Orchestra of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden
The Orchestra accompanies The Royal Opera and The Royal Ballet on the Main Stage under the music direction of Jakub Hrůša (The Royal Opera) and Koen Kessels (The Royal Ballet).

The Orchestra is renowned worldwide for its outstanding musicians, and the distinguished roster of international conductors with whom it has played. In 2019 they won ‘Opera Orchestra of the Year’ in the International Opera Awards. They have also toured with The Royal Opera to Japan and performed at venues including Symphony Hall (Birmingham), Cadogan Hall and the Vienna Konzerthaus

The Orchestra accompanies performances that are streamed all over the world, including through cinema screenings and broadcasts. They appear on many CDs and DVDs including Pappano’s acclaimed studio recording of Tristan und Isolde with Plácido Domingo and Nina Stemme.

The Orchestra of the Royal Opera House was founded in 1946 when the Royal Opera House reopened after World War II.

Koen Kessels
made his Royal Ballet debut in 2008 conducting The Nutcracker and has since returned every Season, to conduct a repertory including The Sleeping Beauty, Giselle and Symphony in C and the world premieres of Raven Girl, Untouchable, Woolf Works, Frankenstein and Multiverse. He has been Music Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet since 2010, and becomes Music Director of the Dutch National Ballet in August 2024.

Kessels was born in Oostende, Belgium, and studied at the Antwerp Royal Flemish Conservatory of Music. He was appointed Music Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet in 2010. He has guest conducted for such companies as Teatro alla Scala, Teatro dell’ Opera di Roma, Wiener and Bayerisches Staatsballet, Kunliga Operan, deMunt Brussels, Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Ballet Opéra National de Paris, Théâtre du Capitole, New York City Ballet, New National Theatre Tokyo, Teatro Real Madrid.

His ballet repertory includes Le Parc, Coppélia, La Source, Proust, Cinderella, Hurlevent, Hommage à Jerôme Robbins, Giselle, French Program, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Firebird, Jewels, Romeo and Juliet and The Prince of the Pagodas. Opera repertory includes Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin (Antwerp), Hosokawa’s Hanjo (La Monnaie, Brussels) and operas by Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Britten, among others.

His ballet repertory includes Coppélia, La Source, Sylvia, Giselle, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, Cinderella, Romeo and Juliet, Nutcracker, Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, The Firebird, Petrushka, Apollo, Les Noces, The Rite of Spring, Prodigal Son, Jewels, The Prince of the Pagodas, Hurlevent, Carmina Burana, Proust ou l’Intermittence du Coeur, Hommage à Jerôme Robbins, Two Pigeons, Le Parc, Symphony in C, M Julie, Bolero, La Valse, Suite en Blanc, L’Arlésienne, Fall River Legend, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Winters Tale, After the Rain, Within the Golden Hour and The Judas Tree. He also conducted the world premieres of Psyche, Untouchable, Flight Pattern, Frankenstein, Symphonic Dances, Strapless, Corybantic Games, Raven Girl, Woolf Works, Yugen, Sunyata, Processen, The Dante Project and The Cellist.

Opera repertory includes Saariaho’s L’Amour de loin, Hosokawa’s Hanjo, Cherkaoui and Len's Shell Shock, Wim Henderickx’s De Bekeerlinge and operas by Mozart, Bizet, Verdi, Puccini, Britten, Maxwell Davies.

Koen is President of the artistic direction team at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp, Honorary Professor at Birmingham University, Artistic Director of Inspiratum and HERMESensemble.

Joby Talbot
English composer Joby Talbot made his Royal Ballet debut in 2006, with the score for Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor’s Chroma. Talbot has since written three full-length ballet scores for the Company, in collaboration with Royal Ballet Artistic Associate Christopher Wheeldon: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (2011), the Company’s first full-length commission for more than twenty years, The Winter’s Tale (2014) and Like Water for Chocolate (2021).

Joby Talbot was born in London in 1971. He studied composition privately with Brian Elias and at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, before completing a Master of Music (Composition) at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama under Simon Bainbridge.

Talbot’s diverse catalogue also includes small and large-scale choral and vocal works (The Wishing Tree, 2002; Path of Miracles, 2005; A Sheen of Dew on Flowers, 2019); orchestral pieces (Sneaker Wave, 2004; Chacony in G Minor, 2011; Worlds, Stars, Systems, Infinity, 2012, ); concerti (Desolation Wilderness for Alison Balsom , 2006; Ink Dark Moon for Milos Karadaglic, 2018); silent film scores (The Lodger, 1999; The Dying Swan, 2002; Vampyr, 2018) and feature film and television scores (The League of Gentlemen, 1999 - 2005; The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, 2005; Sing, 2016; Sing 2, 2021 and Wonka, 2023).

Talbot’s critically acclaimed first opera, Everest, was given its premiere in 2015 by The Dallas Opera. His second opera based on the true story The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, a further collaboration with librettist Gene Sheer, premiered in November 2023. Oscar, Talbot’s fourth large scale collaboration with Christopher Wheeldon, commissioned by The Australian Ballet, will open in Melbourne in September 2024.