Past Productions
live Production
The Scorched Earth Trilogy
UK premiere 2023
Created by DUMBWORLD in co-production with IRISH NATIONAL OPERA Words & direction by John McIlduff | Music by Brian Irvine Presented in association with Cardiff Singer of the World 2023
Three Street Art Operas for the end of the world
live Production
The Jollof House Party Opera - live
by Tumi Williams and Sita Thomas
A vegan Nigerian food pop-up served with a 15 minute hip-hop inspired opera.
live Production
Violet
UK premiere 2020
A co-production for the Aldeburgh Festival by Music Theatre Wales and Britten Pears. Production staged in association with the London Sinfonietta. Composed by Tom Coult Written by Alice Birch
Violet has been depressed for as long as she can remember. She lives in the largest house in the village with her husband, Felix and their maid - Laura. At the centre of the village is a clocktower.
live Production
Denis & Katya
UK premiere 2020
Music Theatre Wales, Opera Philadelphia & Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier With London Sinfonietta Music by Philip Venables Written & directed by Ted Huffman
Two 15-year-olds in love who lived every moment, including their last, online.
live Production
The Intelligence Park
UK premiere 2019
Music Theatre Wales & The Royal Opera With London Sinfonietta By Gerald Barry Libretto by Vincent Deane
A new co-production of Gerald Barry’s first opera – daring and surreal, blurring imagination and reality, as it explores notions of sexuality, creativity and obligation.
live Production
Passion
UK premiere 2018
Passion was a co-production by MTW and NDCWales. Created in association with the London Sinfonietta.
In this searingly beautiful and sensuous work for voice and body, dance and opera meld to form an intimate portrayal of the pain and passion of two lovers forced apart to separate worlds.
Pascal Dusapin’s gleaming, shifting score, performed by the London Sinfonietta, conveys a timeless world within which the movement of dancers and singers can play out this universal story of grief and desire.
digital Production
Y TŴR
UK Premiere 2017
Music Theatre Wales & Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru By Guto Puw and Gwyneth Glyn Based on the play by Gwenlyn Parry
“We’ll go up, you and me, together, hand in hand, no fear, no regrets.”
live Production
The Golden Dragon
UK Premiere 2016
BY Peter Eötvös
Migration, exploitation, hopes and lost dreams are at the heart of The Golden Dragon, a compelling fable of modern life - funny, shocking and touching in equal measure.
live Production
The Devil Inside
UK Premiere 2016
Composed by Stuart Macrae
Louise introduces The Devil Inside, a gritty, glittery, Faustian fairytale, set firmly in the twenty-first century. The Devil Inside was inspired by The Bottle Imp, a short story by Robert Louis Stevenson.
live Production
The Trial
UK Premiere 2014
An Opera by Philip Glass Adaptation by Christopher Hampton Based on the novel by Franz Kafka
The meeting of two extraordinary minds - Philip Glass and Franz Kafka. Both are masters of their craft. Each has his own instantly recognisable style. Together, they are the perfect match.
live Production
The Killing Flower
UK Premiere 2013
Music: Salvatore Sciarrino Libretto: Salvatore Sciarrino after C.A. Cigognini and C. Le Jeune Libretto translated into English by Paola Loreto and set to the music by Kit Hesketh-Harvey.
This two-act chamber opera is based on the true story of Renaissance composer Carlo Gesualdo&:rsquos brutal murder of his wife and her lover.
live Production
Ping
UK Premiere 2013
Music: Vasco Mendonça Libretto: Samuel Beckett Video: Sandro Aguilar
Ping is the first opera by the Portuguese composer Vasco Mendonça and based on the text from Samuel Beckett.
live Production
Eight Songs For A Mad King
First Performance 2013
Music: Peter Maxwell Davies Words: Randolph Slow and George III
A monodrama by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies with a libretto by Randolph Stow, based on words of George III.
live Production
In the Locked Room
UK Premiere 2012
Music: Huw Watkins Libretto: David Harsent based on a short story by Thomas Hardy
A closed door sparks an obsession so strong that the boundaries between reality and fantasy begin to blur. Taking Thomas Hardy’s short story as its starting point, this contemporary take on the novella explores the power the mind can have over a person’s actions.
live Production
Ghost Patrol
UK Premiere 2012
A co-commission and co-production between Music Theatre Wales and Scottish Opera Music: Stuart MacRae Libretto: Louise Welsh
Ghost Patrol recounts the fall-out after heavy-drinking landlord Alasdair discovers that a homeless thief he has apprehended in his pub is someone he knows, Sam, who had been in the same army platoon as him. It was co-commissioned by Scottish Opera and Music Theatre Wales for the 50th birthday celebrations of Scottish Opera.
live Production
Greek
First performance 2011
Music: Mark-Anthony Turnage Libretto: Steven Berkoff based on his original stage play of the same title Adapted by: Mark-Anthony Turnage & Jonathan Moore
A two act opera composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage to a libretto adapted by Turnage and Jonathan Moore from Steven Berkoff’s 1980 verse play Greek. The play and the opera are a re-telling of Sophocles’s Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex with the setting changed to the East End of London in the 1980s.
live Production
In The Penal Colony
UK Premiere 2010
Music: Philip Glass Libretto: Rudolph Wurlitzer based on original story by Franz Kafka
A chamber opera in one act and 16 scenes composed by Philip Glass to an English-language libretto by Rudy Wurlitzer. The opera is based on Franz Kafka’s German-language short story In the Penal Colony.
Timeline
Repertoire since 1988
- Violet (UK premiere 2020)
- Denis & Katya (UK premiere 2020)
- AMAZON (Digital work for Homemakers – HOME 2020)
- The Intelligence Park (2019)
- Passion (UK premiere 2018)
Y Tŵr
Photography by Clive Barda
- Y Tŵr (Commission 2017)
- The Golden Dragon (UK premiere 2016)
- The Devil Inside (commission 2016)
- The Trial (commission 2014)
- The Killing Flower (Luci mie traditrici) (UK premiere 2013)
Ping
Photography by Clive Barda
- Ping (UK premiere 2013)
- Eight Songs for a Mad King
In The Locked Room
Photography by Clive Barda
- In the Locked Room (commissioned as a double-bill 2012)
- Ghost Patrol (commissioned as a double-bill 2012)
- Greek (2011)
In The Penal Colony
Photography by Clive Barda
- In the Penal Colony (UK premiere 2010)
- Letters of a Love Betrayed (commission 2009)
- Crime Fiction (commission 2009)
Stori’r Milwr
Photography by Clive Barda
- Stori’r Milwr (commissioned 2009)
For You
Photography by Clive Barda
- For You (commission 2008)
Julie
Photography by Clive Barda
- Julie (UK premiere 2007)
- House of the Gods (commission 2006)
The Knot Garden
Photography by Clive Barda
- The Knot Garden (2005)
The Piano Tuner
Photography by Clive Barda
- The Piano Tuner (commission 2004)
- Ion (commission 2003)
- Electrification of the Soviet Union (version commissioned 2002)
- Gwyneth and the Green Knight (commission 2002)
- Jane Eyre (commission 2000)
- The Rape of Lucretia 1999
- Punch and Judy 1998
- The Roswell Incident (commission 1997)
- In the House of Crossed Desires (commission 1996)
- The Soldier’s Tale (new performing version commissioned from Sion Eirian 1995)
- Pierrot Lunaire
- Flowers (commission 1994)
- The Lighthouse 1993
- The Four Note Opera 1993
- Ubu (commission 1992)
- The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1991)
- The Fall of the House of Usher (European premiere 1989)
- The Martyrdom of St Magnus (1988)