Spring 2017 is set to be an exciting season for the Welsh National Opera. Alongside performances around the world, including opening the brand new Dubai Opera House in March, there is plenty for audiences back home to look forward to. In a season that promises to cater well for fans of Puccini, Cardiff audiences can expect productions of two of the most celebrated operatic works with productions of La bohème and Madam Butterfly, performed in the original Italian with English and Welsh subtitles. Madam Butterfly will be Joachim Herz’s over 30-year-old production, while La bohème will be the more unusual 2012 Annabel Arden interpretation, set on Christmas 1913, just before the outbreak of World War I.
Alongside these, the WNO will also be showing Le Vin herbé by Frank Martin, a 1938 opera based on the Tristan and Isolde legend that inspired the renowned Wagner opera. Director Polly Graham explains that much like the other two productions, it is a love story, but musically it is from a different world; where Puccini was the master of gut-wrenching musical theatre, this work is a secular oratorio closer musically to a Bach passion. She says: ‘The piece is part narrative, part dramatic enactment; it really privileges the power and continual presence of the chorus, who are the chief narrators.’
Graham, who also directed last summer’s WNO Youth Opera production of Maxwell Davies’ Kommilitonen!, says it can be more interesting to direct a work like this that is less rarely staged. ‘This feels like a big responsibility to do this work justice, because it really is a masterpiece,’ she says. ‘I would actually like to do a tour of Welsh churchyards with this show – because it’s minimal and gothic and ethereal.’
Outside of full-scale productions, we can look forward to the WNO Orchestra’s Classical Drive, an evening of Grieg, Mozart and Haydn’s Cello Concerto with soloist Rosie Biss, all under the baton of David Adams. Whether you want to watch one of your favourites or discover something new, WNO will have something for you to enjoy this spring.
La bohème, Thurs 2 – Wed 15 Feb; Le Vin herbé, Thurs 16 Feb; Madam Butterfly, Fri 10 – Sat 18 Feb, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff. Tickets: £7 – £43. Info: 029 2063 6464 / www.wno.org.uk; Classical Drive, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Cardiff. Sat 25 Feb. Info: 029 2039 1391 / www.rwcmd.ac.uk
words ALEC EVANS