About
Welsh National Opera (WNO) (Welsh: Opera Cenedlaethol Cymru) is an opera company based in Cardiff, Wales; it gave its first performances in 1946. It began as a mainly amateur body and transformed into an all-professional ensemble by 1973. In its early days the company gave a single week's annual season in Cardiff, gradually extending its schedule to become an all-year-round operation, with its own salaried chorus and orchestra. It has been described by The New York Times as "one of the finest operatic ensembles in Europe".
For most of its existence the company lacked a permanent base in Cardiff, but in 2004 it moved into the new Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay. The company tours nationally and internationally, giving more than 120 performances annually, with a repertoire of eight operas each year, to a combined audience of more than 150,000 people. Its most frequent venues other than Cardiff are Llandudno in Wales and Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Plymouth, and Southampton in England.
Singers who have been associated with the company include Geraint Evans, Thomas Allen, Anne Evans, and Bryn Terfel. Guest artists from other countries have included Joan Hammond, Tito Gobbi and Elisabeth Söderström. Among the conductors have been Sir Charles Mackerras, Reginald Goodall, James Levine and Pierre Boulez. The company has been led since 2011 by David Pountney as chief executive and artistic director.
Background
Choral singing became increasingly popular in 19th-century Wales, principally owing to the rise of the eisteddfod as a symbol of its culture. The first Welsh National Opera Company was formed in 1890. A local newspaper commented that it was remarkable that "a race of people to whom vocal music is a ruling passion should not generations ago have established a permanent national opera". The company gave performances of operas by the Welsh composer Joseph Parry in Cardiff and on tour in Wales. The company, predominantly amateur with some professional guest singers from the London stage, gave numerous performances of Parry's Blodwen and Arienwen, composed in 1878 and 1890 respectively. An American tour was planned, but the company folded, and Parry's final opera, The Maid of Cefn Ydfa, was given at Cardiff by the Moody-Manners Opera Company in 1902.
A Cardiff Grand Opera Society ran from 1924 to 1934. It presented week-long annual seasons of popular operas including Faust, Carmen and Il trovatore, and like its predecessor was mainly an amateur body, with professional guest principals. Apart from the productions of these two enterprises, opera in Wales in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was generally presented by visiting companies from England.
In the 1930s Idloes Owen, a singing teacher and conductor, ran an amateur choir, the Lyrian Singers, based in Cardiff. In November 1941, together with John Morgan – a former Carl Rosa baritone – and Morgan's fiancée Helena Hughes Brown, Owen agreed to found the Lyrian Grand Opera Company, with Brown as secretary and Owen as conductor and general manager. They publicised their plan and held a general meeting of potential supporters in December 1943; at that meeting the name of the proposed organisation was changed to "Welsh National Opera Company". By January 1944 plans were far enough advanced for the company's first rehearsals to be held. Owen recruited a local businessman, W. H. (Bill) Smith (1894–1968), who agreed to serve as business manager. At first doubtful of the company's prospects, Smith became its dominant influence, leading fund-raiser, and chairman for twenty years from 1948.
1943-1945
Conductor Idloes Owen proposes founding an opera company in 1943.
At the first general meeting, Welsh National Opera is established, and subscription rates for the voluntary chorus are established at a guinea per year for company membership, plus sixpence per rehearsal.
First WNO concert of opera excerpts takes place in April 1944 at the Empire Theatre, Cardiff, with regular concerts thereafter.
Idloes Owen, WNO Music Director, plans for the company to learn six operas in two years with the aim of staging them – but it takes until 1946 to find a suitable venue...
1946-1955
Within weeks of securing the Prince of Wales Theatre, Cardiff, as the venue for the first fully staged WNO performances, Idloes and his team hire costumes for the principal artists and production scenery. The Chorus costumes are made from scratch and Victor Fleming fixes the orchestra.
Monday 15 April 1946: The opening night of Cav & Pag is conducted by Idloes Owen.
Tuesday 16 April 1946: Ivor John, a Swansea-based singer and conductor, conducts Faust – and two nights later performs the leading role. Bill Smith pays Norman Jones and Peggy Moreland to become company administrators.
7 October 1952: The first performance of Nabucco by WNO takes place in the Sophia Gardens Pavilion – and is the first fully-staged production of this opera in the UK for 100 years.
1956-1965
Following the London première of Nabucco by WNO in 1955, the Company returns to Sadler’s Wells with Nabucco directed by John Moody in 1957. The Nabucco chorus, ‘Va, pensiero’ is still considered to be the signature tune of the WNO Chorus.
The Company begins touring – firstly to Bournemouth, and also becomes a regular visitor to Sadler’s Wells.
1966-1975
The Company mounts the first UK production of Berg’s opera Lulu in 1971. The Welsh Philharmonia is established in 1971, and is renamed the WNO Orchestra in 1973.
Michael Geliot stages Billy Budd in an iconic production designed by Roger Butlin (1972), which is the first show to be toured internationally, with performances in Lausanne and Zurich in 1973.
The WNO Chorus is established as a full-time professional ensemble in 1973. Members of the Voluntary Chorus audition, and some of them are successful, enabling them to give up their regular jobs and become professional choristers.
FIRE! In 1975 a blaze rips through the WNO set store, destroying 30 years’ worth of productions. Performances continue, with borrowed sets and costumes from neighbouring UK opera companies.
1976-1985
The ‘WNO triumvirate’ of Richard Armstrong, Nicholas Payne and Brian McMaster put the company on the world stage by engaging radical European stage directors.
Notable productions include Peter Grimes, Otello, Rigoletto, Eugene Onegin, a Janáček cycle and the entire Ring cycle.
The Company makes an historic tour behind the Iron Curtain, taking in East Berlin, Dresden and Leipzig with productions of Ernani, The Turn of the Screw and Elektra.
Charles Mackerras conducts the UK première of The Greek Passion, featuring live goats.
1986-1995
Radical European stage director Peter Stein directs an iconic production of Pelléas et Mélisande conducted by Pierre Boulez, featuring live sheep.
WNO’s production of Falstaff tours to Tokyo, La Scala, Milan, and New York, and the Company makes three tours to the prestigious Wiesbaden May festival in Germany.
The Ring Cycle tours to venues including the Royal Opera House in 1986/1987.
Charles MacKerras conducts The Yeomen of the Guard in 1995; the first ever production of Gilbert and Sullivan to be performed at the Royal Opera House.
1996-2005
In 2004, WNO transfers from the New Theatre to a new venue in Cardiff Bay. The first WNO performance at Wales Millennium Centre is La traviata on Friday 18 February 2005, followed by Berg’s Wozzeck the following night.
Carlo Rizzi returns to WNO as Music Director, conducting notable Italian repertoire including Cav & Pag and Don Carlos.
The company continues to tour throughout England and Wales, performing regularly in Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, Llandudno, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Plymouth, Southampton and Swansea.
2006-2015
Lothar Koenigs conducts Die Meistersinger directed by Richard Jones, in a sell-out run of performances starring Bryn Terfel and Christopher Purves, and which is televised in a BBC Proms performance.
Following decades of association with WNO, David Pountney becomes Artistic Director and Chief Executive in 2011.
David Pountney signals the Company’s growing commitment to commissioning new opera – something which has always been a part of WNO’s activity – with the British Firsts season.
New commissions and premières include Peter Pan and the Usher House double bill.
WNO tours to Savonlinna and Oman with great success.
Leonora Thomson joins WNO as Managing Director in 2015, alongside Artistic Director David Pountney.
Since 2015
WNO marks its 70th Birthday with a new production, In Parenthesis, to commemorate the First World War.
Tomáš Hanus joins WNO as Music Director in 2016 and Carlo Rizzi becomes Conductor Laureate.
WNO stages the first in a Verdi Trilogy 2018-20 with a new production of La forza del destino in collaboration with Theater Bonn.
WNO marks the centenary of the first British women winning the vote with Rhondda Rips it Up! – an all-female opera composed by Elena Langer.
Aidan Lang joins WNO in summer 2019 as General Director.