The Latest Breaking News from Royal Opera

If his Dvořák felt a little bland, with Bartók and Strauss’s Dance of the Seven Veils, the Royal Opera’s music director designate gave London audiences a glimpse of the vivid excitement he can bring

Britten’s opera is a strange, unsettling and unbearably private piece. Set in ancient Rome and written over 70 years ago, its theme is still all too contemporary, writes the director of a new production

RIGHT now, London has two opera houses. (Berlin has three.) There’s the Royal Opera, the grand one, in Covent Garden, and, in the West End, you can see English National Opera a mile off, under the sparkly orb of the London Coliseum. They’re different. The Royal Opera attracts singers you’d…

The Czech-born conductor will take over from Antonio Pappano in 2025. He talks exclusively to the Guardian about what shape the opera house will take under his musical leadership