Rian Evans, The Guardian wrote on their web site: “‘Stylish singing and an imaginative production’ brought this operatic version of Dylan Thomas’s famous play for voices successfully to life.”

In 1954, Dylan Thomas caused a literary storm with his play for voices, Under Milk Wood. Sixty years on, Wales' leading opera composer, John Metcalf, created a ground-breaking new opera and recreates Thomas' world of Llareggub - the town that went mad.

Under Milk Wood: an opera weaved together extraordinary poetic and comic language, contemporary and ancient instrumental music, recorded and live sound, as this 13-strong company of singers and multi-instrumentalists creates a feast for the ears.

When the opera premiered it received glowing reviews in the national media.

The production, commissioned to celebrate the Dylan Thomas 100 Festival and the 60th anniversary of the first performance of the play for voices, sold out for much of its run.

Metcalf, Wales’ leading opera composer, wrote the music for the Taliesin Arts Centre co-production with Le Chien qui chante (Montreal) & Companion Star (New York) in association with Welsh National Opera.

Under Milk Wood: An Opera weaves together Thomas’s extraordinary poetic and comic language with contemporary and ancient instrumental music and recorded and live sound.

After three days in Swansea in early April the production went on tour around Wales.

Taliesin marketing manager Stella Patrick said: “The opera was a resounding success with the critics.”

Here is a selection of their comments:

“In Metcalf’s tender adaptation, the text is set to music with due attention to the glorious mouth-feel of Thomas’s poetry, and arranged in an unbroken sequence of chromatically rising scenes that close where they began, in the drowsy half-light of C major.” Anna Picard, The Times

“Swansea-born Metcalf has composed music that captures the ripeness of Thomas’s vision and never works against the poetry.” John Allison, Daily Telegraph

“Metcalf’s prime virtue is to have respected the words, to have a real feel for their rhythms, for the sharp social observations they carry and, above all, for their intrinsic musicality.” Rian Evans, The Guardian

“The Swansea-born composer has taken Thomas’s untouchable play for voices and, by setting it to a soundtrack of such expressive beauty, might – just might – have made it better.” Mark Rees, South Wales Evening Post

Link to the Guardian Best Opera’s web site: http://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2014/dec/17/2014-best-opera-productions-in-pictures

For more information about the Taliesin Arts Centre go to http://www.taliesinartscentre.co.uk