Welsh National Opera to open new season with double bill

Nation.Cymru staff

The Welsh National Opera will open its autumn season in Cardiff next month with a double bill of Bluebeard’s Castle and Oedipus Rex, followed by Puccini’s La bohème.

The programme, which opens at the Wales Millennium Centre on September 20, will be the first fully programmed season under WNO’s co-general directors and chief executives Adele Thomas and Sarah Crabtree.

Bluebeard’s Castle and Oedipus Rex will be staged together, with the former conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya and directed by Joe Hill-Gibbins.

The production of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, originally created by English National Opera, also features music by medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen.

It will be followed by a new production of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, with a libretto by Jean Cocteau.

Performer and TV personality LJ Parkinson will appear as the Bard/Narrator, alongside a cast including Nathan Berg as Bluebeard and Tiresias, Christine Rice as Judith and Jocasta, and Peter Hoare as Oedipus.

The double bill will be sung in Hungarian and Latin with English and Welsh surtitles.

La bohème

WNO will then stage La bohème from September 27.

The Glyndebourne production, directed by Floris Visser and conducted by Corinna Niemeyer, sets Puccini’s opera in 1930s Paris.

Alexia Voulgaridou will play Mimì opposite Carlos Cardoso as Rodolfo, with Navasard Hakobyan as Marcello and Sofia Kirwan-Baez as Musetta.

WNO associate artists Owain Rowlands and Ross Fettes will take the roles of Schaunard and Colline respectively.

The opera will be performed in Italian with English and Welsh surtitles.

A family concert will complete the Cardiff programme on September 30, with a programme inspired by Ancient Greece and Rome.

Hosted by Welsh actor and presenter Elin Llwyd, alongside director Emma Woods and soprano Eiry Price, the hour-long concert will include music by Beethoven, Lully, Handel, Mozart and Offenbach.

The Cardiff and Llandudno performances will be presented in Welsh, while performances in Southampton, Oxford and Plymouth will be in English.

The three productions will tour to Llandudno, Southampton, Oxford and Plymouth during October and November.

New programme

The season will also coincide with the launch of The Boiler Room, which WNO describes as the UK’s only opera research and development programme based within a national opera company.

Welsh director and producer Jack Furness has been appointed its first producer, with the programme intended to provide artists with resources and opportunities to develop new work.

Furness said: “New opera and experimentation have been major aspects of my career, and as Boiler Room Producer, I have a unique opportunity to help turbo-charge new opera as a vital storytelling medium in Wales and beyond.

“I’m looking forward to working with artists across Wales to connect them with the time, space and resources they need to develop their operatic voices.”

WNO is also launching Bwlch – The Artist’s Pass, which will give artists living in Wales access to £10 standby tickets for available seats at performances at the Wales Millennium Centre and selected dress rehearsals.

Later in the 2026/27 season, WNO will work with Super Furry Animals musician Gruff Rhys on Hedd Wyn: Eisteddfod Atomig, a co-production with Theatr Cymru exploring the legacy of the Welsh First World War poet.

Welsh Music Prize winner Don Leisure has also produced a piece remixing La bohème for WNO’s season campaign.

‘Thrilling’

Adele Thomas and Sarah Crabtree said: “This autumn shows just how thrilling and expansive opera can be. From the dark psychological intensity of Bluebeard’s Castle and Oedipus Rex to the raw emotion of La bohème and the sheer joy of introducing young audiences to live music through our Family Concert, we want every experience with WNO to feel immediate, exciting and alive.

“Yet, our ambition stretches beyond what audiences see on stage. The Boiler Room and Bwlch are about opening up WNO – creating space for artists to experiment, collaborate, take risks and discover what opera might become next.”

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