MAMIAITH: Finding a New Voice
As part of Tŷ Cerdd and Music Theatre Wales’ research and development programme, Tuag Opera, composer Nathan James Dearden and writer Siwan Llynor share their thoughts on the process of giving injustices a new voice in Welsh-language opera.
MAMIAITH; Image of silenced woman
Man cychwyn STARTING POINT
The Tuag Opera pathway with Ty Cerdd and Music Theatre Wales began in October 2024. As part of the programme, I was paired with composer Nathan James Dearden to explore a moment in a Welsh-language opera. In a short, hurried conversation—just before I caught the train back to north Wales—Nathan and I spoke about the Welsh language, and our personal relationships with it, shaped by where we grew up.
North vs. South
Nathan is from Pontypridd and I’m from Bala, a rural, Welsh-speaking community. While I was immersed in the language from an early age, Nathan grew up in a non-Welsh speaking household. His grandfather, a miner, once questioned why his grandson was learning Welsh at all. Nathan also shared something deeply moving—that he had recently lost the ability to speak Welsh following brain trauma. Still, his passion for the language remains unwavering.
I travelled home with an idea of an opera about a young girl who has lost the language, or something was preventing her from speaking it. This seed of a story made me reflect more deeply on my own relationship with the Welsh language, and on what it would mean to lose the language.
Music bred from stories
During a folk singing and storytelling session I held in Nant Gwrtheyrn, I asked the new Welsh speakers in the session why they had set out to learn Welsh. Most spoke of a longing to belong—to feel part of the country. On the journey home from the Nant, I began to think about the young women and mothers who had been imprisoned for the language, and the sacrifices they made.
A friend, Branwen Niclas, shared her memoir with me about her own time in prison in the late 1980s. and I also read Merched Peryglus, a book that explores the experiences of these women. Branwen's story, along with Nathan’s memories of his childhood in Pontypridd, inspired the idea for a three-act opera called Mamiaith—a journey through the eyes of a young woman in mid-1980s Wales, during the era of the miners strike and Thatcherism. An opera about a young woman speaking up for what she believes in - the language and community.
Nathan chose to focus on a key moment in Act II, where we see the young woman in prison. The libretto for the scene draws on Branwen’s memoir but also on my own imagination—shaped by my experience as a mother, and by the vital importance of the Welsh language in raising my sons.
SIWAN LLYNOR
Dechreuodd y daith ar lwybr datblygu Tuag Opera gyda Thŷ Cerdd a Music Theatre Wales mis Hydref 2024. Cafodd y cyfansoddwr Nathan James Dearden a finnau ein paru ar y llwybr i weithio ar foment mewn opera Gymraeg. Mewn trafodaeth fer a brysiog cyn i mi orfod dal y trên yn nôl am y gogledd fe gawsom sgwrs am yr iaith Gymraeg, ac am ein perthynas â’r iaith yn gyd-destun yr ardaloedd ble’n magwyd.
Gogledd vs. De
Daw Nathan yn wreiddiol o Bontypridd a finnau o’r Bala ym Mhenllyn ardal y pethe, a Nathan wedi magu ar aelwyd di Gymraeg a’i daid oedd yn löwr yn cwestiynu pwrpas i’w ŵyr ddysgu’r Gymraeg. Rhannodd Nathan ei fod wedi colli’r gallu i siarad Cymraeg yn ddiweddar yn dilyn trawma ar yr ymennydd ,ond bod ei angerdd tua’r iaith yr un mor fawr ag erioed.
Felly es ar y trên am adre gyda rhyw fras syniad o opera am ferch ifanc oedd wedi colli iaith, neu fod rhywbeth yn ei rhwystro rhag siarad. Arweiniodd y syniad i mi feddwl yn ddyfnach am fy mherthynas i â’r iaith ac oblygiadau colli iaith.
Cerddoriaeth wedi'i fagu o straeon
Wedi i mi gynnal sesiwn canu gwerin a chwedlau yn Nant Gwrtheyrn holais y siaradwyr newydd yno pam eu bod wedi mynd ati i ddysgu’r iaith. Ateb y mwyafrif oedd rhyw dynfa o berthyn i’r wlad. Ar y siwrne adre o’r Nant dechreuais feddwl am y merched ifanc a’r mamau aeth i’r carchar dros yr iaith, ac am eu haberth.
Rhannodd fy ffrind Branwen Niclas ysgrif hefo fi am ei chyfnod yn y carchar ar ddiwedd yr ‘80au a darllenais y llyfr ‘Merched Peryglus’ sy’n gyfres o atgofion gan ferched bu’n gweithredu gyda Chymdeithas yr Iaith. Sbardunodd y sgwrs am blentyndod Nathan ym Mhontypridd a’r ysgrif syniad i mi am opera 3 act o’r enw Mamiaith, opera yn dilyn taith merch ifanc ar antur yng nghanol yr 1980au wedi cyfnod streic y glowyr a phan oedd Thatcher wrth y llyw. Opera am ferch ifanc yn codi llais am yr hyn mae hi’n ei gredu i warchod yr iaith a chymunedau.
Dewisodd Nathan ganolbwyntio ar y foment yn yr ail act o fewn yr opera ble gwelwn y ferch yn y carchar am weithredu dros yr iaith. Mae libreto’r foment hon wedi ysbrydoli gan ysgrif a hanes Branwen, ond hefyd gan ffrwyth fy nychymig wrth i finnau fel Mam sylweddoli pwysigrwydd yr iaith wrth fagu fy meibion.
Diolch i Tŷ Cerdd a Music Theatre Wales am y cyfle yma i weithio ar ddatblygu moment mewn opera drwy gyfrwng y Gymraeg.
SIWAN LLYNOR
Ar goll wrth gyfieithu Lost in translation: TELLLING old stories anew
Siwan and I come from different corners of Wales—her roots in the Welsh language stronghold of the north, mine in the Wenglish-dominated valleys of the south. Yet, our shared passion for how art can bring communities together (and even amplify marginalised voices) brought us together. The little bit of opera we’ve created is more than just a piece of music; it feels like a reclamation of narratives that have been pushed to the edges of public consciousness. Our little exploration of Welshness.
Writing in Welsh was a deliberate choice. An important choice. An essential choice. Though I’m not a first-language speaker, the process has been one of (re-)learning for me. Siwan’s mastery of the language—its rhythms, its poetry, its emotional weight—has been invaluable and an inspiration. Together, we’ve crafted something that doesn’t just use Welsh as a medium but actively engages with its history, its struggles, and its resilience.
Wales has a complex linguistic history. The decline of Welsh wasn’t accidental—it was the result of systemic suppression: The Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542 made speaking Welsh in court illegal (in a country at a time where most people only spoke Welsh). Welsh was not a valid form of pleading in court until the Welsh Courts Act in 1942; during the 18th-century and the industrial revolution, it was reported that workers speaking Welsh down the mines could lose their jobs, the only family income in most cases; and The Welsh Not was a practice that started around 1840-1940, where school children were actually punished for speaking Welsh in school. If caught, they would wear a wooden plaque with the letters “WN”. Then, whoever was wearing this at the end of the day would be caned by the headmaster. There are reports of this still happening up until the 1940s! There are public reports of this broader cultural marginalisation that made many feel their mother tongue was inferior even to this day. These experiences, though rarely discussed in mainstream history, have left deep scars.
Our operatic scenes centre on one such ‘forgotten’ story—a real but overlooked moment in Welsh history where communities fought to keep their language alive against overwhelming pressure to assimilate - Cymdeithas yr Iaith campaigners in the 1980s. Many of the people who lived through these struggles are still with us, yet their stories are rarely given space in national discourse.
Many know of the men who fronted much of Cymdeithas yr Iaith and the Welsh-language movement from 1960s onwards - Dafydd Iwan to Meic Stephens. But many do not know about the sheer amount of woman who were imprisoned. Those who were silenced. Those mothers who were ripped from their children. Families upended. This, we felt, was an important part of our story that needed to be told.
Signs are dumped outside the police station by protesters at Dolgellau in 1975
Why opera? Why now?
Opera has long been a vehicle for grand narratives—mythic tales, historical epics, tragedies of love and power. But it’s also a space where marginalised voices can be given a new space to live and to be heard. The emotional intensity of opera—its ability to convey pain, defiance, and hope through music—makes it the perfect medium for stories of cultural survival.
For Welsh-language opera, the stakes are even higher. Though we have a rich tradition of choral singing and eisteddfodau, large-scale Welsh opera is still rare. By creating new work in the language, we’re not just preserving it—we’re proving its vitality, its capacity to carry complex, contemporary stories.
As a composer from the South Wales Valleys, where Welsh was often absent from daily life, this project has been deeply personal. Learning more about the language’s suppression made me reflect on my own relationship with Welsh identity. Many in my community grew up disconnected from the language, not out of choice but because of historical forces that made it seem irrelevant. This opera is, in part, an attempt to bridge that gap—to show that these stories belong to all of us, whether we speak Welsh or not.
Edrych ymlaen
Creating this opera with Siwan has been one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences of my career to date. It’s taught me that art isn’t just about beauty—it’s about truth, even when that truth is uncomfortable. Wales is still grappling with the legacy of linguistic oppression, and while the language is now proudly supported by policy, the wounds of the past haven’t fully healed.
If our opera does one thing, I hope it sparks conversations—about whose stories we remember, whose voices we value, and how we honour the struggles of those who came before us. The Welsh language isn’t just a relic of the past; it’s a living, evolving force. And through music, we can ensure its stories are never forgotten again.
NATHAN JAMES DEARDEN
Darganfod mwy Find out more
To find out more about MAMIAITH, how to hear it live, or the future of the project, please visit this dedicated webpage (link embedded). But, if you would like to find out more about Tuag Opera, a research and development programme hosted by Tŷ Cerdd and Music Theatre Wales, please visit this external webpage (link embedded).
