MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
Latest editorial
Two outstanding youth productions
DAVID NICHOLSON is enthralled by new work from WNO that teaches children to sing and perform
The pupils of Data-class 452 and their android teacher in Cary John Franklin's The Very Last Green Thing
New releases from Mountain, Soul Asylum and Michael McDermott
ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
Welsh Youth Opera
Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay
IF OPERA is to thrive and bring in new audiences, then having a youth wing of singers and putting on productions aimed at young people is essential. Welsh National Opera claims it is committed to diversity and ensuring its work is accessible to a wide audience.
Its latest production of Solomon’s Ring and The Very Last Green Thing by the WNO Youth Opera manages to be both entertaining and a great introduction to opera for a younger audience. The youth opera has two cohorts aged 10-14 and 14-18 years of age and both groups combine to bring us 60 minutes of top-class singing and fine acting performances.
Solomon’s Ring is a very short piece that started life as a way of providing more stage time for some of the members of the youth opera who were not as involved with the longer The Very Last Green Thing and helped create the piece themselves.
More from this author
