WNO Annual Review 15
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2015/2016 Annual Review Making opera matter, NOW Great opera, NOW Reaching further, NOW The future, NOW Together, NOW Great value, NOW Making opera matter, NOW Welsh National Opera believes that opera matters now. It can Last year we provided more opportunities than ever for children entertain, engage and bring people together. Over the course and members of the community across our touring regions of the 2015/2016 Season we showed just what opera can do. to take part in WNO projects and workshops. Our activities included innovative education projects and community choirs. We are committed to ensuring that opera remains a thriving, living, breathing art form. For us, opera doesn’t simply offer WNO works hard to make the most of every pound of public great nights out but can also stimulate debate and ask essential investment. Throughout 2015/2016 we supplemented that questions about the world in which we live. Our themed season income in many different ways including ticket sales, fundraising programming and two new world premières were proof of and hiring opera productions to other companies. our artistic ambition. Critical and audience acclaim for our performances recognised the Company’s exceptionally high No project in 2015/2016 better demonstrated what WNO and artistic standards. opera can do than In Parenthesis: We believe that opera can have value for everyone and make a real difference to people’s lives. In 2015/2016 we reached more people in more ways through our performances, our work with young people and in local communities, digital activity and social media reach. 2 Making opera matter, NOW Great opera, NOW Reaching further, NOW The future, NOW Together, NOW Great value, NOW In Parenthesis CASE STUDY To celebrate 70 years of WNO and to mark the centenary of The Battle of the Somme, we commissioned a major new opera. In Parenthesis, composed by Iain Bell with libretto by Emma Jenkins and David Antrobus, is a moving adaptation of David Jones’ modernist epic poem. The opera follows Private John Ball as he and his comrades from the Royal Welch Fusiliers are posted to the Somme, finally entering the horrors of the battle of Mametz Wood. In Parenthesis was commissioned by the Nicholas John Trust with 14-18NOW, the UK’s arts programme for the First World War Centenary. ‘Welsh National Opera is carrying the flag for new work like no other company.’Rian Evans, The Guardian on In Parenthesis ‘Hats off to Welsh National Opera, which for the second time this ‘Iain Bell’s In Parenthesis was a landmark for 14-18NOW, the season has presented the world première of a new work with first major opera commissioned to mark the centenary of the considerable musical quality and immediate audience appeal. First World War. An inspired response to David Jones’s So it can be done; the book of opera is not yet complete.’ great poem, In Parenthesis played a key part in the UK’s Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph on In Parenthesis commemorations of the first day of the Battle of the Somme.’ Nigel Hinds, Executive Director, 14-18NOW Andrew Bidlack (Private John Ball) and Alexandra Deshorties (Queen of the Woods) in In Parenthesis. Photo by Bill Cooper 3 Making opera matter, NOW Great opera, NOW Reaching further, NOW The future, NOW Together, NOW Great value, NOW In Parenthesis CASE STUDY In Parenthesis was seen by a total of 6,500 people in Cardiff, Birmingham and at the Royal Opera House, London. The opera reached and continues to reach a large audience who couldn’t have made it to one of our performances, through the groundbreaking online broadcasting project The Opera Platform and a series of screenings in cinemas. Our dedicated In Parenthesis website and video podcasts helped a broader audience to explore the opera’s subject matter, the poem it was based on and the process of creating a new opera. ‘A packed Wales Millennium Centre cheered and cheered.’ Richard Bratby, The Spectator on In Parenthesis Unique visits on 8,328 inparenthesis.org.uk People watched our 17,144 In Parenthesis video podcasts Viewings of In Parenthesis 11,135 on The Opera Platform and Arte Concert Andrew Bidlack (Private John Ball) and Alexandra Deshorties (Queen of the Woods) in In Parenthesis Photo by Bill Cooper 4 Making opera matter, NOW Great opera, NOW Reaching further, NOW The future, NOW Together, NOW Great value, NOW In Parenthesis CASE STUDY The resonance of the opera’s themes and subject ‘This is opera created for and with the ‘The opening of In Parenthesis on 13 May matter meant that In Parenthesis was the perfect community; not just in Wales, though was an incredible evening. The combination platform for a broader programme of work seeking its honouring of the Royal Welch of production, Chorus, principals and to reach beyond opera audiences and engage children and communities. In totality, this work Fusiliers exudes grace. Retaining Jones’ Orchestra made for a very moving offered a broad audience who would not normally poetic sensibility, it is a powerful act of experience. The attendance of so many encounter WNO, an opportunity to experience the remembrance for all “the many men members of the Royal Welsh Regiment and Company and reflect on the events of The Battle so beautiful” who fought at Mametz.’ the Royal British Legion, together with the of the Somme. Steph Power, The Independent opening of the Field installation made the on In Parenthesis whole evening incredibly poignant’. The world première performance was a poignant Ian Douglas, WNO Company Manager occasion. Over 80 serving and veteran members of the armed forces, from the Royal Welsh Regiment, joined us for the performance and the opening ceremony for WNO Field. In Parenthesis world première iOS users can view this video here. WNO Field opening ceremony on 13 May 2016. Photo by Kirsten McTernan 5 Making opera matter, NOW Great opera, NOW Reaching further, NOW The future, NOW Together, NOW Great value, NOW In Parenthesis CASE STUDY Our programme of work around In Parenthesis School children in Swansea, Cardiff and the engaged children, families and worked with valleys, including Communities First areas also communities that wouldn’t usually get access to benefitted from this programme. Our latest opera. The projects reached far and wide from education project used the opera as a starting across South Wales to North Wales and into point for an innovative project using digital England. media and musical composition, designed to provide a positive first experience of opera We gave people with little or no performance and boost the children’s digital literacy skills. experience the opportunity to join together with WNO through a love of singing in the latest of our Come & Sing projects. Participants performed at pop up events in a variety of major locations and events including at National Museum Cardiff, the International Eisteddfod and in the foyer at Wales Millennium Centre on the opening night of In Parenthesis. We connected with communities in towns and cities as diverse as Caernarfon and Southampton, which is where some of the battalions of the Royal Welch Fusiliers were based in WWI. Participants were able to undertake their own acts of remembrance by researching their own WWI family history and then co-creating a short opera based on that research. They were then able to share the opera with their family and friends at a special showcase event. The project was delivered in Southampton in partnership with Mayflower Engage and in Caernarfon with Cofis Bach. Working in partnership with Literature Wales and their Writing Squads in the South Wales Valleys and Newport, we helped to develop the participant’s writing skills with an introduction to writing a libretto for opera. Photo by Kirsten McTernan 6 Making opera matter, NOW Great opera, NOW Reaching further, NOW The future, NOW Together, NOW Great value, NOW In Parenthesis CASE STUDY WNO Field, our large scale digital installation brought WNO into contact ‘My highlight of the 2015/2016 season was undoubtedly with many people who would not normally experience our work. the opening night of the new opera In Parenthesis. After the performance I had the honour of playing The Last Post, Field was an immersive artwork and memorial for 923 Royal Welch Fusiliers who died at The Battle of the Somme during the First World War and have remembering the Welsh soldiers lost in WWI. The WNO Field no known grave. The 923 lights represented the many fallen fusiliers whose light installation was a fitting contemporary tribute to those names are inscribed on the Thiepval Memorial in France. Some of these who lost their lives.’ Dean Wright, WNO Orchestra men would have served with the author of In Parenthesis, David Jones, during the battle at Mametz Wood in July 1916. Each visitor was encouraged to interact with the installation and pay their respects in their own way. The installation was open daily for six weeks outside Wales Millennium Centre and entry was free. WNO Field recorded visitors 52,000 to WNO Field iOS users can view this video here. WNO Field Photo by Max Budgett 7 Making opera matter, NOW Great opera, NOW Reaching further, NOW The future, NOW Together, NOW Great value, NOW Great opera, NOW We continue to ensure that opera remains In Autumn 2015, our Madness Season We looked back to our very first production vibrant and alive. In 2015/2016 our brought together three very different with performances of Elijah Moshinsky’s innovative themed season programming works (I puritani, Orlando and Sweeney much-loved productions of Cavalleria brought together rarely performed great Todd). Together these three pieces rusticana and Pagliacci.