09 February 2018
Newsdesk
The Royal Opera’s 2018 Spring Season culminates with the hotly anticipated world premiere of composer George Benjamin and playwright Martin Crimp’s new opera Lessons in Love and Violence. Following the major success of the duo’s previous collaboration Written on Skin – the most performed new opera of the 21st century – Lessons in Love and Violence reunites George Benjamin and Martin Crimp with director Katie Mitchell and designer Vicki Mortimer. The cast includes Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan, who created the role of Agnès in Written on Skin to great acclaim, alongside French baritone Stéphane Degout.
Prior to Lessons in Love and Violence, Janáček’s final opera From the House of the Dead receives its Royal Opera premiere in a new production directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski, who makes his Royal Opera and UK debut. Mark Wigglesworth conducts an ensemble cast including Danish bass-baritone Johan Reuter and Jamaican bass Willard W. White.
Music Director Antonio Pappano conducts two revivals during the Spring Season, beginning with Phyllida Lloyd’s production of Verdi’s Macbeth. Russian soprano Anna Netrebko returns to The Royal Opera to sing Lady Macbeth, alongside Serbian baritone Željko Lučić in the title role. Richard Jones’s acclaimed production of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk also returns conducted by Pappano, featuring Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek as Katerina and British bass John Tomlinson as Boris Ismailov.
Antonio Pappano also conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House in concert,
joined by German baritone Christian Gerhaher. The programme consists of Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen, Frank Martin’s Sechs Monologe aus ‘Jedermann’, Shostakovich’s Eight British and American Folk Songs and Elgar’s Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma).
Away from Covent Garden, The Royal Opera returns to Lyric Hammersmith for the first revival of Philip Venables’s award-winning opera 4.48 Psychosis. Inspired by Sarah Kane’s extraordinary final play, 4.48 Psychosis received its premiere in 2016, winning the 2016 UK Theatre Award for Achievement in Opera and the 2017 Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Large-Scale Composition.
The Royal Opera House Live Cinema Season continues in Spring 2018, with a performance of Macbeth being relayed live to cinema around the world on 4 April 2018.
FROM THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD Leoš Janáček
7, 10, 14, 19, 22 and 24 March 2018 at 8pm
MACBETH Giuseppe Verdi
25 March 2018 at 3pm | 28 March and 2, 4* and 10 April 2018 at 7.30pm | 31 March and 7 April 2018 at 7pm
*ROH Live Cinema relay
LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK Dmitry Shostakovich
12, 17, 20, 24 and 27 April 2018 at 7pm
ORCHESTRAL CONCERT
23 April 2018 at 7.30pm
4.48 PSYCHOSIS Philip Venables
24, 26, 28 and 30 April 2018 and 2 and 4 May 2018 at 7.30pm
Lyric Hammersmith, Kings Mall Shopping Centre, King Street, Lyric Square, London W6 0QL
LESSONS IN LOVE AND VIOLENCE George Benjamin
10, 12, 15, 18 and 24 May 2018 at 8pm | 26 May 2018 at 7.30pm
