"Music Theatre Wales - leading the world." Sean Rafferty, BBC Radio 3
Music Theatre Wales began life in 1988 and our first production was typically inventive, setting Peter Maxwell Davies's The Martyrdom of St Magnus in the graveyard of a Saxon church in the grounds of St Donats Castle just outside home in Cardiff.
Since then we have continued to break new ground in opera, creating almost 30 productions and presenting 14 world premieres bringing new artists to the form and finding a new place for pieces already written but either neglected or unseen in Wales and the rest of the UK. We have an established programme to help nurture new opera composers and we have created productions with a wide range of partners including Opera National du Rhin in Strasbourg, the Berlin Festival, Opera Vest in Norway, Banff Centre in Canada, Theatr Brycheiniog in Brecon, Haarlem Theatre in The Netherlands, Treffpunkt in Stuttgart, and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
In 2002, Music Theatre Wales became the first Associate Company of the Royal Opera House. This partnership has given us a fabulous London home and has included a number of co-productions and co-commissions. In turn, we have brought chamber opera of quality and artistic rigour into the very heart of the home of grand opera.
The company has twice been short-listed for the Prudential Awards for "creativity, excellence, innovation and accessibility." The opera Gwyneth and the Green Knight by Lynne Plowman, produced by us in 2002 was the first opera to win the British Composers Award and her second opera The House of the Gods (another MTW commission) was also shortlisted for this award in 2007.
Today, Music Theatre Wales is acknowledged as the UK's leading contemporary opera company. Touring is our very life blood. At the forefront of everything we do is our commitment to offer audiences across Wales and England the same opportunities as those in London; to expand their operatic and musical experiences by ensuring they have access to high quality and innovative work.
"a company always ahead of the game" The Times
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