Map of Soho, Covent Garden and West End area with articles and information on places of interest.

Theatres

The Royal Opera House is also sometimes called "Covent Garden" after its historic location. The building hosts the Royal Opera, the Royal Ballet and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House.

The current Opera House dating from 1858 has been altered and refurbished in its entirity. The façade, foyer and auditorium date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from a reconstruction in the 1990s. The Royal Opera House seats 2,268 people and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the Amphiteatre gallery. The proscenium is 12.20 m wide and 14.80 m high.

The main auditorium is a Grade I listed building.

THE FIRST THEATRE
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) on the site of an ancient convent garden, part of which had been developed by Inigo Jones 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. For its opening production of William Congreve's The Way of the World on 7th December 1732, Rich was carried into the theatre by his actors in processional triumph.

The theatre was destroyed by fire in 1808

THE SECOND THEATRE
Rebuilding began in December 1808, and the second Theatre Royal, Covent Garden (designed by Robert Smirke) opened on 18th September1809 with a performance of Macbeth followed by a musical entertainment called The Quaker. The actor-manager John Philip Kemble, raised seat prices to help recoup the cost of rebuilding, but the move was so unpopular that audiences disrupted performances by beating sticks, hissing, booing and dancing. The Old Price Riots lasted over two months, and the management was finally forced to accede to the audience's demands.

THE THIRD THEATRE
On 5th March 1856, the theatre was again destroyed by fire. Work on the third and present theatre (designed by Edward Middleton Barry) eventually started in 1857 and the new building opened on 15th May 1858 with a performance of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots. The theatre became the Royal Opera House in 1892 and the number of French and German works in the repertory increased. Winter and summer seasons of opera and ballet were given. The theatre was also used for other purposes such as pantomime, recitals and political meetings.

During the First World War the theatre was requisitioned by the Ministry of Works for use as a furniture repository. From 1934 to 1936, Geoffrey Toye was Managing Director, working alongside the Artistic Director, Sir Thomas Beecham. Despite early successes, Toye and Beecham eventually fell out, and Toye resigned. During the Second World War it became a dance hall. There was a possibility that it would remain so after the war but, following lengthy negotiations, the music publishers Boosey and Hawkes acquired the lease of the building.

RECONSTRUCTION IN THE 1990's
Several renovations took place to parts of the house in the 1960s, including improvements to the amphitheatre and an extension in the rear, but it became increasingly clear that the House needed major refurbishment.

In 1975 the Labour government provided land adjacent to the Royal Opera House for a long-overdue modernisation, refurbishment and extension. By 1995, sufficient funds had been raised to enable the company to embark upon a major reconstruction of the building. This took place between 1996 and 2000, under the chairmanship of Sir Angus Stirling. With the exception of the auditorium, the project involved the demolition of almost the whole site, including several adjacent buildings to make room for a major increase in the overall scale of the complex. In terms of volume, well over half of the complex is new.

The new venue has the same traditional horseshoe-shaped auditorium as before, but with greatly improved technical, rehearsal, office and educational facilities. A new studio theatre called the Linbury Theatre, and much more public space. The inclusion of the adjacent old Floral Hall, long a part of the old Covent Garden Market but in general disrepair for many years, into the actual opera house created a new and extensive public gathering place. The ROH now claim to be the most modern theatre facility in Europe.

Some seats now include individual monitors for the electronic libretto system, allowing audiences to follow opera libretti translations in English if they so choose.