The Royal Opera House on Bow Street has opened its 2026 to 2027 season with two revivals, and both are about men who take what they want. Handel's Alcina, in Richard Jones's 2022 production, runs until 3 October. Mozart's Don Giovanni, in Kasper Holten's 2014 staging designed by Es Devlin, runs until 15 October. The Observer's classical music critic Fiona Maddocks reviewed both on Sunday 20 September 2026 and came down clearly on the side of the Handel.
For anyone booking in the next fortnight, the practical facts are these. The house is at Bow Street, Covent Garden, WC2E 9DD, presenting its two companies together as Royal Ballet and Opera. Alcina has the shorter run. The streets on either side of the building, Bow Street to the front and Floral Street behind, hold the pre-show and interval options that matter more than any review once the curtain time is fixed.
Alcina is the one the critic rated
Maddocks called Richard Jones's Alcina a classy revival and praised its elegant simplicity, with Antony McDonald's design of shimmering swag curtains, furry animals and clipped trees. New in 2022 and revived for the first time, it brings back many of the original cast. Lisette Oropesa sings the enchantress, described as cool and sparkling until Alcina's heart breaks, with Mary Bevan as her sister Morgana. The Observer singled out the Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily d'Angelo as Ruggiero, a world leader in this repertoire, and the Glaswegian mezzo-soprano Beth Taylor as Bradamante, disguised as her own brother.
The Royal Opera House orchestra under David Bates played the baroque score with what Maddocks called fire and punch. The programme essay is titled Girls Who Like Boys Dressed as Boys Who Like Girls, which tells a first-time visitor most of what they need to know about the plot's gender games. The review's advice was to go with it.
Don Giovanni has been overtaken by events
The Mozart got a more mixed notice. Maddocks found Gordon Bintner tough and caustic in the title role, with Roberto Tagliavini as Leporello, and praised the Ukrainian tenor Bogdan Volkov for restoring the lyrical case for Don Ottavio's two arias. Special praise went to conductor Stefano Montanari, who also played continuo fortepiano. The staging under revival director Greg Eldridge came across as clearer and less frantic than before.
The reservation was about the production's view of its women. Holten's 2014 staging treats Donna Anna and Zerlina as susceptible to Giovanni's charms and therefore dishonest to their own men, and Maddocks wrote that post-#MeToo the view that they asked for it feels outmoded. Her closing question was whether any director gets this piece right. Rachel Willis-Sørensen, Giulia Semenzato, Aigul Akhmetshina and Dingle Yandell complete the principal cast.
Before the curtain on Bow Street and Floral Street
The building's own street offers the two most obvious stops. The Marquess of Anglesey at 39 Bow Street is a Young's pub across three floors with a rooftop terrace, moments from the stage door side of the house. Directly opposite, NoMad London occupies the former Bow Street Magistrates' Court, with its atrium restaurant and the Side Hustle bar for anyone who wants the interval to start early.
Behind the theatre, Floral Street is the narrow lane that runs parallel to Long Acre. Chestnut Bakery at number 24 bakes its bread fresh daily, and Granado at 44 is the Brazilian apothecary founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1870. The Royal Ballet School's Upper School at 46 Floral Street is joined to the opera house by the Bridge of Aspiration, the twisting glass walkway overhead. On Wellington Street, the route most people take from the Strand, Banana Tree at number 34 serves Southeast Asian food built for a pre-theatre clock.
Booking and getting away
Alcina closes on 3 October and Don Giovanni on 15 October, so the Handel is the one to book first if the dates are tight. Check the directory listing for the house's current hours and tour times. Covent Garden station on Long Acre is the nearest Underground stop, a short walk from Bow Street, with Leicester Square a few minutes further for the Northern and Piccadilly lines. For a late supper after the Mozart, Bow Street's pub and hotel bar are the closest doors that stay open.