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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Timeline

Repertoire since 1988

  • Violet Tom Coult and Alice Birch (UK premiere 2020)
  • Denis & Katya Philip Venables and Ted Huffman (UK premiere 2020)
  • AMAZON Alex Ho and Elayce Ismail (Digital work for Homemakers – HOME 2020)
  • The Intelligence Park Gerald Barry and Vincent Deane (2019)
  • Passion Pascal Dusapin (UK premiere 2018)

Y Tŵr
Photography by Clive Barda


  • Y Tŵr Guto Puw and Gwyneth Glyn (Commission 2017)
  • The Golden Dragon Peter Eötvös (UK premiere 2016)
  • The Devil Inside Stuart MacRae and Louise Welsh (commission 2016)
  • The Trial Philip Glass and Christopher Hampton (commission 2014)
  • The Killing Flower (Luci mie traditrici) Salvatore Sciarrino (UK premiere 2013)

Ping
Photography by Clive Barda


  • Ping (UK premiere 2013)
  • Eight Songs for a Mad King Peter Maxwell Davies

In The Locked Room
Photography by Clive Barda


  • In the Locked Room Huw Watkins and David Harsent (commissioned as a double-bill 2012)
  • Ghost Patrol Stuart MacRae and Louise Welsh (commissioned as a double-bill 2012)
  • Greek Mark-Anthony Turnage and Steven Berkoff (2011)

In The Penal Colony
Photography by Clive Barda


  • In the Penal Colony Philip Glass and Rudolph Wurlitzer (UK premiere 2010)
  • Letters of a Love Betrayed Eleanor Alberga and Donald Sturrock (commission 2009)
  • Crime Fiction Huw Watkins and David Harsent (commission 2009)

Stori’r Milwr
Photography by Clive Barda


  • Stori’r Milwr new Welsh version of The Soldier’s Tale (commissioned 2009)

For You
Photography by Clive Barda


  • For You Michael Berkeley and Ian McEwan (commission 2008)

Julie
Photography by Clive Barda


  • Julie Philippe Boesmans and Luc Bondy (UK premiere 2007)
  • House of the Gods Lynne Plowman and Martin Riley (commission 2006)

The Knot Garden
Photography by Clive Barda


  • The Knot Garden Michael Tippett (2005)

The Piano Tuner
Photography by Clive Barda


  • The Piano Tuner Nigel Osborne and Amanda Holden (commission 2004)
  • Ion Param Vir and David Lan (commission 2003)
  • Electrification of the Soviet Union Nigel Osborne and Craig Raine (version commissioned 2002)
  • Gwyneth and the Green Knight Lynne Plowman and Martin Riley (commission 2002)
  • Jane Eyre Michael Berkeley and David Malouf (commission 2000)
  • The Rape of Lucretia Benjamin Britten and Ronald Duncan 1999
  • Punch and Judy Harrison Birtwistle and Stephen Pruslin 1998
  • The Roswell Incident John Hardy and Heledd Wyn (commission 1997)
  • In the House of Crossed Desires John Woolrich and Marina Warner (commission 1996)
  • The Soldier’s Tale Igor Stravinsky (new performing version commissioned from Sion Eirian 1995)
  • Pierrot Lunaire Arnold Schoenberg
  • Flowers John Hardy and Ed Thomas (commission 1994)
  • The Lighthouse Peter Maxwell Davies 1993
  • The Four Note Opera Tom Johnson 1993
  • Ubu Andrew Toovey and Michael Finnissy (commission 1992)
  • The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Michael Nyman and Christopher Rawlence (1991)
  • The Fall of the House of Usher Philip Glass and Arthur Yorinks (European premiere 1989)
  • The Martyrdom of St Magnus Peter Maxwell Davies (1988)