- World Premiere and tour of WNO’s brand-new opera Blaze of Glory! featuring local male voice choirs alongside the WNO Chorus
- New production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute conducted by WNO Music Director Tomáš Hanus and directed by Daisy Evans
- WNO Orchestra and Tomáš Hanus to perform two opening concerts at the prestigious Prague Spring International Music Festival in Czech Republic, and will join BBC Cardiff Singer of The World 40th-anniversary celebrations
Blaze of Glory!
Welsh National Opera’s Spring 2023 Season will open with the world premiere of its new opera, Blaze of Glory! Set in the 1950s, the opera follows a group of Welsh miners as they embark on a musical journey to reform their male voice choir after a local mining disaster.
Following their successful collaboration for 2019’s Rhondda Rips it Up!, director Caroline Clegg and librettist Emma Jenkins return to WNO for Blaze of Glory! and are joined by composer David Hackbridge Johnson, conductor Stephen Higgins, and designer Madeleine Boyd.
The opera sees the miners and a group of strong-willed women, led by their heroic chorus master, Mr Dafydd Pugh, embark on a series of adventures that lead them to the Eisteddfodau and beyond.
Blaze of Glory! will combine traditional Welsh harmonies with the a cappella sounds of the 1950s, plus operetta, gospel and big band added into the mix. The cast and WNO Chorus will also be joined by local male voice choirs who will sing prior to each performance.
Forming the Welsh contingency are soprano Rebecca Evans as Mrs Nerys Price, and tenor Jeffrey Lloyd Roberts in the role of the chorus master, Mr Dafydd Pugh. The cast also includes former WNO Associate Artist Adam Gilbert as Emlyn, Feargal Mostyn Williams as Bryn Bevan, and Themba Mvula as Anthony.
Blaze of Glory! will open at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff on 23 February before touring to Llandudno (1 April), Milton Keynes (22 April), Bristol (25 & 29 April), Birmingham (6 May) and Southampton (20 May).
The Magic Flute
Also in the Spring, WNO will open a new production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute under the baton of WNO Music Director Tomáš Hanus.
Director Daisy Evans returns to WNO following recent successes with Don Pasquale and Cherry Town, Moscow. This new production puts an immersive spin on an operatic favourite, which will be set in a world of fantasy and adventure with sets and costumes designed by Loren Elstein.
The double cast will feature Welsh tenor Trystan Llŷr Griffiths and South African tenor Thando Mjandana sharing the role of Tamino, and sopranos Raven McMillon and April Koyejo-Audiger who will both make their WNO debuts as Pamina. The iconic coloratura role, The Queen of the Night, will be shared by Samantha Hay and Julia Sitkovetsky, and Papageno the bird-catcher by baritones Quirijn De Lang and Neal Davies.
The Magic Flute opens in Cardiff on 5 March and will tour to Llandudno (29-31 March), Milton Keynes (19-21 April), Bristol (26-28 April), Birmingham (3-5 May), Southampton (16-18 May) and Plymouth (26-27 May).
WNO Orchestra
WNO Orchestra begin 2023 with the Return to Vienna tour which will see them perform a lively and heart-warming concert to take audiences into the new year across England and Wales, celebrating the very best of Viennese music.
The programme includes the famous Blue Danube by Strauss II, Strauss I’s rollicking Radetzky March, and Korngold’s nostalgic Straussiana Polka amongst other works. Leader and Concertmaster David Adams and WNO Associate Artist Dafydd Allen join the tour which stops off at Swansea (5 Jan), Bangor (6 Jan), Newtown (7 Jan), Truro (11 Jan), Barnstaple (12 Jan), Cardiff (13 Jan), Southampton (14 Jan) and St David’s (21 Jan).
Later in January, WNO Music Director Tomáš Hanus will conduct WNO Orchestra in a performance of Smetana’s Má Vlast (‘My Homeland’) at St David’s Hall, Cardiff (29 January). The concert will offer a rare opportunity to hear the work in its entirety, which is the piece which established Smetana’s reputation as the father of Czech music.
The January concert will serve as a prequel to the Orchestra taking to the international stage in May, where they have been invited to perform the opening concerts of the Prague Spring International Music Festival in the Czech Republic (12 May). The invitation will see Tomáš Hanus conducting WNO Orchestra in Má Vlast by his compatriot Smetana, which is always performed at the opening concert, this year in tribute to the bicentenary of his birth. Hanus said:
‘I am delighted that WNO Orchestra has accepted the invitation to perform at the Prague Spring International Music Festival. It will be an honour and a great opportunity for the Orchestra and will place them alongside some of the best orchestras in the world who have previously performed at this prestigious event.
‘It will be a special moment for me to conduct WNO Orchestra in my homeland in a performance of Má Vlast, a piece which transports me back to my childhood and which is so poignant to everyone in the Czech Republic. 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.’
Later in the Spring, WNO Orchestra will join in the 40th-anniversary celebrations of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in June 2023. Initially created in 1983 to mark the opening of St David’s Hall, the biennial competition has launched the careers of some of the biggest opera stars, including Finnish soprano Karita Mattila, Welsh baritone Sir Bryn Terfel, German soprano Anja Herteros, American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton and Korean baritone Gihoon Kim. WNO Orchestra under the baton of Michael Christie will perform in a special Gala concert at St David’s Hall on 16 June, featuring former competitors. WNO Orchestra will also accompany singers for the first and third rounds of the competition. WNO General Director Aidan Lang will chair the Jury for the Main Prize.
Programmes & Engagement activity
As part of Wellness with WNO, there will be a series of hour-long concerts at care homes in the South Wales valleys which will incorporate a selection of musical segments from Blaze of Glory! as well as popular repertoire from the 1950s and 1960s. Two singers will be accompanied by a pianist to provide a joyful experience for residents where they will be encouraged to sing along if they are able. WNO has worked with care homes to provide short concerts for many years, most recently in Milford Haven as part of the Cradle Choir Project. This work expands our provision in this area which has been shown to have a positive impact for residents, particularly those with dementia.
During the Spring term, WNO will also be working with young people aged 14-18 from Scouts Cymru Explorer groups in South and North Wales on a song writing project around Blaze of Glory! The young people involved will watch a dress rehearsal or performance of the opera and then take part in workshops to develop and record their own songs looking at themes of identity, community and wellbeing which are explored in the opera. The workshops will be run by writer Shreya Sen-Handley (Migrations, Creating Change) and composer Michael Betteridge (WNO Community Chorus, WNO Youth Opera) with a WNO singer.
Play Opera LIVE, WNO’s show for families, will return to Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, on 19 February with a dinosaur theme. Musician and presenter Tom Redmond returns to introduce a programme of well-known classics, including John Williams’ theme from Jurassic Park. Tom also narrates and brings to life the music from Steve Pickett’s Dinosaurumpus, based on Tony Mitton’s children’s book, Bumpus Jumpus Dinosaurumpus. The show will be conducted by Frederick Brown and will feature soprano Stacey Wheeler and tenor Gareth Dafydd Morris. Ahead of the performance, there will be free foyer activities and workshops – from wigs and makeup to props and costume.
Later in the Spring, WNO Youth Opera will return to the stage to perform two one-act children’s operas, Jonathan Willcocks’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin, and Paul Ayres’s The Crab Who Played with the Sea, along with choral repertoire. Angharad Lee will direct the performances, which will take place at the end of May in Wales Millennium Centre’s Weston Studio.
Summer 2023
As part of WNO’s Summer 2023 Season, a new production of Bernstein’s Candide will open in June, conducted by Karen Kamensek and directed by James Bonas. Confirmed cast include Ed Lyon who will sing the title role, joined by Vuvu Mpofu as Cunégonde, Madeleine Shaw as The Old Lady and Mark Nathan as Maximilian.
Candide will open at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff on 22 June before touring to 28 (Jun), Llandudno (5 Jul), Oxford (8 Jul) and Birmingham (12 Jul).
WNO Orchestra will also tour an opera gala concert through June and July 2023. Venues and dates to be announced.
WNO’s General Director Aidan Lang said:
‘It’s fitting that our Spring Season is filled with opera, orchestral and engagement activity that all perfectly demonstrate the power of music. The story behind Blaze of Glory! explores how music can bring communities together through even the darkest of times, and the work which we will be running in care homes and with young people from Scouts Cymru alongside this demonstrates how this can be translated to many different contexts to bring people together in joy and friendship through music. I am also looking forward to audiences experiencing our new production of The Magic Flute which continues to enchant audiences with its timeless tale of the magical power of music to overcome darkness and bring us towards truth and light.
‘Our Orchestra continue to go from strength to strength under the baton of Tomáš Hanus, and I am delighted that they have been invited to perform at the prestigious Prague International Spring Music Festival; an honour which is rarely bestowed upon an opera orchestra. This will give the players yet another opportunity to display their excellence on the international stage.
‘It can at times be difficult to see through the darkness, but our rich Spring season will hopefully show how music has the power to bring light and joy to our lives.’
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
- Blaze of Glory! is supported by The Gwendoline and Margaret Davies Charity
- WNO Associate Artists Programme is supported by the Shirley and Rolf Olsen Bursary supporting Thomas Kinch in 2022/23.
- WNO’s Talent Development Programme is supported by the Kirby Laing Foundation and the Bateman Family Charitable Trust
- WNO’s new production of The Magic Flute! and new commission Blaze of Glory! is supported by the John Ellerman Foundation
- Supported by Colwinston Charitable Trust
For more information, photos or interviews please contact:
Christina Blakeman, Press Manager
Rhys Edwards, Communications Manager
Penny James & Rachel Bowyer, Head of Communications (job-share)
