Directed by award-winning director Michael McCarthy (Artistic Director, Music Theatre Wales), Voices of Now celebrates scenes from contemporary opera written in English. Featuring our four talented Young Artist répétiteurs at the piano, the scenes will be conducted by National Opera Studio Head of Music, Mark Shanahan.
This programme will showcase 21st century operas, with scenes from works by John Adams, Judith Weir, George Benjamin, Philip Glass, Emma Ruth-Richards, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Stuart MacRae and Unsuk Chin, and hark back to one of contemporary opera’s pioneers with an extract from Michael Tippett’s King Priam.
For over 40 years, the National Opera Studio has played an essential role at the heart of British opera. The National Opera Studio works in partnership with Arts Council England and the UK’s leading Opera Companies – Opera North, English National Opera, Glyndebourne, the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera and Welsh National Opera – to provide intensive and bespoke professional training of the highest quality for singers and répétiteurs who have the potential to become the leading artists of their generation.
Michael McCarthy (director)
Michael is Co-founder and Artistic Director of Music Theatre Wales, staging over 35 productions for the company, most recently Passion by Pascal Dusapin (UK premiere), Y Twr by Guto Puw (MTW commission), The Golden Dragon by Peter Eötvös (UK premiere) and The Trail by Philip Glass (an MTW commission with Royal Opera House) also staged for Opera Theatre St Louis, Theater Magdeburg and Scottish Opera.
Other productions include Richard the Lionheart by Telemann and Handel in Germany, large-scale outdoor stagings of Tosca, Nabucco and La traviata in Norway, and Cosi fan tutte, Il re pastore, Fidelio and Don Giovanni. Also, Cinderella for WNO and S4C Television, The Lighthouse for BBC2 TV and The Forbidden Hymn - a community opera in the South Wales Valleys.
In January 2015 Michael was awarded Best Director at the Wales Arts Awards for his production of The Trial (Glass). His production of Greek (Turnage) won Outstanding Achievement in Opera at the TMA Awards, and his production of In The Locked Room by Huw Watkins was nominated for an Olivier as part of a double bill of new operas. He was honoured with an MBE at the end of 2015.
Alongside MTW, from 1998-2012 he was Artistic Director of the contemporary opera studio for Norway, 2007 – 2012 he was Dramaturg for FIVE:15 - Operas Made in Scotland for Scottish Opera. In 2012 he led the Opera Creation Academy at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence.