Royal Opera House, London
Running time: TBC
Age Restrictions: TBC
Tickets from £56.00
Richard Jones directs a new staging of Bellini’s last opera I puritani, featuring a sublime score and a passionate love story.
In a world of opposition, Elvira, a Puritan maiden, is in love with Arturo, a Royalist. Though her father initially opposes the match, he eventually agrees to their union. So far, so good – until their wedding day, when Arturo discovers that a Royalist prisoner needs help escaping and leaves Elvira, causing her to believe he has abandoned her for another woman. Heartbroken, she descends into madness. When Arturo, accused of treason, faces execution, the young couple's happiness is further threatened...
Vincenzo Bellini’s bel canto masterpiece is transformed in Richard Jones’ compelling new staging, which stars Lisette Oropesa as the devoted and deeply vulnerable heroine Elvira, and Francesco Demuro as her courageous lover. With virtuosic coloratura passages and ethereal, otherworldly arias, Bellini’s score imbues I puritani with profound emotional depth, the opera exploring, in equal parts, the tenderness of true love and the shattering anguish of loss. Conductor Riccardo Frizza makes his debut with The Royal Opera.
Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
Bow Street
London
WC2E 9DD
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in the London district of Covent Garden. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there.
The current building is the third theatre on the site following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1857. The façade, foyer and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive reconstruction in the 1990s. The Royal Opera House seats 2,268 people and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery. The proscenium is 12.20 m wide and 14.80 m high. The main auditorium is a Grade 1 listed building.
Travel by train: Charing Cross. Nearest tube: Covent Garden
