BLOG: Reflecting on Tuag Opera

This blog shares the reflections of Michael McCarthy, Director of Music Theatre Wales, following the Tuag Opera showcase at the National Eisteddfod. Written in the days after the performance, it explores the process behind Tuag Opera and considers the wider landscape for opera development in Wales and the UK.

Seeing the six short work-in-progress operas created during the Tuag Opera programme at the Eisteddfod made me reflect on this process – and on the wider landscape for opera development in Wales and the UK. I’ve long been concerned with how opera can move forward and be recognised as a contemporary form of expression, working with new stories, ideas, and methods, as theatre and other performance forms manage to do.

Opera integrates many different disciplines, usually on large scale, and is therefore perhaps the hardest to shift  – yet it must evolve. As creative organisations, we should be putting new creatives at the centre of our work, but this isn’t how opera companies are built. As Llio Evans put it when discussing Tuag Opera, we need a “sandbox” – a space where those fascinated by storytelling in music can play and discover what opera can inspire.

Over the last 40 years I’ve seen many development schemes come and go – from Almeida Opera and The Garden Venture, the ENO Studio and Jerwood Opera at Snape, through Scottish Opera’s FIVE:15 and many other schemes right up to Buxton Shorts. During my 14 years as founding Director of Operatoriet in Norway, we supported composers and writers to explore opera, working on over 40 pieces, 16 of which were performed. Why has it been so difficult to sustain this groundwork let alone build on it?

At MTW, our Jerwood-MTW New Opera Plan (2004–2009) gave emerging composers a pathway from exploratory workshops to full-scale productions. But relying on one funder meant it couldn’t continue, and we had to focus on commissioning proven composers – exciting work, but it didn’t truly develop the artform. Our Make an Aria programme offered new talent a taste of opera creation, but without follow-up, much potential was lost.

Since 2021, MTW has taken a new approach – inviting bold creatives to consider opera as a vehicle for their vision, taking a flexible view of what opera can be: five-minute digital works, 20-minute community pieces, new musical genres, young creatives, and stories outside the Western canon. Our mantra is: Do not imitate opera. Make it your own.

Tuag Opera grew from a conversation with Tŷ Cerdd about the lack of a pathway for new opera in Welsh. We invited six music creators and six writers to explore the form, opening up both musical and dramatic possibilities. We also asked: could working in Welsh bring something distinct, as Italian, French, and English opera once did?

At the Eisteddfod, the first audience comment following the performance said it all: “What an amazing variety of pieces. They were all so different!” While wonderful to hear, it’s telling that such variety is seen as surprising in opera. This underlines the need for more opportunities like Tuag Opera – embracing artists from beyond conventional pathways, encouraging new ways of working, and imagining what might come next.

There is always much more to do.