11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Powys County Times
Powys hall to host open air concert for Mid Wales Opera
Some of Wales' finest classical voices will be taking centre stage later this month in an open air-concert at a historic Powys building.
Mid Wales Opera have announced their artist line up for the 2025 fundraising garden concert at Gregynog Hall, near Newtown.
The concert will be held on Sunday, July 13, in an open air event titled 'The Great American Dream' to raise money for Mid Wales Opera as an arts organisation.
This year's event will be led by MWO's renowned Music Director and pianist Charlotte Forrest, joined by a cast of Welsh vocal talent that includes soprano Erin Rossington, mezzo soprano Angharad Lyddon and baritone John Ieuan Jones.
Charlotte Forrest is one of the UK's most respected opera coaches and recitalists. Currently Senior Vocal Coach for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, she also works regularly with English National Opera, Grange Festival, Opera Holland Park, Longborough Festival and Garsington Opera.
She has performed at Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, Salle Pleyel and Pisa Duomo, and collaborated with artists including Dame Felicity Lott, Sir John Tomlinson and Sir Tom Jones.
Joining Charlotte is Angharad Lyddon, whose recent roles include Mary in The Flying Dutchman, Flosshilde in Götterdämmerung with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Branwen in Blaze of Glory with Welsh National Opera.
Erin Rossington is a rising star and winner of Llangollen Eisteddfod's International Voice of the Future competition. A recent WNO Associate Artist, her roles include Micaëla in La Tragédie de Carmen and Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro.
Rounding out the main lineup is John Ieuan Jones, who fans of Mid Wales Opera will remember as Claudio in MWO's Beatrice & Benedict in 2023, has performed widely with Welsh National Opera, Opra Cymru and at major festivals in the UK and North America.
The concert will take place in the gardens of Gregynog Hall, where audiences are invited to bring their own chairs or picnic rugs and enjoy an extended interval for picnics, garden strolls or woodland walks. The café will also be open before the performance. In case of bad weather, the concert will move indoors to Gregynog's historic Music Room.