruxandra Donose, Christiane Oelze, Lorenzo Regazzo
The premiere of this production took place during the Salzburger Festspiele 1992

Opens Saturday 22 January

Otello (Rossini)

First performances by The Royal Opera
Directed by Pier Luigi Pizzi
Designs: Pier Luigi Pizzi
Conductor: Gianluigi Gelmetti
Cast includes Mariella Devia, Bruce Ford, Juan Diego Florez/Kenneth Tarver, Alastair Miles, Octavio Arevalo, Leah-Marian Jones
This production was originated in Pesaro by the Rossini Opera Festival
Sponsored (2000) by The Friends of Covent Garden.

Opens Monday 31 January

Roméo et Juliette (Gounod)

Revival
Conductor: Charles Mackerras
Cast includes Angela Gheorghiu, Roberto Alagna, Tito Beltrán, Jenny Grahn, William Dazeley, Sorin Coliban, Alastair Miles
Co-production with the Théâtre du Capitole, Toulouse, and the Opéra-Comique, Paris.
Sponsored (1994) by Goldman Sachs International

Opens Friday 18 February

La bohème (Puccini)

Revival
Conductor: To be announced
Cast includes Elena Kelessidi, Catherine Naglestad, Ramón Vargas, Dalibor Jenis, Tómas Tómasson, Roderick Earle
Sponsored (1974) by The Linbury Trust and The Friends of Covent Garden

Opens Thursday 24 February

Der Rosenkavalier (Strauss)

Revival
Conductor: Christian Thielemann
Cast includes Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Christine Schäfer, Franz Hawlata, Donald Maxwell, Tito Beltrán, Leah-Marian Jones, Robin Leggate

Opens Saturday 11 March

Der fliegende Holländer (Wagner)

Revival
Conductor: Simone Young
Cast includes Solveig Kringelborn, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Bryn Terfel, Kurt Moll/Franz Hawlata, Kim Begley, Timothy Robinson
Sponsored (1992) by The Royal Opera House Trust

Opens Tuesday 21 March

The Greek Passion (Martinu)

First performances by The Royal Opera
Directed by David Pountney
Sets: Stefanos Lazaridis
Costumes: Marie-Jeanne Lecca
Conductor: Charles Mackerras
Cast includes Jorma Silvasti, Marie McLaughlin, Gregory Yurisich, Gwynne Howell, Timothy Robinson, Robin Leggate
Co-production with the Bregenz Festival

Opens Tuesday 25 April

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Wagner)

Revival
Conductor: Bernard Haitink
Cast includes John Tomlinson, Thomas Allen, Soile Isokoski, Robert D. Smith, Kurt Rydl, Gert Henning-Jensen, Nadja Michael, Detlef Roth Sponsored (1993) by Cable and Wireless plc and The Friends of Covent Garden

Opens Tuesday 16 May

The Royal Opera’s programme opens with a new production of Verdi’s Falstaff by Graham Vick. The season also includes three premieres of works new to the Company’s repertory, György Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre, Martinů’s The Greek Passion and Rossini’s Otello, and the return, in a new production, of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito.

The new production of Falstaff, which opens the season on Monday 6 December, will be directed by Graham Vick, with designs by Paul Brown and lighting by Thomas Webster. Bernard Haitink, Music Director of The Royal Opera, will conduct a cast that includes Bryn Terfel, Barbara Frittoli, Bernadette Manca di Nissa, Diana Montague, Desirée Rancatore, Roberto Frontali, Kenneth Tarver, Robin Leggate, Peter Hoare and Gwynne Howell.

Falstaff was last seen at the Royal Opera House in 1987 in Ronald Eyre’s production, conducted by Giuseppe Patanè, when the title role was sung by Ingvar Wixell. Other artists associated with the role at the Royal Opera House have included Geraint Evans, Tito Gobbi and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

First performed by the Stockholm Royal Opera in 1978, Le Grand Macabre was revised by its composer György Ligeti, for this 1997 production premiered at the Salzburg Festival. Directed by Peter Sellars with sets by George Tsypin and costumes by Dunya Ramicova, the production opens at the Royal Opera House in December. Esa-Pekka Salonen, who conducted the 1997 performances, will conduct these first performances by The Royal Opera with a cast that includes Willard White, Graham Clark, Laura Claycomb, Caroline Stein, Charlotte Hellekant, Jard van Nes, Derek Lee Ragin and Frode Olsen, many of whom are returning to the roles they created for the Salzburg premiere.

The work is set in the imaginary kingdom of Breughel land, with a surreal plot which features sex, drinking, economic crisis, politics and corruption. The over-riding theme is that of death with the character Nekrotzar announcing the end of the world. When that duly arrives, the only person to die is Death himself.

David Pountney’s production of Martinů’s The Greek Passion will be premiered at the Bregenz Festival in July 1999. Designed by Stefanos Lazaridis (sets) and Marie-Jeanne Lecca (costumes), with lighting by Davy Cunningham. The Royal Opera’s production will feature a cast that includes Jorma Silvasti, Marie McLaughlin, Gregory Yurisich, Gwynne Howell, Timothy Robinson and Robin Leggate; it will be conducted by Charles Mackerras.

The Greek Passion (1954-9) was Martinů’s last major work and his only tragic opera. Based on Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel Christ Recrucified, it takes the form of a play within a play. The villagers chosen to act out the Passion story gradually grow into their roles, leading to a clash between a group of dispossessed refugees and the Greek villagers.

The first complete performance of Rossini’s Otello at the Royal Opera House took place in 1852 with Enrico Tamberlik as Otello and Giulia Grisi as Desdemona, (the work’s British premiere was at the King’s Theatre Haymarket in 1822). The opera remained in the Royal Opera House’s repertory for nineteen years, with the last performances in 1871 featuring Adelina Patti and Pietro Mongini.

Pier Luigi Pizzi’s production was originated in Pesaro by the Rossini Opera Festival. The Royal Opera House performances will be conducted by Gianluigi Gelmetti with a cast that includes Mariella Devia, Bruce Ford, Juan Diego Florez/Kenneth Tarver, Alastair Miles, Octavio Arevalo and Leah-Marian Jones.

The husband-and-wife team of Karl Ernst and Ursel Hermann jointly direct and design the production of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, which was first seen at the Salzburg Festival in 1992. Nicholas McGegan will conduct a cast that includes Vinson Cole, Vesselina Kasarova, Patricia Schuman, Ruxandra Donose, Christiane Oelze and Lorenzo Regazzo.

Mozart’s last opera, La clemenza di Tito, was written for the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bavaria, while the composer was also working on Die Zauberflöte, and premiered in Prague in September 1791. In March 1806 it became the first of Mozart’s works to be seen in London. It was most recently performed at the Royal Opera House in 1989.

The season is completed by revivals of The Royal Opera’s acclaimed productions of Harrison Birtwistle’s Gawain, Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Puccini’s La bohème, Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier and Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s award-winning opera Gawain, which received its world premiere at the Royal Opera House in 1991, and was revived in 1994, returns for six performances, opening in January. The production will be directed by the original director Di Trevis, with designs by Alison Chitty and lighting by Paul Pyant. Elgar Howarth returns to conduct these performances which see Wilhelm Hartmann in the title role and the return of John Tomlinson as the Green Knight/Bertilak de Hautdesert. The cast also includes Robert Tear, Constance Hauman, Anne Mason, Thomas Randle and Andrew Watts.

Gawain was commissioned by the Royal Opera House in 1988 and marked the first collaboration between Birtwistle and the poet David Harsent, whose libretto is an original dramatic poem for voices based on the 14th century story Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.

Gawain received the Evening Standard Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera for 1991.

Roberto Alagna returns to the role of Roméo for a revival of Nicholas Joel’s 1994 production of Roméo and Juliette, with Angela Gheorghiu singing Juliette for the first time at Covent Garden. The production is again conducted by Charles Mackerras, and the cast includes Tito Beltrán, Jenny Grahn, William Dazeley, Sorin Coliban and Alastair Miles. It is designed by Carlo Tommasi with lighting by Bruno Boyer.

Since 1974 John Copley’s classic production of La bohème, designed by Julia Trevelyan Oman with original lighting by William Bundy, has introduced many young artists who are new to Covent Garden in the roles of Mimì and Rodolfo, Musetta and Marcello. This tradition continues in February 2000 with Elena Kelessidi singing Mimì for the first time and Mexican tenor Ramón Vargas as Rodolfo. Both Catherine Naglestad and Dalibor Jenis make their Royal Opera House debuts as Musetta and Marcello respectively. The cast also includes Tómas Tómasson and Roderick Earle.

The Royal Opera’s much-loved production of Der Rosenkavalier returns to Covent Garden in March 2000, conducted by Christian Thielemann. The 1985 production was originally directed by John Schlesinger, with sets by William Dudley, costumes by Maria Bjørnson and lighting by Robert Bryan and was last performed in March 1995.

The cast will include Renée Fleming as The Marschallin, Susan Graham as Octavian, Franz Hawlata as Baron Ochs and Christine Schäfer as Sophie with Donald Maxwell, Tito Beltrán, Leah-Marian Jones and Robin Leggate.

Ian Judge’s production of Der fliegende Holländer, first performed in 1992, receives its first revival in March 2000, conducted by Simone Young. Sets are by designer John Gunter, costumes by Deirdre Clancy, lighting by Mark Henderson and choreography by Lindsay Dolan. Bryn Terfel sings the title role for the first time, with Norwegian soprano Solveig Kringelborn singing the role of Senta and Kim Begley as Eric, with Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Kurt Moll/Franz Hawlata and Timothy Robinson.

The Royal Opera House’s award-winning production of Wagner’s comic masterpiece Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, the final production performed before the theatre closed for redevelopment, ends this opening season. Conducted by Royal Opera Music Director Bernard Haitink, the production is directed by Graham Vick, designed by Richard Hudson, with lighting by Wolfgang Göbbel and movement by Ron Howell. These performances will see John Tomlinson and Thomas Allen return to their roles of Hans Sachs and Sixtus Beckmesser. New to their roles will be Finnish soprano Soile Isokoski as Eva and Robert D. Smith as Walther, and the cast also includes Kurt Rydl, Gert Henning-Jensen, Nadja Michael and Detlef Roth.

This production received the Evening Standard Award for Outstanding Opera Production for 1993.

The Royal Opera will also present concert performances during the season, both at the Royal Opera House and at other London venues. The first will be Britten’s War Requiem, conducted by Bernard Haitink, at the Barbican Hall on Friday 22 October before the reopening of the Royal Opera House. A concert with Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna in celebration of the reopening is scheduled for Monday 27 December at the Royal Opera House.

Concerts later in the season will include two performances of Bellini’s Norma in May, conducted by Edward Downes, and two performances of Verdi’s La battaglia di Legnano in June conducted by Mark Elder, with a cast led by Plácido Domingo. A concert performance of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg at the Royal Albert Hall also in June, conducted by Bernard Haitink, follows its run of performances at Covent Garden.

Falstaff is sponsored (1999) by Prudential Corporation plc

Gawain is sponsored (1991) by The John S Cohen Foundation and The Friends of Covent Garden

Roméo et Juliette is sponsored (1994) by Goldman Sachs International

La bohème is sponsored (1974) by The Linbury Trust and The Friends of Covent Garden

Der fliegende Holländer is sponsored (1992) by The Royal Opera House Trust

Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is sponsored (1993) by Cable and Wireless plc and The Friends of Covent Garden

More detailed information on all productions will be available when booking opens. Telephone booking for the first part of the season will open in the Summer. Personal booking at the Box Office will open in December.