“The timpani part in Macbeth stipulates just two timpani. The result? A host of wrong notes for the timpanist! What on earth is going on?” I received an email the other day that included a message from our timpanist for our forthcoming Macbeth. It simply read: “…needs 3 timps…”! And this amused me and got me thinking. Because Verdi’s commitment to Macbeth was absolute, his attention to detail formidable, his musical, dramatic and visual ambition for the piece beyond anything else he had done previously. And yet, for all that, both my score and the timpani part stipulate just two timpani. The r ..read more

Caricature of Berlioz by Horace Vernet, 1831 I have to be honest: I’ve always had a somewhat equivocal relationship with Berlioz. And I know that, amongst musicians and music lovers, I’m not alone. Some of his works have widespread appeal, such as the song cycle Les nuits d’été and the celebrated Symphonie fantastique. And I’ve always adored the love scene from Roméo et Juliette since studying it as a student. After that, when I ask around (and I’ve asked around quite a bit since planning Béatrice et Bénédict with MWO), I get a slightly questioning, even bemused response. It seems to me that p ..read more

“Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel would never have existed if it wasn’t for the composer’s sister, the German folklore enthusiast Adelheid Wette” Adelheid Wette The story of Hansel and Gretel begins in 1812 when two academic brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, publish a set of stories entitled Kinder und Hausmärchen (Children’s and Household Tales). The collection was huge and included the old German tale of Hansel and Gretel. But the opera we know today would never have existed if it wasn’t for the German author, composer, poet and folklore enthusiast Adelheid Wette. Born in Siegburg, near Bonn ..read more

Once upon a time, an author was commissioned to produce a charming tale as a primer book for children to help them to learn to read. He was so frustrated with the list of prescribed words he was allowed to use that, one day, whilst sitting at his desk he resolved to weave a story around the first two words in the list that rhymed. The first two words he came across were Hat and Cat, and in that moment one of the world’s best loved books was born and the author lived very happily ever after. Who doesn’t love an animal in a costume? A cursory search of social media will produce a multitude of i ..read more

Since first encountering Xavier Montsalvatge’s music, way back in 1995, MWO’s Music Director has been fascinated by the Catalan composer’s work. Now for our SmallStages tour this Autumn, twenty years after the composer’s death, MWO are thrilled to bring Montsalvatge’s opera El Gato Con Botas/Puss in Boots to new audiences with a chamber arrangement by Jonathan Lyness. MWO have secured the rights from the Montsalvatge Estate to produce the opera with a new chamber arrangement and a new English translation by our Artistic Director Richard Studer. It will be published by Peermusic, New York makin ..read more

We’re inviting you to join us in a fairytale world of magic and myth with our new season launched at Gregynog Hall on Sunday. Launching our Fairy Tales season at our annual Friends of MWO Gala, Executive Director Lydia Bassett said: “Lots of people are struggling at the moment, and there’s something magical about letting someone sing you a story. We want these magical Fairy Tales to transport you to another world for the evening, full of witches and ogres, a princess and the mischievous Puss in Boots. They’re familiar stories with an operatic twist and we’re excited to be sharing them with au ..read more

Once a year we send Team MWO back to school, taking over the curriculum for a full week and working with children in a primary school to create their own opera from scratch. After two years without a school residency project because of Covid restrictions, it was an absolute pleasure to take over a week’s worth of classes for 44 Year 5 pupils at Newtown’s Ysgol Penygloddfa to help them write a script and songs and create costumes for The Adventures of Frankie the Fox. The week started with our Artistic Director Richard Studer sharing his cartoon sketches, loosely based on Janacek’s The Cunning ..read more

On Thursday 17 March Mid Wales Opera performs La bohème at The Riverfront, Newport with BSL interpretation by Julie Doyle. Sign Language Week runs from 14-20 March. The annual celebration, organised by the British Deaf Association (BDA), promotes awareness of issues affecting sign-language users and the welfare of deaf people in the UK. The theme for Sign Language Week 2022 is: ‘BSL Brings Us Together’. The aim of the campaign is to encourage people of all ages across the UK to take up the challenge of learning BSL for themselves and finding out more about th ..read more

We simply couldn’t celebrate International Women’s Day without hearing from the one and only Bridget Wallbank. Our Production Manager, Bridget, started out as a Theatre Technician at our home venue The Hafren, Newtown in 1988. She’s been with Mid Wales Opera since the very beginning and is still happier up a ladder than behind a desk! “Being a Theatre Technician and female is still quite unusual, though anecdotal statistics (i.e. what I see) do seem to show some small improvement. It is still noticeable that I can count the current female technicians on our MainStages tour on one hand. I was ..read more

International Women’s Day is a global day to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. Today, we’re celebrating all the incredible women of opera, and particularly those who make our spring 2022 tour of La bohème possible. Behind the atmosphere and emotions conveyed in the production is prolific Lighting Designer, Elanor Higgins. Elanor is based in Wales, but her work has taken her throughout the UK and internationally, including Ireland, Spain and the Sydney Opera House. Elanor is a graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama where she returns a ..read more