Royal Opera House, London
Running time: 2 hours and 45 minutes
Age Restrictions:
Tickets from £28.00
Three milestone works created over three decades – experience the choreographic imagination of Founder Choreographer Frederick Ashton, the master craftsman who defined British ballet in the 20th century.
Les Rendezvous is a delightful succession of dances following a group of friends who meet in the park. Created in 1933, this was Ashton’s first major ballet for the Vic-Wells company.
The post-war Symphonic Variations (1946) is Ashton's radiant celebration of ‘pure dance’. Serene in quality and demonstrating an elegant purity in the marriage between movement and music, the ballet remains an indisputable tour de force to this day.
Inspired by the sublime sensuality of Maurice Ravel’s orchestral work of the same name, Ashton turned to narrative in Daphnis and Chloë. This 1951 ballet abounding in pastoral charm recounts the mythical Greek romance between a goatherd and a shepherdess.
Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
Bow Street
London
WC2E 9DD
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in the London district of Covent Garden. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The Royal Ballet and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. Originally called the Theatre Royal, it served primarily as a playhouse for the first hundred years of its history. In 1734, the first ballet was presented. A year later Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premieres there.
The current building is the third theatre on the site following disastrous fires in 1808 and 1857. The façade, foyer and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive reconstruction in the 1990s. The Royal Opera House seats 2,268 people and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery. The proscenium is 12.20 m wide and 14.80 m high. The main auditorium is a Grade 1 listed building.
Travel by train: Charing Cross. Nearest tube: Covent Garden
