PETER GRIMES, THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, and More Set For Welsh National Opera's Spring 2025 Season

Welsh National Opera has announced its Spring 2025 Season. WNO Music Director Tomáš Hanus conducts new production of Peter Grimes with role debuts for Nicky Spence and Dame Sarah Connolly. Soprano Erika Grimaldi makes WNO debut in The Marriage of Figaro. New project Sea Interludes launched in partnership with Fishermen’s Mission charity. WNO Orchestra and Chorus to join forces for Play Opera LIVE.

Peter Grimes

Following on from the success of Welsh National Opera’s new production of Britten’s Death in Venice, this Spring Season opens with another new production, Britten’s Peter Grimes. 

The production will be conducted by WNO Music Director Tomáš Hanus, his first Britten opera, with Melly Still making her WNO directorial debut.

A tale of mystery, prejudice and tragedy set to a melodic score, this opera follows the story of fisherman Peter Grimes as he grapples with his inner demons when his coastal town community turn against him.  Over the course of this opera, Peter’s fragile mental state unwinds and eventually collapses following a tragic incident involving a fishing apprentice in a storm, an incident that Peter knows he will inevitably be blamed for.

In his role debut, tenor Nicky Spence takes up the title role, making a much welcome return to WNO following performances in Autumn 2022’s The Makropulos Affair.  The illustrious British mezzo soprano Dame Sarah Connolly will also make her role debut singing Auntie. Sally Matthews makes her WNO debut in the role of Ellen Orford. Also joining the cast are Oliver Johnston as Bob Boles, Dominic Sedgwick as Ned Keene and Catherine Wyn-Rogers as Mrs Sedley. The cast also includes a host of homegrown Welsh singers including David Kempster, Fflur Wyn, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts and Sion Goronwy. 

Peter Grimes Director Melly Still said, ‘I keep pinching myself: yes, I am working on Peter Grimes with Nicky Spence of all remarkable people. We live close by so coffees in Deptford with his baby in tow are where we mediate on the most complex, infuriating and sorrowful of characters in opera. Plus we’re working with a cast to die for – many of us first-timers in the world of Grimes, mixing it up with a wealth of Grimes experience – the finest actors as much as they are astounding singers; Dame Sarah Connolly, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, David Kempster, Dominic Sedgwick, Fflur Wyn, Eiry Price, Sion Goronwy and Callum Thorpe are among those bringing fireworks to the Suffolk coast. I’m thrilled to be reunited with the soulful magic of Sally Matthews (Glyndebourne’s Rusalka), and the endlessly thoughtful Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts (Glyndebourne’s The Wreckers). Also joining the team are exceptional local theatre and dance artists who will help us deliver this unflinchingly raw portrayal of an outsider. Of course, an outsider needs a community to pit against: in this case the full force of WNO’s fantastic Chorus. Marshalling all of us with an exquisitely sensitive appreciation of Britten’s vision, the always brilliant Tomáš Hanus.’

Peter Grimes opens in Cardiff on 5 April before touring to Southampton, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, and Plymouth.

Dame Sarah Connolly and Tomáš Hanus with WNO Orchestra

In March, WNO Orchestra will be joined by Dame Sarah Connolly for a concert conducted by WNO Music Director Tomáš Hanus. Mezzo soprano Sarah Connolly will join the Company ahead of her performances in Peter Grimes to sing Mahler’s Lieder Eines fahrenden gesellen (Songs of a Wayfarer). The concert also includes Schubert’s Symphony No 8 Unfinished, Sibelius’s Symphony No 7 and Mahler’s Adagietto from Symphony No 5. 

Two performances of the concert will take place in the Dora Stoutzker Hall at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff, on 15 and 16 March. 

The Marriage of Figaro

Following its performances in February, Tobias Richter’s colourful production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro returns to Cardiff’s Wales Millennium Centre on 9 April alongside Peter Grimes, with Max Hoehn directing and conducted by former WNO Associate Conductor, Kerem Hasan. 

Joining the cast is soprano Erika Grimaldi who makes her WNO debut in the role of Countess Almaviva, with Chen Reiss reprising the role when the production tours to Milton Keynes and Plymouth.  Michael Mofidian, Christina Gansch, Harriet Eyley, Giorgio Caoduro, Wyn Pencarreg, Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, WNO Associate Artist Eiry Price, Monika Sawa and Julian Boyce all reprise their roles from the performances in February. WNO Associate Artist William Stevens performs the title role, Figaro, when on tour in Plymouth. 

The Marriage of Figaro will open in Cardiff on 9 April before touring to Southampton, Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Plymouth.

The Marriage of Figaro Cwta | In Short

Following a successful pilot during the 2023/2024 Season, Cwta | In Short will return for 2025 with a condensed version of The Marriage of Figaro.  Cwta | In Short offers an abridged version of classic operas, aimed at encouraging newcomers to the art form.  

The free performances will be offered on dates in April and May to school groups and music service groups in Cardiff, Southampton, Birmingham and Milton Keynes.  

Play Opera LIVE

WNO’s Play Opera LIVE returns to Cardiff before heading on tour this Spring with all the usual free fun activities delving into the world of opera in the foyer before the performances, with costumes, face painting and props on offer.

This interactive and educational family show is the perfect introduction to opera and classical music, and this time, the concerts will include the musical adaptation by Ian Stephens of the family favourite book, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt. Another tune made famous by Pavarotti and which featured in a series of Cornetto adverts, O sole mio will also feature.

Tom Redmond returns to present the show which will feature WNO Orchestra and WNO Chorus as well as tenor Oliver Johnston. Joining them will be former WNO Associate Artist mezzo-soprano Beca Davies and current WNO Associate Artist Erin Rossington. Caroline Clegg returns to WNO to direct, making her WNO debut Irish conductor Karen Ní Bhroin, with designs by Yu Song. 

Following the performance in Cardiff, the concerts will travel to Southampton and Plymouth.

Sea Interludes

Britten said: ’In writing Peter Grimes, I wanted to express my awareness of the perpetual struggle of men and women whose livelihoods depends on the sea'. Emulating the composer’s aim for his opera, and in partnership with the Fishermen’s Mission charity, WNO’s Sea Interludes project sheds light on the experiences of modern-day fishermen and their families through musical performance. Peter Grimes contains a number of themes and scenarios which still resonate with contemporary fishing communities, and this project will translate their voices and stories into the world of opera. Through conversation and collaboration with participants from Wales and Cornwall, composer Gareth Bonello (aka The Gentle Good) will craft a new collection of pieces which capture the struggles, triumphs and daily realities of lives dedicated to, and reliant on, the sea. 

The new pieces will be performed prior to the Company’s Peter Grimes dates in Cardiff, offering audiences a greater understanding of this dangerous and precarious vocation, and celebrating the individuals who toil the seas on our behalf. 

Our Space Armed Forces Choir

WNO is partnering with Theatre Royal Plymouth to form a new Armed Forces choir in Plymouth, expanding TRP Our Space’s mission to provide creative wellbeing opportunities for current service personnel, veterans, and the long-term wounded, injured and sick. Prompted by WNO’s production of Peter Grimes, the choir’s first project will explore a variety of songs about the sea and seafaring. The project will culminate in a performance at Plymouth Armed Forces Day in June.

Wellness with WNO – Schools Creative Wellbeing Programme

In partnership with Swansea Bay University Health Board Paediatrics Department, WNO has confirmed its Schools Creative Wellbeing programme for a third year. WNO will be delivering an eight-week programme of creative activity which will involve working with a comprehensive school in Swansea with up to 30 learners who may be experiencing low confidence and anxiety. 

The aim of the project is to use a range of creative arts activities and utilise breathing and singing techniques from the Wellness with WNO programme. 

WNO’s regular Programmes and Engagement activity, Cradle Choir and Teach, will continue throughout the season. 

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