22nd May 2024 – Save Welsh National Opera – The People’s Performance at the Senedd

In conjunction with lead organiser and soprano – Elizabeth Atherton who read out the formal statement signed by so many cultural icons of Wales I presented the ‘Statement of Opinion’ I tabled in the Welsh Parliament.

This statement “calls on the Welsh Government to urgently work with partners, including the UK Government, to seek bi-national funding arrangements which will help the WNO maintain a full-time organisation in the short and medium term, until longer term, sustainable plans can be put in place.” The ‘Statement of Opinion’ has been co-signed by 23 fellow Members of the Senedd from all political parties and will continue to take names.

The Welsh National Opera was formed in 1943 by the communities of Wales made up of a dedicated group of miners, doctors, and amateur musicians to provide high quality culture for the people of Wales. The WNO is Wales’s largest arts employer. It is being forced to make its orchestra and chorus part-time and the rest of the company has been offered voluntary redundancy because of funding cuts.

Arts Council England cut its funding to WNO by 35% from £6.2 million to £4 million. The Arts Council of Wales reduced its annual funding to the opera company by £500,000 (11.8%) to £4.1 million.

The ‘People’s Performance’ saw Carlo Rizzi, former Music Director of WNO conduct a version of Easter Hymn from Cavalleria Rusticana, the first opera ever mounted by the company in 1946 as well as a resounding version of the Welsh national anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau echoing across Cardiff Bay.

Atendees came from all over Wales came – to support this unique event and included Welsh soprano and huge supporter of opera and music campaigner Beverley Humphries and the infamous Welsh broadcaster Roy Noble

RHIANON PASSMORE MS speaking in the Senedd chamber following the demonstration stated:

“Cabinet Secretary, Governments are ultimately the leading responsible custodians of our cultural heritage and of the architecture within it. I wish to ask for a statement to this place that outlines the analysis made of the combined impacts of the cumulative cuts from both the arts councils in England and Wales on the ability of WNO to function, perform and tour; the assessment made of the impact of the loss of highly trained and qualitative jobs to Wales’s largest arts employer; the impact of a part-time delivery model on retaining and recruiting quality and excellence; and finally the assessments made of the diminishment of WNO’s first-class community, well-being and schools outreach across Wales.

Minister, we can never be bystanders to cultural vandalism, and we in this place cannot be bystanders, an audience, and watch from these chairs as the jewel in the Welsh performance crown dissolves in front of us. I ask that the statement articulates the necessary funding needed to keep WNO full-time and outline the progress of a refreshed binational funding agreement.

We have, in this place, a collective duty of care to protect our national institutions, and, as the world-renowned conductor Carlo Rizzi has just said a moment ago on the Senedd steps, to protect one of the finest opera companies in the world—a company born in Wales, bred in Wales, in the land of song. It is brand Wales. Thank you.”

RHIANON PASSMORE MS

Telephone: 01495533475

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.rhianonpassmore.com

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Western Mail – Western Mail 22.05.24