Boos for Opera House premičre

Jürgen Flimm's stage and lighting design is stark

An audience has booed at the opening night of the Royal Opera House's (ROH) latest production.

But they were unhappy at the design rather than the performance, says the ROH.

A sold-out production of Haydn's L'Anima Del Filosofo (also known as Orfeo ed Euridice) starred mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli and tenor Roberto Saccŕ as doomed lovers.

Their curtain call was greeted with cheers - but when the production team stepped out for their call, boos were heard.

'Booing'

The design of the opera , by Jürgen Flimm, is stark and modern, but set against mostly period costumes.

Period costumes contrast with imaginative creations

A Royal Opera House spokeswoman played down the reports.

"There was little very booing, in fact," she told BBC News Online.

"The artists took their curtain calls to a tremendous roar of applause.

"Then the production team came on for their curtain call, including the director Jürgen Flimm, the costume designer and the lighting team - and then some people made their views known."

Bartoli and Saccŕ are the doomed lovers

The opera is based on Greek myth and tells the story of Orfeo's descent into the underworld to claim back his dead lover Euridice.

The opera ends with the death of both Orfeo and Euridice.

Mr Flimm's production was first performed at the Vienna Festival in 1995 and subsequently in Zurich.

Opinions

The Royal Opera House spokeswoman said that Mondays' events had been taken out of proportion - and added that the production had been sold out for some time.

"People are entitled to their own opinions about things - it can happen that people like a performance but don't like the production," she said.

The production is a premičre for the Royal Opera House and one of only three productions that Cecilia Bartoli will grace this season.