Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at the London Coliseum, the best of Broadway musicals and opera with Bryn Terfel at the South Bank Centre and a concert performance of WNO’s four-star critically acclaimed Tristan and Isolde at the Edinburgh International Festival are all adding up to a busy summer for the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera.
Porgy and Bess
Once WNO’s Summer Season of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde and Puccini’s La bohème closes at the Birmingham Hippodrome on the 16 June, the Orchestra will heading home to Cardiff for final rehearsals of Cape Town Opera’s productions of Porgy and Bess and Mandela Trilogy which will play at the Wales Millennium Centre from 20 June, with performances of Porgy and Bess at the London Coliseum from 11 July. Cape Town Opera, the largest arts performing company in South Africa, first performed Porgy and Bess in the UK in 2009, touring with an orchestra formed in association with Welsh National Opera, and was praised by both critics and the audience alike.
Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama
In June the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama WNO Residency will take place with wind, string and orchestral concerts taking place over the two days. Both the wind and the string lunchtime and evening concerts on 28 June will demonstrate WNO’s commitment to encouraging and nurturing new talent with young players performing alongside WNO’s musicians and music staff. This is part of the WNO Orchestral Placement Scheme which sees professional musicians mentoring and working with the students throughout each year. The Wind Concert, conducted by Stephen Wood, will see young composer Tom Davoren, part of the placement scheme himself some time ago, have one of his own works performed alongside established wind orchestral classics. WNO Orchestra Leader David Adams will direct the String Concert which will include works from Mendelssohn, Bach and Grieg.
The finale of the residency will see the full WNO Orchestra perform under the baton of Music Director, Lothar Koenigs, on the evening of the 29 June. Works by Stravinsky and Dutilleux are presented alongside the latest of Lothar’s series of Beethoven Symphonies he is performing with his Orchestra – this concert will be Symphony number 4.
South Bank Centre – Brynfest
The next stop will be London’s South Bank Centre for a festival of Welsh musical talent with Bryn Terfel. Brynfest will celebrate the Golden Age of Broadway on 4 July with Bryn being joined by a host of West End stars to perform excerpts from Gypsy, South Pacific, My Fair Lady, Carousel with Gareth Jones conducting.
On 5 July, the Chorus of Welsh National Opera will join the Orchestra to perform excerpts from Macbeth, Tosca, Rigoletto and more with soloists Bryn Terfel, Oksana Dyka, Nino Surguladze and Lawrence Brownlee conducted by Gareth Valentine.
St David’s Cathedral and St David’s Hall
Following their three week period in London (the second two weeks being the Porgy and Bess performances at the London Coliseum), the Orchestra performs three major concerts in Wales, the first two of which are at St David’s Cathedral in Pembrokeshire as part of the Fishguard Festival on the 24 and 27 July. Rui Pinheiro and Owain Arwel Hughes will conduct with guest cellist Julian Lloyd Webber and violinist Tasmin Little. On 28 July the Orchestra will join in the musical celebrations at St David’s Hall in Cardiff for the Last Night of the Welsh Proms.
Edinburgh International Festival
On 15 August Welsh National Opera will be performing its recently acclaimed production of Tristan and Isolde at the Usher Hall for the Edinburgh International Festival. This concert performance will see both Orchestra and Chorus perform Wagner’s epic work which garnered four-star reviews in performances in Cardiff and Birmingham this season, with Ben Heppner and Ann Petersen in the title roles.
WNO Chorus and Orchestra Director, Peter Harrap, says:
“This summer is an extraordinary time for the Orchestra of Welsh National Opera. Our work on the main stage in Cardiff and Birmingham with our present Music Director Lothar Koenigs (Tristan and Isolde) and former Music Director in Carlo Rizzi (La bohème) has us firing on all cylinders.
“The opportunity to collaborate with the hugely exciting and energetic Cape Town Opera Company and playing for the Royal Festival Hall concerts with Bryn Terfel, together with stars of both the musicals and opera world, will be an immensely stimulating time for our players.
“In Wales our partnership at the RWCMD and valued connection with the Fishguard Festival and Welsh Proms are becoming important features in our summer calendar. Returning to the Edinburgh Festival will be a fitting conclusion to a great season during which, at every turn, this terrific orchestra will have demonstrated both its accomplishment and versatility to a very wide public.”
