Out of a handful of new pieces created by Welsh National Opera at their home of the Wales Millennium Centre, Blaze Of Glory! is a more recent outing. Reviewing its premiere in 2023, I had some praise – and some quips too. So how does this opera, the 1950s-set tale of a male voice choir clubbing together to uplift their Valleys community after a mining disaster, fare second time round?
There is, it turns out, very little changed, with a cast that’s practically the same as at that premiere. The score by David Hackbridge Johnson – an eccentric commission three years ago – owes a debt to Benjamin Britten, though its mainstay is a chopping board of jazz; Gershwin-like ruffles often feature, too, as do Andrews Sisters-esque vocal turns. The moments when the male voice choirs, both on stage and in the wings, get the chance to sing alone really stand out.
I think I enjoyed this second outing more than the premiere. Maybe because I knew what to expect, or because of the climate opera has weathered lately, or because this was a proud Welsh work about Welsh people, honouring our culture in song and story. The humour, though passé, harks back to the era it is set: Emma Jenkins, as librettist, generally gets the mid-century Welshisms right, and much of the spoken dialogue one could easily hear down the road from the Wales Millennium Centre today. Designer Madeleine Boyd evokes local landscapes, miners’ clubs and pubs, and the Eisteddfod, and if some front doors appeared to have been recycled from other productions, the swift nature of the company is always a delight.
Blaze Of Glory! very much belongs to the Male Chorus of WNO as well as the additional choirs – though Rebecca Evans and Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts, as Nerys Price and Dafydd Pugh respectively, certainly run them close in that respect. Their chemistry, then as now, is better than some Hollywood films at present. Vocally, everyone is top class, and Themba Mvula (playing the surname-less Anthony) is always great in everything he is in.
Adam Gilbert, as Emlyn, cannot resist the allure of Covent Garden and take the plunge after the utmost success at the Eisteddfod. Feargal Hylton is a scene stealer as yodelling alto joy Bryn Bevan. With Welsh National Opera’s 80-year anniversary proudly displayed all around, Blaze Of Glory! was a good choice for reprisal, even if it’s only a few years old – mirroring, as it does, the company’s own origin story as a budding chorus.
Blaze Of Glory!, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, Wed 1 Apr
Also on Tue 14 + Fri 17 Apr, then touring; in Grand Theatre, Swansea on Thurs 21 + Fri 22 May. Tickets: from £21. Info: here
words JAMES ELLIS photos CRAIG FULLER
