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The theatre became the
Royal Opera House
(ROH) in 1892, and the
number of French and German works offered increased. Winter and summer
seasons of opera and ballet were given, and the building was also used for
pantomime, recitals and political meetings.
During
the First World War, the theatre was requisitioned by the
Ministry of Works for use as a furniture repository.
From 1934 to 1936, Geoffrey Toye was Managing Director, working
alongside
the Artistic Director, Sir Thomas Beecham. Despite early successes,
Toye and Beecham eventually fell out, and Toye resigned.
During the Second World War the ROH became a dance hall. There
was a possibility that it would remain so after the war but, following lengthy
negotiations, the music publishersBoosey & Hawkes acquired the lease of the
building. David Webster was appointed General Administrator, and Sadler's
Wells Ballet was invited to become the resident ballet company. The Covent
Garden Opera Trust was created and laid out plans "to
establish Covent
Garden as the national centre of opera and ballet, employing British artists in
all departments, wherever that is consistent with the maintenance of the best
possible standards ..."
The Royal Opera House reopened on 20 February 1946 with a
performance of
The Sleeping Beauty
in an extravagant new production
designed by Oliver Messel. Webster, with
his music director Karl Rankl,
immediately began to build a resident company. In December 1946, they
shared their first production, Purcell's
The Fairy-Queen
, with the ballet
company. On 14 January 1947, the Covent Garden Opera Company gave its
first performance of Bizet's
Carmen
.
Before the grand opening, the Royal Opera House presented one of the
Robert Mayer Children's concerts on Saturday, 9 February 1946.