Royal Opera House

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This is an article about the Royal Opera House in London. For details of the post-1945 opera and ballet companies, see Royal Opera, London and Royal Ballet, London. For details of the Royal Opera House in Valletta, Malta, see Royal Opera House, Valletta. For details of the Royal Opera House in Mumbai, India, see Royal Opera House (Mumbai)

The Royal Opera House is an opera house and performing arts venue in London. It is also sometimes referred to as "Covent Garden" after the London neighbourhood in which it is located, or simply as "The Garden". The building serves as the home of the Royal Opera, the Royal Ballet and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

The current edifice is the third theatre on the site. The façade, foyer and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from a reconstruction in the 1990s. The Royal Opera House seats 2,268 people and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the Amphiteatre gallery. The proscenium is 12.20 m wide and 14.80 m high.

The main auditorium is a Grade I listed building.

Contents 1 History 1.1 The Davenant Patent 1.2 The first theatre 1.3 The second theatre 1.4 The third theatre 1.5 Reconstruction in the 1990s 2 Opera at the Royal Opera House after 1945 3 Ballet at the Royal Opera House After 1945 4 References 5 Further reading 6 Trivia 7 External links

History

The Davenant Patent

The foundation of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden lies in the letters patent awarded by Charles II to Sir William Davenant in 1660, allowing Davenant to operate one of only two patent theatre companies (The Duke's Company) in London. The letters patent remained in the possession of the Opera House until shortly after the First World War, when the document was sold to a north American university library.

The first theatre

In 1728, John Rich, actor-manager of the Duke's Company at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, commissioned The Beggar's Opera from John Gay. The success of this venture provided him with the capital to build the Theatre Royal (designed by Edward Shepherd) at the site of an ancient convent garden, part of which had been developed by Inigo Jones in the 1630s with a piazza and church. In addition, a Royal Charter had created a fruit and vegetable market in the area, a market which survived in that location until 1974. At its opening on December 7 1732, Rich was carried by his actors in processional triumph into the theatre for its opening production of William Congreve's The Way of the World.^[1]

During the first hundred years or so of its history, the theatre was primarily a playhouse, with the Letters Patent granted by Charles II giving Covent Garden and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane exclusive rights to present spoken drama in London. Despite the frequent interchangeability between the Covent Garden and Drury Lane companies, competition was intense, often presenting the same plays at the same time. Rich introduced pantomime to the repertoire, himself performing (under the stage name John Lun, as Harlequin) and a tradition of seasonal pantomime continued at the modern theatre, until 1939..

In 1734 Covent Garden presented its first ballet, Pygmalion. Marie Sallé, discarded tradition (with her corset) and danced in diaphanous robes.^[2] George Frideric Handel was named musical director of the company, at Lincoln's Inn Fields, in 1719, but his first season of opera, at Covent garden, was not presented until 1735. His first opera was Pastor Fido followed by Ariodante (1735), the premiere of Alcina and Atalanta the following year. There was a royal performance of the Messiah in 1743 which was a success and began a tradition of Lenten oratorio performances. From 1735 until his death in 1759 he gave regular seasons there, and many of his operas and oratorios were written for Covent Garden or had their first London performances there. He bequeathed his organ to John Rich, and it was placed in a prominent position on the stage. Unfortunately, it was among many valuable items lost in a fire that destroyed the theatre in 1808.

The second theatre

Rebuilding began in December 1808, and the second Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (designed by Robert Smirke) opened on September 18, 1809 with a performance of Macbeth followed by a musical entertainment called The Quaker. The actor-manager John Philip Kemble, raised seat prices to help recoup the cost of rebuilding, but the move was so unpopular that audiences disrupted performances by beating sticks, hissing, booing and dancing. The Old Price Riots lasted over two months, and the management was finally forced to accede to the audience's demands.

During this time, entertainments were varied; opera and ballet were presented, but not exclusively. Kemble engaged a variety of acts, including the child performer Master Betty, and the great clown Joseph Grimaldi, made his name at Covent Garden. Many famous actors of the day also appeared at the theatre, including the tragedienne Sarah Siddons, the Shakespearean actors William Charles Macready, Edmund Kean and his son Charles. On March 25, 1833, while playing Othello, Edmund Kean collapsed on stage and died two months later.

In 1806, the pantomime clown Joseph Grimaldi (The Garrick of Clowns) had performed his greatest success in Harlequin and Mother Goose; or the Golden Egg at Covent Garden, and this was subsequently revived, at the new theatre. Grimaldi was an innovator, his performance as Joey introduced the clown to the world, building on the existing role of Harlequin derived from the Commedia dell'arte. His father had been ballet-master at Drury Lane, and his physical comedy was extraordinary, as was his ability to invent visual tricks and buffoonery, and his ability to poke fun at the audience. Early pantomimes were performed as mimes accompanied by music, but as Music hall became popular, Grimaldi introduced the pantomime dame to the theatre and was responsible for the tradition of audience singing. In 1821, dance and clowning had taken such a physical toll on Grimaldi he could barely walk and he retired from the theatre.^[3] By 1828, he was penniless, and Covent Garden held a benefit concert for him.

The Theatres Act 1843 broke the patent theatres' monopoly of drama. At that time Her Majesty's Theatre in the Haymarket was the main centre of ballet and opera, but after a dispute with the management in 1846, Michael Costa, conductor at Her Majesty's, transferred his allegiance to Covent Garden, bringing most of the company with him. The auditorium was completely remodelled and the theatre reopened as the Royal Italian Opera on April 6, 1847 with a performance of Rossini's Semiramide.

The third theatre

On March 5 1856, the theatre was again destroyed by fire. Work on the third and present theatre (designed by Edward Middleton Barry) eventually started in 1857 and the new building opened on May 15 1858 with a performance of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots. The theatre became the Royal Opera House in 1892 and the number of French and German works in the repertory increased. Winter and summer seasons of opera and ballet were given, and the theatre was also used for other purposes such as pantomime, recitals and political meetings.

During the First World War the theatre was requisitioned by the Ministry of Works for use as a furniture repository. From 1934 to 1936, Geoffrey Toye was Managing Director, working alongside the Artistic Director, Sir Thomas Beecham. Despite early successes, Toye and Beecham eventually fell out, and Toye resigned.^[4] During the Second World War it became a dance hall. There was a possibility that it would remain so after the war but, following lengthy negotiations, the music publishers Boosey and Hawkes acquired the lease of the building.

David Webster was appointed General Administrator, and Sadler's Wells Ballet was invited to become the resident ballet company. The Covent Garden Opera Trust was created, which laid out plans "to establish Covent Garden as the national centre of opera and ballet, employing British artists in all departments, wherever that is consistent with the maintenance of the best possible standards..."^[5]

The Royal Opera House reopened on February 20 1946 with a performance of The Sleeping Beauty in an extravagant new production designed by Oliver Messel. Webster, with his music director Karl Rankl, immediately began to build a resident company. In December, 1946, they shared their first production, Purcell's The Fairy-Queen, with the ballet company. On January 14, 1947 the Covent Garden Opera Company gave its first performance of Bizet's Carmen.

Reconstruction in the 1990s

Several renovations had taken place to parts of the house in the 1960s, including improvements to the amphitheatre and an extension in the rear, but it became increasingly clear that the House needed some major overhauling.

In 1975 the Labour government gave land adjacent to the Royal Opera House for a long-overdue modernisation, refurbishment and extension. By 1995, sufficient funds had been raised to enable the company to embark upon a major reconstruction of the building, which took place between 1996 and 2000, under the chairmanship of Sir Angus Stirling. This involved the demolition of almost the whole site except for the auditorium itself, including several adjacent buildings to make room for a major increase in the overall scale of the complex. In terms of volume, well over half of the complex is new.

The new venue has the same traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium as before, but with greatly improved technical, rehearsal, office and educational facilities, a new studio theatre called the Linbury Theatre, and much more public space. The inclusion of the adjacent old Floral Hall, long a part of the old Covent Garden Market but in general disrepair for many years, into the actual opera house created a new and extensive public gathering place. The venue is now claimed by the ROH to be the most modern theatre facility in Europe.

Some seats now include individual monitors for the electronic libretto system, allowing audiences to follow opera libretti translations in English if they so choose.

Opera at the Royal Opera House after 1945

Events in the history of opera at Covent Garden after 1945 are covered in the article on the Royal Opera.

Ballet at the Royal Opera House After 1945

Events in the history of ballet at Covent Garden after 1945 are covered in the article on the Royal Ballet.

References

1. ^ Admission to the 55 boxes was 5 shillings (25 pence) half a crown (12 pence) to the 'pit' and the gallery cost one shilling (5 pence). A seat on the stage cost ten shillings. It was allowed to send servants to arrive at three to save places on the stage for their masters and mistresses. £115 was taken at the box office on the first night.
2. ^ Early ballet - North Eastern University accessed 22 Dec 2006
3. ^ "Boz" (ed.) (Charles Dickens), Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi, 1853 edition with Notes and Additions by Charles Whitehead, accessed 22 Feb 2007
4. ^ Jefferson, Alan, Sir Thomas Beecham, Macdonald and Jane’s, London, 1979, ISBN 0-354-04205-x
5. ^ Rosenthal, see below

Further reading

• Allen, Mary, A House Divided, Simon & Schuster, 1998
• Beauvert, Thierry, Opera Houses of the World, The Vendome Press, New York, 1995.
• Donaldson, Frances, The Royal Opera House in the Twentieth Century, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1988.
• Haltrecht, Montague,The Quiet Showman: Sir David Webster and the Royal Opera House, Collins, London, 1975.
• Lebrecht, Norman, Covent Garden: The Untold Story: Dispatches from the English Culture War, 1945-2000, Northeastern University Press, 2001.
• Lord Drogheda, et al., The Covent Garden Album, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1981
• Moss, Kate, The House: Inside the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, BBC Books, London, 1995.
• Rosenthal, Harold, Opera at Covent Garden, A Short History, Victor Gollancz, London, 1967.
• Tooley, John, In House: Covent Garden, Fifty Years of Opera and Ballet, Faber and Faber, London, 1999.
• Thubron, Colin (text) and Boursnell, Clive (photos), The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Hamish Hamilton, London, 1982.

Trivia

• The opera house was used for sequences in the movies The Fifth Element and Match Point.
• From the 1950s, it was common for long queues to form for opera tickets. The management eventually instituted a "queue ticket" system whereby, for each of the season's 8-week (or so) periods, patrons could queue up until 8 am on the morning at which tickets would go on sale after 10 am. These queues often formed days in advance of the box office opening. The "queue ticket" which was issued was timed for a specific hour of the day. During that time-period patrons could return to actually buy their performance tickets.

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