January sparkles with Viennese and Bohemian classics from Welsh National Opera Orchestra

• WNO Orchestra’s 'Return to Vienna’ tour to make its first appearance since 2020
• WNO Music Director Tomáš Hanus to conduct WNO Orchestra in a performance of Smetana’s Má Vlast at St David’s Hall, Cardiffahead of opening at the prestigious Prague Spring International Music Festival in the Czech Republic

Return to Vienna

WNO Orchestra open the Spring Season with their popular Return to Vienna tour which will see them perform a lively and heart-warming programme of the very best Viennese music, taking audiences across England and Wales into the new year. 

Resuming for the first time in three years, the 2023 Return to Vienna tour will consist of eight concerts in Swansea, Bangor, Newtown, Truro, Barnstaple, Cardiff, Southampton and Pembrokeshire. The concert will feature the glorious music of Johann Strauss II and Austrian-born American composer and conductor, Erich Korngold, a great champion of Strauss’s music, in a programme of timeless waltzes and polkas,transporting audiences to the Habsburgian capital and city of music.

WNO Leader and Concertmaster David Adams will lead the Orchestra and audience through a concert that includes some of the greatest waltzes ever known, including Strauss II’s instantly recognisable Blue Danube and Strauss I’s boisterous Radetzky March alongside Korngold’s reminiscent Straussiana Polka, amongst other works. 

Recently appointed WNO Associate Artist, baritone Dafydd Allen will also be joining the Orchestra to present a selection of magnificent arias; ‘Als flotter Geist’ from Strauss II’s The Gypsy Baron, ‘Mein Sehnen, mein Wähnen’ from Korngold’s Die tote Stadt, plus two Lehár numbers, ‘Girls were made to love and kiss’ from Paganini and ‘O Vaterland… Da geh’ ich zu Maxim’ from The Merry Widow.

Dafydd Allen says: ‘I’m delighted to be joining WNO Orchestra for the Return to Vienna tour. My first few months as an Associate Artist have been personally fulfilling and professionally rewarding, and I am thrilled to now be embarking on this next stage of my journey with WNO. I am incredibly excited to perform this fantastic array of Viennese music at such an eclectic range of venues across England and Wales.’

Tickets can be booked from each venue (see details below), for more information visit wno.org.uk/orchestra

Cardiff Classical 

January will also see WNO Orchestra perform Smetana’s Má Vlast (‘My Homeland’) in concert as part of St David’s Hall Classical Concert Series on Sunday 29 January at 3pm under the baton of WNO Music Director, Tomáš Hanus. 

Originally conceived as six individual works, Má Vlast cemented Smetana’s reputation as the father of Czech music. Its 1882 premiere in Prague provoked scenes of patriotic fervour with a ‘storm of unending applause […] repeated after each of the six parts’. Now recognised as a symphonic poem in six parts, each movement depicts an aspect of Bohemia, from its history to its countryside and legends. The concert at St David’s Hall is a rare chance to hear the work in its entirety, conducted by Tomáš Hanus, lauded for his masterful rendition of his compatriots’ music. 

The concert will act as a precursor to the Orchestra performing Má Vlast at the opening concert of the Prague Spring International Music Festival on 12 May, the anniversary of the death of Bedřich Smetana – a tradition since 1952.

WNO Music Director Tomáš Hanus says: ‘When I hear Má Vlast, I ask myself how Smetana could have created something so original, so different.  Music has the power to go deeper than words, and in these times, the tones of Má Vlast bring out a self-awareness of who we are, how our history speaks to us and what meaning it has.’ 

Tickets for the concert at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, which are available from £5 - £42, can be booked at stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk or by contacting the Box Office on 029 2087 8444. 

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 work 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 operatic 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  

• WNO’s Winter and Spring Concerts at St David’s Hall are supported by Mathew and Lucy Prichard
• The Chair of the Leader of the Orchestra is Supported by Mathew and Lucy Prichard
• Various Orchestra Chairs are supported by the Principal Players Circle
• WNO Associate Artist programme is supported by the Sheila & Richard Brooks Bursary 
• WNO’s Talent Development Programme is supported by the Kirby Laing Foundation and the Bateman Family Charitable Trust

For more information, photos or interviews please contact: 

Giselle Dugdale, Press and Communications Administrator 
giselle.dugdale@wno.org.uk

Christina Blakeman, Press Manager
christina.blakeman@wno.org.uk

Rhys Edwards, Communications Manager 
rhys.edwards@wno.org.uk 

Penny James & Rachel Bowyer, Head of Communications (job-share)
penny.james@wno.org.uk / rachel.bowyer@wno.org.uk