Royal Opera House history

With a long and interesting history, the Royal Opera House dates all the way back to 1734. The Grade I listed building that stands on the site today is actually the third theatre to be built there. The previous two theatres were tragically burnt to the ground as a result of fires in 1908 and 1957. The current building is eye-catching with its immense pillared façade that has stood the test of time. The Royal Opera House is London’s largest theatrical venue, seating 2,260 people over five levels.

The opening production at the Royal Opera House was William Congreve’s The Way of the World in 1734, setting the tone for a long line of dramatic successes in the subsequent decades. Alongside the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, it was the only place in London with the legal right to produce spoken drama and pantomime. Ballet and opera also featured prominently during the theatre’s formative years. During the 1800s, the Royal Opera House saw performances by the celebrated clown Joseph Grimaldi as well as the introduction of more opera, such as Mahler’s presentation of Wagner’s Ring Cycle in 1892.

During the Second World War, the building was used as a dance hall and there was some debate about whether it should remain so after the war ended until it was bought by music publishers Boosey and Hawkes. They invited the Sadler’s Wells Ballet to become the theatre’s official company.

The Royal Opera was formed as the Covent Garden Opera Company in 1946, but behind it lies a tradition of operatic performance which goes back for more than 260 years at its home in Covent Garden. In each of the three theatres that have stood on the site since 1732, opera has played an important role.

Among the producers and designers who worked at Covent Garden during the 1940s and 1950s, two Italians were especially notable – Zeffirelli and Luchino Visconti. As well as his Tosca, Zeffirelli also produced the 1959 Lucia di Lammermoor, which took Joan Sutherland to international stardom. Later productions included distinguished stagings of Rigoletto, Falstaff and a double bill of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci.

Visconti’s work for the opera company was based on three great Verdi operas: the 1958 centenary production of Don Carlos and later stagings of Il trovatore and La traviata.

Over the 1980s and 1990s, The Royal Opera enlarged its reputation with an imaginative range of repertory and award-winning new productions. These included the British première of Berio’s Un re in ascolto, the first productions at Covent Garden of Borodin’s Prince Igor, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Kát’a Kabanová, Rossini’s Guillaume Tell and Il viaggio à Reims, Mozart’s Mitridate, re di Ponto, Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust and Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel. The company’s commitment to contemporary opera was seen in the world première in 1991 of Harrison Birtwistle’s opera Gawain, the recording of which won the contemporary category of the 1996 Gramophone Awards.

Today, the Royal Opera House is split into two main parts: the Paul Hamlyn Hall and the Linbury Studio Theatre. Both ballet and opera take place on a regular basis, and guided tours of the building are available outside of show hours. All operas are accompanied by surtitles, projected on to a large screen above the stage.

The Royal Opera House is sill regarded as one of the world greatest ballet and opera venues.