The Royal Opera House Presents A Cinema Festival This Christmas

The Royal Opera House will launch its first ever Cinema Festival on Monday 3 December in the newly refurbished Linbury Theatre in the heart of Covent Garden. Children can go free to all Saturday and Sunday cinema matinée performances and to The Nutcracker on 3 December. Launching with the live screening of The Nutcracker on 3 December and running until 6 January 2019, the Cinema Festival will feature 21 titles that celebrate the breadth of ballet and opera repertory shown in cinemas since our first broadcast ten years ago. Tickets on sale Thursday 8 November at 10am.

Specially curated, free-for-children screenings include The Nutcracker live (3 December, 7.15pm), La Fille mal gardée (8 December, 2pm), The Magic Flute (9 December, 4pm), Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (15 December, 2pm), Cendrillon (16 December, 4pm), both Anthony Dowell's and Liam Scarlett's versions of Swan Lake (22 December, 2pm, and 5 January, 2pm, respectively), The Winter's Tale (23 December, 4pm) and Romeo and Juliet (29 December, 2pm). Richard Jones's staging of La bohème (30 December, 4pm) and Giselle which brings the cinema festival to an end on 6 January at 4pm.

Further highlights include The Royal Ballet's Sylvia (7 December, 7pm, featuring former Royal Ballet Principal Darcey Bussell and Guest Artist Roberto Bolle), John Copley's acclaimed Royal Opera production (which ran for 41 years) of La bohème (8 December, 7pm, featuring Hibla Gerzmava and Teodor Ilincai), La traviata featuring soprano Renée Fleming and tenor Joseph Calleja (15 December, 7pm), Otello (21 December, 7pm, featuring German tenor Jonas Kaufmann) and Manon, featuring current Royal Ballet Principals Sarah Lamb and Vadim Muntagirov (28 December, 7pm).

Kevin O'Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet. commented

'I'm very excited to open our first cinema festival, which features heritage and contemporary works from both The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera. I look forward to welcoming the next generation of ballet and opera fans into the House to explore our world and to feel something new with each performance. I hope the free children's tickets will give those who have never tried opera and ballet before a lifelong enjoyment of these wonderful art forms.'

Cinema festival audiences will be the first visitors to enjoy the brand new, state-of-the-art Linbury Theatre, which opens in January 2019. The cinema festival has been thematically curated by Kevin O'Hare, Director of The Royal Ballet, to showcase world-class opera and ballet at its best and to offer something special for younger audiences.

Tickets cost £10-£17 for adults and are free for children aged 5 to 15 years old for The Nutcracker on 3 December and all Saturday and Sunday matinee performances. We ask for a maximum of two children with any one adult. Tickets available from Thursday 8 November at 10am. To book tickets visit: www.roh.org.uk/cinemafestival

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