The Royal Opera House To Introduce Age-Rating To Productions

The Royal Opera House is to introduce a cinema-style age rating system across all performances from later this year.

The guidance, which is likely to involve age categories of 8, 12, 15, 16 and 18, will be used across all performances from September.

"It feels like a very low key and responsible thing to do given the content of some operas is very shocking," Oliver Mears, director of opera, said to The Times.

"It is a case of taking a common sense and consistent approach to our productions in the future where there might be content that is disturbing, troubling or triggering. If one person in the audience is triggered, that is one too many in our opinion."

The upcoming production of The Blue Woman, which opens at Covent Garden in July, has been given an age guidance of 16-plus because of its themes of sexual violence and assault.

In 2015 Royal Opera apologised after its production of Rossini's William Tell was booed by people objecting to a graphic rape scene.

Read the original story in The Times here.

To post a comment, you must register and login.