Latest news with #WNO
Washington Post
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Why artists should perform at Trump's Kennedy Center
A number of artists have chosen to pull previously planned acts from the Kennedy Center lineup. Two prominent examples are the tour of Lin-Manuel Miranda's 'Hamilton' and Washington National Opera's production of Gregory Spears and Greg Pierce's 'Fellow Travelers,' an opera about a gay couple trying to find their way during the McCarthy era's Lavender Scare (supported by WNO but withdrawn by members of the creative team). Likewise, some audience members have chosen to shun the venue, regardless of the nature of the performance.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Welsh National Opera musicians accept jobs deal
Musicians at the Welsh National Opera orchestra have accepted a new agreement following a year of negotiations and industrial action. The WNO announced last year it was cutting back its spring tour in 2025 along with other measures due to "increasing financial challenges". Among those supporting a campaign calling for something to be done included a host of Wales' most famous artists such as Michael Sheen, Katherine Jenkins, Ruth Jones and Sir Bryn Terfel. While the new agreement protects members' jobs, unions said the orchestra would lose approximately 10 vacant seats, so the campaign to protect jobs was ongoing. Members of the Musician's Union (MU) have been campaigning after WNO management said it was forced to consider making the orchestra part time and cut musicians' pay by 15%. Its campaign, which included sustained industrial action from September to March has achieved both goals, the MU said in a statement. Wales' top artists slam Welsh National Opera cuts Performers protest on stage over arts cuts How opera singing is helping people to manage chronic pain The Welsh government will also provide an additional £1.5m to support arts organisations, the union said. WNO is Wales' largest arts organisation and one of only two full time professional orchestras in the country. "This is an incredibly difficult time for the arts in the UK and the opera sector has been especially hard hit, with WNO disproportionately affected and facing significant ongoing financial challenges," MU general secretary Naomi Pohl said. MU regional organiser for Wales and south-west England Andy Warnock said the WNO was "still in a fragile position overall". He added: "It's essential that WNO retains its full-time performing forces, which we know is the aim of the company's new leadership, so we need politicians and both Arts Councils in England and Wales to join us for discussions on how that can be achieved."
BBC News
22-04-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Welsh National Opera musicians accept jobs deal
Musicians at the Welsh National Opera orchestra have accepted a new agreement following a year of negotiations and industrial action. The WNO announced last year it was cutting back its spring tour in 2025 along with other measures due to "increasing financial challenges".Among those supporting a campaign calling for something to be done included a host of Wales' most famous artists such as Michael Sheen, Katherine Jenkins, Ruth Jones and Sir Bryn Terfel. While the new agreement protects members' jobs, unions said the orchestra would lose approximately 10 vacant seats, so the campaign to protect jobs was ongoing. Members of the Musician's Union (MU) have been campaigning after WNO management said it was forced to consider making the orchestra part time and cut musicians' pay by 15%.Its campaign, which included sustained industrial action from September to March has achieved both goals, the MU said in a statement. The Welsh government will also provide an additional £1.5m to support arts organisations, the union is Wales' largest arts organisation and one of only two full time professional orchestras in the country."This is an incredibly difficult time for the arts in the UK and the opera sector has been especially hard hit, with WNO disproportionately affected and facing significant ongoing financial challenges," MU general secretary Naomi Pohl regional organiser for Wales and south-west England Andy Warnock said the WNO was "still in a fragile position overall".He added: "It's essential that WNO retains its full-time performing forces, which we know is the aim of the company's new leadership, so we need politicians and both Arts Councils in England and Wales to join us for discussions on how that can be achieved."
Telegraph
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Peter Grimes, Welsh National Opera, review: A magnificent show delivered in difficult circumstances
A massive night for Welsh National Opera, still in the turmoil of financial crisis, as it unveiled its first new production under the new executive team of Sarah Crabtree and Adele Thomas. The audience included Sir Nicholas Serota, Chairman of Arts Council England (one of the creators of its financial woes), Welsh advocate Sir Bryn Terfel, and at least one previous WNO head, Sir David Pountney, who had previously called for Serota's resignation. Turbulence in the background, then, and plenty of turbulence onstage in Britten's compellingly relevant drama: as the years go by, Peter Grimes (based on a libretto by Montagu Slater after a story by Crabbe) seems ever more potent. This story of a loner fisherman on the Suffolk coast, responsible for the death of one young apprentice and then for another, can be read in so many ways. Is Grimes the innocent, hounded by the malevolent eccentrics of the Borough or a spiritual figure set against a sullen local crowd? We have been given both in fine recent stagings. Britten's music is rooted in the sea and its impact; oddly, you feel it lurks off-centre in the background of Melly Still's production, made explicit only by the ropes and nets and looming overhanging boat that form Chiara Stephenson's economy set. There is far too much fussy quasi-choreographic action in the sea interludes that are such a central part of Britten's score, and much playing around with door frames as entrances and exits. The teasing, teenage activities of a boyish quartet of dancers (Dance Ensemble Dawns) reflect the story back on Britten's personal story of interaction with young boys rather than on the opera's narrative. However, there are some original insights: Grimes's second apprentice John is a tall and lanky teenager (played, like the dancers, by a woman, Maya Marsh), who gives as good as he sets and punches Grimes, immediately regretting it. John falls down the cliff and dies, but as Grimes's mental disintegration then takes over, both John and the first apprentice come back to life, leading the abject fisherman gently back towards the invisible sea that will claim him; a touching moment. None of this would work without the inspired central portrayal of Grimes himself by Nicky Spence, a burly, wide-eyed innocent who gleams with delight at the prospect of fishing, and whose bursts of violence here are a symptom of pent-up frustration. His voice is clear and serene, and his affection for Ellen Orford naively genuine. Sally Matthews captures Ellen's heartfelt support for him perfectly, though the voice is not as focussed as it ought to be. The characterisations of the supporting roles, notably Sarah Connolly's glitzy landlady Auntie and Catherine Wyn-Rogers's ever-downward-looking Mrs Sedley, have room to develop, while the nieces of Fflur Wyn and Eiry Price wreak havoc with the weak men of the Borough, Ned Keene (Dominic Sedgwick) and Swallow (Sion Goronwy). At heart Peter Grimes is an ensemble opera, and here the momentum under conductor Tomáš Hanus took a while to get going in act one. But the singing of the augmented WNO chorus in act three was magnificent, and the orchestra, with a plangent solo viola leading the Passacaglia, was superb. On stage at the end, Crabtree and Thomas made the case for opera, the arts and WNO. Let's hope the right people were listening.
BBC News
05-04-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Opera singing helping people to manage their persistent pain
People living with a variety of health conditions are being taught techniques used by opera singers in an effort to manage their persistent Evans, 67, was referred to the Welsh National Opera (WNO) wellness programme due to pain and mobility issues caused by a heart attack, stroke and other Evans, from Powys, said the programme improved her physical health and made her "want to live again".The WNO said two-thirds of people who had taken part in the online course had described seeing improvements in their health. The programme, funded by the Welsh government, is a one-year pilot aimed at people living with persistent pain and covers a range of conditions including lower back pain and evaluation found that 67% of participants had experienced reduced pain and improved functionality, as well as emotional and mental benefits."We're thinking about how we're sitting and it improves the posture. It improves the breathing, because we do breathing exercises, then we do a vocal warm up in a fun way," said Ms Evans."You're making sounds and holding your mouth in a certain way whilst you do certain actions, you move on to the singing, and the singing is so fun. "The whole hour is fun. It's a break from the awfulness of your life. It's dramatically changed my life."Referrals to the WNO programme have predominantly come through pain management teams across Welsh health boards, but some people have also is estimated that the course saves the NHS in Wales more than £20 per person per hour, as it eliminates the need for health boards to set up their own programmes. Singing 'calms our nervous system' Owen Hughes, NHS Wales' national clinical lead for persistent pain during the one-year pilot, said: "Our current understanding of persistent and chronic pain is that it's partly due to the nervous system getting wound up so that it continues to send messages to the brain saying something something's wrong, long after the normal healing process has occurred. "What we know is that singing is brilliant at just calming the nervous system. There's a nerve called the vagus nerve, which runs through the diaphragm, which is a key muscle for breathing and singing. "When you're using the diaphragm that stimulates the vagus nerve, and that's what calms our nervous system." The breathing and singing sessions are led by professionally trained opera performers take part from home and they are not required to be on camera or have their microphone switched Kate Woolveridge, said: "It's a community on Zoom where they're all on mute, but they're all singing with somebody with shared experience. "We sing a song in Zulu, which nobody would have ever thought they'd be singing in Zulu, but it takes your head away from the pain you know when you're trying to concentrate loose and Zulu words your capacity for for noticing all the rest of the stuff, is lessened." The WNO said further funding would allow it to expand the offer of its wellness programme to benefit more people."Initially, it just started off as something to help people purely with their breathing, their lungs, their lung capacity, and potentially the benefits for mental health. "And then as you've gone along, you've seen how much more of a broader positive impact it can have," Ms Woolveridge said.A Welsh government spokesperson said: "The Welsh National Opera's 'Managing Persistent Pain' programme has helped to improve the physical and mental health, and overall quality of life to many people in Wales living with persistent pain. "It provides participants with skills, enabling them to manage their symptoms and take greater control of their own health and wellbeing."We continue to engage with WNO and the NHS Wales Executive to explore future opportunities for the programme as a valuable intervention method in our communities."
