We are delighted to announce that four Rayfield Allied artists will return to sing at Welsh National Opera in the 2018-19 season.
Following his success as both Cavaradossi in Tosca and Don Alvaro in La forza del Destino ("The lead trio is wonderfully cast... Gwyn Hughes Jones is searing as her freedom-fighting lover Alvaro" - The Independent) this season, Welsh tenor Gwyn Hughes Jones returns to make his role debut as Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera.
Wojtek Gierlach also makes a welcome return to the company to sing Alidoro in La Cenerentola, a role he has previously sung at the Danish National Opera, Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Teatro Maestranza in Seville. His last appearance at WNO was as Giorgio in Bellini’s I Puritani, for which he received this review from Opera Magazine’s editor John Allison:
““... properly thrilling thanks to his partnership with the Giorgio of Wojtek Gierlach. The Polish bass-baritone is much more of a bel cantist, and his mellifluous singing is based on a foundation of excitingly virile tone, making him convincing as the most avuncular figure among the Roundhead-Orangemen. Gierlach captures the character’s goodness and proves again the ‘Cinta di fiori’ is one of the most beautiful things written for that voice on account of not only Bellini’s melodic gifts but also his celebrated way of matching them so intimately with text.”
After the success of his Andrei in Khovanshchina this season (“Australian tenor Adrian Dwyer also gives a career-defining performance as his venal son Andrei, singing with real blade and incisiveness” - Bachtrack) Adrian Dwyer will return to WNO to sing Anatole in Prokofiev’s War and Peace.
David Stout also returns to sing Napoleon in War and Peace. David has previously sung Leporello Don Giovanni, Figaro Le nozze di Figaro and Figaro Gets a Divorce, Gratiano The Merchant of Venice and Marcello La bohème for Welsh National Opera. He received excellent reviews for his portrayal of Leporello:
"As Leporello David Stout was a powerful stage presence. His Leporello well sung throughout, was equally convincing as a servant-clown and as a would-be honest man. Stout brought to the part something quasi-aristocratic at moments, as if he might genuinely be able to be a ‘master’ rather than a ‘servant’, as expressed in his words in the opera’s first aria: ‘Voglio far il gentiluomo, / e non voglio più server’." - Seen and Heard International
Tickets are now available via the Welsh National Opera website for all productions in their 2018-19 season.
