Author: Mike Smith

Longborough’s Die Walkure available on demand

Longborough Festival Opera is streaming its 2021 concert performance of Die Walkure. Watch here(Available on demand until Friday 25 February 2022) This concert production of Die Walküre was filmed live at Longborough Festival Opera on 8 June as part of the festival’s new Ring cycle. Wotan is sung by Cardiff singer Paul Carey Jones. The cycle began in June 2019,…

Elin Pritchard comes out fighting

Lockdown was intended to squash the COVID sombrero in early 2020 but it also flattened soprano Elin Pritchard’s rising career. Like many other singers the impact of the pandemic was sudden and dramatic. The North Wales-born, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama graduate was performing as Micaëla in Welsh National Opera’s touring production of…

Welsh National Opera finds way through Madam Butterfly minefield

Welsh National Opera is scheduling a series of events around its performances of Puccini’s Madam Butterfly on the type of subjects that have been used to attack arts organisations under the banner of inclusivity, for their choice of work and for non-race matched casting. A new production has been commissioned. It follows a similar approach…

Fun and youthful exuberance in Don Giovanni at Nevill Holt Opera

The weather does not seem too kind to outdoor operas in August and while we had a cool but lovely evening at the exquisite gardens of Nevill Holt for the first night of their sparky and energetic Don Giovanni black clouds threaten some of the further performances. Obviously this is bad news for those seated…

Mid Wales Opera to tour Puccini’s Il tabarro

Wales’ touring company, Mid Wales Opera, is taking a small stage tour of Puccini’s Il tabarro on the road in October. The one-act opera will bring soprano Elin Pritchard (main image) to the role of Giorgetta, fresh from her success with Grange Opera singing Manon Lescaut, with Philip Smith singing her husband Michele who suspects…

Opera Park 2022 season announced

Opera Holland Park’s 2022 Season will open on 31 May 2022, with new productions of Eugene Onegin and Carmen. The second half of the 2022 Season will feature the UK premiere of Mark Adamo’s 1998 opera, Little Women, adapted from Louisa May Alcott’s classic coming-of-age novel. Postponed from 2020, Delius’s verismo opera Margot la Rouge…

WNO announces more details of autumn 2021 season

Welsh National Opera has announced more details of its Autumn 2021 Season which includes a new production of Puccini’s Madam Butterfly. It follows the announcement that Wales Millennium Centre, its home base, is opening the main auditorium, the Donald Gordon Theatre, on September 9, in time for the WNO season. The Company has confirmed it…

Academy of Ancient Music’s season opens with Haydn’s The Creation

Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) opens its first season under new Music Director Laurence Cummings on Tuesday, September 28 with Haydn’s The Creation. Co-produced by the Barbican, the performance will include a visual narrative from projection designer Nina Dunn. The AAM choir and orchestra are joined by a solo cast including Mary Bevan, Stuart Jackson,…

Iford Arts New Generation Artists to perform Pagliacci

Iford Arts New Generation Artists will be performing Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci at Belcombe Court. Alongside two returning young artists, Fiona Finsbury (Elixir of Love 2019) and Dan de Souza (Fairy Queen 2016) as the lovers Nedda and Silvio, the three new IANGA artists Welsh lyric tenor Thomas Kinch will sing Canio, Ryan Vaughan Davies will sing…

Susan Bullock to sing at Iford Arts festival at Belcombe Court

Iford Arts is returning to the 18th century grounds of Belcombe Court for the 2021 season from August 21 with an eclectic mixture of musical treats including Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Susan Bullock singing the Easter Hymn from Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana. The Company announced its season and plans during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown and that it…