The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden has announced its 2019/20 season, featuring an exciting mixture of new commissions, world premieres and revivals of much-loved productions.

Some of the many highlights include a brand new production of Handel's Agrippina, directed by Barrie Kosky, featuring many of the cast who most recently performed the work in concert for a tour with il pomo d'oro, a new production of Benjamin Britten's last opera Death in Venice, featuring Rebecca Evans and Dominic Sedgwick and the staging of the third opera in The Royal Opera's Leoš Janáček cycle, Jenůfa, directed by the award-winning Claus Guth and featuring Asmik Grigorian in the title role.

Among the numerous highlights of the season, there will be house debuts for Louise Alder (Zerlina in Don Giovanni), Isabel Leonard (Charlotte in Werther), Aida Garifullina (Musetta in La bohème), Dinara Alieva (Violetta in La traviata) Finnegan Downie Dear (Conductor in Alice's Adventures Under Ground and Turn of the Screw), Cédric Tiberghien (Pianist in Zauberland),  Andrei Bondarenko (Marcello in La bohème), Asmik Grigorian (title role in Jenůfa) and Matthew Durkan (Flemish Deputy in Don Carlo).

Returning AH artists include Christine Rice (Don Giovanni), Joyce DiDonato, Lucy Crowe, Franco Fagioli, Iestyn Davies and Andrea Mastroni (Agrippina), Edward Gardner (Werther), Benjamin Hulett (Die Zauberflöte), Dominic Sedgwick and Rebecca Evans (Death in Venice), Kristina Mkhitaryan, Frédéric Antoun, Robert Lloyd and Simon Keenlyside (La traviata), Nicole Car and Duncan Rock (La bohème), Thomas Adès, Mark Stone, Nicky Spence and Robert Murray (Alice's Adventures Under Ground), Robin Tritschler (Fidelio) and Elīna Garanča (Don Carlo).

Selected performances are listed below. The full programme can be seen on the ROH website.

ROH image credit: Norio NAKAYAMA via Flickr under CC BY-SA 2.0 license

Royal Opera debuts:
Louise Alder
Isabel Leonard
Aida Garifullina
Dinara Alieva
Finnegan Downie Dear
Cédric Tiberghien
Andrei Bondarenko
Asmik Grigorian
Matthew Durkan

 

The Royal Opera House Live Cinema Season (Opera):
Don Giovanni (Mozart) – 8 October 2019
Don Pasquale (Donizetti) – 24 October 2019
La bohème (Puccini) – 29 January 2020
Fidelio (Beethoven) – 17 March 2020
Cavalleria rusticana/ Pagliacci (Mascagni/Leoncavallo) – 21 April 2020
Elektra (Strauss) - 18 June 2020

 

MOZART: Don Giovanni
13 September to 26 October 2019

Conductor: Hartmut Haenchen
Director: Kaspar Holten

Donna Elvira: Christine Rice
Zerlina: Louise Alder (house debut)

Live cinema broadcast: Tuesday 8 October 2019

 

MASSENET: Werther
17 September to 5 October 2019

Conductor: Edward Gardner
Director: Benoît Jacquot

Charlotte: Isabel Leonard (house debut)

 

HANDEL: Agrippina  *New Production*
23 September to 11 October 2019

Conductor: Maxim Evelyanychev
Director: Barrie Kosky

Agrippina: Joyce DiDonato
Nerone: Franco Fagioli
Ottone: Iestyn Davies
Poppea: Lucy Crowe
Pallante: Andrea Mastroni

 

SCHUMANN/ FOCCROULLE: Zauberland  *New Production*
15 October - 18 October
Linbury Studio

Director: Katie Mitchell

Pianist:  Cédric Tiberghien

 

MOZART: Die Zauberflöte
1 November to 27 November 2019

Conductor: Leo Hussain
Director: David McVicar

Tamino: Benjamin Hulett

 

BRITTEN: Death in Venice  *New Production*
21 November to 6 December 2019

Conductor: Mark Elder
Director: David McVicar

Dominic Sedgwick
Rebecca Evans

 

VERDI: La traviata
17 December 2019 to 23 March 2020

Conductor: Daniel Oren
Director: Richard Eyre

Violetta: Dinara Alieva/ Kristina Mkhitaryan
Alfredo: Frédéric Antoun
Giorgio Germont: Simon Keenlyside
Doctor Grenvil: Robert Lloyd

 

PUCCINI: La bohème
10 January to 27 May 2020
Conductor: Emmanuel Villaume
Director: Richard Jones

Mimi: Nicole Car
Musetta: Aida Garifullina (house debut)
Marcello: Andrei Bondarenko (house debut)
Schaunard: Duncan Rock

Live cinema broadcast: Wednesday 29 January 2020

 

BARRY: Alice's Adventures Under Ground  *New Production*
3 February to 9 February 2020

Conductor: Thomas Adès/ Finnegan Downie Dear (house debut)

White Knight/ Cheshire Cat: Mark Stone
White King/ Mad Hatter: Nicky Spence
March Hare/ Tweedledee: Robert Murray

 

BEETHOVEN: Fidelio  *New Production*
01 March to 17 March 2020

Condutor: Antonio Pappano
Director: Tobias Kratzer

Jaquino: Robin Tritschler

Live cinema broadcast: Tuesday 17 March 2020

 

JANÁČEK: Jenůfa  *New Production*
24 March to 9 April 2020

Conductor: Vladimir Jurowski
Director: Claus Guth

Jenufa: Asmik Grigorian (house and role debut)

 

BRITTEN: The Turn of the Screw
03 to 13 June 2020
Linbury Studio

Conductor: Finnegan Downie Dear
Director: Natalie Abrahami

 

VERDI: Don Carlo
29 June to 19 July 2020

Conductor: Richard Farnes
Director: Nicholas Hytner

Princess Eboli: Elīna Garanča
Deputy: Matthew Durkan (house debut)