Would you like to take part in concert performances of Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, alongside professional opera singers and orchestral players from the internationally acclaimed and award-winning Welsh National Opera?Belshazzar’s Feast will be performed at WNO’s home, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, on Saturday 26 May and Sunday 3 June 2007. This promises to be a very special event indeed, for joining WNO will be a 90-strong community choir recruited from across South Wales and a further 30 singers from Birmingham. Belshazzar’s Feast is performed at Birmingham Hippodrome on Saturday 23 June 2007 as part of a special programme of summer events in the city. The concert performances will be conducted by WNO’s acclaimed Music Director Carlo Rizzi and the guest soloist is Robert Hayward, who sang the title role in the Company’s award-winning production of Mazepa earlier this year. The first part of the evening will feature the Chorus and Orchestra of WNO performing Verdi’s Four Sacred Pieces, including the composer’s rarely performed Ave Maria. Auditions will take place in February 2007, but those interested in auditioning are advised to contact WNO MAX as soon as possible on 029 20 635064 to sign up. You will need to be able to read music and bring a high degree of choral skill to the project. Chorus Master for the project is Tim Rhys-Evans, who coached a choir of over 400 people for WNO’s last major community choir project, The Most Beautiful Man From The Sea, staged at Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay in 2005. The successful applicants will join Tim and other WNO artists at rehearsals throughout March, April and May 2007 – a brilliant opportunity to receive top quality training from some of the world’s best opera practitioners. Belshazzar’s Feast is a spectacular piece of music, referencing a vast array of different sources, including jazz and brass bands. The story is taken from the Book of Daniel and centres on Belshazzar, the Babylonian King, who was an oppressor of the Jews living in exile in his country. At a magnificent feast, Belshazzar commits sacrilege by using the Jews’ Sacred vessels to praise the heathen gods. A disembodied hand appears on the wall of the feasting chamber and writes a curse. That night, Belshazzar is killed, his kingdom falls and the Jews regain their freedom. The concert performances form a major part of WNO’s new summer season in Cardiff and Birmingham. From 2007 onwards, WNO will be working across the two cities to present an array of performance opportunities for Company members, guest artists and community singers. Next summer’s programme features two operas – Bartok’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle in a double bill with Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht’s The Seven Deadly Sins with Diversions, the national dance company of Wales, and Bizet’s Carmen. There are also two concert performances – Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust and Belshazzar’s Feast/Four Sacred Pieces (Verdi). “We have created WNO’s new Summer season to showcase the world-class talents of the Orchestra and Chorus of WNO in Birmingham Hippodrome and our new home, Wales Millennium Centre,” explains WNO Music Director Carlo Rizzi. “I am very excited to be conducting during this special season and I hope all the work performed will excite and inspire not only our loyal Birmingham audience, but also newcomers to WNO too. “I am proud to welcome the participation of local people from Cardiff – and from our second home in Birmingham - in the community choir being assembled for our performances of Belshazzar’s Feast.” |
| welsh national opera web site: www.wno.org.uk |
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Tuesday, November 14, 2006 |
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