Welsh National Opera Marriage of Figaro and Peter Grimes at Birmingham Hippodrome

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Thu 08 May 2025 - Sat 10 May 2025

Soprano Eiry Price was a student when she watched her first opera - Welsh National Opera performing Puccini’s La bohème. From that moment, Eiry, who was studying at the Royal College of Music in London, decided her future.

She recalls: “I knew I wanted to sing but I didn’t know before watching that show that I wanted to be an opera singer, really specifically. It clicked for me there ‘I want to do this, I want to do what they are doing.’ It came over me, the music, the text, the story - it’s also the drama, the tragedy, the love, the heartbreak - it just moves me.”



Eiry’s dream has come true as she is currently a WNO associate artist, taking part in a one-year programme in which young singers are offered support, training and mentorship early in their careers. The scheme has introduced Eiry, from Pencaenewydd in North Wales, to a new world. “I’d never sung in a full opera before, I’d done opera scenes in college, but I’ve learnt so much already,” she says. “I’ve had so many lessons and coachings and so much support that I feel like it’s really shaping me into a young artist.”

One of the advantages of being part of WNO’s associate artist scheme is the chance to sing roles in their productions. This spring Eiry plays the young lover Barbarina and covers the servant Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and performs Second Niece in Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes. Both productions play Birmingham Hippodrome in May. “I’m really excited for these productions and looking forward to staging them with everyone,” she says. “It’s just a lovely atmosphere on the stage when you are all working together to try and create something amazing.”

Soprano Harriet Eyley can vouch for the value of the programme as she was an associate artist with WNO in 2018/20 where she too sang Barbarina and covered Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro. “The biggest thing about being an associate artist is the sense of community at WNO,” she says. “I grew so much as an artist through the company and it feels like home. I think we always remember those first big jobs out of university and I’m forever grateful. You are taught your musicianship and your stagecraft at university and I honed that with WNO and I had so much stage and rehearsal experience. That was brilliant but it was also the sense of teamwork on a collaborative artform and working together.”

Harriet, who was born in Derbyshire, returns to WNO this season as the page boy Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro. “In so many ways I’m quite like Cherubino, although I’m much older I’m quite small in stature, quite flighty in character so I’m looking forward to finding my teenage voice – ‘am I in love, am I not in love, what is love?’ I’m excited by the challenge.”



For bass William Stevens, being a current associate artist with WNO is giving him an incredible opportunity - to cover the lead role of Figaro and play him in the final tour performance of the Mozart opera. “It's an amazing thing for any bass baritone and a singer of my age to be singing the title role in this opera with WNO,” he says. “To do it in a main production with this company is probably the biggest thing I will have done so far in my career. It’s daunting but very exciting.”

William, from Keynsham in Somerset, was a choral scholar at Bristol Cathedral and went on to study singing at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. He has held a love for opera since childhood. “WNO have been an important part of my life for quite a long time. I’ve been watching their productions since I was quite young,” he recalls. “The first time I saw WNO was Madam Butterfly in 2009 at The Bristol Hippodrome."

William recently toured in WNO’s production of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and he is keen to be taking on Mozart. “I think The Marriage of Figaro is some of the best music ever written for theatre, it’s just remarkable. Also it is a genuinely funny opera. There’s a lot of ridiculous scenarios and farcical things but there’s also a lot you can relate to. Silly relationship misunderstandings and relationships between you and your boss or vice versa if you are the boss. It’s timeless, funny, with wonderful music and it’s so relatable.”

Fellow WNO associate artist soprano Erin Rossington says the programme was the next step as she builds her opera career. “An associate artist is, I describe it, like an apprenticeship. You are part of the company and they are guiding you on the way, advising and helping and also you’re doing some roles and working alongside people in the prime of their career.”

Erin, who is from Llanfair Talhaiarn in North Wales, covers the role of Countess Almaviva throughout the tour of The Marriage of Figaro and played the role in Swansea. For Erin, the Countess is a fascinating character. “This is one of the core roles for a soprano within the repertoire and I’m really excited to explore her more.”

And Erin adds: “She’s developed a lot from when we see her in Rossini’s Barber of Seville. Then she was young, excited and passionate but now she’s being mistreated by her husband who is being unfaithful. She’s not happy to put up with it and she’s not sitting down and taking it. I think she is a very strong woman but she’s also aware that if she did take a stance it wouldn’t go her way.”

WNO perform the Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro on May 8 alongside Britten’s Peter Grimes on May 10 at Birmingham Hippodrome, see here for more information and tickets.

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