Mike Smith

2 months ago | southwalesargus.co.uk | Mike Smith

2 1/2 This was a light but very professional concert that used the movies as the way of presenting some of the most popular music from the operatic repertoire. We were given polished performances, both fine singing and playing with just a little theatricality to give context to the selected operatic scenes. I am not sure why the Walkure were waving trade union flags (Equity), but it fitted into the ongoing Save Our WNO campaign.

2 months ago | southwalesargus.co.uk | Mike Smith

2 1/2 It was with some excitement that I attended the WNO’s production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on Thursday night. It seemed like an age since I had seen them stage a Mozart opera (the last one I saw was Don Giovanni in 2022), and I do love eighteenth-century music.

2 months ago | barryanddistrictnews.co.uk | Mike Smith

2 1/1 It was with some excitement that I attended the WNO’s production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff on Thursday night. It seemed like an age since I had seen them stage a Mozart opera (the last one I saw was Don Giovanni in 2022), and I do love eighteenth-century music. Further, I had not seen this production before, even though it was first staged in 2016, and I fondly remember a previous production set in the 1930s.

2 months ago | asiw.co.uk | Dan Ford |Mike Smith

Everyman does not shy away from work that requires exceptionally strong character actor and this is certainly the case with the Peter Schaffer play Amadeus. Productions of the play always suffer from the fact that the film version is so well known, and frankly brilliant, and comparisons are pointless. The only real similarities are that the two leading male roles require superlative acting.

Dec 8, 2024 | asiw.co.uk | Dan Ford |Mike Smith

Alternative CabaretWales Millennium CentreWeston StudioIt must be very difficult trying to present yourselves as “alternative” when you are the new normal. Had the show been about, say, a heterosexual relationship involving people happy with their gender we would have all been shocked and wowed by the bravery of presenting something running against the theatrical norm. But we were not. There really wasn’t anything subversive or different about this show.