Music Theatre Wales

Music Theatre Wales

Music Theatre Wales (MTW) is a touring contemporary opera company, based in Cardiff, Wales. MTW performs newly commissioned works, alongside existing pieces from the recent past which are either neglected or have been unseen in the UK. Works are toured across the UK and internationally. Over its 22 year history MTW has performed almost 30 productions and 14 world premieres.

In 2002 it became the first Associate Company of the Royal Opera House.

History

Founded in 1988 by Artistic Directors Michael McCarthy and Michael Rafferty, Music Theatre Wales was created from the merger of two previous companies -both formed in south Wales in 1982 - Cardiff New Opera Group and St Donats Music Theatre Ensemble.

At that time both organisations had identified a gap in the provision of opera in Wales. Though Welsh National Opera had achieved great success in exploring lesser known areas of the repertoire and had established itself as the leading, innovative opera company of the UK, there was very little commitment to new work. Audience and critical response to the work of Cardiff New Opera Group in particular demonstrated that there was indeed a hunger for new opera and a demand to see it tour in Wales.

Initially the repertoire was selected from works that already existed but which deserved wider exposure. Fundamentally, the repertoire was inspired by the work of Peter Maxwell Davies and his own company, The Fires of London. The first MTW production was a setting of Peter Maxwell Davies’ The Martyrdom of St Magnus in the graveyard of the Saxon church in the grounds of St Donats Castle. The production was then adapted for touring in Wales and later re-worked into a production for Glasgow European City of Culture 1990, playing at the Tramway, and at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London in collaboration with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. This was followed by the European premiere of Philip Glass's The Fall of the House of Usher which toured in Wales and England, establishing on route many long-term relationships with venues and festivals, and led to the company’s first international collaboration when it was presented in Norway as the first production of Opera Vest (recently re-formed as Den Nye Opera–Norway’s second main-scale opera company presenting a mixed programme of new and established repertoire).

Since 1988 MTW has created almost 30 productions and presented 14 world premieres. It has an established programme to help nurture new opera composers and has created productions with a wide range of partners including Opera National du Rhin in Strasbourg, the Berlin Festival, Opera Vest in Norway, Banff Centre in Canada, Theatr Brycheiniog in Brecon, Haarlem Theatre in The Netherlands, Treffpunkt in Stuttgart, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. MTW has been recorded on CD, broadcast on BBC radio, and one production has been re-created and screened on BBC2. The company has twice been short-listed for the Prudential Awards for “creativity, excellence, innovation and accessibility.” The opera Gwyneth and the Green Knight by Lynne Plowman, produced by MTW in 2002 and later as a co-production with ROH2 was the first opera to win the British Composers Award and Lynne Plowman’s second opera commissioned by MTW, The House of the Gods, was also shortlisted for this award in 2007. In 2009, the company worked for the first time in Welsh, commissioning a new performing version of The Soldier's Tale–Stori’r Milwr. 2010 sees the Signum Records release of a CD of Michael Berkeley’s opera For You and the UK premiere tour of In the Penal Colony by Philip Glass.

Repertoire history since 1988

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Music of Wales — Part of a series on the Culture of Wales Cuisine …   Wikipedia

  • Wales — This article is about the country. For other uses, see Wales (disambiguation) …   Wikipedia

  • Music of Cardiff — The music of Cardiff has been dominated mainly by rock music since the early 1990s with later trends developing towards more extreme styles of the genre such as heavy metal, post hardcore and emo music. A number of rock music performers have… …   Wikipedia

  • music — musicless, adj. /myooh zik/, n. 1. an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color. 2. the tones or sounds employed, occurring in single line (melody) or… …   Universalium

  • Music of the United Kingdom — This article is about music from the United Kingdom. For UK Music, the industry organisation, see UK Music. A Promenade concert in the Royal Albert Hall, 2004. The music of the United Kingdom, which is part of British music, refers to all forms… …   Wikipedia

  • Music of Poland — Part of a series on the Culture of Poland Periods …   Wikipedia

  • Music City Soul Tour — Tour by Beverley Knight Legs 1 Shows 29 Music City Soul Tour was a concert tour by British singer songwriter Beverley Knight, organised to support the album Music City Soul. Announced in April 2 …   Wikipedia

  • Music in the Republic of Adygea — Music of Russia: Caucasian music Genres Bards Classical music Hip hop Jazz Opera Rock Awards MTV Russia Music Awards Charts Festivals …   Wikipedia

  • Music in the Republic of Tatarstan — Music of Russia Genres Classical Pop Rock Jazz Bard VIA Chanson Hip hop Psytrance Specific forms Religious music …   Wikipedia

  • Music of Greece — General topics Ancient Byzantine Néo kýma Polyphonic song Genres Entehno …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”