The Royal Ballet and Opera, under a new and combined organisational name, will present new productions alongside returning audience favourites.
The 2024-25 season will include the world première of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s opera Festen, eight new opera productions across two stages such as Eugene Onegin, The Tales of Hoffmann, Die Walküre, Semele, The Sound Voice Project and a Bernstein double bill, the European première of Wayne McGregor’s MaddAddam and eight works new to The Royal Ballet by choreographers including Christopher Wheeldon, Joseph Toonga and Pam Tanowitz.
The new opera productions spanning three centuries are spread across the Main Stage and the Linbury Theatre, including the world premiere of Festen, based on Thomas Vinterberg’s 1998 film of the same name, composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage (Greek, Anna Nicole, Coraline) with a libretto by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot), directed by Richard Jones.
In the autumn, Ted Huffman (4.48: Psychosis) will make his Main Stage debut directing a new staging of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin with Gordon Bintner in the title role, Kristina Mkhitaryan as Tatyana, Liparit Avetisyan as Lensky and Avery Amereau as Olga. Damiano Michieletto will return to direct Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann, in which Juan Diego Flórez and Leonardo Caimi will share the title role joined by Alex Esposito, Julie Boulianne and Olga Pudova, Marina Costa-Jackson and Ermonela Jaho in the three soprano roles.
Barrie Kosky will direct the second instalment of the Ring cycle, Die Walküre, with Antonio Pappano conducting, Christopher Maltman and reprising the role of Wotan, alongside Elisabet Strid (Brünnhilde), Lise Davidsen (Sieglinde) and Stanislas de Barbeyrac (Siegmund).
Handel specialist Christian Curnyn conducts Semele as Pretty Yende marks her return to Covent Garden in the title role, with Ben Bliss making his House debut as Jupiter. Jakub Hruša will conduct Corinne Winters, Karita Mattila, Thomas Atkins and Nicky Spence in the revival of Claus Guth’s production of Jenůfa. There are first revivals of Tobias Kratzer’s Fidelio and Adele Thomas’s Il trovatore, and Aigul Akhmetshina will reprise the role of Carmen alongside Freddie De Tommaso.
Commemorating the centenary of Puccini’s death, Speranza Scappucci leads her first Covent Garden stage production, Richard Jones’s La bohème. Also returning is Jonathan Kent’s Tosca starring Sonya Yoncheva, SeokJong Baek and Bryn Terfel. Andrei Șerban’s Turandot has Sondra Radvanovsky and Ewa Płonka in the title role.
The season opens with revivals of Richard Eyre’s La traviata and David McVicar’s The Marriage of Figaro, as well as McVicar’s Faust with Stefan Pop, Erwin Schrott and Lisette Oropesa in the main roles, and Robert Carsen’s Aida. For Christmas there's Antony McDonald’s storybook production of Hansel and Gretel.
In the autumn, the Linbury Theatre will present The Sound Voice Project with music by Hannah Conway, a opera-video installation featuring a libretto by Hazel Gould and performances by Roderick Williams and Lucy Crowe.
A Royal Ballet and Opera double production of Phaedra + Minotaur is a collaboration between Deborah Warner and Kim Brandstrup, and seven newcomers will bring their talents to a new production of Telemann’s Pimpinone in the Linbury Theatre.
In the summer, the interactive, multi-sensory opera, to music by Bach, for toddlers and babies Catch a Sea Star, will be staged in the Clore Studio.
Wayne McGregor will return with the European première of MaddAddam, based on Margaret Atwood’s trilogy of novels (Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam).
In October, Encounters: Four Contemporary Ballets will feature the work of four choreographers: Kyle Abraham’s The Weathering, Crystal Pite’s The Statement, Pam Tanowitz's expanded Dispatch Duet and Joseph Toonga's melding of classical ballet and hip-hop; in February Crystal Pite’s Light of Passage gets its first revival.
The Ballet Season opens with Christopher Wheeldon's Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and ZooNation: The Kate Prince Company returns with The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. Christopher Wheeldon has a new mixed programme, Ballet to Broadway: Fool’s Paradise, An American in Paris, The Two of Us with Joni Mitchell's songs, and Us which Wheeldon created for BalletBoyz in 2017.
Balanchine: Three Signature Works comprises Serenade, the first ballet he created in America, contrasted with the avant-garde Prodigal Son and Symphony in C. Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet and John Cranko’s 1965 Onegin are matched with Frederick Ashton's Cinderella.
Ben Duke and Lost Dog’s Ruination returns, and Joseph Sissens will share Legacy, a celebration of black and brown dancers from all over the world. The Linbury Theatre will also host guest companies including Northern Ballet, Acosta Danza and Ballet Black.
Alex Beard, Chief Executive of the Royal Ballet and Opera, said, "bringing ballet into our name is long overdue—The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera have performed under the same roof since 1946—and both companies now enjoy the prominence that they rightfully deserve. The whole of the Royal Ballet and Opera is far more than the sum of our parts."