Canolfan UCHELDRE Centre

Workshop 2- “Getting the Voice Moving”

Some work also on vowels and consonants in preparation for Workshop 3.

There will be an opportunity afterwards to talk to the tutors.

Timetable for the day:

10am         Meet in the cafe and book lunch

10.30am   Main Hall

12.15pm   Lunch

12.45pm   Main Hall

2.30pm     Finish

In what should be a highlight of the new season, soprano Anna Netrebko sings her first Met Aida, going toe-to-toe with mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili as Amneris, tenor Aleksandrs Antonenko sings Radamès. Conductor Nicola Luisotti takes the podium for the Met’s monumental production.  

This grandest of grand operas features an epic backdrop for what is in essence an intimate love story. Set in ancient Egypt and packed with magnificent choruses, complex ensembles, and elaborate ballets, Aida never loses sight of its three protagonists. Few operas have matched Aida in its exploration of the conflict of private emotion and public duty, and perhaps no other has remained to the present day so unanimously appreciated by audiences and critics alike.

Sung in Italian with English surtitles

When mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča and tenor Roberto Alagna joined forces for a new production of Carmen at the Met, the results were electrifying. Now this star duo reunites for another sensual French opera when they open the season in the title roles of Saint-Saëns’s biblical epic Samson et Dalila.

Darko Tresnjak, who won a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 2014 for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, makes his Met debut directing a vivid, seductive staging, featuring a monumental setting for the last-act Temple of Dagon, where the hero crushes his Philistine enemies. Sir Mark Elder conducts the first new Met production of the work in 20 years.

The High Priest is sung by Laurent Naouri and Abimélech by Elchin Azizov and the Old Hebrew by Dmitry.

Sung in French with English surtitles

Soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek sings Puccini’s gun-slinging heroine in this romantic epic of the Wild West, with the heralded return of tenor Jonas Kaufmann in the role of the outlaw she loves.  Baritone Željko Lučić is the vigilante sheriff Jack Rance, and Marco Armiliato conducts.

Puccini’s “American” opera, based on David Belasco’s play The Girl of the Golden West, had its glamorous and highly publicized world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera, with the composer in the audience. The drama is set during the California Gold Rush, and the girl of the title is one of Puccini’s most appealing heroines—a strong, independent woman determined to win the man she loves. Although it fell out of favour with audiences for a few decades following its original success, Fanciulla has rebounded in popularity in recent years and is now counted among Puccini’s best works.

Sung in Italian with English surtitles

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Wagner’s Ring cycle is one of the greatest works of all opera. Keith Warner’s production is conducted by Antonio Pappano, Music Director of The Royal Opera, and this final revival is cast with an outstanding international array of Wagnerian specialist singers.

The full cycle's four operas journey from the beginning of a world to its destruction, with gods, heroes and monsters. This epic myth portrays every type of human emotion in music and ideas of extraordinary power. The Ring is always a special event in the operatic calendar: once experienced, never forgotten.

Die Walküre (The Valkyrie) is the second opera in the cycle, and features several of the Ring’s musical highlights – the sparkling Magic Fire Music and the electrifying Ride of the Valkyries. But among the musical fireworks and Norse mythology, at the centre of this opera are the unforgettable characters and the complex entanglements between them, including twins Siegmund (Stuart Skelton) and Sieglinde(Emily Magee), and Wotan (John Ludgren) and his Valkyrie daughter, Brünnhilde (Nina Stemme).

Workshop 3- “Notes and Words-----United at Last!”

There will be an opportunity afterwards to talk to the tutors.

Timetable for the day:

10am         Meet in the cafe and book lunch

10.30am   Main Hall

12.15pm   Lunch

12.45pm   Main Hall

2.30pm     Finish

Composer Nico Muhly unveils his second new opera for the Met with this gripping reimagining of Winston Graham’s novel, set in the 1950s, about a beautiful, mysterious young woman who assumes multiple identities. Director Michael Mayer and his creative team have devised a fast-moving, cinematic world for this exhilarating story of denial and deceit, which also inspired a film by Alfred Hitchcock. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard sings the enigmatic Marnie, and baritone Christopher Maltman is the man who pursues her—with disastrous results. Robert Spano conducts.

Sung in English  

Verdi’s La Traviata survived a notoriously unsuccessful opening night to become one of the best-loved operas in the repertoire. Following the larger-scale dramas of Rigoletto and Il Trovatore, its intimate scope and subject matter inspired the composer to create some of his most profound and heartfelt music. The title role of the “fallen woman” has captured the imaginations of audiences and performers alike with its inexhaustible vocal and dramatic possibilities and challenges. Violetta is considered a pinnacle of the soprano repertoire.

Sung in Italian with English surtitles

The King Of Waltz André Rieu will bring to millions of fans across the world, his New Years concert recorded live in Sydney, Australia. The first full production from leading Event Cinema distributor Piece Of Magic Entertainment, André Rieu will present a festive concert like never before, recorded live in Sydney’s stunning Town Hall.

Join the maestro, André Rieu, for a magical evening of music and dance featuring his world class sopranos, the platin tenors and plenty of surprises. With show tunes, classical music and plenty of festive fun it promises to be a great way to start the new year!

Take a front row seat and experience this spectacular musical event on the big screen. Enjoy backstage access, interviews with André and his special guests, musical favourites and much, much more, exclusive to cinema.

The evening will be hosted by ITV’s Charlotte Hawkins, a familiar face for all those who continue to enjoy Andre’s annual Maastricht concert each July.  

The King Of Waltz André Rieu will bring to millions of fans across the world, his New Years concert recorded live in Sydney, Australia. The first full production from leading Event Cinema distributor Piece Of Magic Entertainment, André Rieu will present a festive concert like never before, recorded live in Sydney’s stunning Town Hall.

Join the maestro, André Rieu, for a magical evening of music and dance featuring his world class sopranos, the platin tenors and plenty of surprises. With show tunes, classical music and plenty of festive fun it promises to be a great way to start the new year!

Take a front row seat and experience this spectacular musical event on the big screen. Enjoy backstage access, interviews with André and his special guests, musical favourites and much, much more, exclusive to cinema.

The evening will be hosted by ITV’s Charlotte Hawkins, a familiar face for all those who continue to enjoy Andre’s annual Maastricht concert each July.  

Soprano Anna Netrebko joins the ranks of Renata Tebaldi, Montserrat Caballé, and Renata Scotto, taking on, for the first time at the Met, the title role of the real-life French actress who dazzled 18th-century audiences with her on and offstage passion. The soprano is joined by tenor Piotr Beczała as Adriana's lover, Maurizio. The principal cast also features mezzo-soprano Anita Rachvelishvili and baritone Ambrogio Maestri.  Gianandrea Noseda conducts.

Sir David McVicar's staging, which sets the action in a working replica of a Baroque theatre, premiered at the Royal Opera House in London, where the Guardian praised the "elegant production, sumptuously designed ... The spectacle guarantees a good night out."

Sung in Italian with English surtitles

With Marian Bryfdir and Kiefer Jones

An opportunity to meet and work with two music professionals.

Whether you want to improve your singing voice or even find it. If you want to find those top notes or learn how to breath whilst singing. These monthly workshops are for you. 

All musical tastes are covered: classical, operatic arias, folk songs, pop and songs from the musicals. You would be joining a group of people with similar aims, and have the opportunity to have a private session with Marian or Kiefer.

Marian Bryfdir studied at the Royal Academy of Music and sang with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden before specialising in opera-in-education and voice teaching. Now based in North Wales, she arranges short intensive courses of vocal rehabilitation for individuals with vocal problems of all types and also gives short courses for young singing teachers.We are very pleased to host her workshops here at Ucheldre.

Kiefer Jones is classically trained and a solo performer. He has also sung with among others Boys Aloud.

Mezzo-soprano Clémentine Margaine reprises her remarkable portrayal of opera’s ultimate seductress, a triumph in her 2017 debut performances, with impassioned tenor Roberto Alagna as her lover, Don José. Louis Langrée conduct Sir Richard Eyre’s powerful production, a Met favourite since its 2009 premiere.

Bizet’s masterpiece of the gypsy seductress who lives by her own rules has had an impact far beyond the opera house. The opera’s melodic sweep is as irresistible as the title character herself, a force of nature who has become a defining female cultural figure. Carmen was a scandal at its premiere but soon after became a triumphal success and has remained one of the most frequently staged operas in the world.

Tenor Javier Camarena and soprano Pretty Yende team up for a feast of bel canto vocal fireworks—including the show-stopping tenor aria “Ah! Mes amis,” with its nine high Cs. Maurizio Muraro is the comic Sergeant Sulpice, with mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe as the outlandish Marquise of Berkenfield. Enrique Mazzola conducts.

This frothy comedy mixes humour with a rush of buoyant melody and notorious vocal challenges. The story concerns a young orphan girl raised by an army regiment as their mascot and begins at the moment of her first stirrings of love. Complications (and comedy) ensue when her true identity is discovered. The action is startlingly simple and unencumbered by intricate subplots, allowing the full charm of the characters and their virtuosic music to come across in an uninhibited way.

With Marian Bryfdir and Kiefer Jones

An opportunity to meet and work with two music professionals.

Whether you want to improve your singing voice or even find it. If you want to find those top notes or learn how to breath whilst singing. These monthly workshops are for you. 

All musical tastes are covered: classical, operatic arias, folk songs, pop and songs from the musicals. You would be joining a group of people with similar aims, and have the opportunity to have a private session with Marian or Kiefer.

Marian Bryfdir studied at the Royal Academy of Music and sang with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden before specialising in opera-in-education and voice teaching. Now based in North Wales, she arranges short intensive courses of vocal rehabilitation for individuals with vocal problems of all types and also gives short courses for young singing teachers.We are very pleased to host her workshops here at Ucheldre.

Kiefer Jones is classically trained and a solo performer. He has also sung with among others Boys Aloud.

In what is expected to be a Wagnerian event for the ages, soprano Christine Goerke plays Brünnhilde, Wotan’s wilful warrior daughter, who loses her immortality in opera’s most famous act of filial defiance. Tenor Stuart Skelton and soprano Eva-Maria Westbroek play the incestuous twins Siegmund and Sieglinde. Greer Grimsley sings Wotan. Philippe Jordan conducts.

The second opera in Wagner’s monumental Ring cycle, Die Walküre has long stood on its own as an evening of extraordinarily powerful theatre. Part of this appeal lies in its focus on some of the Ring’s most interesting characters at decisive moments of their lives: Wotan, the leader of the gods; his wife, Fricka; his twin offspring, Siegmund and Sieglinde; and, above all, Wotan’s warrior daughter Brünnhilde. These characters and others follow their destinies to some of Wagner’s most remarkable music.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin leads the classic John Dexter production of Poulenc’s devastating story of faith and martyrdom. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard sings the touching role of Blanche and soprano Karita Mattila, a legend in her own time, returns to the Met as the Prioress.

The opera takes place between 1789 and 1794 in Paris and in the town of Compiègne in north-eastern France, the site of the Carmelite nuns’ convent. Its historical basis is the martyrdom of a group of 16 Carmelite nuns and lay sisters from Compiègne, who chose to offer themselves as victims for the restoration of peace to France during the Revolution.