Tickets go on sale tomorrow for our Summer 2020 Season. The Season includes a brand new production of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle staring Sir Bryn Terfel in a double-bill alongside Stravinsky’s The Nightingale; and we’re bringing back our ever-popular The Barber of Seville by Rossini. There will also be a free, family Explore Opera Day alongside a stand-alone performance of The Nightingale as part of our summer residence here in Cardiff next year.
If you are a WNO Friend you will be one of the first to buy tickets, with the opportunity to buy individual operas as well as multi-buy packages tomorrow, in advance of the general public. The Friends provide invaluable support for all aspects of WNO’s work, helping us on our mission to open up opera to everyone, and in return get to feel more involved in the Company. If you would like to be part of our story and be able to take advantage of this priority booking opportunity, find out more about becoming a WNO Friend.
The productions in our Summer Season provide an intriguing mix. Both parts of our double-bill are based on fairy tales, Stravinsky having based his on a tale by Hans Christian Andersen and Bartók’s on a Charles Perrault tale.
The Nightingale was written over a six year period between 1908 and 1914, as Stravinsky wrote his ballet, The Firebird, and also The Rite of Spring in between starting and finishing the opera. Sung in Russian, often called by its French name Le rossignol, yet set in China, The Nightingale will include life-sized puppets on stage alongside the singing cast, in effect reflecting the mechanical nightingale in the story.
Bartók wrote Bluebeard’s Castle in 1911 and as well as being a short piece, and just one act, it only requires two singers – Bluebeard (Sir Bryn Terfel) and his wife, Judith (Michelle DeYoung) to tell the dark, psychological tale.
The Barber of Seville, Rossini’s much-loved comic opera, was written a century earlier than the operas in our double-bill – in 1816 – and is based on a Beaumarchais play. Summer 2020 sees our 1986 Giles Havergal production (last performed in 2011) back on stage, so expect a traditional, hilarity-filled, feel-good night at the opera with Barber.
Following the initial WNO Friends and Partners on sale tomorrow, Friday 12 July sees booking open for everyone to book a multi-buy package, before general booking for individual opera tickets opens on Friday 30 August.