The Royal Opera House

The Royal Opera House is the home of three world class performing companies – The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet and The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Each year, from the iconic theatre in the heart of London’s Covent Garden, almost 300 performances are given on the main stage together with 250 performances in other spaces within the building.

The Royal Ballet has a wide–ranging repertory which showcases the great classical works, including its own heritage works, alongside new choreography by some of the finest talent in the world today. The Royal Opera also performs the breadth of the repertory from baroque masterpieces to award–winning newly commissioned operas.

Key to the work of the Royal Opera House is enabling as wide an audience as possible to enjoy both opera and ballet. The use of new technologies including the internet, DVDs, cinema screenings, Summer Big Screens and radio and television broadcasts enables hundreds of thousands of people across the world to see the Royal Opera and Royal Ballet.

In addition to the performances on the main stage, a wide variety of educational activities together with a programme of engagement with local communities reaches more than 140,000 people each year. Opera and ballet is taken into schools; children can experience for themselves the thrill of creating and performing a new work; others from diverse backgrounds in inner city London have the opportunity of free dance tuition under the Chance to Dance scheme; and children in Thurrock are learning backstage crafts such as set building and scenery painting.

Images

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The Royal Opera House by Peter Mackertich

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Tea Dance in the Paul Hamlyn Hall by Sim Canetty–Clarke

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Backstage at the Royal Opera House by Sim Canetty–Clarke