Covent Garden opera comes to the Roundhouse

 
26 March 2014

Rock and pop venue the Roundhouse in Camden is to host its first opera in a collaboration with Covent Garden.

It will present Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo in a co-production in which former Royal Shakespeare Company boss Michael Boyd will make his opera-directing debut.

The musical version of Orpheus’s descent to the underworld to recover his beloved Euridice was written 400 years ago and is the earliest surviving opera regularly performed. But it has never been staged by the Royal Opera House.

Director of opera Kasper Holten said: “L’Orfeo is really quite a beautiful piece but it’s a piece that would have been difficult to do in our theatre at Covent Garden where the auditorium is for bigger romantic operas.”

The Roundhouse was “a fantastic venue” and the perfect partner, he added. Marcus Davey, the Roundhouse’s chief executive, said: “Developing L’Orfeo together is an opportunity to think of our building in a new way and introduce our audiences, many of whom are under 25, to opera. I’m keen for our audiences to experience every art form.”

Mr Boyd, who previously presented Shakespeare’s history plays at the Roundhouse, said: “I like the fact that the Opera House is determined to venture out from the pleasure palace of Covent Garden and I have long thought I should try an opera. It’s an experiment and I’m really looking forward to it.”

L’Orfeo, with a cast including British sopranos Mary Bevan and Susanna Hurrell, will have eight performances next January.

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