Exhausting, exhilarating night of opera

La Forza del destino, Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff

THERE WAS a packed house – including the future King – to see Welsh National Opera’s latest offering. La Forza del destino is a dramatic trip to Verdi’s 18th-century Italy.

This is a dramatic and intense opera which puts its characters and audience through the mill. The main themes are love and loss, peace and war, and Verdi certainly didn’t hold back.

As an opera novice, I’ll leave a technical appraisal to others. But what I can tell you is, it will leave you staggered by the stamina and the skill of the cast.

Leonora is played by Mary Elizabeth Williams, Don Alvaro by Gwen Hughes Jones and Don Carlo di Vargas by Luis Cansino. For me, Jones gave the performance of the night, his voice lending itself to a man desperate for the woman he loves. He had power and control, and when it was just him and the orchestra you were swept into his world.

The passion Williams puts into the role of a woman torn between her family and lover is obvious.

There are huge moments where the chorus fill the stage with rhythmic precision and the lights, orchestra and drama all combine to really rouse the crowd.

The set is a clever use of one huge prop. Acting as a divide and scene-setter, the huge contraption, which was built in Germany and brought to Wales in one piece, cleverly takes you from a church to a cave with a deft manoeuvre by the stage team.

A few parts of this epic left me a little confused, but then it’s an opera I have little experience with.

As one person said as we left the theatre, “I’m exhausted”. And that was just us.

WNO La Forza del destino runs until Saturday, April 21, 2018 at various locations.

Ruth Mosalski The winning numbers in Saturday night’s Lotto main draw were

bonus number was The Thunderball numbers were and

8, 26, 27, 29, 49

and The Thunderball was

58.The 38. 3, 13, 15, 17 26. 2.