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Post by bordeaux on Feb 14, 2024 12:24:32 GMT
wno.org.uk/news/our-2024-2025-season#:~:text=Featuring%20new%20faces%2C%20old%20favourites,self%2Dproclaimed%20favourite%2C%20Rigoletto. This looks like quite a scaled-back programme. There is a new production of Rigoletto in the autumn directed by Adele Thomas. There is also Il Trittico but it is only a concert performance. Plus there's an Opera Favourites concert. In the Spring there is a revival of The Marriage of Figaro and a new production of Peter Grimes, though it doesn't seem to have a director yet. There used to be a separate summer season of two operas which tended just to be in Wales and Birmingham but there isn't this year. All a bit underwhelming in my view. Money the issue no doubt.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Feb 14, 2024 15:16:20 GMT
Its really sad
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Post by Dawnstar on Feb 15, 2024 21:05:49 GMT
I first saw WNO on tour neearly 20 years ago, in December 2004 when I was in my first year at university in Bristol. Back then it was 3 productions each autumn & usually another 3 each spring. Seeing how little they are able to do by comparison 20 years later is depressing.
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Post by Someone in a tree on Feb 16, 2024 8:20:52 GMT
... and when I was a student in Brum in the 1990's WNO did three seasons a year which equated to 9 different operas, an awful lot of Barber and Boheme's though. But i was lucky to have experienced it, we also had Rattle, The CBSO & City of Birmingham Touring Opera
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Post by bordeaux on Feb 16, 2024 12:50:04 GMT
Their last Peter Grimes was directed by the great Peter Stein in 1999. He also did a magnificent Falstaff and Pelléas and Mélisande with them in the 90s. Great days!
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Post by teinosuke on Feb 16, 2024 13:26:28 GMT
I'm much sadder about what's happening to WNO, which has always been my favourite of the regional companies, than I am about ENO. Strange to think now that little more than ten years ago, they still had the resources to perform Wagner (their 2013 Lohengrin was terrific).
One correction to the OP: the Trittico is being done as a full staging in Cardiff (both in June at the end of this season, and in September / October at the beginning of the next). Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi (but not Il Tabarro) are then touring to Llandudno, Plymouth and Southampton. Only in Oxford is the work being given in concert (but including all three operas). I saw this Trittico (shared with Scottish Opera) in Edinburgh last year and thoroughly recommend people go to see the whole thing fully staged in Cardiff. It's terrific.
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Post by Dawnstar on Feb 16, 2024 21:16:32 GMT
I'm much sadder about what's happening to WNO, which has always been my favourite of the regional companies, than I am about ENO. Strange to think now that little more than ten years ago, they still had the resources to perform Wagner (their 2013 Lohengrin was terrific). I didn't see Lohengrin but I thought their 2010 Meistersinger was excellent, and also their Tristan & Isolde which was the first live Wagner I saw back in 2006. |
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Post by teinosuke on Feb 17, 2024 16:21:48 GMT
That Tristan was my first live Wagner too, but on its last revival, in 2012. The Meistersinger, similarly, I missed in Cardiff but caught when ENO revived it in 2015.
They've given me a lot of good nights over the years.
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Post by AddisonMizner on Feb 17, 2024 23:52:44 GMT
I've never seen a Welsh National Opera production, but have wanted to. I am thinking I may book the PETER GRIMES in Birmingham next year, especially as Nicky Spence is singing the title role, which I hadn't realised before.
It is true that the rest of the season leaves a lot to be desired, but that is the case for so much of the UK opera scene at the moment. Many of our singers are going abroad as there are just not the same opportunities here as in other places. Plus, the pay is much worse.
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