Welsh National Opera launches groundbreaking Boiler Room programme with new Producer Jack Furness

Welsh National Opera Cenedlaethol Cymru is delighted to announce the launch of its pioneering Boiler Room programme with Jack Furness appointed as its first Producer.

The Boiler Room will become the UK's only opera research and development programme embedded within a national opera company – providing artists with the time and resources to collaborate and create the next generation of opera.

It is being made possible thanks to generous support from Garfield Weston Foundation – the first organisation to invest in this ambitious new programme and the first of what WNO hopes will be many partners supporting its future Home - Garfield Weston Foundation.

Fresh from directing The Flying Dutchman in our 25/26 spring season, Jack Furness joins WNO on Monday 17 August as Boiler Room Producer. An award-winning Welsh director and producer, Jack is one of the UK’s leading contemporary opera-makers with an outstanding reputation for developing bold new work and supporting emerging artists. Based in Cardiff, he was founder and Artistic Director of Shadwell Opera and has directed productions for companies including Irish National Opera, Scottish Opera and Garsington Opera.

Jack said: “I am hugely excited to be joining WNO – the company which gave me my love of opera. New opera and experimentation have been major aspects of my career, and as Boiler Room Producer I have a unique opportunity to help turbo-charge new opera as a vital storytelling medium in Wales and beyond.

“I'm looking forward to working with artists across Wales to connect them with the time, space and resources they need to develop their operatic voices.”

In 2025, WNO entered a new era under the leadership of Co-General Directors and CEOs Adele Thomas and Sarah Crabtree. Their ambition is to build a company that stages world-class large-scale opera while driving experimentation, embracing Welsh culture and Cymraeg, strengthening opportunities for young people and championing artists from underrepresented backgrounds. The Boiler Room is central to that vision.

“Developing new opera is costly and resource intensive, making it difficult for artists and companies to experiment with the art form or test ambitious ideas,” said WNO Executive Producer, Jo Walsh.

“The Boiler Room has been created to remove some of those barriers by providing a space with access to WNO's world-class artistic, technical and production expertise. With this new programme, we want to change who is making opera and what stories are being told.

“The Boiler Room will be the place to try out new ideas, for artists to push the boundaries of their practice and the art form, for cross-discipline experimentation and for the development of the opera canon.

WNO Co-General Directors and CEOs Adele Thomas and Sarah Crabtree said: "Opera is not a static, rigid art form, it has been in a state of constant evolution, innovation and experiment since it was created in the 17th century and will carry on evolving in ways that we can’t yet imagine.

“Composers such as Verdi, Handel and Puccini had access to orchestras and singers on a regular basis, but this is no longer the case for composers in the 21st century. The Boiler Room will provide exactly that – creating a much-needed space for artists to play, experiment and hone their practice – to take risks and try things that may not have dared to before.

"We are thrilled to be working with Jack Furness again so soon after directing The Flying Dutchman including sold out shows in his hometown of Cardiff. Jack is an artist of enormous ambition, curiosity and openness. We can't wait to work with him to shape the Boiler Room and help define the future of opera.

“Also, we would like to extend a huge thank you to Garfield Weston Foundation for their incredible support in making the Boiler Room programme possible. It is rare and beautiful to find visionary supporters like this, who understand the importance of investment into the future of the art form.”