Rhondda rips it up!

Lady Rhondda by Solomon J Solomon
credit Private Collection

Welsh National Opera's Summer tour involves not an opera but a cabaret-style vaudeville, Rhondda rips it up!, which will tell the story of the remarkable suffragette, Margaret Haig Thomas (Lady Rhondda), who tirelessly campaigned for equal rights for women. 

The show premieres in Haig Thomas’s hometown of Newport before touring Wales and England during summer and autumn 2018. Marking the centenary of the 1918 women's suffrage bill, Rhondda rips it up! features music by Elena Langer [see my interview with Elena], with a libretto by Emma Jenkins, and the all-female cast and creative team will be led by director Caroline Clegg and music director Nicola Rose. Soprano Lesley Garrett is Master of Ceremonies and Madeleine Shaw is Lady Rhondda, with women of the WNO Chorus performing all the other roles, male & female.

On the opening day of the tour, Thursday 7 June, WNO will host a symposium in Newport on the challenges faced by women in the classical music world. The tour will also be accompanied by extensive programme of free community and youth projects on protest, rebellion and human rights and an ambitious digital project bringing Lady Rhondda to life through a Mixed Reality (MR) installation.



Full details from the WNO website.