WNO 2010 / 2011 Season

Creeping up like a ninja with roses the WNO 2010 / 2011 Season Subscription Booklet came in the post a few days ago, and thanks to my super postie it was free from any snowage damagicus. Unfortunately financiage damagicus appears to have struck WNO with a shortened season of productions bringing the number down to a worryingly catwalk model size seven.

The immediate difference from recent years is the unsurprisingly large number of Germanic works given that this is Lothar Koenigs' debut season as Der Meister der Mensch von WNO. The remaining three operas are provided by Italian opera. But life being what it is things aren't quite that simple as this is the Year of Eternal Light, WNO's series devoted to the opera of Germany and Austria, so if we're going to get technical then the score is Gerstria 5 – Italia 2.

So the question is, who, what, when and where Mrs Fletcher?




Photo by Frédéric Desmesure taken from Canvas Management website.

Conducted by Lothar Koenigs the Season opens in Autumn with Giuseppe Frigeni's production of Fidelio that began life at the Opera National de Bordeaux in 2007. Heading the cast is veteran tenor Dennis O'Neill as Florestan and Lisa Milne as Leonore. Being a slightly big sucker for Beethoven I'm looking forward to this chorus friendly production but with a Mars bar sized chunk of apprehension at the possible Hugh Hefneresque age difference between Leonore and Florestan. Saying that I'll eat a double slice of Marmite humble pie if Dennis O'Neill has me going back for more Dungeons & Pizarro.



Photo from WNO

Next up is a revival of Dominic Cooke's and Julian Crouch's fantastical The Magic Flute that deserves to be sung in German, but is instead sung in English*. Among the cast are Elizabeth Watts (Pamina), winner of the Song Prize at Cardiff Singer of the World 2007 and WNO regular Peter Wedd (Tamino). Waving the stick is Gareth Jones. It's Mozart so you can expect serene tunes as well as the ear-piercing Queen of the Night number.



Photo by Clive Barda from MusicWeb-International

Returning to conducting duties Lothar Koenigs sets the tempi for a revival of Neil Armfield's take on Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. This, I admit, is a new one for me but the return of Sarah Connolly to WNO is worth a mention. When the final curtain closes on this at the WMC the WNO will be packing their bags and going off on tour, not to be seen until February 2011.

With the last of your Gran's Christmas shortbread biscuits picking up more damp than a train station waiting room WNO's spring begins with a brand spanking new production of Johann Straus II's Die Fledermaus – the name on the wrapping this time is John Copley, so the eyes will be in for a treat. Again I'm meeting this one for the first time but know enough to realise that I won't be the only one in the audience to be thinking, "What's Batman doing on the stage?" Among the cast are WNO regulars, and also husband and wife combo, Nuccia Focile and Paul Charles Clarke. The conductor for this one is Thomas Rösner.



Photo by Brian Tarr from Spaghetti Gazetti

Move over Sachertorte – the pasta's coming! Returning a tad quicker than I would have thought wise, Il trovatore, Verdi's tale of bad parenting and misplaced matches breaks up the Fest. I'm not averse to Verdi, or Trovatore, in the least (he makes up a substantial pile of CD's / DVD's / programmes / tea-towels in my music collection) but I would have preferred to have seen something else by the man with the elegant tash. Saying that the cast looks ooohhhhh with Gwyn Hughes Jones making his debut as Manrico, Katia Pellegrino reprising her role from 2007 (how will she have developed in the intervening years?) and David Soar making his regrettably sole appearance of the season as Fernando. Add to the brew David Kempster as Count di Luna and Patricia Bardon as Azucena and my grumbles have given way to, "Pass me a pocket anvil, I'm off to work!" Andrea Licata returns to his recent stomping ground.

With summer returning in who knows what kind of shape Mozart gets another run out in the form of Così fan tutte. A new production by Benjamin Davies is given a youthful cast including the promising baritone Gary Griffiths as Gugliemo making his professional company debut with WNO and Camilla Roberts as Fiordiligi. Daniele Rustioni conducts.



Either it's Clive Barda or Brian Tarr behind the lense, but I know the picture was taken from MVDaily

The last offering is Puccini's Turandot, directed by Christopher Alden. Lothar Koenigs conducts a cast including Gwyn Hughes Jones as Calaf and Rebecca Evans making her role debut as Liù in what will probably be the biggest selling production of the whole year. Do I need to write anything else about it? Oh yes, Lothar Koenigs conducts this final production in what is his first true year as Music Director.

On the whole it looks an interesting batch, perhaps one of the Strauss' could have made way for something else as I'm not sure if they'll be too similar (castigate me now if you want to) but all in all the choices make a welcome break from the Italian opera that has been the mainstay in recent years. I can't hide my disappointment at the shrinking number of productions and wonder whether Die Fledermaus should be the production with the most dates (six, compared with an average three and a half for other productions).

Outside of the production area WNO are continuing with their meet and greet ventures that are worth going along to if you have the time and I'm happy to see that their audio described performances and touch tour are returning again to the WMC. Ticket prices at the WMC have in most cases held firm, although the top price tickets are now fifty pence from the £40 barrier.

The main booking dates are...

From now until the 12th of February is Friends of WNO Subscription Postal Booking.
12th of February Public Subscription Postal Booking.
15th of March Friends of WNO Individual Opera Postal Booking.
26th of March it's a free for all online, telephone, postal, in person but no pigeon post.

I can't finish without a little thank you to WNO & EMI for the surprise taster CD for the 2010 / 2011 Season with excerpts from EMI's catalogue and introductions by WNO's Dramaturg Simon Rees that came with the booking forms. A nice little touch that gives a flavour of what's to come.

* Explanation time. In my humble / berkish opinion there's something disappointing when the original language the work is composed for is elbowed out of the way to make things apparently more accessible for linguistic novices in the audience (yes, me). Part of the charm of opera for me is sometimes being freed from meaning and knowing everything that's going on and enjoying the sounds coming from the stage. The music quite often lets me know what's generally going on, and in many ways discovering the nuts and bolts of character's actions takes a pleasurable while to settle in my wood block. And let's face it, English is not the nicest language for opera singing…

Sweeping it under the carpet

There are times when I think to myself, "You know HairMan, I wouldn't mind seeing that again." No, not the reflection of my hair in my thrice hourly polished mirror, but certain productions that grab me by the seat of my pants. One such production was the 2007 WNO co-co-co-co production of La Cenerentola that wasn't to everyone's taste, but which I thought mirrored the fun nature of the work. Anyway, by the magic of DVD my hair can enjoy it once more. The slight difference being a different cast involved with Juan Diego Florez and Joyce Di Donato leading the way.

Of course there'll be people saying out there that this doesn't technically qualify as the same production I saw, which I'll acknowledge with a "Yes, you are sort of correct." On the other hand I liked the comic book setting so much that I'm willing to put up with the second string cast on this DVD...

[Stand up for WNO moment here - the cast I saw led by Colin Bell* and Marianna Pizzolato were worth combing my hair for]

One slight quibble with the DVD is that the recording is overly tipped in favour of the singers and the orchestra seems to be playing backstage while drinking sangria (apologies for lame stereotypying segue into the fact that this was shot in Barcelona).

* This, of course, should have read Colin Lee - but while writing this up I was listening to Erasure...

He's no Santa, but you wouldn't want to end up on his naughty list

A quick reminder for those of you who can receive S4C Digital (I'm sure it's on the Sky contraption box) that Bryn Terfel's recent Bad Boy's concert at St David's Hall is on this evening at 8.25pm. Running at a generous 90 minutes it's more than a token offering and should make for a handy night in for people who couldn't make it or who had a run-in with train furniture. If only Scarpia had become a safety inspector for Arriva Trains Wales...

Cardiff Singer off the World Победитель Ekaterina Scherbachenko to appear at Covent Garden

Way back in the middle of the year when I believed fellow bus / train / hot air balloon passengers' confident inside knowledge of a hot and sunny summer to come I spent a week sat in the Comfiest Seats in Showbiz (TM) during the BBC Cardiff Singer of the Year 2009 competition at St David's Hall. The eventual winner was Russia's Ekaterina Scherbachenko (aka Golden Cheekbones) who had me jelly legged after her Liù stylee number (that note's still ringing in my memory). She'd marked most judges cards with her earlier heat rendition of Tatyana's Letter Scene from Eugene Onegin and folks at Covent Garden will get to see her in the flesh as Tatyana come August 2010 as the Bolshoi Ballet & Opera Company take up a brief residency.

Fancy yourself a McVicar?

For the sake of the children, don't feed Santa last year's mince pies.

Ever thought that you could do better than the singers on stage? Well now you can, or at least you can if it's Carmen you fancy bossing around with some puppet finger madness from Custom Works. If you'd prefer something bigger than Tom Thumb then they've got a range of larger dolls including Beethoven and a dapper Puccini.

In case you're wondering, no, I am not taking any backhanders for this post – but if their sales rocket then I would, under duress (let it be said many times) accept a token of respect...but one glance at my blog hits has "wishful thinking" ringing in my ears.

They don't make them like this anymore - Domingo shoots the breeze with Yentob

Placido reacts with genuine enthusiasm after my audition for Washington National Opera


Thankfully not all the hours on television are given over to talent shows, reality programmes, soaps... (fill in the list with your own grumbles) - sometimes tiny shards of quality make it to the screen and tonight is one of those occasions. Alan Yentob, not a man unfamiliar with the world of opera during his time making the Imagine programmes, has been at it again picking the brains of Placido Domingo. No preview tapes were available at the time of writing as I'm not a journalist or BBC insider but at a rough guess I'll say the programme is centred on PD's recent debut as a baritone in Simon Boccanegra.

For viewers in Wales please note that the programme begins thirty minutes later while folks in Scotland and Northern Ireland you'll have to wait an hour.

While I'm not giving Charlie Brooker a run for his money I thought I'd point out a few other operatic small screen appearances over the holiday season. The recent ROH production of Tchaikovsky's The Tsarina's Slippers will be shown on BBC 2 on Christmas Eve at 2.15pm. Securing the afternoon slot on Christmas Day itself is the recent Netrebko / Villazon film version of La Boheme on BBC2 at 4.10pm. The last sighting of anything minus an X-Factor contestant is Bryn Terfel's recent Bad Boys concert at St David's Hall, showing on S4C at 8.25pm on the 30th of December under the title of Bryn Terfel: Cyngerdd y Bechgyn Drwg.

Getting to know you...

Hand on heart my first ever single I bought was Stu Francis' classic rendition of "Ooh, I could crush a grape!" and the first LP I bought was Shakin Stevens' "Green Door" – not exactly the natural way into opera, nor were doses of The Cure, Tori Amos, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Blake Babies, BB King, Robert Cray…you get what I'm trying to say, right?

There are countless ways of coming to the world of opera – or any other music genre for that matter, but getting to know who, and what's what, can be a daunting prospect with something that's been around a bit longer than electricity. But you needn't gulp loudly and think you're in for a lot of brow furrowing times reading tomes and listening to talks given in libraries.

First and foremost opera is music, with acting thrown into the bargain. Even if you've never sat through an opera, or even half a one odds are you'll have come across it in some way. Television, films and advertising are full of the stuff – and with the World Cup on the horizon you can bet that there'll be the odd montage used.

So if you're harbouring an interest in it getting into opera what should you do? As with most things the answer is – anything. For some people jumping in head-first and going along to a staged opera will be ideal while for others buying a recording of an opera with a libretto will be more their thing (in case you're wondering a libretto is a chunky booklet with the low down on the plot and all the words / lyrics that are sung – especially handy if you don't speak too many languages and haven't got the hearing abilities of a bat). Whatever you do just remember to enjoy it, and not feel overawed, and especially don't feel you have to prostrate yourself in honour to the music. Enjoy it.

Okay, so if you've decided to take option a and go along to see one in the flesh you're thinking, "Where should I go?" The answer to this question can be found closer to home than you think. Most people will have heard of The Royal Opera and Covent Garden – and quite rightly so – but for many people a trip to London can be too expensive to see something they're not sure of. But help is at hand in the form of several smaller opera companies dotted throughout this humpbacked pig shaped island of ours. Starting off with the pig head there is WNO that though based in Cardiff tours throughout Wales with extensive forays across the border. Opera North represents the lower part of the hump, while the upper part of the hump can be found with Scottish Opera. The beauty of these smaller companies is that they travel around enough to reach most parts of Pig Island while not charging a lot for their efforts.

Okay, the bit that everyone worries about their first time. Dress code. Unless you've got a thing for Superman / Naughty Nurse costumes pretty anything else goes. Some people like to go the whole hog and bow tie / ball gown the evening while others prefer a suit, which is fine by me. Personally, I'm a jeans man myself (though I do like the odd ball gown now and again) and have turned up to the opera houses of London, Vienna, Budapest and of course Cardiff in varying degrees of colour and bagginess of the blue stuff without an ounce of embarrassment. Wear what you like – if someone does a raising of their nose to you just shrug your shoulders and remember the line from Ferris Bueller's Day Off – "It's understanding that makes it possible for people like us to tolerate a person like yourself."

Once you're sat and the curtain comes up it can help if you know a bit about what happens in the opera beforehand, but on the other hand going with the flow can be a bit of an adventure. To help things along surtitles are shown above the stage giving an idea of what's being sung on stage. Don't worry if you get lost now and then – it'll have happened to everyone at some point. Okay, one slightly important thingage. Clapping. To be on the safe side wait until everyone else claps during the performance – but only if you feel like it. But come the end of the night, which can be between two and three hours plus it is the done thing to applaud the performers even if they didn't rock your boat – they've tried their best after all.

If you've gone for option b – buying a recording – there are several ways to go about this. You can splash some serious(ish) cash on the more expensive recordings out there, or you can buy recordings from smaller labels like Naxos. Increasingly though the larger labels are re-releasing their catalogues without libretti at affordable prices. A good source for libretti on the internet is the EMI Classics website that has a fair few free libretti on offer, or you can buy single libtretti for a few quid. But hang on! Aren't we in the age of DVD? Yep. And you can buy pretty much any opera on DVD – but prices do vary so shop around to get the best for your wallet. If you like your opera big sized you can catch The Met Live in HD in cinemas, But for the freebie lovers keep an eye on BBC Radio 3 on Saturday evenings.

So there you are – a brief introduction into introducing yourself to opera. I won't give a list of what you should see / listen / watch as my tastes aren't yours. If you try it and it isn't for you then don't worry. If you try it and you love it then great! But at least give it a try. And okay, I will drop one name into the ring of an opera that is very much a firm favourite with audiences the world over, and it will include a couple of ditties you're bound to know...Carmen.