Covent Garden

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Covent Garden, Theatre Royal, London, in Bow Street. There has been a theatre on the site of the present Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, since 1732, when John Rich, holder of the patent granted to Sir William Davenant (see PATENT THEATRES), built one on land owned by the Duke of Bedford that had once been part of a convent garden. It seated 1,897 in pit, amphitheatre, two galleries, and three tiers of side-boxes. The proscenium opening was 26 ft. and the stage depth 42 ft., with an apron stage giving an extra 13 ft. The new theatre opened in 1732 with a revival of Congreve's The Way of the World acted by the company headed by James Quin which Rich had brought with him from Lincoln's Inn Fields. For several years plays alternated with the operas of Handel. Peg Woffington, George Anne Bellamy, Spranger Barry, and for a short time Garrick performed there. Rich's son-in-law, who inherited the patent in 1761, was interested only in opera and in 1767 sold it to George Colman the elder and three partners, of whom one became sole manager in 1774 after a good deal of wrangling and some physical violence. In the previous year Goldsmith's She Stoops to Conquer had had its first performance, and Macklin had appeared as Macbeth. He was to be seen at Covent Garden again in his own play The Man of the World (1781) and his last appearance was made there in 1789. In 1775 Sheridan's The Rivals had its first performance. In 1782 the auditorium was gutted and reconstructed, the whole building being again reconstructed within the original walls in 1792. George Frederick Cooke was mainly associated with this theatre, making his London début there in 1800. Three years later John Philip Kemble bought a sixth share of the patent, and appeared in company with his sister Sarah Siddons. One of his first importations was the child prodigy Master Betty. In 1808 the theatre was burnt down. Rebuilt with a pit and five galleries seating 2,800, the new theatre opened with Macbeth. Owing to the high cost of the rebuilding Kemble abolished the shilling gallery, which led to the famous OP (Old Prices) Riots. After disturbances every night for about two months, Kemble was forced to submit and restore the shilling gallery.

Between 1809 and 1821 most of the famous actors of the day, and many singers, appeared, as did pantomimists such as Grimaldi. In 1812 Mrs Siddons made her farewell appearance, and in 1816 Macready his first. Kemble retired in 1817 (in which year the theatre was first lit by gas) and his younger brother Charles Kemble took over. In 1829 Fanny Kemble embarked on a series of performances which filled the theatre for three years. Edmund Kean made his last appearance on the stage there in 1833, and in 1835 a strong company included Charles Kean, Macready, and Helen Faucit, making her London début. Macready became manager in 1837, introducing limelight on to the stage long before it was in general use as a lighting effect. His reign was marked by much internal dissension and he left in 1839, being succeeded by Mme Vestris who with her husband Charles James Mathews put on a number of beautifully staged productions; financially her greatest success was Boucicault's first play London Assurance (1841). After Mme Vestris left in 1842 the theatre failed and was finally closed, to reopen in 1847 as the Royal Italian Opera House, its seating having been increased following reconstruction to over 4,000. Smirke's building was burnt down in 1856 and the new theatre, with pit, stalls, three tiers of boxes, amphitheatre, and gallery, opened in 1858 with a performance of opera. Theatrical entertainments were in future limited to a handful of pantomimes, some revues, and in 1912 Reinhardt's production of Sophocles' Oedipus the King. Otherwise the house was entirely given over to opera, except for a brief existence during the Second World War as a Palais de Danse. In 1946 it became the joint home of London's chief opera and ballet companies, the latter coming from Sadler's Wells.