Royal Opera House, Covent Garden

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Performance of text Joanna Baillie
Of the twenty-eight plays that JB wrote, only seven were professionally produced. These were De Monfort,The Family Legend, Henriquez, The Separation, The Election, Constantine Paleologus, and Basil...
Performance of text Caroline Norton
CN tried a new genre with a play, The Gypsy Father, which opened on this date at Covent Garden Theatre ; it was not a success with the audience and seems not to have been printed.
Chedzoy, Alan. A Scandalous Woman: The Story of Caroline Norton. Allison and Busby.
78
Performance of text Frances Brooke
FB 's tragedy The Siege of Sinope opened at Covent Garden ; it played for ten nights—a gratifyingly long run.
Mann, David D. et al. Women Playwrights in England, Ireland and Scotland, 1660-1823. Indiana University Press.
381
Performance of text Frances Brooke
FB 's first musical, Rosina, set to music by William Shields , opened at Covent Garden .
Mary Robinson performed in the mainpiece at Covent Garden that night; but if she was in Rosina...
Performance of text Frances Brooke
Marian, FB 's second musical, also set by Shields , began an excellent run (though less phenomenal than Rosina's) at Covent Garden .
Mann, David D. et al. Women Playwrights in England, Ireland and Scotland, 1660-1823. Indiana University Press.
381
Performance of text Robert Browning
RB 's tragedy in blank verse entitled Strafford was first performed at Covent Garden ; it was published the same year.
Irvine, William, and Park Honan. The Book, the Ring, and the Poet: A Biography of Robert Browning. McGraw-Hill.
74-5
The Concise Dictionary of National Biography: From Earliest Times to 1985. Oxford University Press.
Performance of text Charlotte Smith
CS 's only extant play, the comedy What Is She?, opened anonymously at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden .
Mann, David D. et al. Women Playwrights in England, Ireland and Scotland, 1660-1823. Indiana University Press.
400
Fletcher, Loraine. Charlotte Smith: A Critical Biography. Macmillan.
289
Performance of text E. M. Forster
Billy Budd, Benjamin Britten 's opera based on Herman Melville 's novel, with libretto by EMF and Eric Crozier , opened at the Royal Opera House , Covent Garden, London.
Drabble, Margaret, and Jenny Stringer, editors. The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press.
216
Kirkpatrick, Brownlee Jean. A Bibliography of E. M. Forster. Clarendon.
60
Performance of text Oscar Wilde
The first performance was heard at Covent Garden of the English opera written by Richard Strauss to the text of OW 's Salome.
Tydeman, William, and Steven Price. Wilde—Salome. Cambridge University Press.
185
Performance of text Anne Burke
A play was put on at Covent Garden entitled The Ward of the Castle and ascribed to Miss Burke. Several sources ascribe this to AB , but she was a married woman, and would...
Performance of text Maria Theresa Kemble
MTK played Lady Elizabeth Freelove (opposite her husband ) in her comic interlude The Day After the Wedding; or, a Wife's First Lesson, at Covent Garden .
Feminist Companion Archive.
Publishing Sophia Lee
SL had the idea for it while in debtors' prison with her father . Contemporary rumour said she had written it to get him out of prison; but at that time she apparently made no...
Publishing Isabel Hill
Through his connections, Benson Hill had the play presented to Covent Garden Theatre . Though the management chose not to produce the play, they provided IH with a long letter full of encouragement and constructive...
Publishing Mary Russell Mitford
From August 1823 MRM was planning a grand historical tragedy on the greatest subject in English story—Charles and Cromwell.
Mitford, Mary Russell. The Life of Mary Russell Mitford: Told by Herself in Letters To Her Friends. Editor L’Estrange, Alfred Guy Kingham, Harper and Brothers.
2: 16
She noted Cromwell 's domestic virtues and thought of him as a man acting...
Publishing Hannah Cowley
It was badly presented, by two of the cast in particular.
Escott, Angela. Email about supposed quarrel between Hannah Cowley and Hannah More to Isobel Grundy.
It had been completed by 1777, but rejected by Thomas Harris of Covent Garden , who then produced Hannah More 's Percy instead. Tragedy...

Timeline

Late 1939-1944: For the duration of the second World War,...

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Late 1939-1944

For the duration of the second World War, Covent Garden was converted into a dance hall; no opera, ballet or theatrical performances took place there.

20 February 1946: The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London,...

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20 February 1946

The Royal Opera House , Covent Garden, London, had its grand reopening after wartime closure. Margot Fonteyn performed with the Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet in The Sleeping Beauty.

24 April 1946: The Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet company,...

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24 April 1946

The Sadler's Wells Theatre Ballet company, with principal ballerinas Moira Shearer , Margot Fonteyn , and Pamela May , performed Symphonic Variations at Covent Garden .

1949: Richard Strauss's opera Salome, to words...

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1949

Richard Strauss 's opera Salome, to words by Oscar Wilde , was performed at Covent Garden, produced by Peter Brook with sets by Salvador Dali .

26 April 1951: Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams's opera Pilgrim's...

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26 April 1951

Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams 's opera Pilgrim's Progress was first performed, at Covent Garden in London.

8 November 1952: Maria Callas made her London debut at Covent...

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8 November 1952

Maria Callas made her London debut at Covent Garden in Giuseppe Bellini 's opera Norma.

6 February 1953: Singer Kathleen Ferrier collapsed during...

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6 February 1953

Singer Kathleen Ferrier collapsed during Gluck 's opera Orfeo at Covent Garden ; she never sang again, but died of cancer later this year.

3 October 1956: The first Soviet ballet company to visit...

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3 October 1956

The first Soviet ballet company to visit Britain, the Bolshoi , performed Romeo and Juliet at Covent Garden .

1 January 1957: The first three-act ballet score by a British...

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1 January 1957

The first three-act ballet score by a British composer, Benjamin Britten 's The Prince of the Pagodas, was performed at Covent Garden.

10 June 1958: The Centenary Gala of the Royal Opera House...

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10 June 1958

The Centenary Gala of the Royal Opera House took place in celebration of the opening (on 6 April 1847) of the third theatre on the Covent Garden site, the first designed for opera.

27 October 1958: The ballet Ondine, danced by Margot Fonteyn...

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27 October 1958

The ballet Ondine, danced by Margot Fonteyn and choreographed by Frederick Ashton , was performed at Covent Garden.

17 February 1959: Australian soprano Joan Sutherland sang Lucia...

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17 February 1959

Australian soprano Joan Sutherland sang Lucia in the Franco Zeffirelli version of the opera Lucia di Lammermoor at Covent Garden.

12 March 1963: Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn danced...

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12 March 1963

Rudolf Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn danced together for the first time at the Royal Opera House , Covent Garden, in Marguerite and Armand by Sir Frederick Ashton .

1988: The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, appointed...

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1988

The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden , appointed its first woman conductor, Sian Edwards .

4 December 1999: The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, re-opened...

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4 December 1999

The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden , re-opened after a three-year reconstruction (begun well before the final performance in the old house in July 1997).

Texts

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