The Royal Opera House has announced its 2023-24 season, including both the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet.
The Royal Opera will present eight new productions, beginning with Das Rheingold, the first installment of Wagner's Ring Cycle, directed by Barrie Kosky. Conducted by ROH music director Antonio Pappano, the production will star Christopher Maltman as Wotan and Christopher Purves as Alberich, whose renunciation of love and subsequent creation of the titular ring kicks off the events of Wagner's four-part epic.
Next will be the U.K. premiere of Picture a Day Like This, the fourth opera by George Benjamin and Martin Crimp. Directed by Daniel Jeanneteau and Marie-Christine Soma, the opera about a woman searching for a miracle after the death of her infant child will star Ema Nikolovska, Jacquelyn Stucker, Beate Mordal, Cameron Shahbazi, and John Brancy.
In October, Oliver Mears will direct a new production of Handel's Jephtha, starring tenor Allan Clayton as the biblical judge. Jennifer France, Alice Coote, and Brindley Sherratt round out the cast of Handel's final oratorio, which will be conducted by Laurence Cummings.
Antonio Pappano returns to the podium in December to lead a new production of Strauss' Elektra, directed by Christof Loy. Nina Stemme will star as the Mycenaean princess who aims to avenge her father's death at the hands of her mother Klytaemnestra, played by Karita Mattila. The cast will also include Sara Jakubiak as Elektra's sister Chrysothemis, Lukasz Golinski as her banished brother Orest, and Charles Workman as Aegisth, Klytaemnestra's co-conspirator.
In February, the Royal Opera will present the world premiere of Woman & Machine, a "binaural opera experience" by singer-songwriter Eska, directed by Kirsty Housley which "charts [Eska's] three-month experience in the neonatal unit of King’s College Hospital when her daughter was born at just 26 weeks."
A new production of Carmen will open March 14, starring Aigul Akhmetshina and Piotr Beczala, who will also star in the Metropolitan Opera's new production of the same opera this coming season. The Royal Opera's production will be directed by Damiano Michieletto, and conducted by Emmanuel Villaume. Later in the run, Vasilisa Berzhanskaya and Brandon Jovanovich will step into the lead roles.
A 20th century double bill will open in April, comprising Bohuslav Martinů's 1928 opera Les Larmes du Couteau, directed by Eleanor Burke; and John Harbison's 1977 opera Full Moon in March, directed by Harriet Taylor. Both operas will be conducted by Edward Reeve. Casting has yet to be announced.
The final new production of the season will be Vivaldi's L'Olimpiade, directed by Daisy Evans in a collaboration between the Royal Opera and Irish National Opera. Vivaldi was just one of many composers to set Pietro Metastasio's libretto, originally written for Antonio Caldara in 1733. Vivaldi's version premiered the very next year.
The season will also include several revivals, including Verdi's La Forza del Destino starring Sondra Radvanovsky, Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore starring Nadine Sierra and Bryn Terfel, Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer starring Bryn Terfel, and Giordano's Andrea Chénier starring Jonas Kaufmann, Sondra Radvanovsky, and Carlos Álvarez.
In May, there will be a Farewell Gala Concert for Antonio Pappano, as he concludes his final season as music director of the Royal Opera.
The Royal Ballet season will include the world premiere of The Limit, adapted from Sam Steiner's play Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons. The Limit is directed by Ed Madden and choreographed by Kristen McNally, and stars Francesca Hayward and Alexander Campbell. The score is by Isobel Waller-Bridge, who composed the score for her sister Phoebe's BBC series Fleabag.
The Royal Ballet season will also include many other classic and contemporary works, including Wayne McGregor's The Dante Project, with music by Thomas Adès, and Christopher Wheeldon's The Winter's Tale, with music by Joby Talbot.
Visit ROH.co.uk for more information.
