Y Pwyllgor Diwylliant, y Gymraeg a Chwaraeon

Adolygiad Polisi: Cyfraniad y Celfyddydau a Chwaraeon at Adfywio Cymunedol

Welsh National Opera

A performance contribution was also made to members of the Committee on Culture, Welsh Language and Sport on 26 November 2003 at a rehearsal for Cardiff City Songs Contents

• Overview - WNO and WNO MAX
• WNO MAX and its relationship with the communities with whom it works
• Responses to the four main areas in the terms of reference for the Review
• The links between arts policy, sports policy and community regeneration policy
• How local arts and sports projects can contribute to community regeneration
• Support mechanisms for community regeneration-related arts and sports projects
• Best practice in community regeneration-related arts and sports projects
• Conclusion

Overview - WNO and WNO MAX Welsh National Opera’s Mission Statement declares: WNO exists to contribute to the cultural enrichment of the nation, regions and cities to which it tours by:

• Producing and touring world class opera
• Creating a diverse programme of performances, events, community and education projects which reaches the widest possible public

Welsh National Opera has been producing and touring opera for almost sixty years. It is not only Wales’ national opera company, it is also the largest provider of opera to regional England. Universally acknowledged and awarded as a world-class opera company and a leader in its field, WNO currently presents its mainscale productions - with full orchestra, chorus and technical team - to Cardiff, Swansea and Llandudno, as well as to eight English cities and in an annual season in Belfast. In terms of funding, WNO is unique. It is the only publicly-funded arts organisation in the UK to receive core funding from both the Arts Councils of Wales and England. This dual investment brings enormous benefits to audiences in both countries, giving WNO the resources to bring international artists and artistic teams to work together with the WNO Company to create highest quality opera annually for around 140,000 people. The joint subsidy from the two Arts Councils of £9.5 million (in 2003/4) then unlocks a further £4 million in income at the box office and in sponsorship. After almost sixty years WNO is about to enter possibly the most exciting period of its life as its new home in the new Wales Millennium Centre bursts from the ground in Cardiff Bay. The Company is also well underway in its implementation of its Strategy for Change under the Arts Council’s Stabilisation Programme. This strategic plan includes:

• increasing mainscale opera touring activity back up to and beyond previous levels (including additional weeks in both Swansea and Llandudno)
• handling the central role of this touring company in a more efficient and effective way
• offering better value for money to its funders and stakeholders.

However, the most dramatic and far-reaching change to the way the company works has been to bring WNO’s education and outreach work to sit alongside the mainscale work in the company’s priorities. This wider focus has created WNO MAX - the initiative which was born to provide from core funding an annual programme of community touring, participatory projects and special events, forward planned and fully integrated at the heart of the company. Although the company had been involved in high quality education work for a number of years, it had never been core-funded. WNO MAX gets its name from its aim to maximise the resources of WNO - to use the huge depth of expertise within the company to touch as many lives as possible across Wales and the UK. WNO’s philosophy, supported by its mission statement, is that everything the company does has quality, integrity and ambition to touch lives, whether it is the mainscale or WNO MAX. Sarah Alexander, the WNO MAX Director uses an allegorical wedge of cheese to illustrate the point perfectly - 'Whether someone is seeing WNO at the widest point of the wedge - perhaps the full company presenting a major piece of Wagner such as this season’s Parsifal - or are seeing us perform at the fine end of the wedge of cheese - say, one singer with a pianist giving a concert party in a home for elderly people - it is all WNO. Cut through the wedge of cheese at any point and it would still be pure WNO - rich with quality, integrity and ambition to touch lives.’ This new approach to all the activity the company undertakes, other than the mainscale productions, has significant implications for the creative work of the company. WNO has already commissioned a number of new works from a diverse and wide range of artists, has involved members of the company in the creation of that work, and has extended and deepened WNO’s relationship with the wider artistic community. Through WNO MAX, the company is now a creative resource for artists, arts administrators and planners, and not simply a flagship. The appointment of Sarah Alexander as WNO MAX Director in 2001 was essential to the successful development of WNO MAX, both within the company itself and across its stakeholders. An experienced arts outreach professional, Sarah has acted as the persuader and the visionary for what WNO MAX has set out to achieve. She is supported by a team of professional administrators and project leaders, either staff within the WNO MAX department, or from a team of specialist freelancers, working closely with all of WNO’s artistic, technical or administrative departments. Already the reach of WNO MAX has been extensive. The age range of participants ranges from a five year old at a schools concert in Cowbridge to a lady of 99 in a residential home Concert Party in Llanfairfechan. Geographically within Wales, WNO MAX has been to towns from Holyhead to Newport, Milford Haven to Wrexham. In many cases WNO MAX has taken projects to places without mainstream theatre buildings of any kind, and in doing so has reached audiences who would never have expected to see an opera company in their own town or village. In this way, WNO is helping to develop audiences, not only for opera, but for all the performing arts in Wales.   WNO MAX and its relationship with the communities with whom it works WNO MAX works across a number of communities, physical and social, and aims to bring benefits to all of them. It tries to make artistic experiences available to these communities, within their own contexts at different moments through their lives. They include three types of communities in particular:

• School communities
• Local communities
• Wider communities

School communities For example:

• Children in Transition - helping primary school pupils address the challenges of moving on to secondary school, through projects such as the Katerina Chorus in Merthyr Tydfil, Hansel and Gretel in Ebbw Vale, Torfaen, Merthyr, Llandudno, Wrexham and Swansea, and the Brass Trio in Neath and Porthcawl.
• Sharing Across Schools - bringing school children and their teachers together to share in the creation of music and art, through projects such as Cardiff City Songs and Katerina in Merthyr and in North Wales.
• Investment in Teachers - raising teachers confidence and giving practical assistance in developing the creative and artistic work of their classes, through inset days, teachers’ packs and close involvement in workshops and rehearsals. Indeed, during the City Songs pilot project in Bristol this year, the teachers felt so involved they formed a small choir of their own to sing as part of the piece.

It should be noted however, that WNO is particularly concerned with the difficulties being experienced by arts organisations when trying to take creative arts projects into secondary education. Head teachers of primary schools are given the flexibility to decide for themselves how best to use the time and space of a school - its teachers and its pupils - to use arts projects to help achieve the national curriculum. As a result a huge amount of creative energy and artistic vision flows across the primary school sector. However it has been increasingly difficult for Head Teachers in secondary schools to do the same. The restrictions of how the national curriculum must be implemented has meant that there is a huge gap in the creative and artistic provision offered to young people after they leave primary education. All over the UK, companies such as WNO are limited in their opportunities to work constructively within the secondary sector and this will undoubtedly have detrimental effects on the creative future of the country as a whole. Local communities For example:

• out-of-school activities - legacy projects such as the Katerina Chorus on the Gurnos Estate in Merthyr Tydfil (see full details below) and in North Wales, as well as school holiday projects in collaboration with local groups such as Bridgend Youth Theatre or other arts organisations such as Diversions on Shake and Shout.
• Welsh National Youth Opera - WNO has a Youth Opera in both Cardiff and in Belfast, each bringing together around 50 16-25 year olds each year to rehearse, produce and perform a full-scale opera or musical each year, giving extra confidence and self-esteem at a point where it can often be lacking
• Opera in the Shed - In April 2003, as an alternative to a week of mainscale performances, WNO MAX created a unique performance space in Brunel’s Passenger Shed at Bristol’s Temple Meads station housing an audience of around 600. The whole WNO company took part in a varied programme of performances, singing workshops and free demonstrations. Supported by Bristol-based commercial law firm, Burges Salmon, the week was developed around the performance of City Songs, piloted in Bristol in collaboration with the arts development agency, Multi A, and recently recreated in Cardiff. WNO MAX can use Opera in the Shed as a model for future local residencies within Wales.

The wider community For example:

• WNO’s annual Tour of Wales, as detailed below, has for many years taken the Orchestra of WNO to small theatres and leisure centres across Wales. The Tour gives audiences from schools and the general public, in more rural areas of Wales the opportunity to hear world-class orchestral and operatic concerts on their doorstep. Indeed, WNO’s new Russian Music Director, Tugan Sokhiev, gave the first public performance of his WNO tenure in a Tour of Wales concert in Harlech in January 2003.
• Concert Parties - Around thirty times each year, members of the WNO Chorus take one or two-person concerts to homes for the elderly and to hospitals. Singing a mixture of well-known opera arias and popular songs by composers such as Noel Coward and Cole Porter, they also encourage their audiences to join in a sing-along of old favourites from wartime or the shows. These concerts frequently have a profound effect on the audiences and their families. In particular this autumn there was a lady in Colwyn Bay who though unable to recognise members of her own family, remembered the words to many of the songs, making it a very special visit for her daughter.

  While WNO and WNO MAX would never claim the sole responsibility for the regeneration of any communities with which it has worked, it has been able to have a significant impact on them through its artistic work, its ability to develop partnerships with local organisations and local authorities and with the business world. The company’s success in this area has been of particular benefit to young people offering them opportunities to experience, often for the first time in their lives, creativity and participation. It has been well documented that the arts have long been more than the icing on the cake within national, regional and local regeneration. They are intrinsic to the soul of a nation. By developing, presenting and passing on the love, passion and commitment to the opera and the wider arts, as well as the skills and knowledge to take them further, an arts organisation such as WNO can leave essential legacies which will benefit a community far beyond the term of the project. Responses to the four main areas in the terms of reference for the Review To assist the Committee for Culture, the Welsh Language and Sport in its Review, this submission will aim to give evidence following the four main areas in the terms of reference. The majority of the evidence submitted will relate to activity in Wales, although the collaborative cross-border funding means that the reach and influence of WNO is far wider and takes in many of the major regional cities around England. The company therefore undertakes a significant amount of WNO MAX activity alongside and in addition to the English touring work. The links between arts policy, sports policy and community regeneration policy

• Funding - when WNO MAX was created, the company was determined that the initiative’s budgets be met from core revenue funding, and would therefore not be subjected to the inevitable fluctuations in contributed or earned income. In its first year, WNO MAX worked with a budget 144% larger than the previous Education Department, standing at £0.5 million. Core-funding allows WNO MAX to develop and work through a three-year strategic plan. This allows the planning of activity to be far more proactive in the use of company members as the scheduling of both mainscale and WNO MAX activity is done in harmony.
• Capital redevelopment - Welsh National Opera has played a major role in the campaigning for, and the planning and building of the new Wales Millennium Centre. This new building, WNO’s first real home, will undoubtedly have a major impact within Wales, as well as across the UK and internationally. However it is also already resulting in significant redevelopment of Cardiff Bay and the South Cardiff area in general, even a year before it opens. WNO takes its responsibilities to its neighbours and its neighbourhood very seriously, and is already working with key partners in the area to ensure that there is real benefit to the immediate communities, not only those further afield. One relationship in particular which is proving to be key in this work is the 20-year sponsorship of WNO by Associated British Ports, who not only own and run dockyards along both sides of the Bristol Channel but own most of the land of Cardiff Bay. ABP are already committed to supporting WNO future projects including a major community opera project in the Oval Basin. More details on this project will be given later in the submission.
• Development of new audiences -WNO MAX brings children, young people and others new to opera to the artform, often for the first time. WNO is committed to continuing to develop these audiences, encouraging them to attend the main performances. Audiences for Hansel and Gretel in Llandudno this autumn were given a special offer for performances of Il Trovatore and The Marriage of Figaro later in the week. As people are keen to continue to learn about opera, free pre-performance talks and Explore Opera sessions (on averaging each reaching at least 50 people) are also held prior to performances.

In addition to audience and participants, a number of key groups of people have been identified who need to continue to engage and connect with WNO. These groups include teachers, local authority arts officers and business communities who are all updated with activities they can either enjoy as audiences, participants, funders or partners. WNO aims to develop the cross-over between mainscale and WNO MAX audiences, through the introduction of special ticket deals for teachers, and inviting community groups to open dress rehearsals. In the last few seasons, these groups have included schools who have worked with WNO MAX on other projects, members of the Katerina Chorus in Merthyr, Bridgend Youth Theatre, young people, as well as groups working with Touch Trust and Hi Jinx Theatre. WNO MAX is also able to present major artistically led audience development work to attract people who have never been to opera before. Operashorts: Carmen was specifically aimed at people who had not attended opera before. The two main perceived barriers to attendance (cost and time) were both reduced significantly. Two performances were given each Tuesday - a performance for schools (2.30pm), followed by a performance at 6.30pm to attract a commuter audience. Tickets for this one-hour event were £10. Sponsored by Hugh James Solicitors, one of WNO’s key business supporters, the performances involved the full Chorus and Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, and the full costumes and sets from the main WNO production of Carmen.

• Creation of new work - WNO is committed to the development of new work both as a way of developing the operatic artform and as a way of leaving a tangible legacy to local communities and the nation as a whole. Since its inception, WNO MAX has worked with many creative artists - composers, musicians, poets, librettists, writers, choreographers, visual artists and film-makers - to create a number of new pieces of operatic or musical work. Many of these pieces involve young people in their creation, such as the hugely successful City Songs, piloted in Bristol in the spring of this year and recently recreated in Cardiff (further details below). A new chamber opera trilogy - Land, Sea, Sky -is currently in development for participation by children and will be premiered between 2004-2006. Land is likely to be about a squirrel and will be developed in North Wales, while Sea will feature the dolphins of West Wales, and Sky, the Red Kite of Mid-Wales.

WNO has also commissioned a new mainscale opera, The Sacrifice, from James MacMillan, one of the most important composers of our time. The Sacrifice will be a drama of politics and passion inspired by a story from The Mabinogion. The world premiere of The Sacrifice will take place at the Wales Millennium Centre in autumn 2007 and WNO will tour it across the UK. Creative workshops will form a major part of the creation of this full-scale opera, and there will be a wide programme of participatory activity around its premiere.

• Inreach for Outreach - development of skills within our arts community - WNO MAX holds WNO’s outreach brief, but it also holds that for 'inreach’ too. Remembering that WNO MAX was set up to maximize the company’s resources, all of the initiatives’ activities have significant benefits to the professional development of company members, in particular members of the chorus and orchestra. For example, the chamber operas, Katerina and Hansel & Gretel, offer WNO Chorus members the chance to prepare for and sing principal roles. A number of Chorus members have led creative projects within schools, and have developed into exceptional arts educators. Members of the orchestra also take part in school and public workshops and also work in a number of smaller ensembles which play in schools, hospitals and public areas such as shopping centres.

WNO MAX aims to identify the wider artistic potential of company members, based both on talent and on their commitment to personal development. It has already commissioned pieces around an individual’s own story, for example one chorus member’s experience as an apprentic clockmaker in his youth formed the basis for a composer and librettist to create Clock Opera. Written for performance by one singer with school children, the piece addresses the concept of time. Three members of the orchestra have formed a Brass Trio which is currently developing, through WNO MAX, a school transition project (ie, making the move from primary to secondary schools easier) to be presented through workshops and performances. How local arts and sports projects can contribute to community regeneration

• Collaboration with local arts organisations - Much of WNO MAX’s work depends and thrives on strong collaborations with local arts partners. As one of Wales’ national companies, WNO has a responsibility to share its excellence and expertise across the country. It is well aware of the need to involve local organisations in it work in order to provide the most appropriate artistic experience to the largest number of people. For example, early in 2004, WNO is setting off on its Annual Tour of Wales, taking operatic and orchestral concerts to smaller towns in Wales - Tenby, Carmarthen, Cardigan, Aberystwyth, Bala and Holyhead. Working with local arts venues such as The Torch in Milford Haven and Carmarthen Lyric Theatre, WNO MAX will undertake two-day residencies in leisure centres, offering both a public concert of a Romeo and Juliet-inspired programme, and schools concerts of Peter and the Wolf and a new commission, Ivan and the Wolf. In 2005, the Tour of Wales will repeat the residency format in other parts of Wales.
• Leaving a Legacy - in 2001, WNO went into the Valleys to create a new opera. In the Borough of Merthyr Tydfil, 250 children worked with WNO MAX’s artistic team to develop their own story and to write their own opera - Katerina - based on WNO’s production of Janacek’s Katya Kabanova,. Following the story of a girl trapped in her mother in law’s house, they kept Janacek’s character names, but changed the river to the Taff and finally performed their piece to over 2000 people in Rhyd-y-car Leisure Centre in Merthyr.

The incredible community reaction to the piece and the enthusiasm for singing inspired in the children by their participation in Katerina has meant that a new choir, The Katerina Chorus, has been formed. Founded by a former WNO Chorus member, the Chorus is now organized by a local project leader and is supported by WNO musicians. The group of around 20 young people meets weekly on the Gurnos Estate and has just given its first performance as part of the Merthyr Festival. The legacy of the Katerina project has also meant that the project could be taken to other places and repeated. In the summer of 2003 in North Wales, in collaboration with Denbighshire and Gwynedd County Councils and supported by Barclays plc, 240 children spent 3 months developing and rehearsing their own interpretation of Katerina. The project culminated in two performances for 1,800 people at the Rhyl Pavilion, and has also seen the formation of at least one legacy choir. WNO MAX’s most recent project, Cardiff City Songs was also created with legacy in mind. Having piloted the piece in Bristol in the spring, based on the history and geography of Bristol, 260 Cardiff children created a new version for Cardiff (further details below under Best Practice). WNO MAX is hoping to repeat this creative experience for a new group of Cardiff children to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the capital city in 2005, and may also transfer the project to other cities across the UK.

• Collaboration with the community - as outlined above, Welsh National Opera is currently planning to present a newly commissioned large-scale work for community choirs and the WNO Chorus and Orchestra in the Oval Basin in front of the Wales Millennium Centre. The work will herald WNO’s move into the Wales Millennium Centre and celebrate the potential for creativity and community across South Wales. Developed and presented in association with Cardiff Council, it will be sponsored by Associated British Ports.

The choral project has been commissioned by WNO from composers Richard Chew and Orlando Gough, working with poet Gwynneth Lewis. The community choir will include people of all ages from schools, community choirs and other groups recruited from all along the South Wales portal district from Swansea to Newport. It is anticipated that ABP’s own dockyard workers will form part of the community choir, as well as residents of Cardiff Bay itself. The piece being planned is expected to illustrate and celebrate the regeneration of a seafront community through music, poetry, dance, film and other visual arts.

• Collaboration within the Wales Millennium Centre - The opening of new WMC will offer all its seven residents (and indeed the WMC itself) the opportunity to work together and to learn from each other’s artform. It is hoped that all the resident organisations will take part in WNO’s Oval Basin Community Choral Project next summer, and other projects are already happening in the buildup to the move into the new building. For instance, earlier this summer Diversions Dance and WNO co-presented a music and dance project called Shake and Shout with around 35 9-14 year olds during the school holidays. A poet nominated by Academi, Moira Andrew, worked with Cardiff children in the run up to Cardiff City Songs to create their own poems to accompany the piece. WNO MAX and Touch Trust are developing an animation project based on Wise Eye, the chamber opera commissioned for activity in special schools.

Support mechanisms for community regeneration-related arts and sports projects Even before the creation of WNO MAX, the company has had very strong partnerships with organisations from all sectors, nationally and regionally, in a position to fund and benefit from outreach and education projects.

• Local authorities - Almost every WNO MAX project has input from a local authority, either in terms of funding or in facilitating the involvement of its schools. WNO MAX has enabled many local authority arts officers to begin using WNO as a resource to be maximized within their own setting. A number have already worked with WNO MAX to organized exhibitions, string quartet concerts and workshops in spaces around the area to which WNO is visiting.
• National Public Funders - WNO keeps in close touch with the Arts Councils of Wales and of England on all issues within its funding agreement. The work of WNO MAX is of particularly importance to these funders, and WNO seeks to assist them in developing models of good practice and developing the policy on this area of activity further.
• Businesses - WNO has long prided itself in its ability to attract and to keep major business sponsors for its mainscale work. For example, Coutts & Co earlier this year became the biggest business sponsor of opera in the UK, having committed to a further three-year deal with WNO. However, the central role that WNO MAX plays within the company has added a new dimension to the level of business involvement with the company and to the benefits which WNO can offer its sponsors. The grassroots work often ties in more closely with a recently increased focus within the business sector on Corporate Social Responsibility and WNO works in tandem with the CSR teams to match WNO MAX projects to corporate priorities. In addition to the sponsorship collaborations mentioned elsewhere, three further relationships are key to WNO MAX initiative’s success:
• Hugh James Solicitors - recently awarded Large Law Firm of the Year in Wales at the inaugural Wales Law Awards, Hugh James Solicitors support a number of WNO MAX projects aimed at spreading the good word about opera. These include the Opera Shorts: Carmen, and Cardiff City Songs. They are also supporting a new accessible website for first time opera-goers called Fresh2Opera which will go live early in the New Year.
• ScottishPower - having sponsored WNO for a number of years as Manweb, ScottishPower this year sponsored WNO North Wales Autumn Season. Not only did this include five mainscale performances, but also an array of community and schools work including school workshops and a chamber production of Hansel and Gretel performed in the North Wales Theatre and in local primary and secondary schools; the Wise Eye project for school children with special needs, six concert parties for older people throughout North Wales and four lunchtime orchestral ensemble concerts in public spaces
• Western Power Distribution - having supported the inaugural WNO Schools Orchestral Concerts in Swansea’s Brangwyn Hall in September 2002, Western Power Distribution have this autumn been involved in bringing WNO’s chamber version of Hansel and Gretel to schools in South Wales.
• Palser Grossman - 5,000 people joined WNO for a free open-air concert in the Oval Basin in Cardiff Bay in June 2002. With support from Palser Grossman, the concert was performed by Dennis O’Neill, Rebecca Evans and Jason Howard and marked HM The Queen’s Golden Jubilee.
• Classic FM and The Western Mail - WNO also works collaboratively with two major media partners. In 2003, WNO became Classic FM's opera company throughout the UK and will work with the radio station, its sister magazine and its extensive website to develop new audiences for opera and a higher profile for the work of WNO MAX. The Western Mail is also supporting the work of WNO MAX, in particular Cardiff City Songs and the Tour of Wales.

WNO has also helped develop staff within the businesses it is involved with, developing a workshop format for inclusion in staff conferences which involves members of staff learning and then performing a major operatic chorus, for example the Toreador’s chorus from Carmen. This can help large teams understand the need for people to work in small groups (ie a group of sopranos or baritones) which when added together with the work of other teams (ie mezzos, tenor and basses) can culminate in a spectacular achievement for the whole organisation. It also helps develop an instinct for keeping an eye on the wider picture while still concentrating on giving your best in your own work. This session was very well received by staff at both Coutts and at Hugh James Solicitors.

• Trusts and individual donors - in addition to its relationships with the business sector, WNO has also sought and received significant support from both trusts and foundations and individual donors for its mainscale and its WNO MAX work - in a number of cases this has been the only money invested in Wales by these trusts.. Since its inception, trusts and foundations have been the most significant contributors to the work of WNO MAX, both in terms of providing core MAX funding (eg Garfield Weston Foundation), and by supporting particular projects such as WNO’s annual Tour of Wales (eg Esmée Fairbairn Foundation) and Peter and the Wolf and Hansel and Gretel (eg the Colwinston Charitable Trust). Trust-funders are specifically interested in projects throughout the UK, which address inequality of access and lack of opportunity to experience and enjoy the arts, particularly for young people and therefore WNO’s MAX programme is of particular interest to this group of supporters. A number of individuals have also made significant contributions in support of new productions.

  Best practice in community regeneration-related arts and sports projects Since its inception, WNO MAX has aimed to set the standard for arts education, outreach and community projects, particularly within Wales, as is appropriate for a national company. It has, as has been detailed above, done this in partnership with other arts organisations, local authorities and funders, always seeking to learn from them and continually maintaining and raising the standard of its work. There are, in addition to all the projects mentioned so far, a number which should be seen as models of good practice for the arts in reaching out into communities (of whatever size or location)

• Cardiff City Songs - November of 2003 saw the premiere of an exuberant song cycle about Cardiff, performed by 240 young people singing with the full Orchestra of Welsh National Opera at St David’s Hall. Combining music with visual arts and poetry, the children aged 9-11 created their own personal vision of Cardiff and discovered their sense of citizenship. The project was a perfect example of the impact which three major arts organisations can have when they work collaboratively, being a partnership between WNO, St David’s Hall and Ffotogallery. The children worked for three months with the WNO artistic team - composer, writer, baritone, conductor and musicians - as well as with Academi’s poet Moira Andrew and Ffotogallery’s photographic artists Lisa Edgar and Victoria Tillotson, to create a multi-art performance spectacular.
• Wise Eye - WNO has developed this cross-arts educational initiative for children in special schools. Based on the life-cycle of a fox (and loosely on Janacek’s The Cunning Little Vixen) this new one-hour opera involves baritone, violin and piano, performing alongside a children’s chorus all of whom have special needs. The pupils in these schools cover the broad spectrum of children with special needs, from the moderate and behavioural to the most profound. The participatory workshops leading up to a performance involve a balance of creative activities; learning/listening to extracts of music, as well as an element of textiles and costume design for those with sensory disabilities. It also develops the children’s ability to develop close interactive relationships with others, in particular the singer and the musicians. It is by its very nature a flexible piece, and has so far involved all or most of the pupils within a special school, such as the projects with 50-60 children in Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Rhondda and Bridgend, while retaining the ability to be tailored to a far smaller group, as happened most recently in North Wales with an after-school club of ten children during half-term in Abergele.
• Welsh National Youth Opera - established in 1997 in Cardiff (and also originally in Swansea), WNYO has staged a number of very successful productions. WNYO is also thriving in Belfast, where it collaborates with the Grand Opera House with additional funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. Each year, up to 50 young people aged 16-21 in each city, are involved in all aspects of an opera or musical theatre production, including singing, acting, and dancing, as well as staging, lighting, costumes and makeup. Public performances are then given - in 2003, audiences in Cardiff totalled 250 and almost 1,000 in Belfast. A new opera is currently being commissioned for WNYO, to be premiered in Belfast in September 2004 and in Cardiff in spring 2005.
• Bridgend Youth Opera - as well as working with the school setting, as indicated above WNO values opportunities to work with young people out of school. In this way, WNO collaborated with a long-standing drama group in Bridgend in spring 2003 to develop a new operatic piece devised by the participants themselves inspired by the magic love potions and transformations of Donizetti’s opera The Elixir of Love. Almost 40 young people, aged 9-24, worked with a composer, a singer and WNO musicians during their spring half-term holidays. They attended the dress rehearsal of WNO’s The Elixir of Love in Cardiff and then explored the opera’s themes through improvisation exercises with the professionals. They then wrote and composed their own remarkable piece of musical theatre which they performed the following week to an audience which included HRH The Prince of Wales, WNO’s Patron, as well as local dignitaries, families and friends.
• Hansel and Gretel - a 75-minute version of Humperdink’s fairytale opera. This chamber opera has been adapted from the original by composer David Seaman, a member of WNO’s music staff, and is performed by members of the Orchestra and Chorus of WNO. It is aimed at giving an operatic taster to people who are new to opera, and in particular, young people. The programme of workshops and attendance at a performance has also been designed to help primary school children in their transition to secondary schools. The children involved in the project initially took part in school workshops. They then attended a performance at their local secondary or comprehensive school where they had the chance to meet older pupils, and join in with the performance, singing the songs they had learnt together with the WNO soloists. Public workshops and performances of Hansel & Gretel also visited Cardiff, Llandudno, Birmingham, and Brecon in the autumn of 2003.

Conclusion The Board, the Management and the Company of Welsh National Opera took a great leap of faith in introducing WNO MAX, but within two years the benefits to the company and the communities with whom it works have been huge. WNO’s strategic commitment to maintaining WNO MAX’s work from core funds has ensured that its work can never be seen simply as window-dressing or political box-ticking. WNO MAX is an intrinsic part of Welsh National Opera, and WNO is an intrinsic part of Wales. The lives which are being touched by the company’s work, be it Parsifal or Concert Party, are many and diverse. WNO is proud to serve them all.   Caroline Leech Head of Press and Public Affairs Welsh National Opera 15 December 2003