The Royal Opera House
Amanda Hodges discovers the captivating history of the Royal Opera House, and the many famous faces to have graced its stage
Amanda Hodges visits this much-loved landmark
HIGH up in the amphitheatre, the lights dim in what must be one of London’s most beautiful auditoriums, horseshoe-shaped and resplendent in its red, cream and gold magnificence. An expectant hush falls over the capacity crowd as the orchestra starts to tune up, the sense of anticipation palpable. Slowly the curtain over the main stage rises and the opera Manon begins to weave its charm – its impact a testament to both the mesmerising singing of its stars and the Opera House’s lavish staging.
It’s just the latest in a long line of terrific performances as for generations the Royal Opera House has played host to the some of the world’s greatest opera singers and ballet dancers – appearances by Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev to name but a few. With its place in world culture secured, the institution lays claim to being, “quite possibly the greatest opera house on earth”, as American singer, songwriter and composer Rufus Wainwright has described it. Many would surely echo his enthusiastic sentiments.
Located in the midst of the busy Covent Garden Piazza in the heart of London’s West End, the Royal Opera House is the permanent home of The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet companies, as well as The Royal Opera Chorus and The Orchestra of The Royal Opera House. It is a huge organisation, employing around 1,250 members of staff. Nearly everything is done on site, from hundreds of costume makers preparing the most sumptuous ensembles, to make-up artists creating the requisite heroes and villains.
The impressive building we see today was originally designed by Sir Edward Middleton Barry and built in 1858. Most striking is the magnificent neo-Classical facade with six massive Corinthian columns, as well as, to the left of the theatre’s facade, the exquisite glass and iron Paul Hamlyn Hall.
Formerly known as the Floral Hall, it was for a time the centre of the Covent Garden fruit, vegetable and flower market, and those – like my mother – who attended in the Sixties, recall the dichotomy of stepping out from amongst the market cabbages straight into the grandeur of the Opera House’s main foyer; a fairy-tale transformation.
Now it has been incorporated into the complex, providing a spectacular restaurant and bar area.
The Royal Opera House has, of course, been refurbished and remodelled numerous times, most significantly from 1997-1999, when it closed for radical rebuilding. This included the construction of a spacious, partially covered roof terrace where visitors can dine, affording views down into Inigo Jones’s famous Covent Garden Piazza and across the London skyline.
Despite all the changes, the Victorian auditorium remains, however, with its ornate domed ceiling and magnificent proscenium arch. The auditorium was recently restored with all the gilding redone. With typical ostentation, the plaster decorations around the theatre were coated in 24-carat gold leaf.
Barry’s creation is actually the third building on the site. The first theatre, The Theatre Royal, was built by theatre manager John Rich in 1732, financed by Rich’s wildly successful production of John Gay’s A Beggar’s Opera – a tale of pickpockets, thieves and other characters from the underbelly of London society. Rich’s original plan was to build a playhouse to stage plays enlivened by tricks and spectacular effects, but, as tastes changed, he responded by diversifying into other forms of entertainment, introducing serious opera and music to Covent Garden.
He attracted the best in the business, with George Frideric Handel’s company giving seasons of opera here, and the first performance in England of Handel’s Messiah – still the most performed oratorio in Britain
today – was at Covent Garden.
Disaster struck in 1808 when the building burned to the ground, its demise purportedly triggered by a gunshot which set scenery alight. The new theatre was swiftly built to a new design by Robert Smirke, later architect of the British Museum. It was an imposing, grandiose building, (partly modelled on the Parthenon in Athens) and described as the largest theatre in the world.
It was during this period that the venue was established as The Royal Italian Opera House (1847) and became an essential part of the aristocratic social season – Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were keen devotees. However, in 1856, this building was completely destroyed by fire as well, reputedly after revellers at a masked ball ran amok, thus paving the way for Barry’s design.
Reopening in May 1858, the institution (often simply referred to as Covent Garden) once more attracted some of the greatest stars of the age, such as Nellie Melba and Italian operatic phenomenon Enrico Caruso, one of the first tenors to document his voice on record and who, like Pavarotti, went on to achieve worldwide renown.
It wasn’t until 1892, however, that the theatre was formally rechristened The Royal Opera House. That very summer, the celebrated composer, Gustav Mahler, conducted Wagner’s Ring Cycle, and the four mammoth operas have been staged at Covent Garden ever since, often as very innovative productions.
An unexpected use was made of the Opera House during World War I when the theatre became a furniture repository, and again in World War II when it metamorphosed into a Mecca dance hall! In 1945, Ninette de Valois’s Sadler’s Wells Ballet were invited to become the venue’s resident company and the venue formally reopened in 1946 with a production of The Sleeping Beauty starring ballerina Margot Fonteyn.
With no opera company in residence, General Administrator David Webster and Music Director Karl Rankl began to assemble a company. Both companies were subsequently awarded Royal Charters: The Royal Ballet in 1956 and The Royal Opera in 1968.
More legendary performances have followed. Soprano Maria Callas made her London debut at Covent Garden in 1952, and it was here that she would end her stage career in 1965, singing the eponymous role of Tosca in
Franco Zeffirelli’s production.
Luciano Pavarotti made his debut in 1963’s La Boheme, and it was immediately clear that an outstanding singer had arrived with his richness of tone, effortless power, and crystalclear top notes. His appearance in La Fille du Regiment, also at The Royal Opera House in 1965, earned him the nickname of “King of the High Cs”.
Lynn Seymour dazzled in the title role of Manon in 1977 (under the choreography of the famous Kenneth MacMillan) and somewhat less professionally but no less memorably, Princess Diana took to the stage in 1985, when she collaborated with dancer Wayne Sleep on a routine to Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl.
In many ways, there has been as much drama off stage at The Royal Opera House, as there has been on. The institution, once described by former Chief Executive Mary Allen (who lasted 206 days from 19971998) “as possibly one of the most controversial organisations in the world”, was the subject of the explosive TV documentary, The House, in 1996, which exposed many of its front and backstage scandals.
It has been criticised for snobbishness, exclusivity and failing to live within its means, all of which came close to sounding the death knell for what has been a registered charity since 1950. Above all, it has been lambasted for mismanagement, with several high-profile and short-lived appointments (and once the resignation
of the entire governing board). In the 1990s the institution became enmeshed in a series of financial crises from which it slowly emerged.
Today, it’s a very different story with the Royal Opera House bending over backwards to get people who are new to opera and ballet to come through its doors. Last autumn, a three-year, £50.7m programme of works, dubbed the Open Up project, was completed. Funded through private donations (perhaps in the hope of avoiding a fresh wave of public criticism), the complex has been extended and modernised once again with new entrances and bigger foyers, as well as the addition of a new café on the ground floor, and a refurbished Linbury Theatre and Clore Studio.
Open Up is also a statement of the Opera House’s new philosophy.
“Prior to a year ago you could only come into the building if you had a ticket,” says Communications
Director Vicky Kington, “whereas now, anyone is welcome at any time of day” – not only to see a show, but to have a coffee, view a free theatrecraft exhibition, or attend a free event.
The intention is for “as many people as possible to experience our art forms and get a taste of the remarkable creativity at play here,” says Chief Executive Alex Beard, and it’s true that inexpensive ticket options are available for shows in the auditorium. Many seats in the Linbury Theatre are also low priced, and free performances go on all the time around the building. The continuation of live cinema relays (in addition to the popular BP free summer season broadcast in open spaces like Trafalgar Square) are also expanding the venue’s reach.
Despite its chequered history, The Royal Opera House remains a cherished arts institution; a place that, it declares, intends to “unite 19thcentury grandeur with 21st-century elegance.” It will remain relevant, Oliver Mears, The Royal Opera House’s Director of Opera, says, “Because it satisfies some of the deepest instincts of human beings – for music, song, story, ritual and powerful emotion in a space shared with thousands of others, with performers doing the near impossible.”
Controversy shrouds the establishment, but in many ways that’s part of its nature.
“I think it’s the responsibility of a major opera house . . . not only to cultivate debate and get people thinking, but to be interfaced with things that challenge them,” says resident Royal Ballet choreographer Wayne McGregor who is responsible for modern successes like Chroma.
Perhaps it’s fitting that our flamboyant Royal Opera House has had its ups and downs, triumphs and disasters. Opera and ballet, after all, are not uncomplicated: they are disciplines full of pain and obsession, the polished surface masking a harsh reality. And the art forms cannot change their history – they were once the preserve of the privileged few.
What the Royal Opera House clings to is a belief that there is something
universal about opera and ballet, and should be accessible – and they’re right. Perhaps we live in an age where there isn’t much time for storytelling, but the sagas told on the Opera House’s stages connect us with each other, connect us with our past and with our deepest emotions. It is an establishment of which we can be proud.
The Royal Opera House, Bow Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9DD; roh.org.uk; 020 7304 4000