Welsh National Opera Announces 2023/2024 Season

Welsh National Opera has announced its 2023/2024 Season which includes four new productions, three of which WNO will be performing for the very first time.

As well as the operas, the Season will include orchestral concerts and a wide range of engagement activity in Wales and WNO's touring destinations in England.

Autumn 2023: Ainadamar and La traviata

The Autumn Season opens with the Welsh premiere of Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar, a co-production with Opera Ventures, Detroit Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and Scottish Opera who delivered the UK stage premiere in Autumn 2022 to wide critical acclaim. Sung in Spanish, the twice-Grammy winning work, in which flamenco meets opera, reimagines the life of Spanish poet and playwright Federico García Lorca through a flashback of memories by his muse, the actress Margarita Xirgu.

In the director's chair is the internationally renowned and Olivier-winning choreographer Deborah Colker (Rio 2016 Olympics, Cirque du Soleil) whose approach promises a unique and colourful spectacle of music, dance, and theatre.

Matthew Kofi Waldren returns to WNO to conduct Ainadamar, following a triumphant run of Migrations with the Company in Autumn 2022. The cast includes Argentinian soprano Jaquelina Livieri as Margarita Xirgu and Julieth Lozano (Nuria), as well as Alfredo Tejada (Ruiz Alonso).

The Autumn Season will be completed with performances of Sir David McVicar's acclaimed production of Verdi's much-loved opera La traviata. Based on Alexandre Dumas fils' novel, La Dame aux Camélias, the story is a classic tale of thwarted love, scandal and self-sacrifice.

Conducted by Alexander Joel, and directed by Sarah Crisp, the production will feature soprano Olga Pudova as the elegant courtesan Violetta Valéry who faces the choice of giving up her glamorous lifestyle for true love with the penniless aristocratic poet Alfredo Germont (David Junghoon Kim). Also joining the cast is Mark S Doss who will sing Giorgio Germont, Alfredo's father.

The performances will all open in Cardiff before touring to Llandudno, Bristol, Plymouth, Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Southampton.

As part of the Cardiff Classical Series, WNO Orchestra will perform a concert at St David's Hall, Cardiff on 29 October under the baton of WNO Music Director Tomáš Hanus. The programme will feature Brahms's sublime First Symphony, alongside Tchaikovsky's overture-fantasy Romeo and Juliet, and Richard Strauss's masterful Four Last Songs, sung by soprano Chen Reiss.

Tomáš Hanus said, 'The orchestral concerts we deliver at St David's Hall as part of the Cardiff Classical Series are an important part of our work, and an opportunity for us to provide people with moments of joy through the power of live music. I am very proud to work so closely with WNO Orchestra who are recognised internationally for their excellence both operatically and for concerts, as demonstrated by the honour of them being selected to play the opening concert of the 2023 Prague Spring International Music Festival.'

WNO will continue with its successful concert for families, Play Opera LIVE, in the Autumn, with a space-themed show presented by Tom Redmond. The concert will provide a fresh take on opera and classical music, including orchestral playing, song and performance. Opening in Cardiff, Play Opera then tours to Llandudno, Bristol, Plymouth, Birmingham and Southampton along with the main tour. This will be the first time for Play Opera to visit Bristol.

Spring 2024: Così fan tutte and Death in Venice

Ahead of the Spring Season of operas, WNO Orchestra will embark on a new year concert tour in January 2024 throughout Wales and the South West of England.

Two new productions are in store for WNO in Spring 2024, beginning with Mozart's Così fan tutte under the baton of WNO Music Director Tomáš Hanus. Max Hoehn will direct this new production of the coming-of-age tale which will take audiences back to school where four sixth formers discover the highs and lows of falling in love.

Soprano Sophie Bevan returns to WNO to sing the role of Fiordiligi, joined by Kayleigh Decker (Dorabella), Egor Zhuravskii (Ferrando) and James Atkinson (Guglielmo) in their role debuts in this new production completing the foursome of young lovers. Also joining the cast are Welsh soprano Rebecca Evans as Despina, and Fabio Capitanucci as Don Alfonso.

A new production of Britten's Death in Venice will complete the Spring 2024 Season of operas, which will be the first time WNO has staged this opera. Based on the novella of the same name by Thomas Mann, the story follows writer Gustav von Aschenbach as he journeys to Venice to liberate his writer's block where he becomes infatuated with the youthful and beautiful Tadzio.

Olivia Fuchs returns to WNO to direct this new production which will see the early 20th-century acting as a mirror to our times, with images of ravishing beauty as well as the exploration of the grotesque hidden beneath the search for the sublime.

Conductor Leo Hussain will make his debut with the Company to conduct this new production. Tenor Mark Le Brocq will make his role debut as Aschenbach, with eminent baritone Roderick Williams as the Traveller / Old Man guiding him towards his fate. The countertenor role of the Voice of Apollo will be sung by Alexander Chance.

The Spring operas will open in Cardiff before touring to Llandudno, Southampton, Oxford, Bristol and Plymouth.

In addition to the operas on tour, WNO Orchestra will perform an Opera Favourites concert in Cardiff, Llandudno, Southampton, Bristol and Plymouth, offering audiences the chance to hear some of the best-known pieces in the operatic world. The concert will feature well know arias, choral and orchestral numbers including music by Mozart, Verdi, Britten and Puccini amongst others.

During the Spring Season, WNO will also take admission-free schools' concerts to Cardiff, Llandudno, Southampton and Plymouth alongside the main tour. These fun concerts are an opportunity to introduce children and young people to opera and classical music, featuring short pieces of music from the worlds of opera, TV and film that are familiar, while also including repertoire which they may not have heard before. Accompanied by WNO Orchestra, these concerts allow students to interact with the music through a mass sing along as well as enjoy the experience of hearing the full force of an orchestra perform live.

WNO Orchestra & Chorus under Tomáš Hanus will perform a second concert at St David's Hall, Cardiff on 21 April 2024 as part of the Cardiff Classical Series. The programme will feature Mozart's timeless choral masterpiece, Requiem, preceded by a first half, featuring Schumann's (final) Fourth Symphony, written in 1841 and revised a decade later, and Fauré's youthful Cantique de Jean Racine.

Summer 2024: Il trittico

The Summer Season will see WNO perform Puccini's triptych of one-act operas, Il trittico, for the first time. This new production, directed by Sir David McVicar, is a co-production with Scottish Opera and a rare opportunity to enjoy all three operas, Il tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, in one night, as the composer intended. WNO Conductor Laureate Carlo Rizzi will conduct.

The trio of operas will take the audience on a whirlwind journey of emotions. Il tabarro explores an unhappy marriage with murderous consequences, Suor Angelica follows a nun's sacrifice and yearning for her family when sent to a convent to repent her sins, and Gianni Schicchi, widely known in popular culture for the aria O mio babbino caro, tells of deception and greed as a family dispute over a missing will.

Mezzo-soprano Justina Gringytė returns to WNO following recent performances in La forza del destino and Roberto Devereux to sing Zia Principessa, and South African soprano Vuvu Mpofu who is soon to feature in WNO's new production of Candide will sing three roles, Lauretta/ Suor Genovieva and Young Lover. Alexia Voulgaridou (Giorgetta / Suor Angelica) is also confirmed.

During the Summer Season, WNO Orchestra will embark on a concert tour, with more details to follow.

Programmes and Engagement

Alongside the concert activity which will support the main opera tours, WNO will continue with a varied programme of community and engagement activity. This includes the continuation of ongoing projects such as Wellness with WNO which supports those with Long-COVID through breathing workshops, Dewryn | Brave a project highlighting the issue of child exploitation and modern-day slavery to children through music in an age-appropriate way, and Cradle Choir which supports those with dementia, their carers and families, and has recently expanded due to its success.

Following on from the success of our work in the West Midlands, there will be a tour of Opera Tutti, concerts specifically devised for special schools for those with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD) in Wales for the first time, with members of WNO Orchestra. These concerts provide an interactive opportunity for PMLD children and young people to experience and share in the joy of classical music and performance, many of whom would otherwise find it difficult to attend or experience music concerts.

WNO will also be working in care homes across North Wales to provide a new opportunity for people who may not be able to attend a theatre or sit through a performance to access opera and classical music. WNO singers and musicians will visit the care homes to deliver a short programme of operatic repertoire alongside some well-loved favourites.

WNO General Director Aidan Lang said, 'Opera is both visually and musically spectacular, and it's no coincidence that two of our new productions for this year - Ainadamar and Death in Venice - will contain dance elements and take us on a musical journey to other countries. With a CV including choreographing the opening ceremony of the Rio Olympics and a Cirque du Soleil production, we are particularly looking forward to welcoming Deborah Colker to WNO to direct Ainadamar. This opera offers our audiences something completely different to what they may have previously experienced with this art form.

'I'm delighted that we're going to be bringing our audiences three operas which have never been performed by the Company before. In addition to our opera productions and orchestral concerts, our programme and engagement activity, of which we are very proud, continues to have great impact in our communities and uses opera to benefit lives through music."

'Despite a challenging current situation, we remain optimistic that we can continue to be the ambitious, innovative and agile company that we are known and loved for. Having already announced that we are no longer able to tour to Liverpool, we are pleased that we are able to visit our remaining touring venues in our 2023/24 annual season - Bristol, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Plymouth and Southampton.'

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