Royal Opera House Reviews 53

Pre-ordered drinks but not told that you have to queue in interval and present voucher. Got drinks when time to go back in. Only to discover that you can't take drinks into auditorium. Many others in same predicament. Choice of glug it down in one or not at all. Totally hopeless arrangement - they need to sort it out.

A musically outstanding performance of Siegfried, elevated by extraordinary singers and a finely balanced orchestra that captured both the lyricism and the monumental weight of Wagner’s score with impressive control and clarity.
Unfortunately, the experience was severely undermined by a lamentable broadcast. A disruption of approximately fifteen minutes broke the continuity of the drama and shattered immersion at a crucial moment.
More troubling, however, was the staging and costume design. Rather than offering a thoughtful reinterpretation, the production descended into a display that felt disconnected from the spirit of the work. The visual concept came across as careless and, at times, frankly disrespectful to Wagner’s dramatic and symbolic intentions.
In short: musically superb, technically flawed in transmission, and artistically misguided in its visual execution.

I was surprised by how unaware or unprepared your staff are to offer to help someone using a walking aid. Finally, someone was asked to help but her rather brusque efficiency was off-putting and she seemed rather impatient. I asked her if this was her first time helping someone but she told me it wasn’t and that she had been doing it for four years as part of her job! However, someone different checked if I needed my rollator at the interval which was thoughtful. Subsequently though when I was leaving staff just stood there while I struggled to lift my rollator up three steps. That was really bad and so different from the charming and thoughtful help I have recently had when attending theatres.
Fine feelings for the arts are all very well but a few finer feelings are needed by your staff for people with mobility problems.

I attended a performance of Siegfried. The opera had a second interval of 80 minutes. I had therefore taken my own food to eat in the break, sitting out on the amphitheatre terrace where I was told I could not eat my own food there as it is a restaurant. So, no longer part of the public foyer for ticket holders, but a commercial enterprise for a restaurant. How ridiculous is this. There was no where else to sit.

As a longtime visitor and enjoyer of both opera performed in the main auditorium and the Live at Lunch recitals, I am disappointed to note a distinct change of culture at the house.

Firstly, it is criminal that the Friday Rush has been terminated. So much for making opera more accessible huh? It seems greed has superceded the desire to bring the experience of opera to more people. The trite line on the website about it being "fairer" is pure nonsense. In what way is it fairer?

Secondly, Live at Lunch used to be a relaxed affair. You wandered in, took a seat and waited for it to start. Now it is over-subscribed and there's a stampede of people who behave as if they're boarding an Easyjet flight. Even the older, well-dressed ladies have become pushy and shovey.

At one recital, there was a school group in attendance. The children were badly behaved, the teachers did nothing to control them, and as a result the nasty little beasts ruined the experience for the rest of us.

In short, the tone has been lowered and yet opera is more inaccessible than it has ever been in the ROH's history. What a curious juxtaposition.

We made an evening of the performance of Giselle by having early supper in one of the restaurants - amazing food and service. At the interval for Giselle the toilet queue was huge (as always) and so was the upstairs main bar area. I ordered two drinks for my husband and myself and carried them down four flights of stairs to our location at B1 level to be told by the staff that only bottled water was allowed! At no point when I was served at the bar (some 15 minutes after the interval started when it was clear there was only 5 mins before curtain up) was I advised of this. Nor did I see any signs anywhere advising this. There was also no facility ie bins close to the area of admittance to the auditorium to dispose of the drinks. I had to leave them to one side as curtain up was being called and I could not take them with me. …… What an absolute disgrace - a waste of my hard earned money and a shame as the rest of the evening was amazing. Very disappointing… if I had known I could have emptied the water bottles I also bought and put the wine into the bottles eg behave like a teenager heading to their first party!! Come on ROH you can do better than this. We are grown ups on a night out and most other West End venues have a policy of allowing drinks so long as they are in plastic containers, or else they sell alcohol in suitable containers.

On Monday I saw a wonderful Giselle with amazing Nunez as Giselle. Expensive, paid £165 for a decent seat - worse was the incessant audience clapping and whooping 'uuh uuh' shouts (and where did the traditional 'bravo' disappear to?) - this was unacceptable throughout the haunting Act 2 and ruined the ghostly atmosphere and story. Why did they do this when Albrecht collapsed on the stage? This bad behaviour ruined the evening. I will not return. I have been going to RoH since the 1970s and the audience have never been so badly behaved and intrusive. Poor dancers.

We paid over £200 for our tickets to see La Traviata on the 11th February .The performance was lovely ,however the ushers where we were sitting were extremely brusque ,officious ,unfriendly bordering on rude .Not just towards ourselves , but other audience members as well .Instances included being abruptly told to remove a jacket and bag from the balustrade in front of Ist row seating for no explanation ,refusing to let in someone who had a plastic cup with some water ,to their seat ,and telling several standing audience members who had sat in a spare seat during the interval that they hadn't paid for that seat and to go back to to their standing position 'now' Totally inappropriate manner and behaviour towards audience members who pay high prices to attend what is seen as the top Opera house in the UK. Bad customer service in the hospitality sector is unacceptable .

Appalling experience at Turandot last week: tenor took ill and could not continue (it happens) ; but this was poorly handled by ROH: we were told after an hour wait that someone (in chinos ) would perform from the side of the stage - but was untrained and would not sing Nessun Dorma. People walked out to boos …; I sent a complaint e mail to ROH and received a poor cut and paste response and offer of a 50% refund. Not what I would expect of a global brand …what a shame that management of ROH don’t see the value in protecting their brand

Appalling experience and customer service. Went to see Turandot, I bought the tickets for my parents (very costly seats) as a Christmas present as this opens holds great personal significance to our family. At the final part the lead performer (Calaf) was taken ill. This of course cannot be helped, however there was no contingency plan , the main ending and Nessus dorma was skipped entirely , with an incoherent ending being performed with a non professional singer on the side of the stage with lyrics. As we are not from London we had travelled for this and we were enormously disappointed by the lack of contingency plan. We were all offered 50% refunds, which with the significance of the performance, the great cost of the tickets and immense disappointment is not suffice. After emailing customer services explaining my grievances, I was entirely ignored and sent a copied and pasted response, which just adds insult to injury. A truly audacious and disappointing experience all together .

La Traviata at the Royal Opera House - disappointing experience. Poor vocal. 28 Jan 2025

Despite the classical staging, the production felt lifeless and purely functional, as if the creative team was ticking boxes rather than telling a story. The voices were underwhelming, lacking both power and emotional depth, which is frankly unforgivable in Traviata, where vocal quality is everything.

The casting choices felt dramatically incoherent and were not supported by any meaningful directorial concept. Characters who are meant to belong to the same family and social world appeared visually and culturally unrelated (different ethnic group ?? Seriously - how about replicating the true opera that is inherinrly true to its origin, you ROH and a Morden wishy washy operas…), with no attempt to justify or integrate this into the narrative.

As a result, the internal logic of the story collapsed: relationships lost credibility, emotional tensions weakened, and the drama no longer felt truthful or grounded.

POOR VOCAL.

Overall, a technically “correct” but emotionally empty performance — far below expectations for the Royal Opera House.

Underwhelming voices, lacking both power and emotional depth, which is frankly unforgivable in La Traviata visited 28 Jan 2025. Not a first disappointing opera lately.

I truly hope it’s not the new normal ?

I understand that when you pay less then your viewing experience isnt as great BUT even the cheapest tickets are starting from £50 and for that price you expect at least a sufficient level of viewing experience and comfort! This is definitely not the case - I was sitting in seat B35 on L4 and you cant see a quarter of the stage and people sitting on the rows in front of you lean so much forward that you literally cannot see anything! Please dont bother going if you’re not prepared to pay at least more than £100 otherwise you’ll regret it and feel like you’ve been conned with your own money as it really is a fraud! They should be ashamed of themselves!! I hope that whatever profit my ticket money is contributing to ends up as a cost for them instead!!!

Review for the online experience of purchasing tickets. The website has a clear and intuitive layout, with an effective seat map with photos to help you visualise the view. You are given a reasonable length of time to complete your purchase once seats are reserved in your basket. (Note that if you change your mind and empty your basket, the seats you selected won't be available again for several hours if at all, should you change your mind again!)

However, it's sneaky of the website to add a voluntary donation to your basket which you have to actively remove if you do not wish to donate at the time. Furthermore, it's a percentage donation based on your basket amount which could be a very large amount and could be very costly for you if you are not very vigilant; you are buying tickets against the clock especially when it's a popular performance and so you could miss it. It's an underhand, sneaky tactic that is unbecoming of a national institution.

I bought a ticket and they told me it had been returned. I did not return it and they resold my ticket, charged me £4.50 and are unable to find out who returned it.

Absolutely appalling and inefficient new booking systems. Enough to drive away their supposedly valued customers and potential customers.

Well done guys! Israhell needs boycott from every sane person.

So we now have a political wing at the Royal Opera House (see withdrawal of Tosca production in Israel in 2026)!
I do hope people will vote with their feet and boycott this venue.

Performance abandoned because the curtain broke. Director promised a full refund. Follow up email offered a credit, not a refund. The whole day out isn't cheap but ROH seems to not care. And restricted view tickets are 'no view tickets'.

Thank you to Simon (volunteer) at The Royal Opera House. He was very pleasant and very helpful.
We just popped in for a coffee and later explored the building
We had a lovely experience. The roof top bar was very special.

And many others. While theatres may highlight limited view I could see barely a quarter of the stage while attending Romeo and Juliet. For Act 3 I saw a prop chair, a man laying prostrate and little else. Appalling. Also trying to find the seats was difficult with no staff directing. All in all an awful experience for something I was really looking forward to.