Wikipedia

Welsh National Opera (WNO) (Welsh: Opera Cenedlaethol Cymru) is an opera company based in Cardiff, Wales; it gave its first performances in 1946. It began as a mainly amateur body and transformed into an all-professional ensemble by 1973. In its early days the company gave a single week's annual season in Cardiff, gradually extending its schedule to become an all-year-round operation, with its own salaried chorus and orchestra. It has been described by The New York Times as "one of the finest operatic ensembles in Europe".

For most of its existence the company lacked a permanent base in Cardiff, but in 2004 it moved into the new Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay. The company tours nationally and internationally, giving more than 120 performances annually, with a repertoire of eight operas each year, to a combined audience of more than 150,000 people. Its most frequent venues other than Cardiff are Llandudno in Wales and Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Milton Keynes, Oxford, Plymouth, and Southampton in England.

Singers who have been associated with the company include Geraint Evans, Thomas Allen, Anne Evans, and Bryn Terfel. Guest artists from other countries have included Joan Hammond, Tito Gobbi and Elisabeth Söderström. Among the conductors have been Sir Charles Mackerras, Reginald Goodall, James Levine and Pierre Boulez. The company has been led by Aidan Lang as its General Director since 2019.

Continue reading at Wikipedia... Wikipedia content provided under the terms of the Creative Commons BY-SA license

Discography

Album

YearTitleArtistRatingReleases
1986Tosca (1984 studio cast)Puccini; Kiri Te Kanawa, Leo Nucci, Giacomo Aragall, Welsh National Opera Chorus, National Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti2
1988Anna BolenaGaetano Donizetti; Joan Sutherland, Samuel Ramey, Susanne Mentzer, Jerry Hadley, Bernadette Manca di Nissa, Orchestra and Chorus of the Welsh National Opera, Richard Bonynge2
1988Norma (1984 studio cast)Vincenzo Bellini; Orchestra and Chorus of the Welsh National Opera, Richard Bonynge, Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti, Montserrat Caballé, Samuel Ramey1
1992I masnadieri (1982 studio cast)Verdi; Sutherland, Bonisolli, Ramey, Manuguerra, Orchestra & Chorus of the Welsh National Opera, Richard Bonynge1
1994FaustCharles‐François Gounod; Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, Chorus of the Welsh National Opera, Carlo Rizzi1
1994Eugene OneginTchaikovsky; Kiri Te Kanawa, Thomas Hampson, Neil Rosenshein, John Connell, Nicolai Gedda, Charles Mackerras, Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, Chorus of the Welsh National Opera1
1998ErnaniGiuseppe Verdi; Luciano Pavarotti, Dame Joan Sutherland, Leo Nucci, Paata Burchuladze, Orchestra and Chorus of the Welsh National Opera, Richard Bonynge52
2013GlorianaBritten; Josephine Barstow, Della Jones, Yvonne Kenny, Philip Langridge, Orchestra and Chorus of the Welsh National Opera, Alan Opie, Jonathan Summers, Charles Mackerras1
Sea Drift / Florida SuiteDelius; Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera, Chorus of the Welsh National Opera, Sir Charles Mackerras, Thomas Hampson1
Tristan und IsoldeWagner; Chorus & Orchestra of Welsh National Opera; Sir Reginald Goodall1

Album + Compilation

YearTitleArtistRatingReleases
1979Verdi ChorusesGiuseppe Verdi; Chorus & Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, Richard Armstrong1
2002The Song of Hiawatha / Symphonic Variations on an African AirSamuel Coleridge-Taylor; Helen Field, Arthur Davies, Bryn Terfel, Orchestra and Chorus of the Welsh National OperaKenneth Alwyn1

Album + Soundtrack

YearTitleArtistRatingReleases
1992The MikadoGilbert & Sullivan; Orchestra & Chorus of the Welsh National Opera, Sir Charles Mackerras1
1993The Pirates of PenzanceGilbert & Sullivan; Orchestra & Chorus of the Welsh National Opera, Charles Mackerras1
1994H. M. S. PinaforeGilbert & Sullivan; Orchestra & Chorus of the Welsh National Opera, Charles Mackerras1
1995The Yeomen of the Guard / Trial by JuryGilbert and Sullivan; Orchestra & Chorus of the Welsh National Opera, Sir Charles Mackerras1

Album + Live

YearTitleArtistRatingReleases
2001Tchaikovsky: 1812 Overture / Scriabin: Le Poème de l’extase / Borodin: Polovtsian Dances from Prince IgorTchaikovsky, Scriabin, Borodin; John Alldis Choir, Welsh National Opera Chorus, Band of the Grenadier Guards, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Leopold Stokowski1

Showing official release groups by this artist.