The five top must-see operas at Covent Garden this autumn

By Claudia Pritchard on 20/7/2017

Reach for your skinny black dress and pour an Aperol spritz: there is a distinctly Italian feel to the first productions of the season at the Royal Opera House

Puccini's La Bohème, Royal Opera House

Love blossoms in a freezing garret in Paris, but the city's gawdy night life and opportunities to stray are the couple's undoing, in Puccini's evergreen portrait of Bohemian artists

WHEN

11 Sep 2017 – 10 Oct 2017, 11 performances, with two Saturday matinees at 2PM

WHERE

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

Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Royal Opera House

A young woman abducted, a young man who falls in love with her portrait, a tyrannical mother and an artless birdcatcher fill Mozart's opera with romance, comedy and drama

WHEN

12 Sep 2017 – 14 Oct 2017, 12 performances, with 12PM matinee, 16 Sept

WHERE

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

Verdi's Les Vêpres Siciliennes, Royal Opera House

The highly acclaimed 2013 production of Verdi's vast Les Vêpres Siciliennes is back, and it's packed with spectacle, with the opulent Paris Opera as its backdrop

WHEN

12 Oct 2017 – 04 Nov 2017, six performances, two intervals

WHERE

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

Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Royal Opera House

The ill-treated heroine of a melodramatic novel by Sir Walter Scott inspired the most dramatic opera of Donizetti's huge output, and this production is stunning

WHEN

30 Oct 2017 – 27 Nov 2017, 7:15 PM – 10:30 PM

WHERE

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