chorus of the royal opera house covent garden

Huddled together in a tight knot of faith and fearlessness, these Hebrews were vulnerable but determined. Masks or no masks, the ROH Chorus sang their hearts out. If only those making difficult decisions about the health of the nation, the economy and the country’s cultural heart-and-soul beat were as rational, selfless and honest. What was the rabble’s problem? Clearly, the aim was to protect the cast of soloists, many of whom had jetted in from Russia and the Ukraine, the ROH Chorus, and the production itself. In this case, Covent Garden’s artistic director Oliver Mears was here to tell us that the show was going on, but that the ROH Chorus would be masked: cue some sulky booing from the stalls, which was quickly stifled by supportive applause. Then, for the punters who had defied London’s omni-omicron onslaught, there was one of those heart-sinking moments when, instead of the composer’s baton going down, the house lights go up and a besuited chap strides onto the platform, prompting anticipation of bad news. The Royal Opera House prefaced this opening night of the revival of Daniele Abbado’s 2013 production of Nabucco with an earlier announcement that the next two performances of Verdi’s biblical epic of religious enlightenment and reckoning, on 23 rd and 28 th December, had had to be cancelled, ‘due to resource challenges caused by the Omicron COVID-19 variant’. The run-up to curtain-up wasn’t auspicious.

Chorus of the royal opera house covent garden