WNO’s period-set production of Mozart’s THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO includes elegant sets and opulent costumes, with all the ingredients of a classic opera. Step into the world where love and laughter converge in a whirlwind of clever schemes and Mozart’s melodic brilliance.
The tour opens in Cardiff on February 6th before visiting Swansea, Southampton, Birmingham, Milton Keynes, Plymouth through to 6th June.
One of the performers, Soprano EIRY PRICE was a student when she watched her first opera – Welsh National Opera performing Puccini’s La Bohème. From that moment, Eiry, who was studying at the Royal College of Music in London, decided her future.
“I knew I wanted to sing but I didn’t know before watching that opera that I wanted to be an opera singer, really specifically,” she recalls. “It clicked for me there ‘I want to do this, I want to do what they are doing.’
“It came over me, the music, the text, the story. I remember listening to the orchestra and with opera I always feel so overwhelmed with all these emotions and it makes me feel something that I can’t really describe, I just feel so whole after watching a piece of opera. It’s also the drama, the tragedy, the love, the heartbreak – it just moves me.”
Eiry’s dream has come true as she is currently a WNO Associate Artist, taking part in a one-year programme in which young singers are offered support, training and mentorship early in their careers.
“The Associate Artist programme is amazing for young singers who have left studies and want to pursue a career in opera. There are so many opportunities for me on this programme and so much support available.”
Eiry from Pencaenewydd in North Wales, says the scheme has introduced her to a whole new world…
“I’d never sung in a full opera before, I’d done opera scenes in college, but I’ve learnt so much already,” she says. “I’ve had so many lessons and coachings and so much support that I feel like it’s really shaping me into a young artist.”
One of the advantages of being part of WNO’s Associate Artist scheme is the chance to sing roles in their productions. This Spring Eiry plays the young lover Barbarina and covers the servant Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and performs Second Niece in Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes.
“I am having coaching every day on the roles that I’m doing and just going through the music adding layers to the roles, musically and artistically. It is all really helping as I’m not doing it all by myself.
I’m really excited for this production and looking forward to staging it with everyone – it’s just a lovely atmosphere on the stage when you are all working together to try and create something amazing.”
Soprano HARRIET EYLEY can vouch for the value of the programme as she was an Associate Artist with WNO in 2018/20. She too sang Barbarina and covered Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro as well as playing Oscar in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera and Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.
She told us……
“The biggest thing about being an Associate Artist is the sense of community at WNO. I grew so much as an artist through the Company and it feels like home. I think we always remember those first big jobs out of university and I’m forever grateful.
You are taught your musicianship and your stagecraft at university and I honed that with WNO and I had so much stage and rehearsal experience. That was brilliant but it was also the sense of teamwork on a collaborative artform and working together. And not just in the rehearsal room with other singers and musicians but also with other people in the company.”
After completing her Associate Artist programme, Harriet, who was born in Derbyshire, returned to WNO as a visiting artist to play Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Krista in Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair and this season is performing the page boy Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro.
“What is interesting with this one is that when we went into lockdown I was actually doing this production of The Marriage of Figaro for WNO.
And now I feel like I’ve come full circle really because I’m coming back to The Marriage of Figaro but in a different role, Cherubino, a role that I really wanted to sing. So I’m looking at the production from a different perspective.
In so many ways I’m quite like Cherubino, although I’m much older I’m quite small in stature, quite flighty in character so I’m looking forward to finding my teenage voice – ‘am I in love, am I not in love, what is love?’ I’m excited by the challenge.”
For bass-baritone WILLIAM STEVENS, being a current Associate Artist with WNO is giving him an incredible opportunity – to cover the lead role of Figaro and play him in the 6 June performance of the Mozart opera.
William told us…..
“It’s an amazing thing for any bass baritone and a singer of my age to be singing the title role in this opera with WNO. It is daunting but very exciting.
It’s an opera I know very well. I’ve sung all the roles I can sing in that opera at some point or another and I’ve directed it for Bath Opera Company all around the South West.
But to do it in a main production with this company is probably the biggest thing I will have done so far in my career. It’s a lot of work but very exciting – and I will be filling out half of the theatre with my family.”
William, from Keynsham in Somerset, was a choral scholar at Bristol Cathedral and went on to study singing at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. He has held a love for opera since childhood.
“WNO have been an important part of my life for quite a long time. I’ve been watching their productions since I was quite young,” he recalls. “The first time I saw WNO was Madam Butterfly in 2009 at The Bristol Hippodrome.
I had been listening to a lot of opera by then and had done a lot of singing but not much opera. I had recently joined Bristol Opera Company so I got my first opportunity of being on stage performing opera as part of the chorus in The Pearl Fishers. I thought I should go and see it done at the professional level and the most obvious option was to see WNO at the Hippodrome.”
And so being offered a place on the Associate Artist programme by the opera company he had watched so often was a real bonus.
“The opportunity to have this big stepping stone in my career with WNO was particularly special for me. We get to have multiple coachings with the music staff if we want it on the repertoire we are doing with the company but also anything we are doing outside the company and they are fantastic.
But also just the exposure of working with a company of WNO’s level. I’ve been working as a professional singer for a while now but this is my first real exposure to a national company and to see how differently it is run and what is expected of you at that level.”
William recently toured in WNO’s production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and he is keen to be taking on Mozart.
“I think The Marriage of Figaro is some of the best music ever written for theatre, it’s just remarkable. Also it is a genuinely funny opera. There’s a lot of ridiculous scenarios and farcical things but there’s also a lot you can relate to. Silly relationship misunderstandings and relationships between you and your boss or vice versa if you are the boss. It’s timeless, funny, with wonderful music and it’s so relatable.”
Fellow WNO Associate Artist soprano Erin Rossington says the programme was the next step as she builds her opera career.
“An Associate Artist is, I describe it, like an apprenticeship. You are part of the company and they are guiding you on the way, advising and helping and also you’re doing some roles and working alongside people in the prime of their career.
I was one of the nuns in Suor Angelica and it’s nice to be part of a production and see how other people learn things and how they work. It’s learning on the job.”
Erin, who is from Llanfair Talhaiarn in North Wales, covers the role of Countess Almaviva throughout the tour of The Marriage of Figaro and will play her on 27th February.
“It’s amazing for me to have WNO on my CV, there’s so much more weight around it. “To say I’ve studied and learned the role of Contessa with WNO or just by myself – there’s a massive difference because someone has believed in you and someone has trusted in your work.”
For Erin the Countess is a fascinating character…..
“This is one of the core roles for a soprano within the repertoire and I’m really excited to explore her more. She’s quite an interesting character, she’s developed a lot from when we see her in Rossini’s Barber of Seville. Then she was young, excited and passionate but now she’s being mistreated by her husband who is being unfaithful.
She’s not happy to put up with it and she’s not sitting down and taking it. I think she is a very strong woman but she’s also aware that if she did take a stance it wouldn’t go her way. She’s not stupid.”
And one Erin is keen to bring to life.
“I can’t wait to be able to sing on the stage with the cast. It’s a fantastic cast and to be able to perform alongside them will be really exciting. I’m looking forward to embracing the nerves and throwing myself into the character.
It’s also really nice knowing that Harriet, a previous Associate Artist, is coming back to the company. I love WNO and, being from North Wales, I would love to return to my home company in the future for sure. It’s nice to know Harriet had the same start as me – that’s a good omen.”
Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro will open at Wales Millennium Centre on Thursday 6th February and Swansea Grand Theatre Thursday 27th February. The production returns to Cardiff at Wales Millennium Centre on Wednesday 9th April alongside WNO’s new production of Britten’s Peter Grimes before touring to Southampton, Birmingham, Milton Keynes and Plymouth. More details and tickets HERE.
