300 Years of Christmas in Covent Garden

BOOKING FOR THIS EVENT IS EXPECTED TO OPEN IN AUGUST

John Rich, the first manager of the Theatre Royal Covent Garden, was a fine dancer, mime and special effects man and he (and his successors) developed all the well known features of the London Christmas season. Even now principal boys, fairies and Harlequin are alive and well on the stage of the Royal Opera House. 

After exploring this rich history, in our second lecture we venture the short distance to the London Coliseum, which opened a mere century ago on Christmas Eve 1904. Everything about the London Coliseum is enormous: the stage, the fly gallery, its hordes of ghosts and the size of its problems. It has in its time hosted the Ballets Russes, the Aeroplane Ladies, Sarah Bernhardt, the Derby – with real horses – and blockbusters like White Horse Inn and Annie Get Your Gun. The English National Ballet is currently resident over Christmas, performing their production of The Nutcracker, and every year the Royal Opera House also puts on a season of Christmas shows: the Royal Ballet in The Nutcracker and Cinderella, the Royal Opera in any piece with a folk tale theme, and either genre if it features snow.

So how does each theatre cope with all the snow bags and special effects required? Backstage at the Coli, although much younger than the Royal Opera House, the machinery is still Edwardian – manual flying and all. And how does the Royal Opera House deal with 17 Sugar Plums, 12 Princes, and the entire Royal Ballet Lower School backstage? Our final talk after lunch takes us into the wings, down the traps and under the stage…..