Faith - WNO in Cardiff and Birmingham

For its Summer season Welsh National Opera (WNO) is offering four new operas and two contrasting pairs. Under the the theme of Faith, the company is giving new productions of Schoenberg's Moses und Aron and Verdi's Nabucco. Then in complete contrast Debussy's unfinished La Chute  de la Maison Usher is being staged in a double bill with the world premiere of Gordon Getty's Usher House.

Schoenberg's Moses und Aron opens at Wales Millenium Centre on 24 May 2014, with Lothar Koenigs conducting a cast which includes John Tomlinson and Rainer Trost. The production by Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito was originally presented at Stuttgart Opera. Verdi's Nabucco, also a new production and co-production with Stuttgart Opera, is directed by Rudolf Frey (who directed the frustratingly unfocussed Maria Stuarda in WNO's Donizetti Tudor Queens trilogy last year), with David Kempster and Mary Elizabeth Williams, conducted by Xian Zhang. Building on the theme of Faith, WNO is collaborating with the Maimonides Interfaith Foundation to present a series of talks on the theme of faith; speakers will include David Poutney, Karen Armstrong, Julie Siddiqi and Dave Rich.

Debussy's La Chute de la Maison Usher will be performed in a completion by Robert Orledge, with Robert Hayward as Roderick Usher. Benjamin Bevan plays Roderick Usher in Getty's opera, with Anna Gorbachyova playing Madeleine in both operas. David Pountney directs and Lawrence Foster conducts.

WNO is performing the programmes at the Wales Millennium Centre (24 May to 25 June) and Birmingham Hippodrome (18 June to 21 June), plus two performances of Moses und Aron at Covent Garden (25, 26 July).