Royal Opera House Announces 11 Titles For 2018/2019 Cinema Series

With 11 titles set to be broadcast to more than 500 UK cinemas and to another 1,000 in 40 countries across the globe, the Royal Opera House's Live Cinema Season 2018/19 will showcase a wide variety of ballet and opera, including three new works, all relayed live from Covent Garden. The 2018/19 Season will feature the great classic of The Royal Ballet's repertory The Nutcracker and world-renowned opera stars including Michael Fabiano, Jonas Kaufmann, Anna Netrebko and Eva-Maria Westbroek among other treats.

Tickets for 2018/19 go on sale on Tuesday 4 April 2018 in the UK and on Tuesday 12 June 2018 for international territories.

These broadcasts originally screen live in the United Kingdom and subsequently run as recorded presentations in the United States and Canada on a range of dates. Cinemagoers can find screenings near them at the following link: https://www.roh.org.uk/cinemas

The Royal Ballet will kick off the Live Cinema Season with Kenneth MacMillan's haunting psychological ballet Mayerling (Monday 15 October). The ballet captures the glamour of the Austro-Hungarian court and the mental torments of Crown Prince Rudolf, heir to the Habsburg throne. Mayerling will be followed by the romantic classical ballet La Bayadère (Tuesday 13 November 2018). Choreographer Natalia Makarova's opulent production perfectly complements the ballet's 19th-century origins. The work's highlights include the famous moonlit 'white act', a showpiece for the corps de ballet.

A favourite in the Royal Ballet's repertory, The Nutcracker (Monday 3 December) captures the magic of Christmas through Tchaikovsky's much-loved score as Clara and her enchanted Nutcracker embark on a magical journey to the Kingdom of Sweets. Previously, this has been the Royal Opera House's most successful broadcast, with 82,000 people watching the ballet in cinemas in December 2017. Moving from the Kingdom of Sweets to a colourful vision of romantic Spain, Carlos Acosta's staging of Don Quixote (Tuesday 19 February) pays tribute to Marius Petipa's original choreography.

A mixed programme (Thursday 16 May) consists of Within the Golden Hour choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, Flight Pattern choreographed by Crystal Pite and a third new work choreographed by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. Kenneth MacMillan's great Shakespearean classic, Romeo and Juliet (Tuesday 11 June), brings the live ballet cinema Season to a close with a work that portrays the colour and life of Renaissance Verona, the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets and the tragedy which ensues when their offspring fall in love.

Five productions from The Royal Opera will be broadcast live to cinemas. Wagner's Die Walküre (Sunday 28 October) is the second and perhaps best-loved opera in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen cycle and explores complex family entanglements set against a wonderful score whose highlights including the 'Spring' song and the 'Ride of the Valkyries'. The opera will be conducted by Antonio Pappano who leads a stellar cast including Wagnerian specialists John Lundgren, Nina Stemme, Stuart Skelton, Emily Magee and Sarah Connolly.

The New Year will kick off with Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades (Tuesday 22 January 2019), in a production new to Covent Garden by acclaimed Norwegian director Stefan Herheim. The opera, which explores romantic obsession, will be conducted by Antonio Pappano with the large cast led by Latvian tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko, Bulgarian baritone Vladimir Stoyanov and Dutch soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek. Richard Eyre's stunning production of Verdi's La traviata returns to the big screen also (Wednesday 30 January). This much-loved opera contains a moving story of love and sacrifice and some of Verdi's most glorious melodies.

Verdi's epic La forza del destino (Tuesday 2 April) is being performed for the first time in more than a decade by The Royal Opera, in a spectacular production by Christof Loy from Dutch National Opera. The superb cast includes Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann as the star-crossed lovers Leonora and Don Alvaro. To complete The Royal Opera Live Cinema Season, David McVicar's stunning Parisian production of Gounod's Faust returns (Tuesday 30 April) conducted by Dan Ettinger and featuring Michael Fabiano in the title role, Diana Damrau as the innocent Marguerite and Erwin Schrott as the charismatic devil Méphistophélès.

For more information or to find a cinema near you please visit: www.roh.org.uk/cinema

The 2018/19 Season is as follows

The Royal Ballet
MacMillan: MAYERLING

The Royal Opera
Wagner: DIE WALKÜRE

The Royal Ballet
Petipa: LA BAYADÈRE

The Royal Ballet
Wright: THE NUTCRACKER

The Royal Opera
Tchaikovsky: THE QUEEN OF SPADES

The Royal Opera
Verdi: LA TRAVIATA

The Royal Ballet
Acosta/Petipa: DON QUIXOTE

The Royal Opera
Verdi: LA FORZA DEL DESTINO

The Royal Opera
Gounod: FAUST

The Royal Ballet
TRIPLE BILL
Pite: FLIGHT PATTERN / Wheeldon: WITHIN THE GOLDEN HOUR/ Cherkaoui: NEW WORK

The Royal Ballet
MacMillan: ROMEO AND JULIET

The Royal Opera House leads the way for world-class opera and ballet experienced in cinemas and on a variety of digital platforms. 2017/18 was our most successful Season to date with more than 500,000 tickets sold in the UK for the first time, with the number of venues having increased to more than 500 sites. The Royal Opera House has seen a huge growth in the influence of independent cinemas, who now account for 45% of UK sales. Internationally, a partnership with Trafalgar Releasing sees our productions broadcast to more than 1,000 cinemas in 40 countries. Other digital platforms include the Royal Opera House YouTube channel with more than 322,000 subscribers - the most of any arts organization in the UK.

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