Young British director Sam Brown makes his Welsh

National Opera debut with a new production of Rossini’s Barber of Seville 200 years after its

première as part of WNO’s Figaro trilogy

Rossini The Barber of Seville 13 February – 8 April Mozart The Marriage of Figaro 18 February – 9 April Langer Figaro Gets a Divorce 21 February – 7 April

“This […] production is thrilling, such is the quality of the

direction” The Observer on Jakob Lenz

Young British director and comic opera specialist Sam Brown makes his Welsh National Opera debut with a new production of Rossini’s Barber of Seville as part of a Figaro Forever trilogy in Spring 2016 alongside Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and the world première of Elena Langer’s Figaro Gets a Divorce. This production of Rossini’s comic opera runs almost exactly 200 years after the initial première in Rome in 1816. The trilogy will open in Cardiff at the Wales Millennium Centre before touring to Birmingham, Llandudno, Bristol, Southampton, Milton Keynes and Plymouth throughout February and March 2016. Brown’s new production, WNO’s first new Barber for over 30 years. brings together a dazzling roster of British talent. Ralph Koltai CBE RDI, former designer with the Royal Shakespeare Company, with credits for countless theatrical productions and over 100 operas to his name, has designed the sets for all three Figaro operas using similar themes to draw them together. Sue Blane MBE, the original costume designer for The Rocky Horror Show (stage and screen), will create the costumes, and lighting will be coordinated by Linus Fellbom. Tobias Richter will direct the new production of The Marriage of Figaro and David Pountney will direct Elena Langer’s Figaro Gets a Divorce.

 

“Sam Brown’s clever staging confirms the opera’s strong

theatrical properties” New York Times

Nicholas Lester makes his WNO debut in the title role of Brown’s Barber of Sevill   e production alongside Richard Wiegold as Basilio, Clare Booth as Rosina and Nico Darmanin making his WNO debut as Count Almaviva. Andrew Shore plays the role of Doctor Bartolo having collaborated with Sam Brown in a critically-acclaimed production of Rihm’s Jakob Lenz at the English National Opera in 2012. The Orchestra of Welsh National Opera will be conducted by James Southall. The Barber of Seville is a co-production with the Grand Théatre de Genève. Click below to watch Welsh National Opera’s trailer for Figaro Forever:

Sam Brown is one of the UK’s most exciting young directors and the first person ever to win both the European Opera Directing Prize and the Ring Award. Specialising in comic opera, his La Cenerentola in Lucerne in 2013 won huge critical plaudits, and it was Die

 

Fledermaus that won him the Ring Award, making his name. Thereafter, he has directed operas all across Europe, including the world premiere of Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest for Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy, which Opera Now named as their premiere of the year 2012/13, followed by Leonard Bernstein’s rarely-seen Candide. Although he has a host of European credits to his name, he has also directed important work in the UK, including directing English National Opera’s revival of Wolfgang Rihm’s Jakob Lenz, seen for the first time since 1987 in Brown’s staging. “Sometimes you come across an evening of opera which can

be enjoyed undiluted, neither boring and dusty nor weird, over the top or too ‘modern’”

Oper Aktuell Figaro Forever is a Welsh National Opera project exploring the continuing popularity of this mischievous character in his multiple operatic incarnations as one of opera’s most likable creations. Tracing the thread through the charming gaiety of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, through the comedy of mistaken identities that is Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro (directed by Tobias Richter), the trilogy concludes with a new commission from Elena Langer, Figaro Gets a Divorce, directed by David Pountney, Artistic Director of WNO, who also wrote the libretto.

Figaro Forever 13 February – 7 April 2016

Welsh National Opera Welsh National Opera Orchestra

Ralph Koltai Set Design Sue Blane Costumes

Linus Fellbom Lighting Robin Don Assistant Set Designer (The Marriage of Figaro, Figaro Gets a

Divorce)

The Barber of Seville Nico Darmanin Almaviva Nicholas Lester Figaro Claire Booth Rosina Andrew Shore Bartolo Richard Wiegold Basilio James Southall Conductor Sam Brown Director

Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff 13, 17, 19, 23 & 25 February 2016 Birmingham Hippodrome 1 & 4 March 2016 Llandudno Venue Cymru

 

8 & 11 March 2016 Bristol Hippodrome Theatre 15 &18 March 2016 The Mayflower, Southampton 22 March 2016

Milton Keynes Theatre 29 March & 1 April 2016 Theatre Royal, Plymouth 5 & 8 April 2016

Click for full listings: The Marriage of Figaro Figaro Gets a Divorce

Sam Brown

Sam Brown is one of the leading young stage directors in Europe. He read Classics at Oxford and completed the MFA in Theatre Directing at Birkbeck College, London. He was assistant director at West Yorkshire Playhouse and staff director for Opera North. In 2011 with designer Annemarie Woods he won two prestigious international opera awards: the European Opera Directing Prize and the Ring Award where they won all available prizes from two juries of Intendants, reviewers, designers and directors. It was only the second time a director from the English-speaking world had won either of these competitions, and the first time anyone had ever won

both. He made his opera directing debut at the Bavarian State Opera with the Kinderoper Sigurd the Dragonslayer by Andy Pape and his opera directing credits include: Jakob Lenz by Wolfgang Rihm (English National Opera), I Capuleti e I Montecchi (Teatro Sociale di Como, AsLiCo), Der Zigeunerbaron (Stadttheater Klagenfurt), The Triumph of Time and Truth/The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit (Karlsruhe Händelfestspiele, Badisches Staatstheater), La Cenerentola (Luzerner Theater), Donizetti’s La Favorite (Opera Graz) and Alcina (Staatstheater Cottbus). For the Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy, France, he directed the world premiere of The Importance of Being Earnest by Gerald Barry (Opera Now Magazine Premiere of the Year: 12/13 season) and Candide by Leonard Bernstein. In December 2013 he was profiled by Opera Magazine in

 

their ‘Directors Edition’ alongside Graham Vick, Barrie Kosky and Patrice Chereau. As a theatre director his credits include: Magpie Park, a new play on commission by Oliver Emanuel (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Over Gardens Out by Peter Gill (Riverside Studios, London), Hair The Musical, (Staatstheater Darmstadt), and Lungs by Duncan Macmillan (Schauspielhaus Graz). He co-wrote the libretto for The Water Palace by Stephen Shulman (Tete a Tete Opera Festival), which he also directed. Projects in the 15/16 season include: My Fair Lady (Badisches Staatstheater, Karlsruhe) and Barber of Seville (Welsh National Opera).

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