Welsh National Opera will return to touring in Wales and England from Autumn this year.
WNO is starting its 75th celebratory Season this Summer with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by composer Will Todd with performances from 25 June until 3 July at Dyffryn Gardens in the Vale of Glamorgan.
A small autumn season at WMC will see a frequently revived production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville and a new production of Madam Butterfly directed by Australian director Lindy Hume and conducted by WNO Conductor Laureate, Carlo Rizzi.
In Spring 2022 begins in Cardiff before touring to venues across England and Wales until mid-May. The productions include Mozart’s Don Giovanni, alongside Jenůfa directed by Katie Mitchell in a continuation of the Company’s Janáček Series and conducted by WNO’s Music Director Tomáš Hanus. Madam Butterfly will also be performed in some tour venues during the Spring.
WNO’s Youth Opera groups will once again join forces for a full-scale performance of The Black Spider at Wales Millennium Centre’s Weston Studio in May 2022. The creepy, comic tale is by writer and composer and Master of the Queen’s Music, Judith Weir and will be performed by South Wales Youth Opera members aged 10-18 years.
In the summer rather than present operas from the popular repertoire the company stages a project called Migrations about migrating people. It involves a diversity of voices and experiences, five writers working with Sir David Pountney to create the libretto of six stories, influenced by their own personal experiences of migration and from working with refugees.
In July 2022 18–25-year-old members of WNO Youth Opera will take to the stage in a new production of Shostakovich’s Cheryomushki. Daisy Evans returns to WNO to direct the Youth Opera and the production will be under the baton of conductor Alice Farnham.
WNO Orchestra will make a return to the St David’s Hall concert platform conducted by Music Director Tomáš Hanus for performances in November this year and next May as part of the International Concert Season. Schools’ concerts in Autumn 2022 and Family Concerts have also been planned throughout the year in many of the tour venues along with a Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama Gala in November 2021.
The Company has also scheduled a range of community engagement work.
Information regarding WNO productions and on sale dates are available at wno.org.uk