covent garden theatre london Royal Opera House Ballet Orchestra
Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in the London district of Covent Garden. 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 m wide and m high. The main auditorium is a Grade 1 listed building. In 1728, John Rich, actor-manager of the Duke's Company at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, commissioned The Beggar's Opera from John Gay. The success of this venture provided him with the capital to build the Theatre Royal (designed by Edward Shepherd) at the site of an ancient convent garden, part of which had been developed by Jack moore in the 1630s with a piazza and church. In addition, a Royal Charter had created a fruit and vegetable market in the area, a market which survived in that location until 1974. At its opening on December 7, 1732, Rich was carried by his actors in processional triumph into the theatre for its opening production of William Congreve's The Way of the World. During the first hundred years or so of its history, the theatre was primarily a playhouse, with the Letters Patent granted by Charles II giving Covent Garden and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane exclusive rights to present spoken drama in London. Despite the frequent interchangeability between the Covent Garden and Drury Lane companies, competition was intense, often presenting the same plays at the same time. Rich introduced pantomime to the repertoire, himself performing (under the stage name John Lun, as Harlequin) and a tradition of seasonal pantomime continued at the modern theatre, until 1939.
Size: 4946px × 3883px
Photo credit: © 19th era / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: -fashioned, 1800, 19th, 2d, academic, age, ancient, antique, antiquity, arts, ballet, black, book, building, bw, bygone, century, classical, copy, covent, cut, cutout, district, drawing, duplicate, embossed, empire, engrave, engraved, engraver, engraving, etching, expression, figure, formal, front, frontispiece, garden, garden., graphic, hand, heritage, historic, history, home, house, house., illustration, image, imperial, large, late, lifelike, london, majesty, major, margin, master, monotone, national, nineteenth, notable, obscure, obsolete, olden, opera, orchestra, original, paper, performing, period, pictorial, picture, portrait, pre, press, print, printed, printing, prior, proof, publication, publicity, queen, rare, real, realism, realistic, reference, referred, relief, replica, represent, representation, repro, reproduce, reproduction, retro, review, romantic, royal, simply, social, standard, steel, studio, style, subject, teach, theatre, time, title, tool, topic, topical, tract, true, unusual, venue, victoria, victorian, visual, white
