Royal Opera House

The first theatre at Covent Garden opened in 1732 and spent much of its first century as a playhouse, though Handel composed operas for it, and the fire that destroyed the building in 1808 consumed his organ and manuscripts. Robert Smirke's replacement opened in 1809 and burned in turn in 1856. The third and current house, designed by Edward Middleton Barry, opened on 15 May 1858 as the Royal Italian Opera with Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots.

After the Second World War it became the permanent home of the companies now known as the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet, and a vast redevelopment completed in the late 1990s rebuilt almost everything behind Barry's facade. For Magic Flute lovers the address means one thing above all: David McVicar's production, first conducted by Colin Davis in 2003, has returned in revival after revival and recently passed its 400th performance in the house, a shadowy, painterly staging that has become a London institution.

architect: Edward Middleton Barry

On stage here

Performance dates

Data: open sources (opera houses, ticketing platforms, Wikidata). Part of the worldwide Die Zauberflöte map.