Royal Opera House

La Bayadère

Categories, Dance

The Royal Ballet performs 'La Bayadère', a simple story of love, jealousy and opium-induced hallucinations, telling the tale of beautiful temple dancer Nikiya, her rival Gamzatti and Solor, the warrior they both desire. Originally created in the late...

La donna del lago

Romantic music (1815 – 1910), Italian opera

• Rating: 4/5

There is usually a reason why an opera is ‘rarely performed’, such as it being a complete turkey. Rossini’s ‘La donna del lago’ is such a work. It sets Sir Walter Scott’s poem ‘The Lady of the Lake’ – a preposterously romanticised view of Highland life...

Yinka Shonibare: Globe Head Ballerina

Things to do, Installation, Sculpture

• Free

A commission by artist Yinka Shonibare, produced by Up Projects for the Royal Opera House. Titled 'Globe Head Ballerina', the work is inspired by a famous photograph of ballerina Margot Fonteyn. Shonibare's sculpture depicts a life-size ballerina, modelled...

Raven Girl/Symphony in C

Categories, Ballet

• Critics' choice

Choreographer Wayne McGregor creates his first story-based piece, in collaboration with author Audrey Niffenegger ('The Time Travelers Wife'). 'Raven Girl' is the modern-day fairytale of a raven girl who is trapped in a human body and longs to fly. The...

Don Carlo

Romantic music (1815 – 1910), Italian opera

• Rating: 5/5

Grand opera doesn’t come much grander than this – Verdi’s fourth revision of ‘Don Carlo’, the five-act score dating from 1886. Based on Schiller’s play of stolen love, political intrigue, religious hatred and dominance, jealousy, familial recrimination...

Mayerling

Categories, Dance

Choreographer Kenneth MacMillan's appointment as director or the Royal Ballet in 1970 marked the moment when British ballet grew up. MacMillan had moved away from fairytale topics into more adult territory and emotions, and 'Mayerling' from 1978 is a...

Gloriana

Categories, Classical & Opera

Richard Jones directs a production of Britten's opera for our time, exploring tensions between affairs of state and affairs of the heart. Susan Bullock stars as Elizabeth I, Queen of England, with Toby Spence (Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex), Patricia...

Simon Boccanegra

Romantic music (1815 – 1910), Italian opera

• Critics' choice

Director Elijah Moshinsky depicts the rise and tragic fall of Verdi's buccaneer-turned-ruler hero Simon Boccanegra. Cast includes Thomas Hampson (Simon Boccanegra), Hibla Gerzmava (Amelia), Ferrucio Furlanetto (Jacopo), Russell Thomas (Gabriele Adorno),...

La rondine

Italian opera

Glamorous 1920s Paris provides the backdrop for exquisite melodies in Nicolas Joël’s production of Puccini's tender opera. Starring Angela Gheorghiu and Ermonela Jaho as Magda de Chivry who gives up her fiancé in order to protect his family honour. Cast...

Tosca

Romantic opera, Italian opera

• Rating: 4/5
• Critics' choice

Often described as a ‘shabby little shocker’, Puccini’s ‘Tosca’ is a tale of high emotions, dark deeds and a duplicitousness that leads to tragedy; a powerful and moving story, it is told to beautiful and stirring music. Tosca herself, first name Floria,...

Capriccio in Concert

German opera, 20th century music (1900 – 2000)

Andrew Davis conducts a concert performance of Strauss's last opera: a light-hearted glance at the relative importance of music, poetry, dance and theatre, set as an opera within an opera. Renée Fleming stars as Madeleine, the Countess torn between two...