The Welsh National Opera has announced that it will no longer tour Liverpool. The company revealed that the decision was a result of the reduction it received in public funding; per an official press statement, the company is set to receive a 35 percent reduction (2.2 million pounds) from the Arts Council England. “Following their recent announcement, we are now {…}
The Welsh National Opera Youth Opera has announced its cast for its 2022 productions. First up will be Judith Weir’s “The Black Spider.” The work will star Tomo Jones and Mica Smith as Count Heinrich; Ffion Morgan Short and Rhianna Hogg as Christina; Euan McEvoy as Carl; and Owen Parson and Toben Durrant sharing the role of Casper. Dan Perkin {…}
Welsh National Opera has announced the launch of a brand-new podcast series, titled “WNO on Tour.” Listeners can join host Lorna Prichard as she discusses with artists and crew members their experiences of working on touring productions. Among her guests will be artists such as sopranos Alexia Voulgaridou and Elin Prichard, and WNO’s longtime Company Manager Ian Douglas. Prichard currently {…}
The Welsh National Opera has announced its 2022-23 season which will be divided into fall and spring seasons. Autumn 2022 The season opens with a new production of Janáček’s “The Makropulos Affair” starring Emma Bell as Emilia Marty. The opera will also star Nicky Spence, Gustáv Beláček, Mark Le Brocq, Harriet Eyley, David Stout, Alexander Sprague, and Alan Oke. Tomas {…}
The Welsh National Opera has announced its spring 2022 season. The season opens with a revival of Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” with two casts led by Simon Bailey, Joshua Bloom, Marina Monzo, Linda Richardson, Andrei Kymach, Duncan Rock, James Platt, Trystan Llŷr Griffiths, Kenneth Tarver, Sarah Tynan, Meeta Ravel, Harriet Eyley, Isabelle Peters, James Atkinson, and Gareth Brynmor John. Tobias Ringborg and Frederick Brown share conducting duties. Performance {…}
Over the past few weeks we have returned to an old end-of-year tradition, spotlighting some of our standout artists of the year. And we will conclude that series with a return to our spotlight of the year’s best performances. As in the past, we have compiled the efforts of different members of our staff to create a list of our {…}
On Oct. 28, The Welsh National Opera, to a packed Hippodrome, performed its modernized rendition of the Puccinian classic and arguably one of the most controversial operas in the 21st c. canon, “Madam Butterfly.” Notwithstanding the opera’s subject matter, an Asian girl of 15 being coaxed into an international marriage with a man very much her senior while also being {…}
(Credit: Gemma Escribano) Soprano Marina Monzó will perform the role of Die Königin der Nacht in the upcoming production of Mozart’s “Die Zauberflöte” at the Bayerische Staatsoper, replacing the originally scheduled Sabine Devieilhe. Monzó joins a cast that includes Pavol Breslik as Tamino, Olga Kulchynska as Pamina, and Günther Groissböck as Sarastro. The cast also includes Eliza Boom, Daria Proszek, {…}
The Welsh National Opera has announced that it will release an original community song-cycle that explores the experience of living with HIV in 2021. The Three Letters project assembles students from Cardiff West Community High School, writer and activist Mercy Shibemba, composer Michael Betteridge and singer Siân Cameron for an original song “We Learn, We Know, We Understand.” The project {…}
Amidst the greyish and waterlogged atmosphere of urban sprawl, on October 22nd inside the Hippodrome Theatre, home to one of the largest performance stages in Britain, the atmosphere was anything but. It was electric and real fun! Award-winning Director Giles Havergal, in a show of captivating histrionics paired with Rossinian virtuosity, validated the tremendous significance and ongoing legacy of Welsh {…}
The Welsh National Opera has released the first short film in a new series of short films as part of its Rearrange project. The first short film of the series is Mathilde Lopez’s takes on Monteverdi’s ‘Tu Se Morta’ from “Orfeo.” Lopez explores sadness, powerlessness, and how we seek to recapture what we have lost. In a statement Lopez said, {…}