Adele Thomas and Sarah Crabtree will start the new year with a new tenure at the Welsh National Opera, as they jointly take on the role of co-CEOs/General Directors.

Thomas is an internationally acclaimed theatre and opera director who recently directed WNO’s new production of Verdi’s “Rigoletto,” while visionary producer Sarah Crabtree joins the Company from The Royal Ballet and Opera, where she was Creative Producer and Head of Linbury Theatre (opera).

Thomas and Crabtree will take up the role in a job share of the truest sense, with equal oversight of the artistic direction and management of the Company.

In a joint statement, the two said, “Welsh National Opera emerged out of the igniting friction between two cultural forces: the post-war spirit of democracy and the Welsh grassroots obsession with the human voice in song. Those revolutionary entities form the touchstone of how we want to reimagine WNO as the opera company of the future. With its roots in Wales but its reach and impact beyond we want WNO to be a pioneering, brave and contemporary arts organisation within the UK live art ecology, searching for increased diversity on both our stages and in our audiences and questioning what opera can be in the modern world. Whilst the future for opera in Wales and the UK has never looked more perilous, with moments of crisis come huge opportunity; what a privilege it is for us to be taking this great Company forward into its next chapter.”

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