Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the red velvet curtains of the Royal Opera House? Do you enjoy backstage gossip or do you prefer looking at centuries-old instruments? , a large selection of tours and collections for lovers of opera and classical music. You have a choice here.
Royal Opera House
Who are the women who made history? Royal Opera House At Covent Garden? This question is answered in detail by the Opera House. trip It will be held until August 12th.
Among the many stars featured on this tour is Italian soprano Adelina Patti (1843-1919), who gave a whole new meaning to the word “diva” and made her operatic debut in New York at the age of 16. and then crossed the Atlantic for a 23-year career in Covent Garden.
She was admired for her coloratura singing and feared for her business talent. According to her tour organizers, she demanded payment in gold at least 30 minutes before each stage appearance, and she demanded $100,000 per show (in today’s money). And for her performance as Violetta in La Traviata, she wore a custom-made gown encrusted with 3,700 of her own diamonds.
the singer appears elsewhere trip: An outdoor performance co-sponsored by the Royal Opera House and the Bow Street Police Museum, which runs until August 31st. Security guards begin guarding Patty’s diamond-encrusted La Traviata at the Royal Theater (now the Opera House). Her gown had gems embedded in it and had to be greatly enhanced. Covent Garden at that time was full of pickpockets, robbers, criminals and even murderers. So the police got as close to the soprano singer as possible and secretly joined the choir on stage without being noticed.
Royal Albert Hall
There are 5,272 seats, Royal Albert Hall It’s more like an arena than a classical music concert hall. In fact, Cirque du Soleil regularly performs there. Named after Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, it was completed in his 1871, ten years after his death. In an hour, you can hear the royal backstory and learn the hall’s tricky acoustic details. trip. The tour also includes some of the more eccentric events held in the hall, including celebrities who graced the main stage (Albert Einstein and Muhammad Ali, among others) and a seance and opera performance that filled the auditorium with 56,000 liters of water. It’s taken up. (approximately 15,000 gallons) of water.
Handel Hendricks House
of museumis housed in a Georgian townhouse at 25 Brook Street in Mayfair and has a rich history. George Frederick Handel lived here from his 1723 until his death in 1759. (Jimi Hendrix rented his top-floor apartment in the late 1960s, but that’s another story.) The house is now a museum and houses Handel’s bedroom, where he used to perform rehearsals and private recitals. You can visit his dining room and basement kitchen. This is where Handel composed the English coronation hymn ‘Zadok the Priest’ and recently performed it for King Charles III. Here again Handel wrote “Messiah”, which took about three weeks to compose.
Speaking of “Messiah”, if you want to see the first published score of the oratorio song, orphan museum, It is located on the grounds of the Bloomsbury Children’s Home Foundling Hospital. The sheet music was donated by Handel, one of the hospital’s main patrons, who held a benefit concert there and even composed a hymn for his first concert. Handel’s suicide note is also on display.
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music has a collection of over 14,000 pieces covering five centuries of music making. It includes about 1,000 musical instruments, including the world’s oldest guitar.
a new exhibition It features the collection’s hidden treasures, including photographs of Mary Gardens. A Scottish-born soprano who immigrated to the United States in the late 19th century, she joined the Opéra-Comique in Paris in 1900 and premiered the role of Mélisande in Pelléas et Mélisande, the only opera Debussy completed. Did.
Also on display are Yuquina stringed instrument from Guangzhou, the ancient capital of China, brought to London in the early 19th century and acquired by King George IV.
