Royal Opera House 2023/24: Rusalka (2024)

William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew

Lucentio loves Bianca but cannot court her until her shrewish older sister Katherina marries. The eccentric Petruccio marries the reluctant Katherina and uses a number of tactics to render her an obedient wife.

Bell, Book and Candle

Gillian Holroyd, a modern-day witch, becomes smitten with her handsome upstairs neighbor, Shep Henderson. Using her magical powers, she casts a love spell on him, only to face unexpected complications when genuine feelings emerge, threatening her supernatural abilities.

A Biltmore Christmas

Contemporary screenwriter Lucy Hardgrove is hired to pen the remake of the holiday classic His Merry Wife!, which was shot at the renowned Biltmore Estate. Taking a tour of the grounds, she accidentally knocks over an hourglass, transporting her back in time to 1946, right when His Merry Wife! is being filmed.

Undead Lovers

Rino believes that "the man of her destiny" is Jun who always disappears from her whenever she feels their love for each other. In their lifetime, they meet many times and Rino is 100% focused on him every time. These encounters and separations are repeated in many circumstances. What could be the miraculous result of her persistent love for him?

Newsies

A week in the life of the exploited, child newspaper sellers in turn-of-the-century New York. When their publisher, Joseph Pulitzer, tries to squeeze a little more profit out of their labours, they organize a strike, only to be confronted with the Pulitzer's hard-ball tactics.

The Royal Ballet: The Nutcracker

Clara is given an enchanted Nutcracker doll on Christmas Eve. As midnight strikes, she creeps downstairs to find a magical adventure awaiting her and her Nutcracker. The magician Drosselmeyer transforms the drawing room into a battle between mice and toy soldiers. During the battle, Clara saves the Nutcracker’s life – so breaking a magical spell that turned him from a boy to a toy – and the Mouse King is defeated. In celebration, Drosselmeyer sweeps Clara and the Nutcracker off to the Kingdom of Sweets, where they meet the Sugar Plum Fairy and take part in a wonderful display of dances. The next morning, Clara’s adventures seem to have been more than just a dream.

The Slipper and the Rose

Prince Edward wants to marry for love, but the King and court of the Kingdom of Euphrania are anxious for the Prince to wed no matter what. When the Prince meets Cinderella at a ball, he's sure she's the one, and when she loses her slipper upon exiting the dance, the Prince is determined to find and marry her.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

A bump on the head sends Hank Martin, 1905 auto mechanic, to Arthurian England, 528 A.D., where he is befriended by Sir Sagramore le Desirous and gains power by judicious use of technology. He and Alisande, the King's niece, fall in love at first sight, which draws unwelcome attention from her fiancée Sir Lancelot; but worse trouble befalls when Hank meddles in the kingdom's politics.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

In 1846, Anthony Hope sails into London with the mysterious Sweeney Todd, a once-naive barber whose life and marriage was uprooted by a corrupt justice system. Todd confides in Nellie Lovett, the owner of a local meat pie shop, and the two become partners, as Todd swears revenge on those that have wronged him and decides to take up his old profession.

Love Me If You Dare

Arjun falls in love with Divyavathi who turns out to be a ghost, and sets out on a journey to uncover the truth about Divyavathi's spectral existence, learning valuable lessons about love, acceptance, and empathy along the way.

Candide

The innocent Candide discovers that human beings aren't all they are cracked up to be and ultimately focuses on building his own life on his own terms.

Daniel

Taken from his people, Daniel is exiled inside the perilous kingdom of Babylon. As he navigates this new life, will his trust in God remain steadfast through every test of faith?

An Endless Wedding

During a wedding in a riad on the edge of the Moroccan desert, Paul meets Louna, the bride's sister and witness. Following a paranormal event, they both find themselves trapped in the same space-time, forced to live the same day over and over again. And so begins a love story set against the backdrop of a time loop and a never-ending marriage…

The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall

A disfigured musical genius, hidden away in the Paris Opera House, terrorises the opera company for the unwitting benefit of a young protégée whom he trains and loves. The 25th anniversary of the first public performance of Phantom of the Opera was celebrated with a grand performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Royal Opera House: Andrea Chénier

At a glittering party in 18th-century Paris, the poet Andréa Chenier delivers an impassioned denunciation of Louis XVI. Five years later, the Revolution has given way to the Terror, transforming the power balance between Chénier, his beloved Maddalena, and Gérard, the man who could destroy him...

Don Giovanni

Screen adapatation of Mozart's greatest opera. Don Giovanni, the infamous womanizer, makes one conquest after another until the ghost of Donna Anna's father, the Commendatore, (whom Giovanni killed) makes his appearance. He offers Giovanni one last chance to repent for his multitudinious improprieties. He will not change his ways So, he is sucked down into hell by evil spirits. High drama, hysterical comedy, magnificent music!

Hunter's Bride

Inspired by Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz, the film opera Hunter's Bride traces the romantic rivalry between two veterans of the Napoleonic Wars who each vie for the heart of the same woman.

A Dickens of a Christmas

Zara, a lawyer haunted by Christmas memories, attends a Victorian dinner where she meets Rafe, a renovator. His ghostly ancestor plays matchmaker by giving Zara a book of love stories, challenging her skepticism about romance.

Bonnie & Clyde: The Musical

Filmed at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane during its two scheduled performances on January 17-18, 2022, tells the story of Bonnie and Clyde. At the height of the Great Depression, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow went from two small-town nobodies in West Texas to America's most renowned folk heroes and the Texas law enforcement's worst nightmares. Fearless, shameless, and alluring, Bonnie & Clyde is the electrifying story of love, adventure and crime that captured the attention of an entire country.

Four Letters of Love

Nicholas and Isabel were made for each other but how will they ever know it? As ghosts, fate and the sheer power of true love pull them together, so too does life threaten to tear them apart.

The Metropolitan Opera: Salome

Met performances of Strauss’s white-hot one-act tragedy, which receives its first new production at the company in 20 years. Claus Guth, one of Europe’s leading opera directors, gives the biblical story—already filtered through the beautiful and strange imagination of Oscar Wilde’s play—a psychologically perceptive Victorian-era setting rich in symbolism and subtle shades of darkness and light.

Rocky Horror Show Live

After getting a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, newly engaged couple Brad and Janet encounter the eerie mansion of the flamboyant, seductive Dr. Frank-N-Furter and a variety of eccentric characters. Through elaborate dance and rock music, the mad scientist unveils his latest creation: a perfect, muscular man.

Romeo and Juliet, the worst forfeit of all time

After losing at YouTube Warriors, Cyprien and Squeezie (the two biggest French YouTubers) must publicly act the famous tragedy.

Underwater Love

35-year-old Asuka works in a lakeside fish factory. She’s about to be married to her boss, Taki, but one day, she encounters a kappa – a water sprite found in Japanese folklore – and learns that the creature is in fact the reborn form of Aoki, an old crush who’d drowned when they were 17.

7 Deaths of Maria Callas

A meditation on the female body as a source of both power and pain that focuses on the tragic figure of renowned American-Greek opera singer Maria Callas (1923-77), whose stunning soprano voice captivated audiences around the world in the mid-20th century while her life was wracked by scandal and personal suffering.

Royal Opera House 2023/24: Das Rheingold

When a precious hoard of gold is stolen from the river Rhine, it unleashes a chain of destructive events, pitting gods and mortals against one another for generations. Wagner’s Ring cycle boasts some of the greatest music ever written for the opera stage. Join us as we embark on a spectacular journey into the world of myth, dream and memory, with the figure of Erda – Mother Earth herself – at its centre.

The King and I

Widowed Welsh mother Anna Loenowens becomes a governess and English tutor to the wives and many children of the stubborn King Mongkut of Siam. Anna and the King have a clash of personalities as she works to teach the royal family about the English language, customs and etiquette, and rushes to prepare a party for a group of European diplomats who must change their opinions about the King.

Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical

Young princess Anna of Arendelle dreams about finding true love at her sister Elsa’s coronation. Fate takes her on a dangerous journey in an attempt to end the eternal winter that has fallen over the kingdom. She's accompanied by ice delivery man Kristoff, his reindeer Sven, and snowman Olaf. On an adventure where she will find out what friendship, courage, family, and true love really means.

The Metropolitan Opera: Carmen

Director Carrie Cracknell makes her Met debut, reinvigorating the classic story with a staging that moves the action to the modern day, in a contemporary American industrial town.

Bat Out of Hell: The Musical

Step into the dystopian city of Obsidian, where a rebellious gang called The Lost can never grow old. At the heart of this rock opera is a fiery romance between their leader, Strat, and Raven, the sheltered daughter of the city’s tyrannical ruler, Falco—a love story as defiant as the music itself.

Funny Girl

The life of Fanny Brice, who rose from the Lower East Side of New York to become one of Broadway's biggest stars under producer Florenz Ziegfield. While she was cheered onstage as a great comedian, offstage she faced a doomed relationship with the man she loved.

Cinderella

Cinderella, an orphaned girl with an evil stepmother, has big dreams and with the help of her Fabulous Godmother, she perseveres to make them come true.

The Oath

400 A.D., in a forgotten time of Ancient America, a lone Hebraic fugitive must preserve the history of his fallen nation while being hunted by a ruthless tyrant – but rescuing the King's abused mistress could awaken a warrior's past.

New York City Opera: A Little Night Music

Inspired by Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night, a tangled web of affairs is weaved around actress Desirée Armfeldt and the men who love her: lawyer Fredrik Egerman and Count Carl-Magnus Malcom. When Desirée's show travels through Fredrik's town, the estranged lovers' passion rekindles.

Sagan om Karl-Bertil Jonssons julafton

The beloved story of Karl-Bertil Jonsson who takes from the rich and gives to the poor in a stage performance from Scalateatern. Henrik Dorsin tells the tale on stage and is also responsible for the adaptation and newly written lyrics.

Titanic: The Musical

In the final hours of April 14, 1912, the RMS Titanic, on her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York, collided with an iceberg and ‘the unsinkable ship’ slowly sank. It was one of the most tragic disasters of the 20th Century. Fifteen hundred seventeen men, women, and children lost their lives.

Elaine Stritch at Liberty

With only an oversized shirt, black tights, and a chair, Elaine Stritch performs her autobiographical one-woman show at London's Old Vic Theatre featuring tales and songs from her 50-plus-year career on stage and screen.

Can You Hear Me?

A fallen WWI American soldier strikes a divine bargain to reunite with his bride in England. As he resumes life unaware he's a ghost, love and loss blur. When Annabel learns the truth-now carrying his child-she must face heartbreak and find the strength to let him go.

The Mikado

ENO revival of the classic Gilbert and Sullivan operetta as reimagined in a 1930s grand hotel setting with Marx Brothers-inspired humour and Busby Berkeley-style dance numbers

The Rajasaab

A young heir embraces both his royal heritage and rebellious spirit as he rises to power, establishing unprecedented rules during his reign as Raja Saab.

Fenglou Chronicles: Tale of the Spirit Fox

Eighteen years after her grandfather's death, a young woman marries the fox spirit Feng Lou to seek revenge. Meanwhile, a power struggle within the fox clan escalates as Feng Lou’s grandfather allies with foreign forces to seize control, unleashing chaos and endangering innocent lives.

Juilliard Opera: Dialogues des Carmélites

“In a world that often demands certainty, Dialogues des Carmélites invites us to sit with profound questions that have no easy answers: What makes a life worthy? How can we be truly prepared for our inevitable end? What does security mean when everything familiar is threatened? What sustains us when our institutions crumble? … Rather than imposing answers, the opera creates room for reflection on how faith manifests not as abstract doctrine, but as lived experience under extraordinary pressure.” — Louisa Muller, Director’s Note. Juilliard Opera directed by Louisa Muller. Matthew Aucoin conducts the Juilliard Orchestra. Performed and recorded on April 26, 2025 at the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Dialogues des Carmélites, an opera by Francis Poulenc. Libretto adapted by the composer.

Falstaff

As the saying goes, “Shakespeare invented him, Verdi made him immortal” – and, surely, it was Bryn Terfel who defined him. Terfel first sung Falstaff in 1999, and in 2021, the bass-baritone superstar returns once more to the role at Grange Park Opera. In a production by Stephen Medcalf first shown in the 17th century Farnese theatre in Parma in 2011 with designs that are truly Falstaffian including sensational backcloths by Italian supremo Rinaldo Rinaldi.

Wicked

In the land of Oz, ostracized and misunderstood green-skinned Elphaba is forced to share a room with the popular aristocrat Glinda at Shiz University, and the two's unlikely friendship is tested as they begin to fulfill their respective destinies as Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Young lovers living under an oppressive state-rule flee their home-city to change their lives, and end up changing the world. After all, love changes everything.

Girl Haunts Boy

Cole, a teen grieving the loss of his dad, forms an unlikely bond with Bea, a ghost. As they navigate life and death, they must break an ancient curse.

The Metropolitan Opera: Porgy and Bess

The Gershwins’ modern American masterpiece has its first Met performances in almost three decades, starring bass-baritone Eric Owens and soprano Angel Blue in the title roles. Director James Robinson’s stylish production transports audiences to Catfish Row, a setting vibrant with the music, dancing, emotion, and heartbreak of its inhabitants.

Cabaret

Filmed live during the 1993 revival, Sam Mendes' directorial debut takes place at the Donmar Warehouse in London's West End. Jane Horrocks stars as Sally Bowles, Adam Godley as Cliff, and Alan Cumming as the eccentric Emcee. Inside the Kit Kat Club in 1931 Berlin, starry-eyed singer Sally and the lewd Emcee sound the clarion call to decadence, while outside, the Nazi party grows into a brutal force.

Green Snake: The Origin

The Green Snake, who feeds only on demons and never harms humans, is misunderstood by the people of Hangzhou. Driven out and attacked, she escapes wounded and encounters a little ghost. The two decide to travel together. Upon entering the demon realm, the Green Snake attempts to rescue captured demons but faces skepticism and rejection. The Demon King, recognizing her abilities, assigns her a critical mission. As she spends time with the little ghost, the Green Snake begins to experience human emotions, and a deep bond forms between them.

Weber: Der Freischütz

A godforsaken village in Germany shortly after the Thirty Years’ War: The young scrivener Max loves Agathe, daughter of the head forester Kuno. But to marry her, the inexperienced marksman Max must participate in an archaic tradition and score in a shooting trial – an unfulfillable challenge for him. The dubious war veteran Kaspar knows about this. He convinces the scrivener to meet him at Wolf’s Glen at midnight to forge “free bullets” that never miss their target. Max, who does not see any other way out of his unfortunate situation, sells his soul to the devil. Not knowing about the catch behind this deal: while six of the cursed bullets will hit the desired target, the seventh lies in the devil’s hands.

Giacomo Puccini - Il Trittico

Finding the right librettos was not easy, but one month after the end of the First World War, his triptych – the grim tragedy Il tabarro, the lyrical and sensitive Suor Angelica, and the comedy Gianni Schicchi – premiered in New York. Three different eras, three different settings, three different ‘colours’; though for Puccini, it is through the contrasts between them that the unity of the work is revealed. For his second time directing at La Monnaie, Tobias Kratzer preserves the original order of the pieces, while weaving them together to form a narrative whole, like a circle with no end. With a cast of artists from the extended La Monnaie family, Alain Altinoglu is the ideal conductor to meet the daunting challenges posed by this triptych.

Gluck: Orfeo ed Euridice

Based on Gluck's masterpiece and performed entirely on location in and around the environs of the Baroque Theatre at the Cesky Krumlov Castle in the Czech Republic; it's an opera production designed specifically for the film with outstanding sets and production values. Countertenor Bejun Mehta sings the role of the torn main character and acts as an artistic advisor, making for an involving and impeccably performed opera.