The Royal Opera House (ROH) has announced two more Friday Premieres, as well as a suite of online broadcasts, which can be accessed by audiences around the world for just £3, as part of its ongoing #OurHouseToYourHouse programme.
First up, streaming this evening from 7pm, is a recording of 2011’s production of Puccini’s Il trittico (The Triptych, 1918). Antonio Pappano conducts the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House and the Royal Opera Chorus in this series of three one-act operas.
The dark and brooding Il tabarro (The Cloak) is first in the collection. Set aboard a barge on the Seine, it stars Italian baritone Lucio Gallo as Michele, Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek as Giorgetta and Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko as Luigi.
Second is Suor Angelica (Sister Angelica), with Albanian soprano Ermonela Jaho in the title role of the nun whose familial loss and sacrifice is at the heart of this opera about religious redemption. The final work, Gianni Schicchi, centres on a family dispute over a missing will, with Lucio Gallo as Schicchi, Italian tenor Francesco Demuro as Rinuccio and Russian soprano Ekaterina Siurina as Lauretta.
Next week sees Rudolf Nureyev’s staging of Raymonda Act III, choreographed by Marius Petipa to music by Alexander Glazunov, again available from 7pm, in a recording from 2019. The final act of this grand ballet classic celebrates the wedding of Raymonda and the knight Jean de Brienne.
Both Friday Premieres will be available for a week following the initial broadcast and cost £3 to access. They form part of the ROH’s #OurHouseToYourHouse programme, with a variety of opera and ballet productions online or on the BBC’s iPlayer.
#OurHouseToYourHouse was set up in March 2020 in response to the opera house having to close its doors during the first UK lockdown. A series of streams, socially distanced live concerts and other online content, the project aims to “bring audiences the best of the ROH,” the opera house said in a statement.
Several titles are currently available to purchase. These are Andrea Chénier (Giordano, 1896 [The Royal Opera, 2015, available to 7 February]), Marguerite and Armand, with choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton to Franz Liszt’s B minor piano sonata (The Royal Ballet, 2017, to 14 February), Cendrillon (Cinderella, Massenet, 1899 [The Royal Opera, 2011, to 21 February]) and La Fille mal gardée (The Wayward Daughter, The Royal Ballet, 2015, to 28 February), choreographed by Jean Dauberval.
All productions cost £3 and can be accessed via the ROH’s website.
As part of an ongoing partnership with the BBC, the Royal Ballet All-Star Gala and Royal Opera All-Star Gala are available to watch for free on BBC iPlayer; both can be accessed for the next 11 months.
The former is a mix of performances drawn from last year’s The Royal Ballet: Back on Stage and The Royal Ballet: Live – Within the Golden Hour, while the latter showcases highlights from The Royal Opera Live in Concert. Also available, for six months, is Tobias Kratzer’s 2020 production of Fidelio (Beethoven, 1805), starring Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen as Leonore and British tenor David Butt Philip as Florestan.
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The Royal Opera’s production of Puccini’s Il Tabarro stars Lucio Gallo as Michele and Eva-Maria Westbroek as Giorgetta. (Bill Cooper).