Welsh National Opera Orchestra

The Welsh National Opera Orchestra maintains a busy schedule outside of its function as an opera house orchestra. The group has made several recordings.

The beginnings of the Welsh National Opera Orchestra date to 1946, when the modern Welsh National Opera was formed in the city of Cardiff. A professional orchestra drawn partly from the ranks of the <a href="spotify:artist:1fhEh9FpKs42GFeqerlBUf">BBC Welsh Orchestra</a> (now the <a href="spotify:artist:1fhEh9FpKs42GFeqerlBUf">BBC National Orchestra of Wales</a>). The new opera company had a precarious financial situation in its early years, and the orchestra petered out even as the company began to engage professional singers of greater repute. In 1952, the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra began to provide music for Welsh National Opera productions. Later, it was supplanted by the <a href="spotify:artist:6I6fmQU7HGrUsCm4B5Nlk3">Royal Liverpool Philharmonic</a>, the <a href="spotify:artist:6wuudWq7XpVutoFp4bsVDo">City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra</a>, and the <a href="spotify:artist:6ibvdCG0uLZYYq4HpUmXQ1">BBC Ulster Orchestra</a> for productions in different parts of the United Kingdom. For the 1970-1971 season, the Welsh National Opera reestablished its own orchestra, at first called the Welsh Philharmonia. The group took its present name in 1978; it has also been known as the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera. A new Welsh National Opera Chorus was also established in 1973.

The Welsh National Opera Orchestra has accompanied Welsh National Opera productions since then, and it appeared on various recordings with the company. An early digital release was a 1997 recording of highlights from Verdi's Un ballo in maschera, issued on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Apex%22">Apex</a> label. The orchestra on that album was conducted by <a href="spotify:artist:2H1dGTBfjYrqkXN2WxsiZf">Carlo Rizzi</a>, one of the Welsh National Opera conductors who have also directed the orchestra. <a href="spotify:artist:2H1dGTBfjYrqkXN2WxsiZf">Rizzi</a> has maintained his association with the group even after being succeeded by Lother Koenigs and <a href="spotify:artist:1iyvtzGjtuQa1I5UGpzk6l">Sir Charles Mackerras</a> as music director. Tomáš Hanus became music director in 2016 and remained in that position as of the mid-2020s. The orchestra also maintains a busy concert schedule. It is based at Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff and participates annually in that city's St. David's Hall International Concert Series. The group gained national and international exposure from its participation in the televised Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. The orchestra has appeared on several albums of vocal and instrumental music, and in 2024, <a href="spotify:artist:2H1dGTBfjYrqkXN2WxsiZf">Rizzi</a> returned for the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Signum+Classics%22">Signum Classics</a> album Puccini: Symphonic Suites Imagined by Carlo Rizzi. The Welsh National Opera Orchestra maintains educational partnerships with the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, the Birmingham Conservatoire, and the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Greenwich, England. ~ James Manheim, Rovi