It is a long time since I attended a Welsh National Opera performance in its home city of Cardiff. And I had not been to their "new theatre", the Wales Millennium Centre, which replaced the New Theatre in Cardiff as their performance home in 2004. This is largely due to the fact that I was in Chicago all those years until 2012 and subsequently kept in touch with WNO when on tour in Milton Keynes or at the Royal Opera House.
But the celebration of the 70th birthday of my old friend and colleague David Pountney was not to be missed, so I made the pilgrimage to Cardiff Bay on Saturday, taking in three parties and a performance of Khovanschina, the season opener. It is 50 years since we met - when he and Mark Elder mounted Smetana's The Kiss in Cambridge. I brought the slightly older Mark to Wexford on the music staff in 1968, and in 1969 David came as an ASM with special responsibility for the Irish Wolfhounds who were vital members of the cast of John Cox's production of Luisa Miller! And of course David went on triumphantly to direct Katya Kabanova at Wexford in 1972. So we all go back a bit......
The performance of Khovanschina was the centre piece of the event of course - and mightily impressive it was. It was such a pleasure to see the timeless Adrian Thompson, quite magnificent as the Scribe (seen here left), and Simon Bailey an authoratively sung and acted Shaklovity who between them got the performance off to a flying start. There was a uniformly strong cast with great distinction from Robert Hayward (Khovansky), Adrian Dwyer (Andrei), Marc Le Brocq (Vasily) and Miklós Sebestyén (Dosifei). And the women were led by Sara Fulgoni magnificent as Marfa and smaller parts strikingly executed by Claire Wild (Emma) and Monika Sawa (Susanna).
But this splendid sprawling masterpiece stands or falls with the Chorus and Orchestra. These are the two central and famous pillars of the Welsh National Opera - and they completely fulfilled expectations, invigorated by their new Music Director Tomáš Hanus. This looks and sounds like a thrilling appointment taking the WNO to further heights.
We all repaired after the performance to further festivities in the Weston Studio Theatre in the same building. The whole evening was a particular treat for me as I caught up with so many old friends and colleagues, including some whom I had not seen for over 40 years! All so very refreshing!
Enjoy the late beloved Johan Engels' set and the WNO chorus below!
Photos: © Clive Barda
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