Celebrate the New Year with Viennese favourites from Welsh National Opera Orchestra

• Welsh National Opera Orchestra’s ‘Viennese Celebration’ concert tour of Wales and England to open in Swansea on 4 January to herald the New Year. 
• New WNO Associate Artists Emily Christina Loftus and Beca Davies to join the tour.

WNO Orchestra will ring in the New Year with its annual Viennese Celebration tour, bringing the best of Viennese music and the mood of the Austrian capital to audiences across Wales and the South-West of England in January.

After opening at The Great Hall in Swansea on 4 January, WNO Orchestra will tour to venues in Truro, Newtown, Bangor, Southampton, and Cardiff. Viennese Celebration will also tour to Brecon for the very first time. The tour ends on 20 January at St Davids Cathedral in Pembrokeshire.

WNO Leader David Adams will guide the Orchestra and audiences through a collection of the finest waltzes and polkas, by composers such as Josef and Richard Strauss, Dvořák, Johann Strauss II, Weber, celebrated by Chopin and Liszt, and Brahms. 

Among the uplifting repertoire for the tour is Johann Strauss II’s Wo die Zitronen bluh’n (Where the Lemons Bloom), a staple of Vienna’s New Year Concerts since 1951; Schubert’s Ave Maria; the spritely polka Ohne Sorgen (Without Worries) by Josef Strauss; and the popular overture to Dichter and Bauer by Suppé.

Adams and the Orchestra will be joined by WNO's new Associate Artists, soprano Emily Christina Loftus and mezzo-soprano Beca Davies, to perform a selection of arias including Strauss’s Beim Schlafengehen (When Falling Asleep) from Four Last Songs and Johann Strauss II’s Ich lade gem mir Gäste ein (I love to invite my friends) from Die Fledermaus. Concluding the concert will be Du Solsst der Kaiser meiner Seele Sein (You Shall be the Emperor of my Soul) from Stolz’s Der Favorit.

Emily Christina Loftus says: ‘I am truly looking forward to being part of the Viennese Celebration concert tour. I am particularly looking forward to meeting and getting to know the members of WNO Orchestra and performing Beim Schlafengehen from Strauss’s Four Last Songs.’

Beca Davies says: ‘My time with WNO so far has been filled with rehearsals, performances and concerts with my fellow WNO Associate Artists, along with coaching and mentoring sessions with WNO Ambassador Rebecca Evans.’

Tickets for the concert can be booked from each venue and for more information, visit wno.org.uk/orchestra

ENDS 

Notes to Editors

Welsh National Opera is the national opera company for Wales, funded by the Arts Councils of Wales and England to provide large-scale opera, concerts and outreach across Wales and to major cities in the English regions. We endeavour to provide transformative experiences through our education and outreach programme and our award-winning digital projects. We work with our partners to discover and nurture young operative talent, and we aim to show future generations that opera is a rewarding, relevant and universal art form with the power to affect and inspire.

WNO production images are available for download at wno.org.uk/press

Further information on WNO’s productions can be found at wno.org.uk

• The Orchestra is supported by Mathew and Lucy Prichard 
• WNO Orchestra Principal Players are supported by the Principal Players Circle 
• The WNO Associate Artist programme is supported by the Sheila & Richard Brooks Bursary

For more information, photos or interviews please contact:

Sophie Revell, Press and Communications Assistant 

sophie.revell@wno.org.uk

Christina Blakeman, Press manager 

christina.blakeman@wno.org.uk

Rhys Edwards, Communications Manager 

rhys.edwards@wno.org.uk

Penny James and Rachel Bowyer, Head of Communications (job-share) 

penny.james@wno.org.uk / Rachel.boyer@wno.org.uk

Viennese Celebration Tour Dates