I Read the News Today

To mark the opening of WNO’s new season Wales Online have a pair of articles worthy of your perusal.

Director John Caird talks to Mike Smith about how Rodin’s sculptures have influenced his team's approach to Don Giovanni. A spoiler alert if you are going to see it in the flesh – some details of the production appear to have been let out of the bag like a cat on a moped.

The second article sees David Pountney, WNO’s Chief Executive and Artistic Director, chatting with Karen Price about his role with the company, “there’s room for more excitement in the artistic planning and that’s why I’m here really,” his part in introducing Lothar Koenigs to WNO, and his ideas about possible future productions, “I’ve never done a Ring…I always have an interest in new pieces and unknown pieces.”

Read, and enjoy!

Zom Giovanni

Borrowed from WNO

You’ll all be familiar with the plot of Don Giovanni (murderous lounge lizard gets his comeuppance at the hands of a zombie), so I’ll crack on with some DG musical highlights in anticipation of WNO’s new production, which opens the 2011/12 season this Friday.


Jimmy L and Met Orchestra giving it some welly.




Leporello explains how many hot dinners his boss has had. (1.53)




Don Giovanni in action. Smooth operator.




Donna Anna cottons on to Don G. Wants blood.




Despite being on the run he just can’t help himself. He should really be on the Jeremy Kyle Show.




Zombie gets its man.

Cineworld Cardiff to Show Anna Bolena

Lovers of aural gratification in Cardiff will be pleased to learn that the Met Live in HD broadcast of Anna Bolena on the 15th of October, starring Anna Netrebko and Ekaterina Gubanova, will be beamed to Cardiff Cineworld after all. A plain old error updating the cinema’s original advance booking page led to the date being left off the list. To book the performance, click here.

Don Giovanni Tweets For Your Eyes Only

Original photo Brian Tarr

Have you ever wondered how a singer prepares for the bad boy role of Don Giovanni? Does he listen to recordings? Maybe he talks to other singers who have played the role? Or does he just spend a week in Amsterdam with Charlie Sheen?

Answering these, and other (more intelligent) questions, will be David Kempster, WNO’s Don Giovanni in their forthcoming new production, as he tweets live from rehearsals this Friday for @WNOtweet.

If you have an itch to scratch about Don Giovanni, or if you want to ask Don Kempster any other opera related questions, all you need to do is tweet a question to @WNOtweet between now and Friday.

If tweeting isn’t your thing you can always email a question to marketing@wno.org.uk and the best questions will be passed on to the Don himself. If you haven’t got the time to follow the tweets in real time WNO will be rounding them all up and publishing them next week.

And just as the Don roamed the globe in search of his 2000+ conquests, WNO would like to hear from tweeters and emailers from all around the globe, so shake a question loose from your mind and ask the Don a question he can't refuse.

I'll now stop with the Don references before I slip in a Dom DeLuise reference by mistake...

Met Live in HD Broadcasts Return to Cardiff

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Good news for opera lovers in the Cardiff area – the Met Live in HD Broadcasts are returning for another season at Cineworld Cardiff. The first broadcast is scheduled to be Mozart’s Don Giovanni (29th of October), starring Mariusz Kwiecien – a former Cardiff Singer of the World finalist.

There are ten broadcasts in all, spread over the coming months, with the likes of Bryn Terfel, Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, Natalie Dessay, René Pape and Joyce DiDonato singing for your pleasure.





Tickets cost £15 for adults and £12 for children, seniors and students.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a blog post without a moan, and this time it’s the news that Anna Bolena, starring Anna Netrebko and Ekaterina Gubanova, is not scheduled for broadcast at Cardiff. I’ll dig a little deeper and see if I can clear this up.


The Cineworld Cardiff broadcasts in full…

Don Giovanni – Saturday, 29th of October (6pm)

Siegfried – Saturday, 5th of November (4pm)

Satyagraha – Saturday, 19th of November (6pm)

Rodelinda – Saturday, 3rd of December (5.30pm)

Faust – Saturday, 10th of December (6pm)

The Enchanted Island – Saturday, 21st of January 2012 (6pm)

Götterdämmerung – Saturday, 11th of February (5pm)

Ernani – Saturday, 25th of February (6pm)

Manon – Saturday, 7th of April (5pm)

La Traviata – Saturday, 14th of April (6pm)

Boomerang 'Burgs Are Back - Mariinsky Opera Returns to the WMC

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Feeling like a cad* with a spiffing moustache, my first post-summer post has yours sincerely drawing your attention to the return of the Mariinsky Opera to the WMC next year.

In keeping with its last appearance, St. Petersburg’s finest opera company blasts a bit (or more frankly, a lot) of Wagner, with a full concert performance of Parsifal on the 31st of March. The following day sees Mahler’s Symphony No.8 being given an outing. No word yet about the soloists, but both concerts will be conducted by Valery Gergiev.

Judging by the fact that a libretto will be available from the WMC website in February of next year, it appears that surtitles will once again be absent from the concerts – a significant gripe among concert goers after the previous visit by the Mariinsky.

Tickets are now on sale from the WMC, with prices raging from £18 - £49 for Parsifal, and £15- £39 for the Mahler. The usual concessions are available, including a generous £10 selected seat offer for beings aged 26 and under. For those of you who want your tickets to arrive at the speed of light I’m afraid that you will have to wait until March 2012 for them to arrive.

* WNO blogging will resume shortly.

Haute Couture Papageno

Birds on Street Corners by Ani Stafford-Townsend

A bear has interrupted my summer recess with the following message about WNO's milliner extraordinaire, Ani Stafford-Townsend...





To vote for Birds on Street Corners click here! But hurry up – voting closes on the 18th of August (Thursday) at 6pm UK time!

If you are reading this at a later date the competition will have finished, but you can still visit Ani-Stafford Townsend's website to see other examples of her work.