Interviews
An innovative take on Butterfly from WNO
17th March 2022There is plenty of tricky ground to tread when bringing Madam Butterfly to the stage. One of Puccini’s masterwork, the opera is so well-known, even within the broader boundaries of pop culture, that it is a challenge in itself to approach it from a new angle, without repeating something that has already been done to exhaustion while […]
Read More
Jenůfa, Welsh National Opera
7th March 2022The WNO continues in its exploration of the works of Czech composer Leoš Janáček, this time going back to the early stages of his career to offer a new production of this 1904 work, known originally under the title of Její pastorkyňa (Her Stepdaughter) before being most commonly titled after the name of its protagonist. […]
Read More
Natalya Romaniw can tell Houston that having survived Covid and lockdown there really isn’t a problem
30th December 2021It is a very long way between lockdown in Cardiff and rehearsing in Texas for the opening of Houston Grand Opera Dialogue of the Carmelites in Texas. For soprano Natalya Romaniw that journey, from the cancellation mid run of Madam Butterfly at English National Opera in 2020 to February 2022’s opening of the Poulenc opera, […]
Read More
Don’t miss any of our posts
22nd December 2021It is free, so just add your email address above
Read More
David Collins appointed Opera North Executive Director / Deputy CEO
21st October 2021Opera North has appointed David Collins to the new role of Executive Director / Deputy CEO. The Company said its artistic, education and community work has grown exponentially over the last five years, and continues to develop in scope, ambition and diversity. The new role of Executive Director/ Deputy CEO reflects and supports this expansion, and […]
Read More
Nicholas Lester, from Adelaide to Barber via Amazon
30th September 2021MS: You have had, and continue to have, a strong association with Wales. How did they come about and develop? NL: My first singing teacher as an adult was a Welsh baritone Jason Shute (originally from Swansea) who had emigrated to Australia with his wife. I met him through my involvement in the annual Adelaide […]
Read More
The Academy of Ancient Music wins Gramophone choral award
22nd September 2021The Choral award is given for AAM’s world premiere recording of Jan Ladislav Dussek’s Messe Solemnelle, which was released in October 2020 to critical acclaim. The recording featured an exceptional cast of soloists alongside the Choir and Orchestra of AAM and Richard Egarr. Gramophone wrote: “Dussek himself could scarcely have hoped for a performance as fine as this one … It’s a fascinating work and an important project, impressively […]
Read More
Jonathan Lyness and Richard Studer on Mid Wales Opera’s Parisian love affair
2nd September 2021Music Director Jonathan Lyness talks about creating a new score for four instruments to perform Puccini’s Il tabarro, and Artistic Director Richard Studer reflects on the production’s genesis and development during lockdown life, as they bring Mid Wales Opera’s latest tour to audiences. “Puccini seems to have felt a special affinity with Paris, so much […]
Read More
Un Nos Ola Leuad – Leading Welsh singers record a new Welsh language Opera
2nd September 2021I’ve been composing to commission for over 40 years now, in about as many genres as you could shake a baton at, but had never written an opera. Not, that is, until 2014 or thereabouts, the time when the BBC finally dispensed with my services as the presenter (since the late 70s) of the daily […]
Read More
Elin Pritchard comes out fighting
25th August 2021Lockdown 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 […]
Read More