London’s Royal Opera House Reveals New Name Alongside 2024/25 Season Announcement

The company will now be known as the “Royal Ballet and Opera”

 

The center of cultural life in London for the last three centuries, the Covent Garden theater has since been home to The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera. To unite both organizations under one name, the Royal Opera House will be known as the Royal Ballet and Opera as of the 2024/25 concert season. 

“Here, at the Royal Ballet and Opera, we create art that makes you feel different about yourself and can change how you feel about the world,” said the company’s CEO Alex Beard in a press release. 

“The Royal Ballet and Opera is facing the future with confidence and the support of over 23,000 Friends, Patrons, supporters and business partners,” Beard added. “It is through their generosity and dedicated support for our art and Companies that we are able to ignite passions and inspire imaginations with world-class art, creating transformative experiences for audiences old and new.”

As a newly merged company with a new logo to reflect the name change, the Royal Ballet and Opera’s 2024/25 season will feature operas including the world premiere of Festen, based on Academy Award-winning filmmaker Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 film of the same name. 

Composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage with a libretto by Lee Hall, Festen will feature performers including Allan Clayton, Stéphane Degout, Gerald Finley, and conductor Edward Gardner.

Also, in a year that has seen Leonard Bernstein celebrated in the film Maestro, his two semi-autobiographical operas will be staged at Covent Garden for the first time — Trouble in Tahiti and A Quiet Place will be directed by Oliver Mears and conducted by Nicholas Chalmers.  

In September and October 2024, Ted Huffman will make his Main Stage debut directing a new production of Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky. Conducted by Henrik Nánási, performers include Gordon Bintner, Kristina Mkhitaryan, Liparit Avetisyan, and Avery Amereau. 

Spotlighting leading choreographers and creative teams, the company’s ballet season will open with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and The Mad Hatter's Tea Party — both productions will be available to young people as part of the company’s Schools’ Matinee program. 

November 2024 will see Damiano Michieletto return to Covent Garden to direct Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, featuring conductor Antonello Manacorda, with cast members Juan Diego Flórez, Leonardo Caimi, Alex Esposito, Julie Boulianne, Marina Costa-Jackson, and more.

The European premiere of the ballet MaddAddam (based on Margaret Atwood’s trilogy of novels) will be staged with a specially commissioned score by Max Richter and costume designs by Gareth Pugh.

Created 23 years ago, Cassa Pancho’s Ballet Black has championed artists of Black and Asian descent — the company’s presentation of The Ballet Black: Heroes will explore the complexity of humanity, heroism, and self-acceptance.   

In October, Encounters: Four Contemporary Ballets will involve Kyle Abraham’s The Weathering; Crystal Pite’s gripping boardroom drama The Statement; Pam Tanowitz’s new work Dispatch; and Joseph Toonga, who will present his second Main Stage work for the company, combining classical ballet and hip-hop idioms.  

Further, Legacy, starring First Soloist of The Royal Ballet Joseph Sissens will be staged, as well as International Draft Works, and the Next Generation Festival, which will showcase a range of global performing talent presented by junior companies and dance schools.

 

 

In 2025, Barrie Kosky will direct the second installment of the Ring cycle: Die Walküre; Jakub Hruša will conduct Claus Guth’s Olivier Award-winning production of Jenůfa. Other productions include Carmen, Tobias Kratzer’s Fidelio, and Adele Thomas’ Il trovatore. In ballet, Crystal Pite’s Light of Passage will return in February, set to Gorecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. 

Additionally, 280 years since its Covent Garden premiere, Semele will be the latest in the Royal Ballet and Opera’s series of Handel’s operas and oratorios that were written for Covent Garden.

To honor the centenary of Puccini’s death, Speranza Scappucci, the company’s Principal Guest Conductor Designate will lead her first Covent Garden Main Stage production with La bohème. Further, Tosca will be conducted by Eun Sun Kim in her Royal Opera debut, and Turandot will be led by Rafael Payare and Francesco Ivan Ciampa.

More productions will include La traviata, Faust, Aida, David McVicar’s The Marriage of Figaro featuring rising stars Ying Fang and Huw Montague Rendall, and a story-book production of Hansel and Gretel, conducted by Giedrė Šlekytė in her Royal Opera debut.   

Cinderella will herald the holiday season, involving work by the company’s founding choreographer Frederick Ashton, with music by Prokofiev. Made by Ben Duke and Lost Dog, the dance theater piece Ruination set to live music will return in the same period. 

Showcasing Christopher Wheeldon’s choreography, Ballet to Broadway: Wheeldon Works will highlight Fool’s Paradise with composer Joby Talbot, An American in Paris set to Gershwin’s music, The Two of Us, and Us. Choreographer George Balanchine’s legacy will also be explored in Balanchine: Three Signature Works.

Both celebrating 60th anniversaries in 2025, Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet with music by Prokofiev, and John Cranko’s 1965 ballet Onegin will return to the Main Stage, and to close the season. 

Other events throughout the year include The Sound Voice Project, an award-winning opera-video installation featuring music by Hannah Conway and a libretto by Hazel Gould; Catch a Sea Star — an interactive, multi-sensory opera for toddlers and babies; a Royal Ballet and Opera double production of Phaedra and Minotaur; and Telemann’s Pimpinone, which will feature artists of the Jette Parker Artists program.

This season, the Royal Ballet and Opera will also broadcast 11 productions to 1,500 cinemas worldwide — offering children in schools who might otherwise not have access to the arts with opportunities for free specialist training and resources to inspire them in dance, music, and design.    

To celebrate 40 years of pioneering learning programs in 2025, the Royal Ballet and Opera’s schools program has been working with over 46,000 students, 1,500 teachers, and 700 schools to open up access to the arts in the UK. In addition, the company will launch its second Overture cohort in partnership with Black Lives in Music as of August 2024; members of the company’s orchestra will continue to mentor young musicians aged 18-25 from underrepresented backgrounds. 

“Whether it is welcoming audiences from across the globe to experience magic on its stages or inspiring creativity in classrooms across the UK, the Royal Ballet and Opera celebrates everything that the arts bring to UK society, looking boldly ahead to a new and exciting Season,” the company stated in the 2024/25 season announcement.

For more details and ticket bookings, click here.