UK Premieres of LEAST LIKE THE OTHER, INNOCENCE & More Announced for Royal Opera House Spring 2023

Royal Opera House has announced its must see productions for Spring 2023. Contemporary and much-loved productions to bring in the new year. A thrilling range of opera and ballet will be live in cinemas around the world. Tickets start from £5.

Opera

UK premiere
Irish National Opera

LEAST LIKE THE OTHER

15-19 January 2023

For years, the story of Rosemary Kennedy, the older sister of President John F. Kennedy, was shrouded in secrecy. This explosive and thought-provoking piece of music theatre uses recently released archive material to explore the events leading up to Rosemary's disastrous lobotomy at the age of 23.

Director, designer and video artist Netia Jones (Current, Rising, ATTHIS, Kafka Fragments) directs a searing portrait of 1940s America. The piece is an indictment of societal taboos surrounding the challenges of mental health, and the doctors whose egos and 'pioneering' treatments caused irrevocable damage. Fergus Sheil (Artistic Director of Irish National Opera) conducts Brian Irvine's kaleidoscopic score.

• Tickets start from £5, and are available at Least Like the Other (roh.org.uk)

New production
The Royal Opera

RUSALKA

Main Stage
21 February-7 March 2023

Rusalka, a water nymph, lives with her family in the pure waters of the forest lake. When she falls in love with a Prince, she sacrifices her voice and leaves her home in the hope of finding true love in a new world - a world that does not love her back.

Natalie Abrahami and Ann Yee create a poetic, contemporary new staging of Dvořák's lyric fairy tale, revealing our uneasy relationship with the natural world and humanity's attempts to own and tame it. Semyon Bychkov conducts an all-star cast featuring Asmik Grigorian (Jenůfa) in the title role.

• Tickets start from £11, and are available at Rusalka (roh.org.uk)

UK premiere
The Royal Opera

INNOCENCE

Main Stage
17 April-4 May 2023
Co-commission and co-production of Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Dutch National Opera, Finnish National Opera and Ballet, and San Francisco Opera

In modern-day Finland, an oddly subdued wedding is underway. When the Waitress is taken ill, memories stir of a school tragedy from ten years ago, forcing everyone to confront the trauma of the past.

Set to music of 'sublime terror' (The New Yorker) by Kaija Saariaho, Sofi Oksanen's multi-layered libretto explores the legacy of violence and its ripple-effect across the years. The long-awaited premiere of Innocence promises to be an unmissable event, with a starkly dramatic staging by Simon Stone, director of Yerma (2016) at the Young Vic and The Dig (2021) and conducted by Susanna Mälkki in her House debut.

• Tickets start from £6, available at Innocence (roh.org.uk)

New production
The Royal Opera and Jette Parker Artists

ARMINIO

Linbury Theatre
20 April-6 May 2023

Germanian chieftain Arminio plans to repel a Roman invasion of his country, alongside his wife Tusnelda, and sister Ramise. Family, love and duty to country are tested to the limit in this brilliantly scored opera, composed by Handel in the same year as Giustino and Berenice.

The Royal Opera's odyssey into Handel's Covent Garden operas and oratorios continues with Arminio, first staged here in 1737. A dazzling cast and creative team of Jette Parker Artists bring Handel's opera to life.

• Tickets start from £10, available at Arminio (roh.org.uk)

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Ballet

The Royal Ballet

THE SLEEPING BEAUTY

Main Stage
16 January-4 March 2023
6 May-6 June 2023

The Sleeping Beauty holds a very special place in The Royal Ballet's heart and history. It was the first performance given by the Company when the Royal Opera House reopened at Covent Garden in 1946 after World War II. In 2006, this original staging was revived and has been delighting audiences ever since. Frederick Ashton famously cited the pure classicism of Marius Petipa's 19th-century ballet as a private lesson in the atmospheric art and craft of choreography. Be swept away by Tchaikovsky's ravishing music and Oliver Messel's sumptuous designs with this true gem from the classical ballet repertory.

• Tickets start from £9, available at The Sleeping Beauty (roh.org.uk)
• Live in cinemas on Wednesday 24 May, encores follow from Sunday 28 May
• Participating cinemas can be found here

New production
The Royal Ballet

CINDERELLA

Main Stage
27 March-3 May 2023
Co-production between The Royal Ballet and The National Ballet of Canada

Royal Ballet Founder Choreographer Frederick Ashton's Cinderella celebrates its 75th anniversary this Season. The ballet's opening night in 1948, featuring Moira Shearer and Michael Somes in the lead roles, was received rapturously. After over a decade away from the Royal Opera House stage, Ashton's timeless reworking of Charles Perrault's famous rags-to-riches story returns, showcasing the choreographer's deft musicality and the beauty of Prokofiev's transcendent score. A creative team steeped in the magic of theatre, film, dance and opera brings new atmosphere to Cinderella's ethereal world of fairy godmothers and pumpkin carriages, handsome princes and finding true love.

• Tickets start from £9, available at Cinderella (roh.org.uk)
• Live in cinemas on Wednesday 12 April; encores follow from Sunday 16 April
• Participating cinemas can be found here

The Royal Ballet

WOOLF WORKS

Main Stage
1-23 March 2023

Virginia Woolf defied narrative conventions to depict a heightened, startling and poignant reality. Woolf Works re-creates the emotions, themes and fluid style of three of her novels: Mrs Dalloway, Orlando and The Waves. Inspired by her novels, letters, essays and diaries, Wayne McGregor's ballet moves away from traditional narrative structure, capturing the spirit of Woolf's writing and delighting audiences with its stunning choreography and luminous original score by Max Richter. Woolf Works was created for The Royal Ballet in 2015 and won the Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production and a Critics' Circle National Dance Award.

• Tickets start from £5, available at Woolf Works (roh.org.uk)

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In Cinemas

The Royal Ballet

LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE

19 January (special screening: recorded 9 June 2022)

Royal Ballet Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon's latest full-length work for the Company is inspired by Laura Esquivel's captivating novel Like Water for Chocolate. This family saga, set in 19th century Mexico, follows the tumultuous love story of Tita and Pedro. Emotion and passion run deep, spilling out through Tita's cooking to influence everyone around her in startling and dramatic ways.

The cinema broadcast on Thursday 19 January stars Principal dancer Francesca Hayward as Tita, Principal dancer Marcelino Sambé as Pedro, and Mexican musician Tomás Barreiro on guitar.

• Check listings at your local cinema
• Encore screenings run from Sunday 22 January

The Royal Opera

THE BARBER OF SEVILLE

Wednesday 15 February (live)

When Rosina falls in love with mysterious young suitor Lindoro, she must use all her cunning - and a little help from her local barber - to outwit her calculating guardian Dr Bartolo. Expect heart-melting serenades, ridiculous disguises and a fairytale ending waiting just out of reach. From the barber's opening number 'Largo al factotum,' with its cry of 'Figaro!,' to Rosina's feisty aria 'Una voce poco fa,' Gioachino Rossini's comic opera is a riotously entertaining affair.

The cinema broadcast on Wednesday 15 February stars Aigul Akmetshina as Rosina, Andrzej Filończyk as Figaro, Lawrence Brownlee as Count Almaviva, and Bryn Terfel as Don Basilio.

• Participating cinemas can be found here
• Encore screenings run from Sunday 19 February

The Royal Opera

TURANDOT

Wednesday 22 March (live)

In the court of Princess Turandot, suitors who fail to solve her riddles are brutally killed. But when a mysterious Prince answers correctly, suddenly he holds all the power - and a glorious secret. When life hangs in the balance, can love conquer all? Puccini's score is rich in musical marvels (featuring 'Nessun dorma'), while Andrei Serban's production draws on Chinese and Italian theatrical traditions to conjure a vision of ancient China steeped in legend and fantasy.

The cinema broadcast on Wednesday 22 March stars Anna Pirozzi as Princess Turandot, Yonghoon Lee as Calaf, and Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha as Liù.

• Participating cinemas can be found here
• Encore screenings run from Sunday 26 March