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School of Welsh

A Taste of Opera

Two students from Bangor University got the chance to learn more about writing operas lately.

Sunday, 9 November was the highlight of Make an Aria, an exciting project by Wales Music Theatre to enhance experience and opportunities of writing for opera among new composers and authors in Wales.

In a recital at Royal College for Music and Drama in Cardiff, Sian Owen a PhD students from the School of Welsh and Mirain Eluned Evans from the School of Music at Bangor got a chance to watch a professional performance of the new aria that they prepared as part of the scheme.

Six different arias were performed in all and were based on the characters of For You by Michael Berkeley and Ian McEwan that’s touring at the moment. The pinnacle of the night was the Master Class which featured the reactions of the Music Theatre Wales’ Artistic Co-directors Michael McCarthy and Michael Rafferty as well as the noted composer Judith Weir. Last year, Judith Weir received the first ever Queens Medal for Music and this year her work will be the subject for a festival weekend in the Barbican.

“This was an unique opportunity to work across disciplines in a medium that’s totally new to me,” said Sian Owen. “We had very positive feedback to our work from Judith which has encouraged us to compose more pieces.”