Operas

Spring 2010

In Spring 2010 WNO performs The Abduction from the Seraglio, one of Mozart’s wittiest and most delightful creations. The joyous overture suggests a boisterous sense of fun, which is carried right through to the final curtain with stratospheric arias and blissful ensembles along the way. James Robinson’s stylish production is irresistibly entertaining, setting the opera on the Orient Express of the 1920s en route from Paris to Istanbul.

Next Spring WNO also performs Tosca, one of the best-loved of all operas. The combination of its fast-paced plot, high tension and the poignancy of the great arias “Vissi d’arte” and “E lucevan le stelle” ensure that Tosca never fails to enthral. Michael Blakemore’s period-set production of this pulsating thriller promises to set your emotions on a knife-edge.

Bizet’s most famous creation Carmen is full to the brim with instantly recognizable music and paints a mesmerizing picture of a Spain
teeming with fascinating characters. Carmen herself is one of the most charismatic and hard to resist characters in opera. For a century and a half audiences the world over have fallen in love with her. Patricia Bardon returns to this production as Carmen with Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones reprising the role of Don José.