The Royal Opera facts for kids

The Royal Opera House, where The Royal Opera performs.

The Royal Opera is a famous opera company located in central London, England. It performs at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden. It is one of the two main opera companies in London, the other being English National Opera.

The company started in 1946 as the Covent Garden Opera Company. It kept this name until 1968. Before this, the Royal Opera House only had short opera seasons run by different managers. The new company brought long yearly seasons and steady leadership. From the beginning, it has shared the Royal Opera House with The Royal Ballet, a dance company.

When it first started, the company aimed to perform all operas in English. However, since the late 1950s, most operas are now sung in their original language. The performers have always been a mix of singers from Britain and the Commonwealth, along with famous international guest stars. In its early years, the company focused on helping British singers become famous. Many well-known guest performers have sung with the company, including Maria Callas, Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Some singers who became international stars after starting with the company include Joan Sutherland and Kiri Te Kanawa.

The company grew a lot under the leadership of David Webster. It went from a small group to one of the world's best opera houses. Because of this success, it was given the title "The Royal Opera" in 1968. After Webster, John Tooley took over in 1970, and the company continued to do well. However, after he retired in 1988, there was a difficult period. The Royal Opera House even closed for rebuilding and repairs between 1997 and 1999. In the 21st century, the company has had stable leadership again. Since it began, The Royal Opera has had six music directors: Karl Rankl, Rafael Kubelík, Georg Solti, Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, and Antonio Pappano.

History of The Royal Opera

Early Days: Before 1946

Opera has been performed at the Covent Garden site since the mid-1800s. The first company there was Michael Costa's Royal Italian Opera. After a fire, a new building opened in 1858. From the 1860s until World War II, different groups and managers put on short opera seasons at the Royal Opera House (which got its name in 1892). These operas were sung in their original languages and featured famous singers and conductors.

During World War II, the Royal Opera House was used as a dance hall. Towards the end of the war, the owners asked a music company, Boosey & Hawkes, if they wanted to bring opera and ballet back. Boosey and Hawkes agreed and set up a charity to run the opera house. Lord Keynes was the chairman of this new trust.

Some people, like Thomas Beecham, wanted to go back to the old way of having short seasons with international stars. But Boosey and Hawkes, along with David Webster (who became the chief executive), wanted to have opera all year round, sung in English, with a permanent company. Webster decided to create a brand new opera company instead of inviting the existing Sadler's Wells Opera Company. The British government started giving money to support the arts, and Webster got funding to start his new company.

Starting Out: 1946–1949

Webster's first big job was to find a music director to build the company from scratch. He chose Karl Rankl, an Austrian conductor who had a lot of experience running opera companies in Europe. Rankl agreed to put together and train the singers and chorus for the new company. He also created a permanent orchestra that would play for both operas and ballets.

The new company first performed on December 12, 1946, with a show called The Fairy-Queen by Henry Purcell. This was a joint performance with the Sadler's Wells Ballet Company. The opera company's first show on its own was Carmen on January 14, 1947. Reviews were good. The Times newspaper said that Karl Rankl knew how to conduct opera and that the English singing was clear.

All the singers in the first Carmen show were from Britain or the Commonwealth. Later, famous international singers like Eva Turner joined. For the second season, more famous singers from Europe were invited, including Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. Other international stars like Kirsten Flagstad and Hans Hotter even learned their roles in English for the company. However, by 1948, the idea of singing only in English started to fade. The company had to perform some Wagner operas in German to get the best singers for those roles. Karl Rankl left in 1951, as the company he built had grown beyond him.

In its early years, the company wanted to be new and open to everyone. Ticket prices were kept low. They also performed operas by living composers like Benjamin Britten and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The young stage director Peter Brook was in charge of productions, bringing new and sometimes surprising ideas to the stage.

The 1950s: Growing Up

After Rankl left, the company used many guest conductors while Webster looked for a new music director. In 1954, he found Rafael Kubelík. Kubelík believed that operas should be sung in English so the audience could understand them. This caused a public argument with Thomas Beecham, who thought it was impossible to find enough good English-speaking opera stars.

1950s opera stars, clockwise from top left: Joan Sutherland, Victoria de los Ángeles, Geraint Evans, and Tito Gobbi.

Even with Beecham's opinions, by the mid-1950s, the Covent Garden company had many British and Commonwealth singers who were becoming very popular around the world. These included Joan Sutherland and Geraint Evans. However, as time went on, the company realized that to be among the very best international opera houses, they couldn't just use British artists or sing only in English. Famous guest singers from Europe in the 1950s included Maria Callas and Birgit Nilsson. Kubelík also introduced British audiences to Jenůfa by Leoš Janáček, sung in English by mostly British singers.

The audience made it clear what they preferred. In 1959, the company reported that attendance for operas sung in English was 72%, but for "international" productions with higher ticket prices, it was 91%. This showed that international productions helped reduce their financial losses. The policy of singing in English was never officially stopped, but it was increasingly ignored.

By the end of the 1950s, Covent Garden was seen as one of the world's top opera companies. Its ballet company had already become "The Royal Ballet" in 1956. Two important productions greatly improved the opera company's reputation. In 1957, Covent Garden put on the first nearly complete professional staging of Berlioz's huge opera The Trojans. The Times newspaper said, "It has never been a success; but it is now." In 1958, for the theatre's 100th birthday, they staged Verdi's Don Carlos. This opera was rarely performed and thought to be very difficult to stage, but this production was a huge success.

The 1960s: Royal Recognition

Georg Solti, music director from 1961 to 1971.

Kubelík did not renew his contract, so there was a gap until 1961. In June 1960, Georg Solti was chosen as the new music director, starting in 1961. Solti had experience leading opera houses in Munich and Frankfurt. He wasn't sure about Covent Garden at first, as it wasn't consistently at the top international level yet. But he was convinced to take the job. The press welcomed him carefully, but some worried that the company was moving away from its original goals of supporting English opera.

However, Solti actually supported singing in English and helped British singers in the company grow. He often chose them for his recordings and important productions over international artists. Singers like Gwyneth Jones became famous during this time. Solti showed his support for English opera with a triple bill of short operas sung in English. But Solti and Webster also had to consider that famous stars like Maria Callas refused to sing in translation. Also, English-speaking singers wanted to learn their roles in the original language so they could perform them in other countries and on recordings. So, more and more productions were in their original language.

By 1967, The Times said that people expected any new production at Covent Garden to have a cast as strong as those in New York, Milan, or Vienna. The company's performances in the 1960s included both well-known operas and less common ones. The most performed composers were Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, Mozart, and Richard Strauss. Rarer operas by composers like Handel and Janáček were also performed. A famous production of Schoenberg's Moses and Aaron was staged in 1965–67. A highlight was Franco Zeffirelli's 1964 production of Tosca with Maria Callas.

The company also performed outside the Royal Opera House. They toured within Britain to theatres big enough for their shows. In 1964, they started performing annually at the Proms in London. In 1970, Solti led the company on a tour to Germany, where they performed Don Carlos and Falstaff. Most of the main singers were British, and the audiences in Munich and Berlin were very excited.

In 1968, Queen Elizabeth II officially gave the company the title "The Royal Opera." It was the third performing arts company in the UK to receive this honor, after The Royal Ballet and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

1970 to 1986: New Leadership

Colin Davis, music director from 1971 to 1986.

Webster retired in June 1970. His successor was his former assistant, John Tooley. One of Webster's last important decisions was to recommend Colin Davis as the new music director when Solti left in 1971. Davis's first production was a well-received Le nozze di Figaro, which made Kiri Te Kanawa an instant star. However, some early performances under Davis were not as popular. The Covent Garden board even thought about replacing him, but their chairman convinced them not to. Davis's performances of Mozart operas were generally praised, and he brought back the rarely performed La clemenza di Tito in 1974.

Under Davis, the opera house started "promenade performances." This meant that people, especially young people, who couldn't afford expensive tickets could sit on the floor for a very low price. Davis conducted over 30 operas during his 15 years as director. He also wanted the world's best conductors to come to Covent Garden, so he invited famous guests like Carlos Kleiber and Claudio Abbado to conduct new productions.

Besides the usual operas, Davis conducted works by composers like Berg and Michael Tippett. Famous guest singers during this time included Montserrat Caballé, Luciano Pavarotti, and Janet Baker. Davis's time as music director, the longest in The Royal Opera's history at that point, ended in July 1986 with a promenade performance of Fidelio with cheap tickets, just as he wanted.

1987 to 2002: Challenges and Rebuilding

Bernard Haitink, music director from 1985 to 2002.

To follow Davis, the Covent Garden board chose Bernard Haitink, who was known for his excellent performances. His time started well with successful Mozart operas. The company did well musically and dramatically into the 1990s. A 1993 production of Die Meistersinger and a 1994 staging of La traviata (which made Angela Gheorghiu a star) were highly praised.

However, during this time, the Royal Opera House faced many management problems. John Tooley retired in 1988, and Jeremy Isaacs took over. Tooley later said that Isaacs's time was a disaster, with poor management leading to higher costs and ticket prices. The difficult relationship between Isaacs and Haitink also caused problems. Isaacs was also blamed for the negative public image that came from a 1996 BBC TV series called The House, which showed the daily life behind the scenes.

In 1995, The Royal Opera announced a "Verdi Festival" to perform all of Verdi's operas by 2001. However, the biggest challenge of this decade was the closure of the Royal Opera House between 1997 and 1999 for major rebuilding. Isaacs was criticized for not finding a good temporary home for the company. He resigned in December 1996. Haitink was upset but was convinced to stay and keep the opera company performing in various temporary locations around London. A semi-staged Ring cycle at the Royal Albert Hall received amazing reviews and gained many new fans for Haitink and the company.

After Isaacs left, there was a period of unstable leadership with three chief executives in three years. Michael Kaiser became general director in September 1998. He helped fix the companies' finances and oversaw the reopening of the opera house. He was seen as very successful but left in June 2000.

The last opera music heard in the old house was the end of Falstaff in July 1997. When the beautifully restored house reopened in December 1999, Falstaff was the opera performed on the opening night, conducted by Haitink.

2002 to Today: Stability and New Works

Antonio Pappano (right), music director since 2002, with the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

After years of problems, the opera house and its two companies became stable again when Tony Hall became chief executive in May 2001. The next year, Antonio Pappano became the music director of The Royal Opera, taking over from Haitink. After the rebuilding, a second, smaller theatre called the Linbury Studio Theatre was added. This space is used for smaller productions by The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet, and for new works. The Royal Opera also supports young singers through the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme, where they get training and experience.

Since 2002, The Royal Opera has performed many less well-known operas in addition to the standard ones. These include Adriana Lecouvreur by Cilea and Cendrillon by Massenet. They have also premiered new works by composers like Thomas Adès and Harrison Birtwistle.

Productions during Pappano's first five years included Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (2004) and even Stephen Sondheim's musical Sweeney Todd (2003). Pappano's Ring cycle, which started in 2004 and was performed as a complete set in 2007, was praised for its musical quality. Both previous music directors, Davis and Haitink, have returned as guest conductors during Pappano's time. In 2007, Sir Simon Rattle conducted a new production of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande.

In 2010, the company visited Japan, performing Manon and La traviata. While the main company was away, a smaller group stayed in London to perform other operas. The Royal Opera House receives money from the government, but it still relies a lot on ticket sales and other income compared to opera houses in Europe.

In the late 2000s, The Royal Opera put on about 150 performances each season, from September to July. These included about 20 different operas, with nearly half of them being new productions. The 2011–12 season included a new opera by Judith Weir and the first performances of The Trojans at Covent Garden since 1990. In 2011, Kasper Holten became Director of The Royal Opera.

Since the 2012–13 season, The Royal Opera has continued to stage around 20 productions and about seven new productions each season. New productions have included Robert le diable and the UK premiere of Written on Skin by George Benjamin. The company also started working with Shakespeare's Globe theatre, performing L'Ormindo in the new Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

In March 2021, the Royal Opera House announced that Antonio Pappano's contract as music director would end after the 2023-2024 season. In October 2022, the ROH announced that Jakub Hrůša would be the next music director, starting in September 2025. Hrůša and Pappano will share responsibilities during the 2024-2025 season.

Managerial and musical heads, 1946 to date

See also

• Owners, lessees and managers of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden