Chorus! at the Wales Millennium Centre/Touring

5/5

The mighty Welsh National Opera’s chorus has a well-deserved reputation for excellence and in this triumphant production it finally takes centre stage, with director David Pountney entrusting the majority of the evening to the men and women traditionally inhabiting the operatic background.

Drawn together from some of the finest operas ever written, Chorus! is beautifully and ingeniously staged and any concerns about a lack of coherence — 24 different pieces from different operas are on offer — are rapidly overcome.

The company pulls together these diverse works into a compelling whole and at no stage is there the sense that we’re merely sitting through a series of greatest hits.

Without any preamble, the entertainment bursts into life with the epigraph from Sergei Prokofiev’s War and Peace and then moves seamlessly into Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes.

Giuseppe Verdi’s Anvil Chorus is enhanced by the male members of the chorus using giant spanners to ring out one of opera’s most majestic works.

But the evening is not just about the chorus, as the production also stars soprano Lesley Garrett.

In playful mood, she provides a light-hearted take on the mesmerising Hush No More from Purcell’s The Fairy Queen.

Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill also feature, with Garrett performing the satirical Alabama Song from The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.

Other highlights are Puccini’s Humming Chorus, Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus and Verdi’s Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves, all performed and sung with a jaw-dropping power and precision.

Inspiring and emotionally charged, Chorus! is a production that deserves the widest audience — whether you are a confirmed opera lover or somebody who just enjoys great singing, get yourself along to this first-rate entertainment.

Tours until April 8, details: wno.org.uk