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Opera Explained

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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The Milk Snatcher

Credit: Banner artwork by Clive Hicks-Jenkins Fairy Tales are nightmare, not dreamscapes. They play on our primitive and primordial fears. They are the knock in the dark, the crack of a branch, the footstep on the stair rousing you from...
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Catching up with our cast in rehearsals for Hansel and Gretel

With less than a month to go until opening night in Newtown on March 4th we caught up with the stars of our first ever production of Hansel and Gretel in rehearsals. We’re working with some familiar faces – including...
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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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Time to meet the class of 2023

We’re excited to announce the cast of MWO’s first ever production of Humperdinck’s fabulous fairy tale opera Hansel and Gretel. We will be joined by some familiar faces from our Puss in Boots tour including Philip Smith (Father) and Alys...
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Puss in Boots – the tale of a social climbing cat

Once upon a time, an author was commissioned to produce a charming tale as a primer book for children to help them to learn to read. He was so frustrated with the list of prescribed words he was allowed to...
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Meet the Cast

We catch up with our Puss and Princess, Miller, King and Ogre as they get ready to hit the road. We’re nearly ready to open our Autumn tour of Montsalvatge’s Puss in Boots – and it is high time we...
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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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