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.