Royal Opera House

 

Royal Opera House

 

VO
London is a city renowned for its culture, and what better way to experience it than with a trip to Covent Garden and the Royal Opera House?

 

IV  Declan Hamilton

We’ve had theatres here for nearly 300 years. The present opera house was built in 1858, the architect was E.M Barrie and his famous father designed the houses of parliament. Last season we gave 299 performances from the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera alone.

VO
All the worlds’ most famous opera stars have performed on this stage. But, is a night at the opera expensive?

 

IV
You can come to the opera house and spend no more for perfectly really very good seats than you would spend for any other West End show, so it really is comparable with other forms of entertainment in the West End. There are day seats available for every performance. 67 day seats which you purchase from 10 o’clock in the morning from the box office. Performances such as Cyrano de Bergerac because of the presence of a great star like Plasto de Mingo, or some of our ballet productions, those are very popular performances, but other performances there is good availability for the whole cross section of tickets.

 

VO
And if you’re fascinated by what happens on stage, you can see how it’s done by taking a tour back stage.

 

IV
What the back stage tour involves is access to working areas of the opera house, actually seeing a working theatre. Quite frequently you will actually see the Royal Ballet Company in rehearsal on a tour. You’ll visit a work shop, it could be costume related, hats and jewellery. It might be the prop shop where they make all the furniture and all the pieces that go on the stage. So particularly if you’re coming to a performance it really enhances your experience of the performance because you understand what’s going on behind the scenes and if you’re interested in theatre it’s a great experience also.

 

IV

You’ll have a wonderful time. It will be utterly memorable. The standard of the productions is very very high, and you are seeing artists who are the best in their field. You’re seeing the people who are the best at what they do in the world. Everything you hear is natural, there’s no artificial amplification of singers, so it is a totally natural sound experience, and you’ll come out of it never forgetting what you’ve seen.