- 13 productions broadcast to over 500 UK cinemas
- 8 productions broadcast to 1,300 cinemas across the world
- The Royal Opera House's first cinema collaboration – with Sadler's Wells and Universal Music UK
The Royal Opera House has announced its next Cinema Season with 13 productions, eight of which will be broadcast to screens around the world.
The season begins in September when Music Director of The Royal Opera Antonio Pappano partners with Barrie Kosky for the first time to conduct Das Rheingold. The production – a massive undertaking for any opera house – is sung by a cast that includes Christopher Maltman as Wotan and Christopher Purves as Alberich. It will be broadcast live to cinemas worldwide on Wednesday 20 September 2023.
Over autumn, the Cinema Season includes a live broadcast of Gaetano Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore with Nadine Sierra, Liparit Avetisyan and Bryn Terfel, and of Carlos Acosta's production of Don Quixote for The Royal Ballet. In the run-up to Christmas, The Nutcracker will reach audiences across the globe.
Kevin O'Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, said:
This season, we're offering a fantastic mix of heritage favourites and modern classics. Whether you join us at Christmas for The Nutcracker or take a trip to your local cinema for a showing of Swan Lake, it'll be an evening to remember – a chance to watch some of ballet's most loved productions and to celebrate the incredible artistry of our dancers.
The new year begins with Rusalka, filmed in London in early 2023. Asmik Grigorian performs the title role, joining British artists Sarah Connolly, David Butt Philip, Aleksei Isaev and Emma Bell in a contemporary re-imagining of Dvořák's lyric fairy tale, conducted by Semyon Bychkov.
There are live broadcasts of two of the Royal Opera House's most beloved productions: Kenneth MacMillan's Manon in February 2024, celebrating its 50th anniversary; and Moshe Leiser's and Patrice Caurier's Madama Butterfly in March 2024.
Over the remainder of the spring, The Royal Ballet performs MacMillan Celebrated – a mixed programme that includes Requiem, Danses Concertantes and Different Drummer, as well as Swan Lake.
In May, Aigul Akhmetshina performs the title role in Damiano Michieletto's staging of Carmen, with Antonello Manacorda conducting. Later that month, Artistic Associate of The Royal Ballet Christopher Wheeldon's adaptation of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale celebrates its 10th anniversary.
Then comes a performance that sees the Royal Opera House in partnership with Sadler's Wells and Universal Music UK to bring to the cinema Message in A Bottle – the acclaimed dance theatre production by Sadler's Wells Associate Artist Kate Prince, set to Sting's music. The production, filmed in 2022, features new arrangements of many of Sting's best-known songs: Every Breath You Take, Roxanne, Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic and Fields of Gold.
Closing the series, is a live broadcast of David McVicar's Andrea Chénier – a production that sees Antonio Pappano, in his 23rd and final year as Music Director, conduct a cast that includes his longtime collaborator Jonas Kaufmann, alongside Sondra Radvanovsky and Carlos Álvarez.
Pappano said:
It's a pleasure to know that, in my final year as Music Director, I will be both opening and closing the Royal Opera House's Cinema Season – conducting a brand-new production of Rheingold and a much-anticipated revival of Andrea Chénier. It's been incredibly important to me, over my many years at Covent Garden, to share the thrill and excitement of our productions with audiences far beyond the capital – and it's a privilege to be continuing to do that right up until my tenure comes to its close.
The Royal Opera House has been bringing streaming its productions to audiences across the globe since 2008.
Visit roh.org.uk/cinemas for more information.
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.
