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Mid Wales Opera are delighted to be back on the road again with not one but two tours planned for Spring 2017. |
MWO’s plans, unveiled at the MWO Friends’ Gala concert in the stunning Music Room at Gregynog Hall in the heart of Mid Wales, include the first professional performances in Wales of Handel’s baroque gem Semele as well as a new production of Mozart’s popular classic The Magic Flute.The widely anticipated first production by MWO’s new artistic team - director/designer Richard Studer and conductor Jonathan Lyness - launches a new era in the company’s history and promises to astonish audiences, both young and old, with the wonders of great opera. The Magic Flute opens in Hafren, Newtown, Powys on Friday February 17th 2017 and is touring until early May 2017. It promises to delight both loyal opera loving audiences and welcome newcomers with a production definitely aimed at family fun and offering the ideal introduction to the art form we’re so passionate about. Incoming Artistic Director Richard Studer said: “ The new production of Mozart's mythical and magical opera owes more than a nodding debt to the art of pantomime, a surreal world of heroes and villains, myth and magic : high drama, high art, high notes and high camp mix in a blaze of colour, comedy and puppetry as we enter the ever inventive battleground of Mozart's imagination where the forces of good pursue victory over the evil Queen of the Night.” A true testament if ever there was one to Mozart’s genius, The Magic Flute is packed with some of the composer’s most recognisable music, from heartfelt duets and comic exchanges to one of operas most formidable and memorable arias, that of the Queen of the Night. Meanwhile our departing Artistic Director Nicholas Cleobury, who is leaving MWO to take up a role as Head of Opera at Queensland Conservatoire in Brisbane, Australia, teams up with the internationally renowned Director Martin Constantine to lead a co-production of Handel’s Semele with the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama opening on Wednesday February 8th 2017 at the college’s Richard Burton Theatre in Cardiff. The co-production builds on 2014’s collaboration on the same composer’s Acis and Galatea, which received four star reviews from The Times and The Guardian amongst others. The tour promises to be a rare treat for lovers of both opera and the music of the baroque period and begins with four nights in Cardiff. The production and tour have been funded by Arts Council Wales Lottery and Colwinston Charitable Trust and will offer around 35 of the college’s students the opportunity to work with our professional singers and orchestral players and tour to venues across Wales. First performed in 1744 at Covent Garden, Handel’s Semele originally appeared as an Oratorio rather than an opera – and instantly caused a stir. The production used Congreve’s libretto based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses to bring to life the tragic tale of Semele’s ill-fated love for Jupiter the King of the Gods. Featuring giant eagles, a dragon-guarded castle, thunder and lightning the Oratorio was a spectacular departure from Handel’s previous works and ran for only four nights. Revived only once in December 1744, Semele was never again performed in his lifetime and only brought back into repertoire by professional companies in the twentieth century – we believe this will be the debut professional production in Wales. The work is undoubtedly one of the jewels of baroque opera. It contains the stunning tenor aria “Where e’er you walk” and Semele’s joyous “Endless Pleasure, Endless Love.” For dates and further information please check our website at www.midwalesopera.co.uk. |
| Mid Wales Opera web site: www.midwalesopera.co.uk |
| Lydia Bassett e-mail: Lydia@midwalesopera.co.uk |
Thursday, August 11, 2016 |
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