- Ed Lyon stars in a new production of Bernstein’s Candide by award-winning creative team
- New WNO Associate Artists are announced
- WNO Youth Opera perform annual showcase at Wales Millennium Centre
- WNO Orchestra on summer concert tour with Music from the Heart
Welsh National Opera’s Summer Season has been announced, which will include a tour of a new production of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide. The talented WNO Youth Opera will perform their annual showcase, and WNO Orchestra will take a summer tour of Music from the Heart to venues across the country. Also announced are the Company’s new Associate Artists, and a recital by a current and former Associate Artist.
Candide
18th-century France collides with 20th-century post-war America for a fantastical adventure in WNO’s new production of Bernstein’s Candide.
Bernstein’s music combines with the wit of Dorothy Parker in a musical romp that pulls together Broadway, operetta and the satire of Voltaire’s original novella. WNO’s new production creates an imaginative world of music, animation and dance with political bite. Societies are torn apart by inequality, and families are displaced by war in a story that remains as relevant now as when it was first written in 1759.
The production brings together an award-winning creative team (winners of the National French Critics’ award in 2022 for their production of The Snow Queen) led by director James Bonas. Costume designs are by Nathalie Pallandre with sets by Thibault Vancraenenbroeck, and video and animation design by Grégoire Pont. American conductor Karen Kamensek returns to WNO to conduct.
Tenor Ed Lyon will sing the title role of Candide and will be joined in the cast by Vuvu Mpofu (Cunégonde), Madeleine Shaw (The Old Lady) and Mark Nathan (Maximilian).
Candide will open in Cardiff (22–24 June) before touring to Truro (28 June), Llandudno (5 July), Oxford (8 July), Birmingham (12 July) and Brecon (15 July).
WNO Associate Artists
Current WNO Associate Artist Dafydd Allen and former Associate Artist Isabelle Peters will perform a recital at Hoddinott Hall, Cardiff at 1pm on 2 May. Both artists have chosen their repertoire. Dafydd’s includes Henri Duparc’s Cinq melodies, Op. 2, Ivor Gurney’s In Flanders and Meirion Williams’s Gwynfyd, and Isabelle will sing works including Debussy’s Ariettes Oubliées, Strauss’s Nichts and Ich schwebe, and Brahms’s Lerchengesang.
A trio of new Associate Artists will join WNO from September; soprano Emily Christina Loftus, and mezzo-sopranos Beca Davies and Melissa Gregory. As part of their time with WNO as an Associate Artist, all three will receive training, support and the opportunity to develop their performance skills through roles in operas, concerts and WNO’s community and engagement work.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin and The Crab That Played with The Sea: The Seligman Youth Opera Performance
The blended sound of over 80 young voices from the ages of 8 to 25 will be heard when WNO Youth Opera present their annual showcase at the Weston Studio at Wales Millennium Centre in four performances on 27–28 May. WNO gratefully acknowledges the generous bequest of the late David Seligman and the Philippa and David Seligman Gift.
In this choral double bill, set to music by Jonathan Willcocks and Paul Ayres, respectively, the talented group of young singers will first tell the story of The Pied Piper of Hamelin who uses a magical pipe to rid the town of rats and a broken promise leads him to seek revenge. The second tale The Crab That Played With The Sea, based on Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories depicts the two phases of the tide and the crab’s transformation from an oversized troublemaker into a humble one.
Award-winning director Angharad Lee directs the showcase which features imaginative puppetry and a small ensemble of instrumentalists. The set designed by Céleste Langrée is inspired by the youth camps of Llangrannog and Glan-llyn and the vibrancy of village playgrounds. Music Director Dan Perkin will conduct.
WNO Orchestra
Cardiff Singer of the World
WNO Orchestra will join in the 40th anniversary celebrations of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in June 2023, performing in a special Gala concert under the baton of Pietro Rizzo and featuring Louise Alder, Claire Barnett-Jones, Luis Gomes and Andrei Kymach at St David’s Hall on 16 June. WNO Orchestra will also accompany singers for the first and third rounds of the competition with conductor Michael Christie, and WNO General Director Aidan Lang will chair the Jury for the Main Prize.
Summer Tour – Music from the Heart
This Summer WNO Orchestra and conductor Matthew Kofi Waldren will team up with tenor Trystan Llŷr Griffiths and soprano Nadine Benjamin in a programme which features a selection of arias, duets and orchestral numbers that capture the intensity of love, lust and heartache, featuring the Overture to Verdi’s La forza del destino and Gypsy Dance from Bizet’s Carmen alongside highlights and favourites from La traviata, Norma, Tosca and Eugene Onegin.
The Orchestra will stop off at venues in Barnstaple (Queen’s Theatre, 27 June), Torquay (Princess Theatre, 29 June), Newport (The Riverfront, 30 June), Wolverhampton (The Grand Theatre, 2 July), Bangor (Pontio Arts Centre, 18 July) and Southampton (Turner Sims, 20 July).
WNO General Director Aidan Lang says:
“Candide is a dazzling piece for the Orchestra and placing the musicians on stage will really allow them to shine along with the singers. Animation will lead audiences through this fast-paced and witty story in a truly theatrical production. Our excellent WNO Orchestra will also be delighting audiences across the country on their summer tour and at Cardiff Singer of The World. We are thrilled to welcome three new Associate Artists to the Company as well as celebrating the talents of the current artists in a special recital as they reach the end of their tenure. New talent will also be on display in abundance when WNO’s Youth Opera perform their annual showcase reassuring us that the future of opera singing in Wales is in safe hands.”
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 press images are available for download at wno.org.uk/press
- The Pied Piper of Hamelin and The Crab That Played With The Sea: The Seligman Youth Opera Performance is supported by the bequest of the late David Seligman and the Seligman Gift.
- WNO Youth Opera is supported by the Gibbs Charitable Trust
- The WNO Associate Artist Programme is supported by the Shirley & Rolf Olson Bursary, Sheila & Richard Brooks Bursary, WNO Sir John Moores Award, Anthony Evans Scholarship, Chris Ball Bursary, Clive Richards Foundation, Thriplow Charitable Trust, and the Joseph Strong Frazer Charitable Trust
- Orchestra concerts – Principal Chairs supported by the Principal Players Circle
- WNO’s Talent Development Programme is supported by the Kirby Laing Foundation and the Bateman Family Charitable Trust
- WNO’s new productions and new commissions are supported by the John Ellerman Foundation
For more information, photos or interviews please contact:
Christina Blakeman, Press Manager
Giselle Dugdale, Press Officer
Penny James & Rachel Bowyer, Head of Communications (job-share)
