September, when the house comes back to life
The Royal Opera House keeps a summer interval of its own. For a few weeks in high summer the main stage usually goes quiet, the scenery stores are reshuffled and the company takes its holiday, and then, as the evenings begin to shorten, the building comes back. The new season normally opens in September with opera, and the Royal Ballet's first programmes follow from late September into October. Since 2024 the two resident companies have billed themselves jointly as Royal Ballet and Opera, while the building keeps its old title.
For anyone who likes a sense of occasion, this is the best time of year to go. The productions are fresh, the regulars are back in their usual seats, the Piazza outside is emptying of summer visitors, and a first night in October has an energy that a June revival rarely matches. It also means planning ahead. The season is announced in the spring, tickets go on sale in stages, and members of the house book before the general public, so the most wanted evenings in autumn are often spoken for by high summer.
Reading the season like a call sheet
The season brochure looks like a list of titles, but it is really a list of choices about how the evening will feel, and those choices matter more on a date than on a night alone.
Ballet comes in two broad forms. A full length story ballet runs a single narrative across two or three acts, with a clear plot, lavish designs and an ending everyone can talk about. A mixed programme sets three or so shorter works side by side, often one classic, one recent and one brand new, with an interval between each. For a first evening together the mixed programme has a quiet advantage: two intervals instead of one, which means two conversations, and if one piece misses, the next one is never far behind.
Opera asks for more attention to the clock. Running times vary enormously, from a brisk two and a half hours to well over four for the longest scores, and start times move earlier to match, so check both before anything else. Operas are sung in their original language with surtitles above the stage, and the brochure will tell you whether a production is new this season or a revival of one the house has staged before.
Casts rotate, so choose the dancers as well as the date
This is the detail newcomers most often miss. In a ballet run the leading roles are shared between several casts, so the principal dancer in the second performance may not be the one in the fifth. The house publishes its casting for each date, and certain pairings of principals are known for selling out first. If a particular dancer is the point of the evening, pick the date by the cast rather than by the day of the week.
First nights carry their own atmosphere. The opening performance of a new production brings the critics, the creative team and a full house of devoted followers, and the applause at the end tends to run long. Later performances are calmer and often easier to book, with the production settled in and the dancers fully at ease in it. Either can make a fine date; they simply offer different things.
Smaller stages within a short walk
The main auditorium is not the only room in the building. The Linbury Theatre, tucked beneath the house and reopened in 2018, puts on smaller scale opera, dance and music theatre in an intimate space where no seat is far from the stage. It suits a companion who prefers a close look at the performers to the full grandeur of the red and gold.
Two minutes away on St Martin's Lane, the London Coliseum is Frank Matcham's Edwardian giant, the largest theatre in the West End, where English National Opera sings everything in English and English National Ballet appears in seasons of its own. Further out, Sadler's Wells in Clerkenwell is London's home of contemporary dance and a short cab ride from Holborn; its autumn programme is often the most adventurous in town.
Autumn evenings on the way to the doors
Once British Summer Time ends in late October, the Piazza is dark well before the house opens its doors. That is no loss. The market building lit against an early dusk and a damp pavement shining under the lamps make the short walk to Bow Street one of the pleasures of the season. From a hotel on the Strand, Wellington Street carries you up in five minutes; from Holborn, Drury Lane brings you in from the north in about ten.
The house runs talks and events around some of its productions, occasionally including open rehearsals, and they are a gentle way to prepare together for an unfamiliar work. Details are published with each production. Otherwise, reading the synopsis over an early drink is enough, and arguing about it afterwards is better still. The rooms inside, the drinks at the interval and where to go once the final bow is taken are all covered in the after the opera notes.
Matching the companion to the programme
Karolina lives within a few minutes of Bow Street and puts the season's dates in her diary the week they are announced, which means she may already be planning to see the production you are considering. A serious pianist, she forms firm opinions about casting and keeps them to herself until invited. Tall and statuesque, she likes opera evenings to be requested a few days ahead.
For ballet, Sonya is the natural choice. She trained as a dancer, still takes class for pleasure, and likes the early curtain more than the late one. As one of the companions in her thirties, she brings an unhurried calm to a grand house. Lea is the one for the Linbury: she loves a small stage and a short run, and will talk about the design for longer than the plot.
Booking around a seven o'clock curtain
Opera and ballet evenings are longer than most theatre, so the shape of the booking matters. A mixed programme with an early drink beforehand and a glass afterwards sits comfortably within four hours, the £900 dinner date. A long opera, or dinner as well as the performance, will run past four hours, so send the desk the title, the start time and the published running time, and the length comes back in writing before anything is confirmed.
When the premiere deserves a late, lazy breakfast afterwards, book the ten hours at £1,800. And for anyone in London for several performances across the season, the long run arrangement treats them as a single booking rather than a string of separate evenings. The full ladder of lengths sits on the rates page, while Bow Street and its neighbours appear on the Covent Garden page.
Quick answers
The house usually reopens in September after its summer break, with opera first and the Royal Ballet's opening programmes following from late September or October. Exact dates are announced each spring.
A mixed programme gives you two intervals and variety, which suits a first evening; a full length ballet gives you one story to share. Both work well, so choose by what you enjoy.
As soon as you have the tickets. A few days is the minimum for an opera or ballet evening, and a week or two gives you the widest choice.