Welsh National Opera is Europe's busiest touring opera company and the largest provider of touring opera in the UK serving a catchment area of over 12 million people in some of the most densely populated urban areas in Britain.

In Autumn 2004, WNO moved into its first ever home theatre in the new £100m Wales Millennium Centre (WMC) in Cardiff Bay. The move allows the company a firmer base from which to tour throughout the UK and internationally. With the WMC as its rehearsal and administrative base, along with a significant proportion of its technical production work, WNO is at the heart of one of the most exciting arts buildings to have been created in Europe in decades.

WNO tours extensively throughout Wales, the UK and internationally, presenting over 120 main scale opera performances annually, performing to over 150,000 people in Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Llandudno, Oxford, Milton Keynes, Plymouth, Southampton and Swansea. Once every two years, the Company presents a major season of opera in London. Both the Orchestra and Chorus of WNO also perform concerts at St David's Hall in Cardiff and theatres and concert halls throughout Wales.

At the heart of the company is WNO MAX . Unique to WNO, this new initiative takes a diverse and integrated programme of performances and projects beyond the main stage. Through its education and outreach work, MAX aims to maximise the company's resources and create new opportunities for the ensemble and for the communities it reaches. WNO MAX also aims to maximise the potential of opera to electrify and enrapture, through participation in and preparation for live opera experiences.

WNO has a permanent company of 250 people, made up of orchestra, chorus, principal singers, music staff, production, technical and administrative staff.

Artistic achievement has been recognised by a succession of prestigious UK national awards in recent years, including an Evening Standard Award, a Barclays Theatre Award, two Laurence Olivier Awards and three Royal Philharmonic Society Awards. In December 2002, in recognition of its outstanding contribution to classical music, WNO was awarded a Classic FM Red F Award as part of Classic FM's 10th birthday celebrations. 

The Chorus and Orchestra of Welsh National Opera have become internationally recognised as world-class ensembles by both critics and audiences. They perform 120 performances of nine operas each year in Cardiff and across the UK, as well as taking part in many other projects such as recordings, and education and outreach events as part of WNO MAX.

Welsh National Opera - Celebrating the first 60 years

In 2006 WNO celebrated its 60th birthday, and as part of the celebrations a full colour, hard back book has been produced.

Welsh National Opera - Celebrating the first 60 years celebrates WNO from its post-war infancy as it developed into the major international company it is now.

The book remembers the company's first performance in 1946 and pays tribute to the pioneers of the first forty years of WNO. As a celebration of the last twenty years in particular, it charts the company's growth to musical maturity over the years under its Musical Directors, and shares the memories of the WNO Company.

A photographic essay joins WNO on the road, and another sees the company settle into its new home in the outstanding Wales Millennium Centre.

Today Welsh National Opera is multi-award winning and brings world-class opera to thousands of people across the UK every year.

Productions since 1985 are featured here in both words and pictures - the popular favourites such as Carmen, La bohème and Madam Butterfly, as well as the more challenging operas such as Wozzeck and The Queen of Spades. All are included in this celebratory book in magnificent spreads of photography and text. They will evoke special memories for those who saw these productions, and will entice and captivate anyone who didn't.

Welsh National Opera - Celebrating the first 60 years is a hard back, full colour publication costing £19.99. (Plus p&p £4.00) If you order your copies direct from WNO you will contribute directly to WNO's fundraising for its 60th anniversary and the future.

The book is available to order now. Please contact the marketing department to make your order by email, post, telephone or fax:

WNO Book, Welsh National Opera, Wales Millennium Centre, Bute Place, Cardiff, CF10 5AL.

Telephone 029 2063 5039

Fax 029 2063 5099