🎥✨ FREE Warm Space Cinema Screenings! ✨🎥

FREE monthly Warm Space screenings, proudly funded by Hebden Royd Town Council!

These community-led events are open to all, with a special focus on those living with dementia, their families, and carers. With complimentary tea, coffee, and biscuits, it’s a great opportunity to gather in a warm, welcoming, and inclusive space.

No Adverts or Trailers - Prompt Film Start 1pm

Film Synopsis;

Billy Wilder's classic, wild comedy, stars Jack Lemmon as Jerry, and Tony Curtis as Joe, a pair of unemployed musicians who inadvertently become witnesses to the St. Valentine Day's Massacre. To escape the wrath of the gangsters, they are forced to hit the road in drag, taking the only jobs available with an all-girl band bound for Miami. En route, both men fall for lead singer and blond bombshell Sugar Kane, (Marilyn Monroe), but are unable to fulfil their desires for fear of revealing their identity. Joe tries to get around this by adopting a third identity for seduction, that of a shy millionaire. Meanwhile Jerry has his own problems, fighting off the advances of Osgood E. Fielding, a real millionaire hypnotized by his/her charms.

When Papa Smurf is taken by evil wizards Razamel and Gargamel, Smurfette leads the Smurfs on a mission to the real world to save him.

With a strange illness, a mother and her daughter embark on a journey to the Spanish coast to find a cure, and along the way the daughter discovers another reality far from her controlling mother.

Featuring surrealist elements, queer romance, and sweltering summer heat, this film is a deeply immersive experience, perfect for the summer months. Emma Mackey (Sex Education, Emily) stars alongside Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve, Harry Potter) and Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread, Corsage).

Directed by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, starring Emma Mackey.

Jeanette Winterson

Oranges at 40

We are absolutely thrilled to welcome renowned writer Jeanette Winterson to Happy Valley Pride for a very special talk focusing on her groundbreaking debut novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.

Jeanette Winterson CBE was born in Manchester. She was adopted by Pentecostal parents and raised to be a missionary.

After leaving home at 16, she did a variety of jobs while studying, and later took a degree at the university of Oxford.

Her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was published in 1985. In 1990, she adapted it for a 3-part BBC TV series. It won a BAFTA for best Drama.

In 2011 she revisited some of that material in her bestselling memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Jeanette Winterson has written over 20 books - fiction and non-fiction, plus endless amounts of journalism. Her work is published around the world. Fun Fact - she has a big readership in China.

Her 1992 non-binary novel Written on the Body was named one of the top 25 post-war Queer novels by the New York Times.

Fun Fact - her portrait hangs in the National Portrait Gallery next to Kate and Wills.

Her essays about AI - 12 Bytes at AI - have taken her to tech conferences all over the world.

Her latest book of short stories is Night-Side of the River. Ghost stories from the past and the future.

Jeanette's talk will be followed by a Q&A.

Please contact Happy Valley Pride with any queries about the event at info@happyvalleypride.com

Roger Waters, founding member and creative force behind the legendary Pink Floyd, brings to the screen his live show, Roger Waters This Is Not A Drill: Live From Prague - The Movie. Directed by Sean Evans and Roger Waters, the film combines iconic songs from his Pink Floyd days with those from his solo career, encompassing a timespan of sixty years. The show is a stunning indictment of the corporate dystopia in which we all struggle to survive, and a call to action to love, protect and share our precious and precarious planet home.

Dedicated to “our brothers and sisters all over the world who are engaged in the existential battle for the soul of humanity”, the movie is an extraordinary assault on the senses, not just musically and visually, but politically and philosophically as well. It captures performances of songs from some of the most influential albums of all time – The Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall, together with those from the most popular of Waters’ solo career, including Amused To Death and Is This The Life We Really Want? Brought together with his band and crew, the show is majestic, with performances that are powerful yet controlled.

The sense of control is emphasised by the 360° stage. It provides intimacy and allows the performers to play to all sections of the audience “in the round”. With a rectangular centre with runways extending from each side, creating an elongated cross. Above it is a set of giant LED screens configured the same way. Made up of 12 surfaces, and totalling a huge 650 square meters, they project numerous images and messages that vividly and powerfully reinforce the meanings behind the songs. Because of the size and position of the screens, they can be seen throughout the arena and promote a high-energy production with maximum audience participation.

Bogancloch is where Jake Williams lives, nestled in a vast highland forest of Scotland.

The film portrays his life throughout the seasons, with other people occasionally crossing into his otherwise solitary life. At the heart a song, an argument between life and death, each stating their case to rule over the world.

The film is without exposition, it aims at something less recognisable, a different existence of reality observed in discrete moments. A sequel to Two Years at Sea (2011), charting a subtly changing life in a radically changing world.

Nicholas (Fionn O’Shea) and Isabel (Ann Skelly) are made for each other, but fate does not always choose the easiest path to true love. As destiny pulls them together, so do family, passion, and faith drive them apart.

Nicholas’ father, William (Pierce Brosnan), comes home one day to shatter his family’s quiet, modest life. He tells them that in a moment of divine intervention, God has instructed him to dedicate his life to painting. He quits his job and sets off for the coast, leaving his shellshocked wife and son to fend for themselves.

Meanwhile Isabel and her family live a charmed existence on a nearby small neighbouring island, their house full of music and poetry. When tragedy strikes and her brother suffers a terrible accident, the music stops, and Isabel’s parents (Helena Bonham Carter, Gabriel Byrne) decide in their grief to send Isabel to a convent school on the mainland.

The young lovers embark on their own individual journeys of heartache and misplaced love, before fate contrives to pull the threads of their lives together. When they meet, it will be like a miracle.

Directed by Polly Steele

In 2019, documentary filmmaker Hind Meddab flew to Sudan to film a sit-in protest at the Army headquarters in Khartoum. The people of Sudan were assembling, demanding reform after decades of military dictatorship. There she met a selection of young activists that she would continue to film over the course of 4 years, from the swell of hope and accomplishment following dictator Omar al-Bashir’s fall to the oppression of the military crackdown and subsequent civil war, which today, leaves Sudan in ruins.  

Standing in front of a powerful army, how could the civilian movement find the strength to persist? In conversations, in demonstrations, on walls, it emerges how the Sudanese tradition for poetry becomes a powerful tool for activism.

Art, music and poetry bolster every stage of the Sudanese fight for freedom. Sudan, Remember Us bears witness to a lost revolution and within it unearths a tribute to the power of creativity as a tool of survival and resistance.

The classic '90s slasher flick that both satirised and embraced the clichés of the genre. Directed by Wes Craven and starring Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette.

Serial killer Ghostface begins killing off teenagers and as the body count rises, a girl and her friends find themselves contemplating the "rules" of horror films as they find themselves living in a real-life one...

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS AN AUTISM FRIENDLY / RELAXED SCREENING - ACTUAL FILM STARTS PROMPTY AT 1PM (no trailers or advertisements)

Adjustments at a relaxed screening at the Picture House include:

- a relaxed environment where people understand the needs of adults, children and families with autism

- lights left on low throughout the film

- sound turned down a little

- no introductory music whilst you wait for the film

- disabled access

- bring your own food and drink if you like (but our kiosk will be open as usual)

- additional signage is put up to help you navigate a new place

- free entry for carers with valid CEA Card – please select this option when booking online

Film Synopsis;

When Papa Smurf is taken by evil wizards Razamel and Gargamel, Smurfette leads the Smurfs on a mission to the real world to save him.

Who’s badder than The Bad Guys? The Bad Girls.

In the new chapter from DreamWorks Animation’s acclaimed 2022 action-comedy hit about a crackerjack criminal crew of animal outlaws, The Bad Guys are struggling to find trust and acceptance in their newly minted lives as Good Guys, when they are pulled out of retirement and forced to do “one last job” by an all-female squad of criminals.

A new era is born.

Anchored by iconic action superstar Scarlett Johansson, breakthrough talent Jonathan Bailey and two-time Oscar® winner Mahershala Ali, this action-packed new chapter sees an intrepid team racing to secure DNA samples from the three most colossal creatures across land, sea and air.

Five years after the events of Jurassic World Dominion, the planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures within that tropical biosphere hold the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind.

 Pioneering Women: The Manchester Corinthians

Talk & Documentary

Join author Gary James in a celebration of the Manchester Corinthians, a women’s football club that toured the world during the 1950s to 1980s. Established in 1948-49 these pioneering women played at a time when a FA ban on women’s football was in place, winning trophies in major tournaments across Europe and South America. This celebration of the Corinthians will include interviews with some of the players, many now in their 70s and 80s, and the showing of ‘Oh What a Team’ (a short film telling their story).

 

At this free event copies of Manchester Corinthians: The Authorised History will be available at the discounted price of £20. £5 from every sale will go to the Hebden Bridge Women’s Walking Football team to support them in their fundraising for overseas tournaments in the spirit of the Corinthians.

In a seedy corner of London, Omar (Gordon Warnecke), a young Pakistani, is given a run-down laundromat by his uncle (Saeed Jaffrey), who hopes to turn it into a successful business. Soon after, Omar is attacked by a group of racist punks, but defuses the situation when he realizes their leader is his former lover, Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis). The men resume their relationship and rehabilitate the laundromat together, but various social forces threaten to compromise their success.

Over seven hallucinatory days, a village with no name, in an undefined time and place, disappears. Townsman-turned-farmer Walter Thirsk and befuddled lord of the manor Charles Kent are childhood friends about to face an invasion from the outside world: the trauma of modernity.

The first English-language film from Attenberg director and Yorgos Lanthimos producer, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Harvest is a striking folk tale adapted from the acclaimed 2013 novel of the same name from Jim Crace, adapted for the screen with award-winning writer Joslyn Barnes (Nickel Boys). Stunning cinematography comes from Sean Price Williams, known for his work on some of the most beautiful independent films of the 21st century (Good Time, The Sweet East).

With this impressive team behind the scenes and accomplished cast on screen including Caleb Landry Jones (Get Out), Harry Melling (Harry Potter series), and Rosy McEwen (Blue Jean), Harvest is a period drama that exceeds expectations of the genre.

An epic and darkly funny symphony of family dysfunction, Dying follows the estranged members of the Lunies family as they wrestle with chaotic private lives.

Son Tom, a well-regarded conductor, is too preoccupied to give his ailing parents the attention they need. He’s juggling work – overseeing a new orchestral piece – and a confusing relationship with an ex who wants him to co-parent her newborn child.

Meanwhile, daughter Ellen fumbles through life plagued by alcohol-induced blackouts and an affair with a married colleague.  

Winner of Best Screenplay at the Berlin Film Festival and Best Film at the German Film Awards, Dying is a brilliant and sharply comic portrayal of a family slowly unraveling as they contend with the chaos life brings.

Suburban dad Craig (Tim Robinson) falls hard for his charismatic new neighbour (Paul Rudd), as Craig’s attempts to make an adult male friend threaten to ruin both of their lives.

Highly anticipated for fans of Robinson’s absurdist cult hit TV series I Think You Should Leave, Friendship is set to become one of the best comedies of the year.

After 15 years together, Ale and Alex have come up with the crazy idea of throwing a party to celebrate their break up - like a wedding but the other way around. While their friends and family are sceptical, they seem to be sure of their decision. Or are they really?

"A fun, feisty, anti-romantic comedy that Hollywood should learn from" - Indiewire

"charming... delightful... very funny yet properly grown-up... Arana and Sanz have superbly believable chemistry... Trueba has drawn a funny little valentine, shot through by a bright, sharp arrow of feeling." - Variety

Co-written by and starring Itsaso Arana

Following the death of their father, a brother and sister (played by award winning teen actor Billy Barratt and startling newcomer Sora Wong) are placed at the centre of a terrifying ritual when they arrive at the secluded home of their new foster mother (the unexpectedly terrifying Sally Hawkins).

Bring Her Back is the highly anticipated new film from Danny and Michael Philippou, the directors of breakout horror hit Talk to Me.

Director Ang Lee's BAFTA and Oscar-winning adaptation of Jane Austen's 1811 romantic novel. Emma Thompson (also the film's screenwriter) and Kate Winslet are the Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, whose chances of marriage appear doomed after their family's sudden loss of fortune. Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman and Greg Wise are their well-intentioned suitors trapped between desire and the strict rules of society.

Following a Ukrainian platoon as they attempt to reclaim the village of Andriivka during the 2023 counteroffensive, the film combines intense frontline footage with deeply human moments of reflection. Having premiered at Sundance and recently awarded the F:ACT Prize at CPH:DOX, it’s already receiving critical acclaim.

2000 Meters to Andriivka is a bold, timely, and immersive documentary that offers audiences a raw, unflinching view of modern warfare..

Hosted by GenErika

Come for the challenge, stay for the cinema!

Join us at the Picture House for our very first film quiz, where your movie knowledge could win you popcorn, prizes and bragging rights. Hosted by the one and only GenErika, this is your chance to test your silver screen smarts in a fun, welcoming atmosphere.

Start time: 6:00 PM

Entry: £2 per person

Team size: Up to 6 people

Booking: Please pre-book online to guarantee your spot – it helps us plan seating!

What’s up for grabs?

The top team gets FREE entry to the FilmClub screening that follows the quiz, PLUS free popcorn for the whole team.

So gather your team, and enjoy a fun, film-filled evening in great company!

17-year-old Johanne falls in love for the first time, with her teacher.

To preserve her feelings, she documents her emotions and experiences in writing. When her mother and grandmother read what she has written, they are initially shocked by its intimate content but soon see that it has literary potential.

As they debate whether to publish it, Johanne navigates the gap between her romantic fantasy and reality, and all three women confront their differing views on love, sexuality, and self-discovery.

Winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale 2025.

🎥✨ FREE Warm Space Cinema Screenings! ✨🎥

FREE monthly Warm Space screenings, proudly funded by Hebden Royd Town Council!

These community-led events are open to all, with a special focus on those living with dementia, their families, and carers. With complimentary tea, coffee, and biscuits, it’s a great opportunity to gather in a warm, welcoming, and inclusive space.

No Adverts or Trailers - Prompt Film Start 1pm

Film Synopsis;

The immortal James Dean ended his big-screen legacy with this 1955 classic, an ode to teenagers and delinquents. Rebellious and emotionally scarred, teenager Jim Stark rages against the adult world and seeks the love his family didn't give him. Co- stars Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo and Edward Platt. This was the first film to have Dean top billed, released shortly after his Academy Award-nominated role in East of Eden and less than a month after his fatal car crash.

Marianne, a pragmatic doctor, and Tor, a compassionate nurse, are both avoiding conventional relationships.

 One evening, after a blind date, Marianne encounters Tor on the ferry. Tor, who often spends his nights there seeking casual encounters with men, shares his experiences of spontaneous intimacy.

Intrigued by his perspective, Marianne begins to explore whether casual intimacy could also be an option for her.

Love is the second film in the Oslo Stories Trilogy: Dreams-Love-Sex

Two men, both in heterosexual marriages, have an unexpected experience that challenges them to reconsider their understanding of sexuality, gender, and identity.

One has a sexual encounter with another man, without considering it either as an expression of homosexuality or infidelity, and discusses it with his wife afterwards.

The other finds himself in nocturnal dreams where he is seen as a woman, stirring confusion and leading him to question how much his personality is shaped by the gaze of others.

Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the film which helped coin the term ‘Summer Blockbuster’.

Academy Award-winner Steven Spielberg was only twenty-six years old when he directed Jaws, a movie that changed the way audiences experienced movies by setting the standard for edge-of-your-seat suspense. Based on a novel by Peter Benchley, Jaws was a massive box office success, becoming the highest grossing movie in history.

Jaws won three Academy Awards: Best Film Editing, Best Original Dramatic Score, and Best Sound. In 2001, the Library of Congress selected Jaws for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Jaws pushed the envelope behind the camera as well. It was filmed in Massachusetts in the summer of 1974 and was the first major motion picture to be filmed in the ocean.

John Williams created the suspenseful score for Jaws that became a cultural phenomenon, and its influence can be seen in countless horror and suspense films that followed. The two notes, “dun dun, dun dun, dun dun,” led to Williams's first of 26 Grammy awards and second of five Academy Awards.

A searing new play from the team behind Prima Facie

Jessica Parks is smart, compassionate, a true maverick at the top of her career as an eminent London Crown Court Judge. At work she’s changing and challenging the system one case at a time. But behind the robe, Jessica is a karaoke fiend, a loving wife and a supportive parent.

While managing the impossible juggling act faced by every working mother, an event threatens to throw her life completely off balance. Can she hold her family upright?

Rosamund Pike (Saltburn) makes her National Theatre debut as Jessica. Writer Suzie Miller and director Justin Martin reunite following their global phenomenon Prima Facie with this searing examination of modern masculinity and motherhood.

From the producers of Wicked, and winner of 3 Tony Awards® and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Next to Normal is a ground-breaking musical that returns to the stage following its sold-out run at London’s Donmar Warehouse.

One of only ten musicals to ever win the Pulitzer, this critically acclaimed production offers an unflinching, intimate look at family, mental illness, and grief—centered around Diana, a suburban wife and mother living with bipolar disorder and grappling with a past that refuses to fade. Featuring an extraordinary cast including Caissie Levy (Frozen), Jamie Parker (Harry Potter), Jack Wolfe (Shadow & Bone), Olivier winner Eleanor Worthington-Cox (Matilda), Trevor Dion Nicholas (Aladdin, Hadestown), and Jack Ofrecio.

In a war-torn, modern-day Rome, love and art collide with tyranny as Tosca faces an impossible choice to save her lover in Puccini’s gripping thriller, brought to life by a star-studded cast and a bold new production.

Silents Synced pairs classic silent movies with epic rock music to bring audiences a unique big screen experience. This reimagining of the iconic Nosferatu (1922) features Radiohead’s Kid A (2000) and Amnesiac (2001) albums.

An unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Nosferatu (1922) is the quintessential silent vampire film, crafted by legendary German director F. W. Murnau. Rather than depicting Dracula as a shape-shifting monster or debonair gentleman, Murnau’s Graf Orlok (as portrayed by Max Schreck) is a nightmarish, spidery creature of bulbous head and taloned claws - perhaps the most genuinely disturbing incarnation of vampirism yet envisioned.

Don’t miss out on the chance to experience this imaginative new take on an iconic horror classic!

Nadine Sierra stars as the sleepwalking Amina in Bellini’s heart-rending La Sonnambula, a tale of love lost and found set in the Swiss Alps—reimagined by director Rolando Villazón as a haunting journey through the mind, with Riccardo Frizza conducting a stellar cast.

Five-time Olivier Award winner Imelda Staunton (The Crown) joins forces with her real-life daughter Bessie Carter (Bridgerton) for the very first time, playing mother and daughter in Bernard Shaw's incendiary moral classic.

Vivie Warren is a woman ahead of her time. Her mother, however, is a product of that old patriarchal order. Exploiting it has earned Mrs. Warren a fortune – but at what cost?

Filmed live from the West End, this new production reunites Staunton with director Dominic Cooke (Follies, GOOD), exploring the clash between morality and independence, traditions and progress.  

Love defies ambition in Ashton’s La Fille mal gardée, where young Lise schemes to marry the farmer she loves instead of her mother’s chosen suitor, set to a joyful score and vibrant village charm in this beloved Royal Ballet classic.

Stuck at home and put to work by her spoiled Step-Sisters, Cinderella’s life is dreary and dull. Everything changes when she helps a mysterious woman out...With a little bit of magic, she is transported into an ethereal new world – one where fairies bring the gifts of the seasons, where pumpkins turn into carriages, and where true love awaits. This enchanting ballet by The Royal Ballet’s Founding Choreographer Frederick Ashton is a theatrical experience for all the family and will transport you into an ethereal world where a sprinkling of fairy dust makes dreams come true.

Olivier Award-winner Jack Lowden (Slow Horses, Dunkirk) is joined by Emmy and BAFTA-winner Martin Freeman (The Hobbit, The Responder) starring in the critically acclaimed and subversively funny new play by David Ireland.

After years in the 12-step programme of Alcoholics Anonymous, James becomes a sponsor to newcomer Luka. The pair bond over black coffee, trade stories and build a fragile friendship out of their shared experiences. But as Luka approaches step five – the moment of confession – dangerous truths emerge, threatening the trust on which both of their recoveries depend.

Finn den Hertog directs the provocative and entertaining production filmed live from @sohoplace on London's West End.

The magician Herr Drosselmeyer needs to save his nephew. Hans-Peter has been transformed into a Nutcracker; the only way to save him is for the Nutcracker to defeat the Mouse King and find a girl to love and care for him. A flicker of hope comes in the form of the young Clara, whom Drosselmeyer meets at a Christmas party. With some magic, a cosy Christmas gathering turns into a marvellous adventure. Peter Wright’s The Nutcracker has enchanted audiences since its 1984 premiere by the Company. Featuring Tchaikovsky’s most familiar melodies and brought to life by Julia Trevelyan Oman’s exquisite designs, The Nutcracker is sure to be a festive firecracker for all ages.

Enjoy our annual Christmas Eve tradition, watching It’s A Wonderful Life on the Big Screen!

Frank Capra’s 1946 Christmas classic follows the tribulations of small town everyman George Bailey (James Stewart), who, at the end of his luck and deep in debt, contemplates suicide one snowy, bleak Christmas Eve. But when George wishes that he had never been born, his guardian angel Clarence (Henry Travers) takes a trip from the heavens to persuade him otherwise. After a nightmarish journey through an alternative Bedford Falls, George realizes the difference he has made to the people around him, learning lessons of love, loyalty and what it means to lead a wonderful life.

“Capra’s Dickensian masterpiece […] A genuine American classic” ***** Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

At one of her lavish parties, celebrated Parisan courtesan Violetta is introduced to Alfredo Germont. The two fall madly in love, and though hesitant to leave behind her life of luxury and freedom, Violetta follows her heart. But the young couple’s happiness is short-lived, as the harsh realities of life soon come knocking. As intimate as it is sumptuous, La traviata features some of opera’s most famous melodies, and is a star vehicle for its leading soprano role sung by Ermonela Jaho. In director Richard Eyre’s world of seductive grandeur, the tender and devastating beauty at the centre of Verdi’s opera shines bright.

Olivier Award-winner Hiran Abeysekera (Life of Pi) is Hamlet in this fearless, contemporary take on Shakespeare's famous tragedy.

Trapped between duty and doubt, surrounded by power and privilege, young Prince Hamlet dares to ask the ultimate question – you know the one.

National Theatre Deputy Artistic Director, Robert Hastie (Standing at the Sky's Edge, Operation Mincemeat) directs this sharp, stylish and darkly funny reimagining.

Virginia Woolf defied literary conventions to depict rich inner worlds – her heightened, startling and poignant reality. Resident Choreographer Wayne McGregor leads a luminous artistic team to evoke Woolf’s signature stream of consciousness writing style in this immense work that rejects traditional narrative structures. Woolf Works is a collage of themes from Mrs Dalloway, Orlando, The Waves and Woolf’s other writings. Created in 2015 for The Royal Ballet, this Olivier-award winning ballet triptych captures the heart of Woolf’s uniquely artistic spirit.

The peasant girl Giselle has fallen in love with Albrecht. When she discovers that he is actually a nobleman promised to another, she kills herself in despair. Her spirit joins the Wilis: the vengeful ghosts of women hell-bent on killing any man who crosses their path in a dance to the death. Wracked with guilt, Albrecht visits Giselle’s grave, where he must face the Wilis – and Giselle’s ghost. Peter Wright’s 1985 production of this quintessential Romantic ballet is a classic of The Royal Ballet repertory. Set to Adolphe Adam’s evocative score and with atmospheric designs by John Macfarlane, Giselle conjures up the earthly and otherworldly realms in a tale of love, betrayal and redemption.

Raised by a scheming dwarf and unaware of his true family origins, a young man embarks on an epic journey. Soon, destiny brings him face-to-face with a shattered sword, a fearsome dragon and the cursed ring it guards, and a Valkyrie forced into enchanted slumber... Moments of transcendent beauty and heroic triumph sparkle in the third chapter of Wagner’s Ring cycle, brought to life under Barrie Kosky’s inspired eye following his spectacular Das Rheingold (2023) and Die Walküre (2025). Andreas Schager, in his much-anticipated debut with The Royal Opera, stars as Siegfried’s titular hero, alongside Christopher Maltman’s towering Wanderer, Peter Hoare’s treacherous Mime and Elisabet Strid’s radiant Brünnhilde. Antonio Pappano conducts, drawing out the unspoken tensions and ethereal mysticism of Wagner’s dynamic score.

Princess Pamina has been captured. Her mother, the Queen of the Night, tasks the young Prince Tamino with her daughter’s rescue. But when Tamino and his friendly sidekick, Papageno, embark on their adventure, they soon learn that when it comes to the quest for love, nothing is as it really seems. Guided by a magic flute, they encounter monsters, villains, and a mysterious brotherhood of men – but help, it turns out, comes when you least expect it. Mozart’s fantastical opera glitters in David McVicar’s enchanting production. A star cast including Julia Bullock as Pamina, Amitai Pati as Tamino, Huw Montague Rendall as Papageno, Kathryn Lewek as the Queen of the Night, and Soloman Howard as Sarastro, led by French conductor Marie Jacquot in her Covent Garden debut.

Following her acclaimed 2024 company debut in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, soprano Asmik Grigorian returns to the Met as Tatiana, the lovestruck young heroine in this ardent operatic adaptation of Pushkin, which will be transmitted live from the Metropolitan Opera stage to cinemas worldwide on May 2. Baritone Igor Golovatenko reprises his portrayal of the urbane Onegin, who realizes his affection for her all too late. The Met’s evocative production, directed by Tony Award–winner Deborah Warner, “offers a beautifully detailed reading of … Tchaikovsky’s lyrical romance” (The Telegraph).