The Royal Opera House has announced its biggest ever programme of streaming and digital content, across a large range of platforms, “brought straight from our house to your house” over the Christmas period. The full programme is below.
The programme includes free online broadcasts from the Covent Garden archives and live pay per view performances, as well as an “array of cultural highlights” across Netflix, Now TV, YouTube, Scala Radio, Sky Arts, Marquee TV and the BBC.
Live performances broadcast from the opera house continue with The Royal Opera Christmas Concert, with music by Rossini, Puccini and Mozart; highlights from Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel and Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on Christmas Carols.
Archive favourites during December include The Royal Ballet in Ashton's Enigma Variations (2019) and Wheeldon's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2017). The Royal Opera also present the 2020 revival of Richard Jones' 2017 production of La bohème with Sonya Yoncheva as Mimì, Charles Castronovo as Rodolfo, Andrzej Filończyk as Marcello and Simona Mihai as Musetta.
Archive productions of The Nutcracker will be shown in cinemas, in association with Scala Radio, Marquee TV, Sky Arts, Now TV, and on-demand through the Royal Opera House's new partnership with Netflix. Netflix viewers can also see Jones' La bohème with Nicole Car, Michael Fabiano and conducted by Antonio Pappano.
The ongoing partnership with the BBC continues with Ariodante in Concert (2020), The Royal Opera Christmas Concert (2020) and Verdi's Falstaff (2018), with Bryn Terfel in the title role, all broadcast over the Christmas period on BBC Radio 3. Both The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet's gala performances from September and October of this year will also be available to watch on BBC Four.
Free, on YouTube, will be The Royal Opera's The Magic Flute (2017) and The Royal Ballet's Don Quixote (2019).
On Now TV, from The Royal Ballet will be: The Nutcracker (2016); The Sleeping Beauty (2017); a Frederick Ashton mixed programme including The Dream, Symphonic Variations and Marguerite and Armand (2017); Will Tuckett's sumptuous presentation of the life and loves of Queen Elizabeth I, in Elizabeth (2016); as well as MacMillan's Anastasia (2016). Favourites from The Royal Opera will also be available via the platform, including Verdi's Il trovatore (2016); Puccini's Madama Butterfly (2017); Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann (2016); Mozart's Così fan tutte (2016) and Bellini's Norma (2017).
On Sky Arts, audiences can watch The Royal Ballet in: The Nutcracker (2016); Giselle (2016); the Ashton mixed programme – The Dream, Symphonic Variations and Marguerite and Armand (2017); Anastasia (2016); The Sleeping Beauty (2017) and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2017).
Marquee TV will offer The Nutcracker (2016), The Sleeping Beauty (2017) and Rhapsody (2016), all now available on its site.
Full programme, dates and prices
From the Royal Opera House
Stream The Royal Opera Christmas Concert
Broadcast live on Friday 18 December at 7pm GMT, available for 30 days
£10 per online ticket
Enigma Variations (2019)
Available for 30 days via stream.roh.org.uk from 7pm on Friday 4 December
£3 per ticket
The Nutcracker (2016)
Available to see in cinemas from Thursday 10 December.
La bohème (2020)
Available for 30 days via stream.roh.org.uk from 7pm on Friday 11 December
£3 per ticket
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2017)
Available for 30 days via stream.roh.org.uk from 7pm Friday 1 January
£3 per ticket
Scala Radio
The Nutcracker (2006)
Broadcast on 20 December
Sky Arts
The Nutcracker (2016)
Available on 20 December and Christmas day
Giselle (2016)
Available on 21 December
Ashton Triple (The Dream, Symphonic Variations, Marguerite and Armand) (2017)
Available on 22 December
Anastasia (2016)
Available from 23 December
The Sleeping Beauty (2017)
Available from 24 December
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (2017)
Available from Boxing Day
BBC
Ariodante in Concert (2020)
Broadcast on 28 November at 6.30pm on BBC Radio 3
Falstaff (2018)
Broadcast on 12 December at 6.30pm on BBC Radio 3
The Royal Opera Christmas Concert (2020)
Broadcast on Boxing Day at 7.30pm on BBC Radio 3
Royal Opera All Star Gala (2020)
Broadcast on Christmas Day at 7pm on BBC Four
Royal Ballet All Star Gala (2020)
Broadcast on Boxing Day at 7.40pm on BBC Four
Netflix
The Nutcracker (2018)
Available to watch on Netflix from 20 December
La bohème (2017)
Available to watch on Netflix from 20 December
YouTube
The Magic Flute (2017)
Available to watch for free on YouTube from Christmas Day until 6 January 2021
Don Quixote (2019)
Available to watch for free on YouTube from Christmas Day until 6 January 2021
Now TV
The Nutcracker (2016)
Available on Now TV until 30 November 2021
The Sleeping Beauty (2017)
Available on Now TV until 30 November 2021
Ashton Triple (The Dream, Symphonic Variations, Marguerite and Armand) (2017)
Available on NowTV until 31 January 2022
Elizabeth (2016)
Available on NowTV until 31 January 2021
Anastasia (2016)
Available on NowTV until 31 December 2021
Il Trovatore (2016)
Available on NowTV until 31 December 2021
Madama Butterfly (2017)
Available on NowTV until 31 December 2021
Offenbach: The Tales of Hoffmann (2017)
Available on NowTV until 31 December 2021
Così fan Tutte (2016)
Available on NowTV until 31 December 2021
Norma (2016)
Available on NowTV until 31 December 2021
Marquee TV
Rhapsody (2016)
Available on MarqueeTV
The Sleeping Beauty (2017)
Available on MarqueeTV
The Nutcracker (2016)
Available on MarqueeTV
Top Photo: The Magic Flute, The Royal Opera. © 2017, ROH. Photographed by Tristram Kenton
Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.
His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.
