The Royal Opera House is the third theatre on the Covent Garden site. Its history began in 1728 when John Rich, actor/manager at Lincoln's Inn Fields, commissioned The Beggar's Opera from John Gay. The success of this venure provided the capital for the first Theatre Royal at Covent Garden, designed by Edward Shepherd. On opening night, 7 December 1732, Rich's actors carried him there in triumph for a performance of Congreve's The Way of the World.
For the first hundred years or so the theatre was primarily a playhouse; Letters Patent granted by Charles II had given Covent Garden and Drury Lane almost sole rights to present spoken drama in the capital. During his management, Rich developed pantomime as an art form (the tradition of Christmas pantomimes at Covent Garden survived until the 1930s).
Many of Handel's operas and oratorios were written for Covent Garden or had their first London performances here. He bequeathed his organ to John Rich and it was among many valuable items lost in a fire that destroyed the theatre in 1808. Rebuilding began at once. The second Theatre Royal opened on 18 September 1809 with a performance of Macbeth followed by a musical entertainment called The Quaker.
At this time it was not only opera and ballet that were presented: an evening of excerpts from Shakespeare might well have been followed by a performance on the high wire by Madame Sacchi, the Italian acrobat. Then, in 1843, the Theatres Act broke the patent theatres' monopoly of drama. Her Majesty's Theatre in the Haymarket was the main centre of ballet and opera, but in 1846 after a dispute with the management, Michael Costa, conductor at Her Majesty's, transferred his allegiance to Covent Garden, bringing most of his singers with him. The Covent Garden auditorium was completely remodelled to designs by Benedetto Albano and the theatre reopened as the Royal Italian Opera on 6 April 1847 with a performance of Rossini's Semiramide.
On 5 March 1856 disaster struck: the theatre was again destroyed by fire. Financial considerations delayed rebuilding. Work on the third and present theatre eventually started in 1857 and it opened on 15 May 1858 with a performance of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots. The theatre became the Royal Opera House in 1892. Winter and summer seasons of opera and ballet were given; in between, the theatre was either closed or offered such diverse fare as film shows, cabarets, lectures and dancing.
During World War I the theatre was requisitioned by the Ministry of Works as a furniture repository. During World War II it became a Mecca Dance Hall. There was a possibility that it would remain a dance hall after the was but publishers Boosey & Hawkes acquired the lease. David Webster was appointed General Administrator and Ninette de Valois' Sadler's Wells Ballet was invited to become the resident ballet company. It reopened the Opera House on 20 February 1946 with a performance of The Sleeping Beauty.
There was no opera company suitable for transfer to the Royal Opera House, but David Webster, with his music director Karl Rankl, immediately began to build a resident company. In December 1946 this company shared its first production, The Fairy Queen with the ballet company. On 14 January 1947 the Covent Garden Opera Company gave its first performance of Carmen. Today the Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera, granted their Royal Charters in 1956 and 1968 respectively, share equal honours in one of the world's finest and best-loved opera houses.