Cuts or no cuts, the Royal Opera House’s 2011/12 season has much to offer. At the new season launch at the Clore Studio yesterday (Wednesday April 13), plans were revealed, both for opera and ballet, which enter wholeheartedly into the Olympic spirit of 2012. As with the previous season launch, speeches from key people were interspersed with excerpts of music and dance, performed to perfection by Jette Parker Young Artists and principals of the Royal Ballet – a brilliant method for conveying the supreme artistic talents of the company and cranking up excitement for the forthcoming productions.

Deborah Bull, the Royal Opera House’s creative director, spoke first about the company’s involvement with the Olympics. In the week leading up to the sporting event, we can look forward to a series of special performances, including a gala concert for Jette Parker Young Artists past and present, a celebration of 20 years of Domingo’s Operalia, and a world premiere on the main stage featuring young people under the artistic direction of Gareth Malone. Bull was particularly excited about the plans for ROH2, which celebrates its tenth anniversary next year. Highlights include a collaboration with Opera East in a performance of Tarik O’Regan’s first opera Heart of Darkness, and the world premiere of the opera Yes by playwright Bonnie Greer and composer Errollyn Wallen.

Director of the Royal Ballet Monica Mason, for whom this is her farewell season, has, by her own admission, programmed her favourite works, many of which feature a merging of dance with the voice – for example MacMillan’s Song of the Earth (using Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde), Gloria (Poulenc) and Requiem (Fauré), and Nijinska’s Les noces (Stravinsky). The newly commissioned Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from Christopher Wheeldon (with music by Joby Talbot) makes a welcome return to the repertory, as does MacMillan’s The Prince of the Pagodas (with music by Britten), famously choreographed for the then-unknown 20-year-old Darcey Bussell. Mason also revealed plans for “Titian 2012”, a collaboration between the Royal Ballet and the National Gallery involving seven choreographers and three musical works.

For Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera, this forthcoming season is all about taking inspiration from the five rings symbolising the Olympics and translating that into music – hence beginning the season with Puccini’s Il trittico, and beginning the 2012/13 season with The Ring. In between, we can expect the three Mozart/Da Ponte operas in cycle form and a new production of Berlioz’s two-part Les Troyens (the first complete performance on a single evening by the Royal Opera since 1972), boasting a starry cast including Anna Caterina Antonacci, Jonas Kaufmann and Eva-Maria Westbroek. Pappano was also excited to welcome Marie-Nicole Lemieux (as Mistress Quickly) to a new production of Falstaff, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin to the podium for a production of Rusalka. Other highlights include the UK premiere of a new opera, Miss Fortune, by Judith Weir.

The launch evening opened with the pas de deux from Liam Scarlett’s Asphodel Meadows (Poulenc) passionately danced by Laura Morera and Bennet Gartside. After two spectacular arias sung by Jette Parker Artists Dawid Kimberg and Ji Hyun Kim (the latter belted out Donizetti’s top Cs effortlessly in “Ah! mes amis!” from La fille du régiment), the evening closed with an entertaining pas de deux from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, danced by Lauren Cuthbertson and Sergei Polunin (with jumps to surely rival Nureyev!). If the talent on display was any indication, the forthcoming season will have all opera and ballet fans salivating for more.

Sarah Kirkup