Breaking: Covent Garden has 13 new operas
mainThe season launch was later than ever, but it’s been worth waiting for. Highlights are Asmik Grigorian as Jenufa, Joyce DiDonato as Agrippina, Bryn Terfel as Don Pasquale.
Details:
Don Giovanni
Conductor: Hartmut Haenchen
Director: Kasper Holten
Don Giovanni: Erwin Schrott
Leporello: Roberto Tagliavini
Donna Anna: Malin Byström
Donna Elvira: Christine Rice
Zerlina: Louise Alder
Werther
Conductor: Edward Gardner
Director: Benoît Jacquot
Werther: Juan Diego Flórez
Charlotte: Isabel Leonard
Agrippina
Conductor: Maxim Emelyanychev
Director: Barrie Kosky
Agrippina: Joyce DiDonato
Nerone: Franco Fagioli
Poppea: Lucy Crowe
Ottone: Iestyn Davies
The Intelligence Park
Co-production with Music Theatre Wales; in association with London Sinfonietta
Music: Gerald Barry
Libretto: Vincent Deane
Conductor: Jessica Cottis
Director and designer: Nigel Lowery
Don Pasquale
Conductor: Evelino Pidò
Director: Damiano Michieletto
Don Pasquale: Bryn Terfel
Norina: Olga Peretyatko
Zauberland (Magic Land)
An encounter with Schumann’s Dichterliebe
New to The Royal Opera
Music: Robert Schumann and Bernard Foccroulle
Text: Heinrich Heine and Martin Crimp
Director: Katie Mitchell
Set and costume designer: Chloe Lamford
Julia Bullock (soprano)
Cédric Tiberghien (piano)
Ben Clifford, Natasha Kafka, David Rawlins, Raphael Zeri (actors)
Die Zauberflöte
Conductor: TBC
Director: David McVicar
Tamino: Benjamin Hulett
Pamina: Elsa Dreisig
Papageno: Vito Priante
Queen of the Night: Tuuli Takala, Christina Poulitsi
Death in Venice
New production, The Royal Opera
Co-production with Volksoper Wien
Conductor: Sir Mark Elder,
Marc Padmore, Gerald Finley
Elektra
Conductor: Antonio Pappano
Director: Christof Loy
Elektra: Nina Stemme
Chrysothemis: Sara Jakubiak
Klytämnestra: Karita Mattila
The Turn of the Screw
Conductor: Finnegan Downie Dear
Director: Natalie Abrahami
She Described it to Death
The Royal Opera
Co-commission between Guildhall School of Music & Drama and The Royal Opera
Composer Matt Rogers’s new opera takes its inspiration from a future hindered by over-population, to which a sci-fi angle brings an intriguing solution, and new problems of its own. This chamber piece follows Rogers’s previous success The Virtues of Things (2015) and comes to the Linbury Theatre as the third Doctoral Composer-in-Residence collaboration between The Royal Opera and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She Described It to Death, a major new commission, is an intriguing opportunity to get up close to the contemporary – and possibly even the future.
Fidelio
Conductor: Pappano
Jonas Kaufmann
Lise Davidsen
Why can’t they present this information via a convenient link to a pdf of the brochure like sensible opera houses?
Another example of the Royal Opera House not being sensible
Really, their website is by far the worst of all among the most important opera houses. Almost amateur.
Outsourcing must the reason. Last season the single ROH brochure was outsourced to consultants for the first time and as a result was appalling. Maybe it’s the same again now.
Isn’t this 13 new productions – not 13 new operas ?
I did a double take. I thought there would be 13 newly composed operas….
I wish opera companies would find other Massenet operas besides Werther. He wrote some marvelous grand operas. His early grand opera Le roi de Lahore was performed nearly 60 times in its first two seasons. Massenet considered Esclarmonde to be his finest achievement.
Why don’t you list who is singing the Commendatore and who is singing Sarastro? Got something against basses? Basses have better bottoms, you know.
Several production and cast = Met opera nyc. Btw Met ring cycle was fully sold out in almost 4000 seat house – why not report on that since their occupancy rate of such interest to you
Kaspar Holten? How many last chances will they give him?
This is not a new production. It was premiered during his tenure.
With all this new stuff surely they could have slipped in that unstaged opera by the sulky ‘Megaphone Man’ in Oz :
https://slippedisc.com/2019/05/chaos-in-oz-opera-is-dirsupted-by-disgruntled-composer/
Agrippina
Conductor: Maxim Emelyanychev
Director: Barrie Kosky
Agrippina: Joyce DiDonato
Nerone: Franco Fagioli
Poppea: Lucy Crowe
Ottone: Iestyn Davies
So it’s a clone of the ENO production of ten years ago,. then? Fagioli is star casting for a secondary role. The ENO production had Lucy Crowe… ooops, there she is again! Emelyanychev is the real deal. Kosky isn’t – but he will just sprinkle a glitzy budget over things as usual, and leave the actual work to the staff producers. John Berry’s best ideas still being shamelessly plundered.
Joyce’s Handel is one of the great glories of opera in the current era, and justify the initiative by itself. Her Ariodante and Alcina were almost miraculous forces of nature. For me, it will be the highlight of the season.
They don’t publish a brochure for the whole season… Only for each part of the season.
ROH brochure, LOL. Tom, even that trimestrial brochure you evoke appears to have been stopped ever since ROH inaugurated its new Café Cloakroom a few months ago. There don’t seem to be any brochures any longer. There is a little concertina-type credit card-size thingy. That’s it.
Not true. They also publish a smaller format brochure for the whole season, which I received every year when I was still a friend. There is no reason why they couldn’t have made a pdf of that and linked to it. Honestly, the only reason to go to the ROH site on the day that the new season is released is to find out what’s on when for planning purposes, and that was totally impossible without multiple click through as for individual productions. Truly pathetic.
I don’t know about 13 new operas, but have you seen that there are 18 performances of Boheme? And a third run of the Mitchell Lucia, where seats were being discounted at the first revival.
These problems are exactly what I’ve found.
We should all of us complain ! Who is the best person to write to – somebody who might actually take notice of feedback? Anybody know..
not sure but ROH definitely needs a change! Pappano did a fabulous job but should move on, so should the artistic direction as the casting re Giovanni, Werther, Tristan, Butterfly etc is very poor.
A rather boring season
Juan Diego as Werther! LOL!!!
What’s so funny? His voice is changing, and this is exactly the sort of thing he is focusing on now.
“One female conductor ‘not acceptable ratio’ (ROH)
– Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2019/may/14/one-female-conductor-not-acceptable-ratio-royal-opera-house