Royal Opera House customers demand money back over new risqué production

The Royal Opera House has been hit with complaints from angry ticket-holders demanding their money back over risqué and gory scenes in a forthcoming production.

Box-office officials at Covent Garden received more than 100 responses - including 40 refund requests - over an email warning of sex scenes in Lucia di Lammermoor next month.

The opera company had sent out a message to all ticket-holders after being vilified for its depiction of sexual violence in its production of Guillaume Tell last year. Lucia tells the story of a woman who is betrothed to one man but tricked into marrying another, driving her to murder her husband on their wedding night and descend into madness.

Production bosses have told customers: "The team's approach will lead to scenes that feature sexual acts portrayed on stage and other scenes that — as you might expect from the story of Lucia — feature violence."

The warning comes nine months after the opera house made an official apology after the audience booed so loudly and for so long after a rape scene in Damiano Michieletto's production of Guillaume Tell that the conductor had to pause until the noise died down.

Among those to complain about the new production is Michael Daley, director of ArtWatch UK, who said he fears the opera house is making voyeurs of the audience.

He said: "We know the sex and violence will seem gratuitous. These are real people on stage and, inevitably, it's tasteless as it turns the viewers into voyeurs.

"But our complaint is more specific in that it is an abuse of artistic traditions which goes beyond that.

"There has to be a suspicion that this is being done to gain interest. It's a very serious matter."

The opera house does not elaborate on the nature of the sexual content but the production is understood to involve a tender love scene not described in Gaetano Donizetti's work that shows the title character losing her virginity on her wedding night.

The violence, which is not sexual in nature, features a protracted murder scene that was also absent from the first production of the opera in 1835.

Katie Mitchell, the director, was also in charge of Sarah Kane's play Cleansed at the National Theatre in February, which led to five audience members fainting and about 40 walk-outs by people upset by scenes of rape, torture and castration.

Ms Mitchell is reportedly presenting the new opera as if it were a "split screen" film, with silent scenes played out alongside ones that feature in the written version of the opera.

In conventional productions, the audience learns about the murder after it has happened but in Mitchell's production it will be played out in gory detail with Lucia and her maid struggling with Lucia's husband.

Mr Daley added: "It's an attempt to rewrite history and turn historical works into crusading politically progressive instruments of today. It's out of order.

"It's part of a wider impulse to make things as they would like to be rather than how they were created."

A spokesman for the Royal Opera House said: "Production is still being developed and at this stage it is not poss to give a very detail description.

"However we can assure you the section in question is between lovers and completely consensual with no aspect of violence."

The spokesman added that in other parts "violence is an integral part of the story". "We wanted to highlight it can of course be upsetting when it is staged realistically," the spokesman added.

"We are recommending that children do not come."

Despite concerns, ticket sales are understood to be buoyant.