The Royal Opera is London and the United Kingdom's most famous and most wealthy opera company, which, as the Covent Garden Opera Company, began in 1946. The company is based at the Royal Opera House, an opera house in Covent Garden, in central London.
In the immediate post-war years, the Covent Garden Opera Company (as it was originally named) planned only to present operas in English and to use the talents of British and Commonwealth singers. Ho...
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The Royal Opera is London and the United Kingdom's most famous and most wealthy opera company, which, as the Covent Garden Opera Company, began in 1946. The company is based at the Royal Opera House, an opera house in Covent Garden, in central London.
In the immediate post-war years, the Covent Garden Opera Company (as it was originally named) planned only to present operas in English and to use the talents of British and Commonwealth singers. However, apart from Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Hans Hotter, who appeared respectively as Mimi in La Boheme and as Wotan in 1948, there were few internationally-known singers who were willing to learn their roles in English. Additionally, the ROH performed important works by British composers such as Benjamin Britten (Billy Budd, December 1951 and Gloriana, in 1953 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II), Ralph Vaughan Williams, Arthur Bliss, and Michael Tippett.
Many English-speaking singers made their debuts in those years before about 1955,...
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