Covent Garden closes next year’s Walküre rehearsal
OperaThe Royal Opera has notified Friends that they will not be allowed to attend the general rehearsal of Die Walküre on April 25. Aggrieved Friends asked us why.
Here’s the official reply: The Friends haven’t been banned from this rehearsal, but we reserve the right to keep some ‘closed’ for operational reasons. We are extremely grateful for their support.
The reason may be a Regietheater intervention with big surprises that will be saved for the premiere.
Happens all over the place for varying reasons.
A shy debutant(e)? Worried about the reaction?
Pappano is not shy (and certainly no Kleiber about such things), and nor is Kosky.
Was the Rheingold rehearsal open to the public? I think it was…
This is a great shame. Worried not enough people will attend the actual performances?
Attending a rehearsal for yet another old production is not so interesting.
“Attending a rehearsal for yet another old production is not so interesting.”
That is only for the people who don’t want to listen to the work but come for the visuals. They should not go to any opera and stick to cinema, youtube etc.
Old production? It hasn’t been premiered yet! Maybe you meant all that old music in it!
No, Perkins.
The value lies in seeing the fruits of the end of the rehearsal process, particularly for a new production. Covent Garden now admits Friends to most of its productions, so why not this one?
‘Operational” reasons being what, pray?
To me a “closed” rehearsal is a widely–used and self-evident term. If a rehearsal is closed, spectators are effectively banned. What is Covent Garden playing at, trying to have it both ways?
They shouldn’t open rehearsals anyway. Lots of theaters don’t have open general rehearsals. It’s always been strange to me that Covent Garden charges money to come to general rehearsals.
That’s because Friends of ROH are only to happy to pay, myself included.
They have not closed the General Rehearsal, it was never open! Not all General Rehearsals are open, this is perfectly normal.
Yes, yes, we know that, but we are curious as to why. What makes the difference?
What’s the difference between “You’re banned from it” and “It’s closed to you”? None.
The reason given is “operational reasons”. Curious! Kosky’s Rheingold garnered generally very positive reviews. Why would the ROH seek to close the final rehearsal of Walkure unless something weird and wonderful is planned which may result in negative audience reaction. After all, while the General Rehearsal should be the finished article, there is still time before the premiere to tinker a bit here and there. The reaction of a General Reheasal audience can be very positive in that respect.
I worked front of house for ten years. CG always closed certain rehearsals.
What determined this policy?
I don’t know about old music, but maybe its director is showing signs of wear and tear?
There was an open rehearsal for Rheingold and just about every production, new or not, in recent years. Before that, I saw Terfel’s Wotan in rehearsal back in 2012
This was the main way in which the ROH rewarded Friends, apart for discounted tickets {Fidelio/Contes d’Hoffmann in recent weeks} when they needed to fill unsold seats.
So why does the ROH make this the one production whose rehearsal the Friends can’t attend?