Welsh National Opera
WNO boss explains why Liverpool has been immediately axed – and more cuts will follow
November 24, 2022 by Mike Smith Welsh National Opera general director Aidan Lang has explained why the company has immediately pulled out of touring to Liverpool – and raised concerns further venue cancellations will follow. The move follows Arts Council of England announced a more than a third of its funding to the Cardiff-based touring company was…
A earthy La Boheme that throws away the chocolate box wrapping
Annabel Arden’s 2012 production of La Boheme, now revived by Welsh National Opera for the second offering of its 2022 autumn season, gives its audience a largely straightforward telling of the doomed love affair of Mimi and Rodolfo. The only real “take” on the work is setting the opera in the early 20th century, perhaps…
An ungimmicky and elegant The Makropolus Affair from Welsh National Opera
Welsh National Opera was a groundbreaker in bringing Janáček’s operas to UK audiences, thanks to remarkable musical and artistic leadership in its younger days. Now, the company is sensibly building on the specialism of its music director Tomáš Hanus to introduce the works to new audience members. Thus, a short cycle of revivals ending with…
Welsh National Opera’s innovative Migrations project
June is barely over, and already this is proving to be a very interesting Summer for new operas. This is especially exciting given the existing rhetoric around the idea that opera is an old and dusty artform, incapable of representing the contemporary world, and so it is a special delight to see an increasingly broad…
Don Giovanni, to hell and back
Don GiovanniWelsh National OperaWales Millennium Centre By Mike Smith The concept behind this take on the Mozart moral tale is Rodin’s The Gates of Hell, a monolithic bronze works, with human figures cast into the metal – as becomes the fate of the great seducer Don Giovanni. Figures from the vast masterpiece were also created…
An innovative take on Butterfly from WNO
There 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…
Jenůfa, Welsh National Opera
The 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….
Natalya Romaniw can tell Houston that having survived Covid and lockdown there really isn’t a problem
It 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,…
Nicholas Lester, from Adelaide to Barber via Amazon
MS: 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…
Rosina takes control – on every level
The auditorium might have been extremely lightly populated but those who had come along to see the show, masked or unmasked such is the confusing state of affairs in Wales, enjoyed a rare treat – an enjoyable production from Welsh National Opera without any psychobabble or a la mode gobbledegook. It was heartening to hear…