What a fantastic time we had in Cardiff. I'm a huge fan of Strictly and Johannes Radebe, if you haven't read his book it's a must, so when I spotted he was taking on the role of Lola the tickets were eagerly awaited. The dates didn't fit for theatres near us but Cardiff Bay was perfect .... I was so excited from the minute our tickets were purchased.
Our seats were the penultimate row in the upper circle. Five flights of stairs up and very very high, the Millennium Centre is a great venue with rails along every row. Although high up we could see all the show and the sound was superb.
We had a super morning learning so much about a building we walk past so many times. I didn't know it was so big inside, how clever it's construction was or how much is happening, thank you Millennium Centre we will definitely be visiting again.
After our sound studio tour we moved on to the news are, passing the main gallery with so many screens and the producers/controllers working on live links.
As our daughter and hubby live in Cardiff Bay we have visited many times and have admired the Millennium Centre and its striking frontage. Thanks to the National Lottery Open Week we purchased two for one backstage tour tickets for the following morning, we already had BBC Wales tour tickets booked for the afternoon so a very busy day, more about that tour later.
The Millennium Centre was opened by HM Queen Elizabeth II in 2004 and is home to the Donald Gordon theatre seating just under 2000 people depending on the stage and seating settings. Donald Gordon was a wealthy South African business man who was very supportive of opera, he helped finance the Millennium Centre to house the Welsh National Opera who are still based here.
The building is very striking with its metal and slate frontage depicting the back of a ship sailing away between two cliffs - as if sailing out of the Bay. On the front of the building overlooking the Roald Dahl Plas cut out of the metal are two inscriptions, one in Welsh, the other in English, but they are not translations of each other.
CREU GWIR FEL GWYDR O FFWRNAIS AWEN
create truth like glass from inspiration's furnace
IN THESE STONES HORIZONS SING
yn y cerrig hyn mae gorwelion yn canu
The building's design is art in itself, the slate on the outside is varying in colour due to where in Wales it was sourced from. It really shows how much the slate changes due to its geological location across the country from north to south.
Inside the building is just as stunning with sweeping wooden stairways linking to the movement of the sea, the pillars are like ship masts and even have lantern tops. The whole building has been beautifully designed and has quite a calm feeling, I did notice at the end of Kinky Boots the audience seemed to flow out, there were no bottlenecks or hold ups as in other theatres.
Our tour guides, Dafydd and Tony, explained so much especially the complex staging, seating and production facilities in the theatre. As this space houses many different shows and concerts it has to be adaptable in many ways. The stage can be enlarged by lifting the floor of the first seating rows, or these rows can be removed to make the orchestra pit larger. The walls at the side of the stage can move back to widen the stage.
Sound is the priority in this theatre and the architecture really supports that. There are no flat surfaces so when opera is performed the sounds can bounce around. For shows like Kinky
Boots where the performers use microphones large curtains are dropped to cover some of the textured surfaces, this prevents reverb and too much sound bouncing around. It was so interesting how the theatre space can change your suit every style of performance.
As well as the Donald Gordon theatre the Millennium Centre has three stage size studio rooms and full height corridors and doors enabling scenery to be stored and moved upright so rehearsals are as the real shows. It was amazing to see behind the scenes, we even went up to where the backdrop scenery is controlled from, it was a long way down. I now know why whistling is not allowed in a theatre, ex-sailors were employed to work the scenery ropes and used whistling as a way to communicate to each other. Someone whistling could be mistaken for a signal and scenery dropped in error.
And so onto our BBC Wales tour of their new building in the centre of Cardiff. We have visited BBC at Portland Place in London but this studio is new and very modern with so much technology.
After going through airport security and id checks we waited in the huge atrium for our tour to begin. Looking up all floors were open plan and open to the atrium space but it was very quiet, not much noise at all.
Our first visit was to the main studio for a variety of programmes, they were packing the equipment away as earlier it had been used to broadcast Crimewatch live. It was quite a small studio but very changeable as Holly our guide explained how the screening moved and the layout for various programmes. It was surprising to learn what was filmed there with many of the programmes being broadcast live.
Our tour then moved upstairs to the Dylan Thomas studio which is a sound studio. As with earlier at the Millennium Centre it was amazing to learn all about how sound is different depending on surroundings. The walls of the studio were covered in fabric as for recordings the sound does not need to bounce around. There were different floorings in the studio; carpet, laminate, tiles and paving. As our guide stood on the different areas her voice did change, very subtly but on a radio show such as The Archers these changes are important and noticed by the listeners.
The studio room also had an outdoor door with knocker and internal door, there's a very different sound opening and closing each. There was also a staircase and small bedroom upstairs as voices sound different when lying down too. It was incredible how much there was to learn as well as all the technology and equipment in the studio and producers sound room.
BBC Wales news studio was very exciting to be in, again smaller than I thought with one wall being a glass window to the newsroom with everyone working at their computers keeping up with events around the world.
In the studio the three other walls were large screens with two showing the news and the other the weather map. The cameras hang from the ceiling with the autocue and can move to cover any part of the studio. There were also floor standing cameras.
The large backdrop screen that presenters often stand by does not actually exist, it is overlaid on to the screen. It was a bit weird to look at tv monitor showing the camera's view and see myself standing by a screen when in reality there was nothing next to me. The photo is of the camera monitor, you can see the newsroom behind the glass.
At the BBC Wales studio the weather was on a big screen on one wall. I didn't have a go at presenting but stood for a photo pointing at Cardiff.... I'll not get a weather job as my pointing was a bit west!
Our final tour was the BBC Wales radio studio where many programmes are broadcast from, most known to me is Owain Wyn Evans who does the early morning Radio 2 show. I have listened on catch up on BBC Sounds as he's on very early.
Again the studio had many features to assist the sound but more so with radio to keep the sound clear. The desks were fabric covered to mask the sound of objects such as keys or pens being put down. It was so interesting especially learning about other recordings such as podcasts.
I had a superb time in Cardiff, every minute was fab from Kinky Boots to bring backstage and then in the very modern studios. Thank you to everyone, I would certainly recommend both the tours and grab tickets to see Johannes as Kinky Boots tours the UK.