War and Peace: WNO comes to London to parade its wares

By Mark Valencia, 24 July 2019

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“Heaven knows it deserves to win something, if only for the logistics”

Reviewed at Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 23 July 2019

Prokofiev, War and Peace (Sung in English)

Welsh National Opera

Tomáš Hanus, Conductor

Sir David Pountney, Director

Robert Innes Hopkins, Set Designer

Marie-Jeanne Lecca, Costume Designer

Jonathan McGovern, Prince Andrei Bolkonsky

Lauren Michelle, Natasha Rostova

Mark Le Brocq, Count Pierre Bezukhov

Simon Bailey, Field-Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov

James Platt, Count Ilya Rostov

Jurgita Adamonytė, Hélène Bezukhova

Adrian Dwyer, Anatole Kuragin

David Stout, Dolokhov

Gareth Dafydd Morris, Platon Karataev, General Pyotr Konovnitsyn

Leah-Marian Jones, Princess Marya Bolkonskaya

Sarah Pope, Matriosha, Trishka

Laurence Cole, Gavrila, Matveyev

Julian Boyce, Metivier

Carolyn Jackson, Vasilisa

Joe Roche, Monsieur de Beausset , French Abbé

Welsh National Opera Chorus

Welsh National Opera Orchestra

A magnificent Tosca from Welsh National Opera at the Mayflower

David Truslove, 3rd October

WNO imports Edward Dick’s exceptionally fine production, which benefits from from superb casting and outstanding performances led by Natalya Romaniw.

*****

Bancroft and BBCNOW at the Proms: a deeply satisfying Mahler 3

David Karlin, 11th August

Bancroft and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales provide a Mahler 3 of exceptional clarity and forward momentum, with terrific posthorn solos from Corey Morris and Beth Taylor an outstanding soloist.

****1

A dark and disturbing Rigoletto from WNO at the Mayflower

David Truslove, 14th November

Fine performances in a punchy new production that coats this tragic opera in a large dollop of debauchery.

****1

WNO stages Death in Venice for the first time and it’s a triumph

Mark Valencia, 7th March

Olivia Fuchs solves the problems of Britten's thorny opera in a brilliant new production that hits the heights, featuring Mark Le Brocq as earthbound scholar, Gustav von Aschenbach.

*****

Musical performances keep WNO's new Così afloat

Mark Valencia, 6th March

Max Hoehn takes Così‘s subtitle, La scuola degli amanti (The School for Lovers), and connects it to Monty Python’s sex education sketch in The Meaning of Life. What larks, eh?

***11

Stacey Alleaume leads WNO's emotionally-charged Traviata

David Truslove, 24th November

Leading an international cast in a still-sumptuous revival in Southampton's Mayflower, Stacey Alleaume gives a sovereign performance as the ill-fated courtesan Violetta.

****1

More reviews...

Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.

War and Peace: Welsh National Opera comes to London to parade its wares