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[edit] April 2008
[edit] Grand Opera
Grand Opera is a genre of 19th-century opera generally in four or five acts, characterised by large-scale casts and orchestras, and lavish and spectacular design and stage-effects, normally with plots based on or around dramatic historic events. The term is particularly applied to certain productions of the Paris Opéra from the late 1820s to around 1850, but is also used in a broader application in respect of contemporary or later works of similar monumental proportions from France, Germany, Italy and other European countries. The first opera of the Grand Opera canon is La muette de Portici (1828) by Daniel Francois Auber.
This tale of revolution set in Naples in 1647, embodied the musical and scenic sensationalism which were to be Grand Opera's hallmark. The libretto for La muette was by Eugène Scribe, a dominant force in French theatre of the time who specialised in melodramatic versions of historical topics which were well-tailored for the public taste of the time. This was his first libretto for the Opéra; he was to write or be associated with many of the libretti of the most successful Grand Operas which followed. La muette's reputation was enhanced by its being the touchpaper for a genuine revolution when it was produced in Brussels in 1830.
[edit] May 2008
[edit] Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in the London district of Covent Garden, one of the foremost opera houses in the world. The large building, often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", is the home of the Royal Opera, the Royal Ballet and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House. The current building is the third theatre on the site. The façade, foyer and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive reconstruction in the 1990s. The Royal Opera House seats 2,268 people and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery. The proscenium is 12.20 m wide and 14.80 m high.
The present theatre, opened on May 15, 1858 with a performance of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots. The theatre became the Royal Opera House (ROH) in 1892. During the Second World War the ROH became a dance hall. The Royal Opera House reopened on February 20, 1946 with a performance of The Sleeping Beauty in an extravagant new production designed by Oliver Messel. On January 14, 1947 the Covent Garden Opera Company gave its first performance of Bizet's Carmen.
