Wales celebrates its
Celtic heritage at numerous Eisteddfod festivals around the country,
although it is the popular music that the nation has captured the
worldwide imagination over recent years. Bands like Stereophonics,
Catatonia, Super Furry Animals and Manic Street Preachers
have had huge success.
Cardiff is the cultural centre of Wales, with top-quality venues,
including the Oval Basin, an open-air auditorium next to
Mermaid Quay, Cardiff Bay designed for concerts and special events.
Canolfan Mileniwm Cymru (Wales
Millennium Centre) is the new home for organisations such as
Welsh National Opera
and the Dance
Company of Wales.
Tickets to cultural events and performance are available via the
various venues, either online or by telephone.
Good sources of information are available online at Virtual
Cardiff and What's
On in Cardiff, with links to many cultural venues and events
taking place around the city.
Music
The male voice choir is a world acclaimed symbol of Welsh pride.
Local exponents include the CÔr Meibion Caerdydd -
Cardiff
Male Choir and CÔr Meibion De Cymru - South
Wales Male Choir. The latter is the largest male choir
in Wales. St
David's Hall, The Hayes (telephone: (029) 2087 8444, box office
or 2087 8420, for recorded information), is the national concert
hall for Wales and Cardiff's main venue and plays host to the biannual
Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. Competitors in previous
years include world-famous baritone Bryn Terfel, in 1989.
The hall is also the performance home of the BBC
National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales (telephone: (0800) 052
1812). The Welsh
National Opera (telephone: (029) 2046 4666) performs at the
New
Theatre, Park Place (telephone: (029) 2087 8889; fax: (029)
2087 8879).
Theatre
The New Theatre was founded in 1906 and refurbished in the
1980s. It is now the premier venue in Wales for touring theatre
and dance companies. Companies playing at the New Theatre in recent
years have included the Royal National Theatre, Clwyd Theatr
Cymru and the Northern Ballet Theatre. The
Sherman Theatre, Senghennydd Road (telephone: (029) 2064 6900,
box office; fax: (029) 2064 6902;
email: marketing@shermantheatre.demon.co.uk),
has a resident company and hosts national and international groups
in its main and studio theatres. Maintaining the longstanding oral
tradition in Wales, Sampler (telephone: (029) 2048
4663; email: sampler@poetic.com)
organises poetry readings and other events.
Dance
The new Wales Millennium Centre, is home to the contemporary
dance group, Dance
Company of Wales (telephone: (029) 2046 5345; fax: (029) 2046
5346; email: diversions@diversionsdance.co.uk), which commissions
and premieres work from international choreographers, frequently
touring Wales, the UK and abroad.
Film
Films can be seen at UGC, Mary Ann Street, the Capitol
Odeon, Station Terrace, and Monico, Pantbach Road, as
well as at the multiplex cinemas at UCI, Atlantic Wharf,
Cardiff Bay, and Showcase, Nantgarw, north of the city. The
Chapter Arts Centre shows independent and alternative films
at its Market Road centre in Canton. Bollywood films are a speciality
of the Galaxy Globe, Roath.
Films set in Cardiff range from the 1959 classic, Tiger Bay,
starring Hayley and John Mills, to Human Traffic (1999),
Justin Kerrigan's portrayal of a wild weekend in Cardiff.
Cultural Events
Cardiff
Singer of the World, takes place in June every other year at
St David's Hall (telephone: (012) 2287 8500). Mid-July sees the
Welsh Proms at St David's Hall, which takes place during
the annual Cardiff Summer Arts Festival (see Special Events)
The
Royal National Eisteddfod (telephone: (017) 4581 8900), the
largest annual festival of competitive music and poetry writing
in Europe, takes place alternately in North and South Wales in early
August each year.
Literary Notes
The most famous writers from Cardiff include:
 Roald
Dahl, born in Llandaff in 1916, whose autobiography Boy
(1984) deals about his early years in the city
Ken
Follett, the best-selling author of thrillers and historical
novels, who was also born in the city.
Dannie
Abse born in Cardiff, his autobiography, There Was a Young
Man from Cardiff (1991).
Novels
set in Cardiff include River Out of Eden (1951) by Jack Jones,
Glass Shot (1991) by Duncan Bush and Cardiff Dead (2000)
by John Williams
The
late R S Thomas, one of Wales' greatest poets, was born here
although his later poems and were generally centred elsewhere. The
poets Peter Finch, who wrote Useful (1997) and Food
(2001) and Gwyneth Lewis, author of Zero Gravity (1998),
both come from Cardiff. |
