Turning tips into memories

Royal Opera House Winter Season booking guide

By Claudia Pritchard on 16/10/2017

Royal Opera House Winter Season: Puccini, Verdi, Rossini and Bizet are among the opera highlights, while Giselle and The Winter's Tale are our dance picks.

General booking for the Winter Season opens from 9am on Wednesday 18 October 2017.

Soprano Joyce DiDonato plays the ambitious queen in Semiramide. Photo: W Hösl

Rossini's Semiramide, Royal Opera House

Opera, like theatre, has a long tradition of characters who do not recognise their own childen, and in his masterpiece Semiramide, Rossini makes full dramatic use of this device. But the audience knows better

WHEN

19 Nov 2017 – 16 Dec 2017, eight performances, one at 3PM

WHERE

Royal Opera House
Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD

David McVicar's production of Rigoletto shows a lavish and licentious court of Mantua. Photo: Catherine Ashmore

Verdi's Rigoletto, Royal Opera House

When an innocent and overprotected young woman has to choose between a dashing duke and her demanding father, love and loyalty clash in Verdi’s great opera, famous for its final act quartet

WHEN

14 Dec 2017 – 16 Jan 2018, nine performances, one at 12PM

WHERE

Royal Opera House
Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD

Salome is based on Oscar Wilde's play. Photo: Clive Barda

Richard Strauss's Salome, Royal Opera House

As featured in the highly recommended Opera: Passion, Power and Politics at the V&A, Richard Strauss’s bloody and powerful Salome, which shocked audiences in 1905. But are we easily shocked today...?

WHEN

08 Jan 2018 – 30 Jan 2018, six performances

WHERE

Royal Opera House
Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD

Carmen is opera's ultimate femme fatale. Photo: Royal Opera House

Bizet's Carmen, Royal Opera House

If you love her, you are playing with fire: if you don’t love her, it’s more dangerous still. Bizet’s fiery character Carmen is famous for her sizzling sex appeal – and his opera even more famous for its fantastic music

WHEN

06 Feb 2018 – 16 Mar 2018, 12 performances, one at 12PM

WHERE

Royal Opera House
Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD

Angela Gheorghiu plays Tosca in some performances at Covent Garden. Photo: Catherine Ashmore

Puccini's Tosca, Royal Opera House

A painter and opera singer struggle to get on with their careers in Puccini's opera set in Rome, where a menacing chief of police expects special favours from Tosca in exchange for her lover's safety

WHEN

15 Jan 2018 – 03 Mar 2018, 13 performances, including three matinees

WHERE

Royal Opera House
Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD

Royal Ballet's Giselle, Royal Opera House

The story of the peasant girl who turns into a restless forest spirit after dying of a broken heart, Giselle was first performed in Paris in 1841 and has been the Romantic ballet par excellence ever since. This year we recommend booking pronto for one of the two (sure to sell out) performances where Natalia Osipova - one of the great Giselles of our time - will be partnered by the wonderful American dancer, David Wallberg (1 and 9 March).

WHEN

20 Jan 2018 – 09 Mar 2018, 19:30 Sat 20 Jan 14:00 & !9:00 Sat 10 Feb 12:30 Dur.: 2 hours including one interval

WHERE

Royal Opera House
Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD

Stephen McRae as Florizel photo Johan Persson

Royal Ballet's The Winter's Tale, Royal Opera House

“Exhilarating,” “faultless,” “a triumph,” “an Instant classic” – these were just some of the adjectives that greeted choreographer Christopher Wheeldon’s The Winter’s Talewhen it premiered at Covent Garden in the Spring of 2014. Now it's back with new casts along the original one, where Edward Watson gave one of the performances of his career as the tormented Leontes.

WHEN

13 Feb 2018 – 21 Mar 2018, 19:30 Sat 24 Feb 13:30 & 19:00 Dur.: 3 hours including two intervals

WHERE

Royal Opera House
Bow Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9DD

Royal Opera House Winter Season booking guide

Royal Opera House Winter Season: Puccini, Verdi, Rossini and Bizet are among the opera highlights, while Giselle and The Winter's Tale are our dance picks.

General booking for the Winter Season opens from 9am on Wednesday 18 October 2017.

Rossini's Semiramide, Royal Opera House

Verdi's Rigoletto, Royal Opera House

Richard Strauss's Salome, Royal Opera House

Bizet's Carmen, Royal Opera House

Puccini's Tosca, Royal Opera House

Royal Ballet's Giselle, Royal Opera House

Royal Ballet's The Winter's Tale, Royal Opera House