By

Jonathan Lyness

Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci: dynamics, high Gs and cartwheels…

In May 2020 I described in my MWO Blog how I’d started work creating a new arrangement of Janacek’s stirring masterpiece The Cunning Little Vixen. I’d opened up my laptop, launched ‘Sibelius’ and hit ‘new’. I then described how Vixen...
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Verdi’s Macbeth and the correct number of timpani…

“The timpani part in Macbeth stipulates just two timpani. The result? A host of wrong notes for the timpanist! What on earth is going on?” I received an email the other day that included a message from our timpanist for...
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Hector Berlioz’s Beatrice and Benedict: “a caprice written with the point of a needle”.

I have to be honest: I’ve always had a somewhat equivocal relationship with Berlioz. And I know that, amongst musicians and music lovers, I’m not alone. Some of his works have widespread appeal, such as the song cycle Les nuits...
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An opera about a pair of siblings, written by another pair of siblings…

“Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel would never have existed if it wasn’t for the composer’s sister, the German folklore enthusiast Adelheid Wette” The story of Hansel and Gretel begins in 1812 when two academic brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, publish a...
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The Magic of Montsalvatge

Since first encountering Xavier Montsalvatge’s music, way back in 1995, MWO’s Music Director has been fascinated by the Catalan composer’s work. Now for our SmallStages tour this Autumn, twenty years after the composer’s death, MWO are thrilled to bring Montsalvatge’s...
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Puccini’s Sounds of the Seine – creating a new chamber arrangement for Il tabarro

Our Music Director Jonathan Lyness began his labour of love, creating a new score for four instruments to perform Puccini’s Il tabarro, in November 2019. Now, a year later than expected due to the Covid pandemic, he’s preparing the instrumental...
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Road-testing The Cunning Little Vixen

by MWO’s Music Director Jonathan Lyness In my previous blog I described how, at the point of the first lockdown, I’d started work on a new reduced orchestration of Janáček’s great opera The Cunning Little Vixen. The plan has been...
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Working in lockdown on The Cunning Little Vixen

by MWO’s Music Director Jonathan Lyness When lockdown arrived in the second half of March, and with our beautiful tour of The Marriage of Figaro tragically cut short, I’d already spent three weeks working on a new reduced orchestration of...
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Why You (& Your Kids) Will Love The Marriage of Figaro

My first experience of The Marriage of Figaro was as a student, accompanying rehearsals and, in my days as a violinist, leading the orchestra. I saw it on stage twice before conducting it myself; the first was at the Royal...
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Keep MWO on the Road

Thanks to the enormous outpouring of love – and money! – from our friends and supporters, and from opera lovers across the country – and a hugely important grant from Powys County Council’s Shared Prosperity Fund allocation, we are now actively developing our artistic plans for the next two years… find out more …or…

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