new seasons from Welsh National Opera and Opera North

New seasons from Welsh Nationwide Opera and Opera North. Each WNO and Opera North have launched particulars of forthcoming 2023/24 seasons, and each corporations appear decided to benefit from alternatives regardless of funding cuts and a usually hostile local weather for the humanities. New productions at WNO will likely be Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, the corporate’s first-ever manufacturing of Britten’s Dying in Venice, Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, and Puccini’s Il Trittico. Opera North presents new productions of Verdi’s Falstaff, Puccini’s La Rondine, a brand new masque primarily based on Purcell’s music, and Rachmaninoff’s Aleko, with the corporate’s Autumn season being absolutely sustainable. 

WNO’s Autumn season options Golijov’s Ainadamar, in a manufacturing shared with Scottish Opera who gave the work’s UK premiere final yr. Ainadamar is directed by choreographer Deborah Colker and carried out by Matthew Kofi Waldren, with Argentinian soprano Jaquelina Livieri, Julieth Lozano, and Alfredo Tejada. There’s a revival of David McVicar’s manufacturing of Verdi’s La Traviata carried out by Alexander Joel with Olga Pudova, David Junghoon Kim and Mark S Doss. The operas will tour to Cardiff, Llandudno, Bristol, Plymouth, Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Southampton.

Opera North’s Autumn is dedicated to its Inexperienced Season, its first absolutely sustainable season which can use shared scenic parts, designed by Leslie Travers, to create three interlinked but distinctive designs, enabling Opera North to cut back its use of supplies and its carbon footprint. All units, props and costumes within the season are sourced from earlier productions or bought second-hand. A brand new manufacturing of Verdi’s Falstaff is directed by Jo Davies, carried out by Garry Walker with Henry Waddington within the title function. Sir David Pountney has created the Masque of May utilizing Purcell’s music reimagining the Seventeenth-century type of the masque with trendy know-how to create a biting but humorous modern satire, billed as an ‘eco-entertainment’. The conductor is Harry Bickett with Andri Björn Róbertsson, James Laing and Anna Dennis. Puccini’s La Rondine is directed by James Hurley, carried out by Kerem Hasan, with Galina Averina, Claire Lees, Sébastien Guèze and Elgan Llŷr Thomas. The operas will tour to Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham, and Salford.

WNO’s Spring season options two new productions. Music director Tomáš Hanus conducts Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte, directed by Max Hoehn, with Sophie Bevan, Kayleigh Decker, Egor Zhuravskii and James Atkinson. Olivia Fuchs directs Britten’s Dying in Venice, carried out by Leo Hussain, with Mark LeBrocq, making his function debut as Aschenbach, Roderick Williams and Alexander Likelihood. The Spring operas tour to Cardiff, Llandudno, Southampton, Oxford, Bristol and Plymouth.

Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana at Opera North in 2017 the manufacturing is revived in 2024 (Photograph Robert Workman)

Opera North’s Spring Season encompasses a revival of Giles Havergal’s manufacturing of Britten’s Albert Herring, carried out by Garry Walker with Josephine Barstow as Girl Billows, plus Katie Bray, William Dazeley, Amy Freston, Richard Mosley-Evans, Claire Pascoe, Dominic Sedgwick, and Heather Shipp. Tim Albery’s manufacturing of Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte is revived with Alexandra Lowe, Heather Lowe, Anthony Gregory and Henry Neill because the lovers, carried out by Clemens Schuldt and Chloe Rooke, every making their Opera North debuts. A double invoice encompasses a new manufacturing of Rachminoff’s rarely-performed Aleko, directed by Karolina Sofulak with a revival of her manufacturing of Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, carried out by Antony Hermus. Lots of the solid take roles in each works with Robert Hayward, Giselle Allen, Andrés Presno, Elin Pritchard and Anne-Marie Owens. The operas will tour to Leeds, Nottingham, Salford and Hull. 

WNO’s Summer season seaon options David McVicar’s new manufacturing of Puccini’s Il Trittico which debuts in Scotland this month. The conductor is Carlo Rizzi and the solid contains Justina Gringytė, Vuvu Mpofu, and Alexia Voulgaridou. The manufacturing won’t tour and is simply being carried out in Cardiff.

All year long, the WNO Orchestra will likely be giving a programme of concert events together with St David’s Corridor, and two live performance excursions, while the Orchestra of Opera North will likely be showing on the Kirklees Live performance Season