Opera Favourites
Welsh National Opera, Cardiff

A SELECTION of famous operatic arias and chorale work had an enthusiastic audience demanding more from Welsh National Opera’s night of Opera Favourites.

The production of crowd-pleasers was chosen to delight existing opera lovers and entice new audiences. That is part of WNO’s offer to the public as it strives to keep opera in Wales affordable and accessible to the widest demographic. Welsh chorale singing has a proud working-class tradition and this is reflected in the mixed audiences for WNO’s usual bill of operas.

That is in marked contrast to how opera is often regarded as an art form for society’s wealthy elite. There is no custom of dressing for the opera at the WNO’s home at the Millennium Centre, unlike some London houses I have visited. Putting on an evening of classic pieces would have the purists frowning as well, offering “lollipops” to the masses and dumbing down the art form.

But this production has the highest production standards with the orchestra front and centre on stage so we can watch them at work. 

The WNO chorus is a mighty sound in full voice and they took the opportunity to play a starring role with some beautiful singing, acting and dancing as they took centre-stage for the opening scene from Verdi’s Othello, the evening prayer from Hansel and Gretel, the waltz from Eugene Onegin and most notably in Rigoletto.

The chorus also hammed up in a joyous way its role as a crowd of soldiers and cigarette girls as mezzo-soprano Melissa Gregory sensually worked the throng as Bizet’s Carmen singing Habanera L’armour.

The mix of operas on offer had something for everybody with tenor and baritone duets, soprano and mezzo-soprano duets as well as men and women singing together. Gregory, soprano Emily Christina Loftus, baritone James Cleverton and tenor Adam Gilbert were superb as they strolled onstage in character and then just departed as their turn finished and the chorus and orchestra took over. They and the mighty chorus were clearly having a ball and enjoying their interplay.

My quibble with the evening was the screens with the surtitles in English and Welsh above the stage stayed blank. This is a minor point but if you want people to come back to opera it helps if they know what the singers are singing as the pieces roamed from German to Italian to French.

On tour until April 30. For more information see: wno.org.