Blaze of Glory! review: ‘emphatically Welsh’ opera is perfectly pitched

This show tells the story of Welsh miners trying to raise spirits after a mining disaster

Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts and Rebecca Evans impress in Blaze of Glory!
Jeffrey Lloyd-Roberts and Rebecca Evans impress in Blaze of Glory!
(Image credit: Kirsten Mcternan/Welsh National Opera)

Blaze of Glory!, Welsh National Opera’s terrifically entertaining new production, is not – strictly speaking – an opera, said Rian Evans in The Guardian. Set in a Welsh Valleys community in the 1950s, it tells the story of a small group of miners who re-form their male voice choir to raise local spirits following a mining disaster. For her libretto, Emma Jenkins drew on real-life histories, and composer David Hackbridge Johnson used Welsh hymns as his cornerstones, while incorporating everything from jazz, pop and doo-wop to Gilbert and Sullivan and 19th century French choral works. Bowling along with “a warm, often suitably blazing, energy”, the evening becomes a “remarkable” testament to community spirit, and the restorative power of music-making.

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