New Welsh Opera Retells the Penyberth RAF Fire 2026

Key Points

• Fflamau Penyberth will be a new Welsh opera that will recount the arson attack of 1936 at the RAF bombing school near Pwllheli.
• The arson attack was committed by the Plaid Cymru members Saunders Lewis, Lewis Valentine, and D.J. Williams.
• These men were against the establishment of the RAF bombing school at Penyberth and handed themselves to the police after committing the crime.
• Welsh-language opera company OPRA Cymru commissioned composer Gareth Glyn to compose the music.
• Patrick Young and author and historian Arwel Vittle composed the libretto for the opera.
• This opera is being produced to commemorate the 90th anniversary of an event that is widely recognized as important in the history of Welsh nationalism and Welsh language.
• OPRA Cymru intends to tour the production throughout Wales with artists that have worked with the company in the past.
• The event has been associated with the protests against the destruction of Penyberth, which was an important historical place in the Llŷn Peninsula.
• These men appeared in court in Caernarfon and then in the Old Bailey before getting their sentences in jail.
• This opera aims to bring this event to the attention of the audience through Welsh-language music theatre.

Wales (Wales Times) August 19, 2026 – A new Welsh-language opera will revisit the night in 1936 when three Welsh nationalists set fire to an RAF bombing school before handing themselves in to the police.

The production, titled Fflamau Penyberth, or Flames of Penyberth, has been commissioned by Welsh-language opera company OPRA Cymru. It will portray the actions of Saunders Lewis, Lewis Valentine and David John Williams, better known as D.J. Williams, who opposed the construction of the RAF facility at Penyberth near Pwllheli.

As reported by Tenby Today, the opera describes the three men as “God-fearing” nationalists who went out one night to set fire to an air base. The publication’s report says one of the three was a Pembrokeshire writer, linking the historical episode to the wider Welsh literary and nationalist movement.

The production is scheduled to tour Wales and will feature a cast of performers who have previously worked with OPRA Cymru. Patrick Young, the company’s founder and the opera’s librettist, said the production would mark the 90th anniversary of an event that made an historic difference to the future of the Welsh language, according to Tenby Today.

Why was the RAF bombing school targeted?

The 1936 fire followed opposition to the decision to establish an RAF bombing school at Penyberth, a historic farm and cultural site on the Llŷn Peninsula.

The planned military development prompted protests in Wales. Opponents objected to the use of the location for a bombing school, the demolition of the Penyberth farmhouse and the wider association of the project with British military policy and preparations for war.

The site was regarded by many Welsh nationalists as more than an ordinary farm. Penyberth had historical and cultural associations, including its location on a route used by pilgrims travelling towards Bardsey Island, or Ynys Enlli. The proposed development therefore became a symbol of concerns about the treatment of Welsh heritage and the position of the Welsh language within public life.

The three men involved in the fire were prominent figures in Welsh cultural and political circles. Saunders Lewis was a dramatist, poet, historian and literary critic. Lewis Valentine was a poet and preacher, while D.J. Williams was a novelist and Welsh-language writer.

The National Library of Wales records that Lewis, Williams and Valentine set fire to the Royal Air Force’s bombing school at Penyberth in 1936. It describes the episode as an event that became part of Welsh history and notes that Saunders Lewis was imprisoned in Wormwood Scrubs and dismissed from his lecturing post in uk/local/swansea/">Swansea.

What happened on the night of the fire?

On September 8, 1936, the men set fire to several buildings at RAF Penrhos, close to Penyberth, and then went to Pwllheli police station to surrender.

Their decision to hand themselves in was central to the political meaning of the action. The attack was not presented as an attempt to escape responsibility. Instead, the men accepted arrest and placed the incident before the courts.

According to Nation.Cymru, the protest involved detailed preparation before the fire, followed by court cases in Caernarfon and at the Old Bailey and subsequent imprisonment. Arwel Vittle, who wrote the book Cythral o Dân about the events and the tensions surrounding them, said the protests and planning were important parts of the story alongside the act itself.

The decision to surrender also forms part of the opera’s dramatic framework. Rather than focusing only on the destruction caused by the fire, the production is intended to explore the motivations of the three men, the protest movement that preceded the attack and the legal consequences that followed.

The episode has sometimes been associated with Gandhian principles because the participants deliberately accepted arrest rather than attempting to evade the authorities. The available historical accounts identify the event as both an act of arson and a nationalist protest against the RAF development.

Who is creating the new Welsh opera?

OPRA Cymru commissioned Gareth Glyn, an acclaimed composer from Ynys Môn, to write the opera’s music.

Glyn has previously worked with OPRA Cymru. His involvement places the new production within the company’s continuing effort to develop Welsh-language opera and bring stories connected to Welsh history and identity to audiences across Wales.

The libretto was written by Patrick Young, who founded OPRA Cymru, in collaboration with Arwel Vittle, an author and historian from Caernarfon. Their partnership combines theatrical writing with historical research into the Penyberth episode.

Nation.Cymru reported that the opera would tell the story of three prominent Plaid Cymru members who set fire to RAF Penrhos before surrendering to police. The report identified Young as the librettist and Glyn as the composer.

The production is expected to rely on a professional cast with previous connections to OPRA Cymru. Young said the performers had all worked with the company in the past, according to Tenby Today.

Why does the story remain important in Wales?

The opera is being staged at a point when the 1936 incident reaches its 90th anniversary, giving the production a specific historical focus.

For Welsh nationalists, the protest represented opposition to the displacement of Welsh culture and the use of a significant local site for a military installation. For historians, it illustrates the relationship between language, land, political identity and resistance in twentieth-century Wales.

The incident also involved figures whose influence extended beyond the fire itself. Saunders Lewis became one of the best-known Welsh writers and cultural commentators of the twentieth century. D.J. Williams was a major Welsh-language writer, and Lewis Valentine was associated with Welsh poetry, preaching and nationalist politics.

The National Library of Wales archive records that Saunders Lewis’s papers include correspondence, literary drafts, poetry and material connected with his imprisonment. Its description identifies the Penyberth fire as one of the defining events associated with his public life.

The opera’s Welsh-language format is also significant. By telling the story in Welsh, OPRA Cymru is connecting the historical subject with the language that the 1936 protest helped place at the centre of political and cultural debate.

When and where will the opera be performed?

OPRA Cymru says the opera will tour Wales, although the reports available for this story do not provide a complete list of venues or performance dates.

The planned tour will allow audiences in different parts of Wales to encounter the story in a form that combines historical narrative, music and drama. The production’s Welsh-language basis may also make it particularly relevant to Welsh-speaking communities and cultural organisations.

Patrick Young said the tour would include a “stellar cast” of performers who had worked with OPRA Cymru previously, as reported by Tenby Today.

Further details about ticketing, venues and the full cast would need to be confirmed by OPRA Cymru or the production’s official announcements. The available reports establish the opera’s title, creative team, subject and touring intention but do not contain a full schedule.

What did the Penyberth cases mean?

The three men faced court proceedings after surrendering to police.

Arwel Vittle told Nation.Cymru that the cases took place in Caernarfon and at the Old Bailey, followed by imprisonment. The National Library of Wales separately records that Saunders Lewis was imprisoned in Wormwood Scrubs and lost his lecturing position at Swansea.

The legal proceedings gave the protest a national profile. The defendants’ decision to accept responsibility meant that the trial became another public stage on which arguments about Welsh identity, military policy and cultural preservation could be discussed.

The episode remains controversial because it involved deliberate damage to military property. At the same time, its supporters viewed it as a symbolic act of resistance to the destruction of a historic Welsh site and the imposition of an English-controlled military institution.

Fflamau Penyberth will therefore need to present two connected aspects of the story: the seriousness of the arson and the political and cultural grievances that motivated it.

Background: What was the Penyberth protest?

Penyberth was a historic farm on the Llŷn Peninsula. In 1936, the Air Ministry acquired land in the area to establish an RAF bombing school, later associated with RAF Penrhos. Historical accounts say the development involved the demolition of the Penyberth farmhouse.

Saunders Lewis, Lewis Valentine and D.J. Williams opposed the project. On September 8, 1936, they set fire to buildings at the RAF site and surrendered at Pwllheli police station. The National Library of Wales identifies the event as an important episode in Welsh history and records its consequences for Saunders Lewis.

The protest became a lasting reference point in Welsh nationalist history. It connected opposition to a military base with concerns about the destruction of Welsh heritage and the status of the Welsh language. Ninety years later, OPRA Cymru’s opera is bringing the episode to the stage through a new Welsh-language artistic work.

Prediction: How could the opera affect Welsh audiences?

For Welsh audiences, Fflamau Penyberth is likely to renew interest in a historical episode that links cultural identity, language rights and political protest. Its tour could encourage discussions in schools, community groups and cultural venues about how the 1936 events influenced modern Welsh nationalism.

Welsh-speaking audiences may see the production as an example of how opera can preserve and reinterpret Welsh-language history. English-speaking audiences could encounter the story through translated material, programme notes or performances designed to provide historical context.

The production may also increase public attention around the work of Saunders Lewis, Lewis Valentine and D.J. Williams. However, its impact will depend on the size of the tour, accessibility, publicity and the extent to which OPRA Cymru provides context about both the historical grievances and the legal consequences of the fire.

Because the available reports do not confirm the complete touring schedule, audience reach cannot yet be measured. The clearest immediate effect is that Fflamau Penyberth will place the Penyberth protest back into Wales’s cultural conversation during its 90th-anniversary year.