Welsh National Opera Welcomes New Co-CEO/General Directors

The new year marks the start of a new tenure for Adele Thomas and Sarah Crabtree as they jointly take up the role of Co-CEOs/General Directors of Welsh National Opera.

Internationally-acclaimed theatre and opera director Adele Thomas recently directed WNO’s new production of Verdi’s Rigoletto, while visionary producer Sarah Crabtree joins the Company from The Royal Ballet and Opera, where she was Creative Producer and Head of Linbury Theatre (opera).

Adele and Sarah take up the role in a job-share of the truest sense, with equal oversight of the artistic direction and management of the Company. 

Speaking about their new role, Adele Thomas and Sarah Crabtree said, ‘Welsh National Opera emerged out of the igniting friction between two cultural forces: the post-war spirit of democracy and the Welsh grassroots obsession with the human voice in song. Those revolutionary entities form the touchstone of how we want to reimagine WNO as the opera company of the future. With its roots in Wales but its reach and impact beyond we want WNO to be a pioneering, brave and contemporary arts organisation within the UK live art ecology, searching for increased diversity on both our stages and in our audiences and questioning what opera can be in the modern world. 

‘Whilst the future for opera in Wales and the UK has never looked more perilous, with moments of crisis come huge opportunity; what a privilege it is for us to be taking this great Company forward into its next chapter. Highlights of the upcoming season include a return to Swansea for the first time in a decade and a much-anticipated new production of Peter Grimes, complete with a world class cast, including some of the finest Welsh artists of their generations.’

Plans for WNO’s 2025/2026 season are due to be announced shortly, which will be the Company’s 80th anniversary year.

Photo Credit: Jon Pountney