WNO reveals programme for 2024-25 season
Florence Lockheart
Thursday, February 8, 2024
Despite a reduction in its ACE funding Welsh National Opera is set to present new productions as well returning to Swansea for the first time in a decade
Welsh National Opera (WNO) has announced the programme for its upcoming 2024-25 season. As well as two new productions, the season is set to present a celebration of WNO Youth Opera’s 20th anniversary and will also herald the company’s return to Swansea.
The upcoming season will see Port Talbot-born opera and music theatre director Adele Thomas make her WNO directorial debut with a new production of Rigoletto. The new interpretation of Verdi’s masterpiece will open in Cardiff on 21 September before touring to Llandudno, Plymouth, Oxford, Southampton and Bristol. WNO music director Tomáš Hanus also takes on a new project, conducting the company’s brand-new production of Peter Grimes with Nicky Spence and Dame Sarah Connolly who both make role debuts. The production opens in Cardiff on 5 April and will tour to Southampton, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Llandudno and Plymouth.
WNO interim general director Christopher Barron said: ‘Our 2024/2025 Season includes many highlights, bookended by two new productions… Having watched WNO at the Grand Theatre many times myself during my university days in Swansea, I am delighted that we will be returning as a Company to Swansea with our much-loved production of The Marriage of Figaro along with our family show Play Opera LIVE.’
The upcoming season marks WNO’s return to Swansea for the first time in a decade, with The Marriage of Figaro – conducted by former WNO Associate Conductor, Kerem Hasan – and the first in a new tour of interactive and educational family shows Play Opera LIVE, offering children a chance to explore the world of opera.
WNO Youth Opera will also celebrate its 20-year anniversary in the upcoming season. Success stories from the programme include Welsh-Ukranian soprano Natalya Romaniw, a former WNO Youth Opera member who makes her return to the WNO stage for the Autumn run of Il trittico following the summer premiere of the new WNO production.
WNO Orchestra and Chorus presents two crowd-pleasing concerts in the 2024-25 season with their Opera at the Movies concert featuring a new programme of arias and songs that feature in popular films including Pretty Woman, The Shawshank Redemption and Quantum of Solace and a New Year concert tours whisking audiences away to Austria in A Viennese Celebration.
