Welsh National Opera drops two venues
OperaStatement from a cash-starved company:
Due to increasing financial challenges, the Company has had to take the difficult decision to reduce its 2024/2025 Season. The changes mean that the Company will no longer be touring to The Bristol Hippodrome in February 2025, and will not be touring to Venue Cymru, Llandudno in May 2025. This has no impact on our commitment to extending our reach throughout Wales, and WNO will still be visiting Venue Cymru in the Autumn as planned with its new production of Rigoletto alongside Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi and an Opera Favourites performance.
A performance of Rigoletto in Cardiff in February 2025 will also not go ahead as planned, but this has no impact on the Autumn performances of this new production.
UPDATE: Music director Tomáš Hanus says: ‘A very difficult time for my opera company. It’s hard to find words. We will do our best to share the beauty of art in this critical period of time.
Not surprising really. Arts Council England and Wales both threw WNO under a bus. What did they expect? One more cut and it will probably fold. People have to fight for their culture and heritage, it is Wales that is being robbed of one of its most prized cultural organisations. Take to the streets! Raise money! Sad thing is, it costs so much less than most things our government wants to spend money on. Compare it to “Eat Out to Help Out”, disgrace of a waste of public funds
Spare a thought for Simon Keenlyside, too. Not going to be easy to replace that £2,500…
What a foolish, ignorant comment at a time of great crisis for the company as a whole.
I have no desire to diminish the crisis for a company that I adore but, though it won’t by any means have been the only reason for its cancellation, what really was the point in having Simon (fabulous singer that he is) take ONE performance of Rigoletto?! He will undoubtedly have been breaking their fee ceiling, quite substantially, and necessitate additional rehearsals and costs. Nothing was to be gained. In the fact of terrible financial circumstances, companies need to give such matters some thought.
Plenty of money in Wales.
£11m spent on Cardiff city cycle lanes, little used.
Bikeshare scheme in Cardiff abandoned after 3,000 bikes stolen, who would have guessed?
£34m on hated 20mph speed limit.
But not for the arts, WNO future looks uncertain.
Threat of closure of National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/first-minister-vaughan-gething-says-28997363?int_source=nba
“Plenty of money in Wales.”
Utter rubbish. Port T is closing, the valleys are a nightmare of joblessness and poverty, the farmers no longer have EU subsidy and to cap it all Wales can no longer play rugby, and is ruled by numpties in committees.
Land of song?
You gotta be kidding!
None of the young grew up in a chapel culture so the world famous conveyor belt of great Welsh singers stopped at Bryn T.
Just see if anyone under 55 can read sol-fa the staple of those once great choirs, who could sing in harmony from childhood.
There you have it in a nutshell.
Cymru heb dduw, heb ddim.
Welsh assembly under labour prefers to spend hundreds of millions on proving up Cardiff Airport, an airport with no flights. If you need to fly you have to travel to Bristol!
Why can ordinary people see these things clearly but those in authority remain blind?There is no central body to review expenditure and make sensible decisions that maintain a social and cultural balance.But moaning achieves nothing … except making the acceptance of the situation still more painful. The proposed cut back to Welsh museums especially the Cardiff one with its international importance is scandalous. Yet we can bleat on about restoring sculptures to Greece…no one mentions the cost of doing that…millions…and who will pay? And how better could that be spent on what is actually needed for our culture in the UK?
As a Bristolian, I shall miss WNO’s visits. It was a privilege to see them at Bristol Hippodrome.