Opera Scotland

La Rondone programme cover 2023

Opera North in Newcastle

Opera North opened its Autumn visit to Newcastle's Theatre Royal on Tuesday, 31 October with its new production of Verdi's ever-welcome Falstaff. This presentation, which has been very favourably received, was repeated on Thursday, when the OpScot team met up for an indulgent weekend. 

The thoroughly enjoyable Falstaff performance was completely dominated by the fabulous orchestra under music director Garry Walker and an absolutely winning interpretation of the title role by company stalwart...

Posted 24 Oct 2023 | Comments

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Programme cover 2023

Barber revival at Scottish Opera

Sir Thomas Allen's superb staging of Rossini's Barber of Seville received a long-overdue revival at Glasgow Theatre Royal on Tuesday, 17 October. 

An excellent cast features Samuel Dale Johnson in the title role. Simone McIntosh, Anthony Gregory, David Stout and John Molloy also take leading parts. The company's Music Director Stuart Stratford conducts a stylish and fun-filled performance.

After Glasgow the company takes the production to Edinburgh, Inverness and Aberdeen between now and 25...

Posted 24 Oct 2023 | Comments

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Programme cover

Scottish premiere for Daphne

A rarely performed late opera by Richard Strauss has been given its first Scottish performance in Glasgow. 

Scottish Opera added Daphne to their impressive list of unusual items unearthed for performance in concert form. All the singers knew their parts by heart, so were able to give a convincingly acted out performance under the direction of Emma Jenkins. 

The orchestra is impressively large, containing several unusual and exotic instruments, and under Stuart Stratford's firm conducting it...

Posted 7 Sep 2023 | Comments

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Death of Renata Scotto

Renata Scotto, one of the greatest Italian sopranos of the post-war decades, has died aged 89. She appeared frequently at La Scala, Milan and gave 314 performances during a long career at the New York Met.

Scotto appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival. The first of these was as a member of the La Scala company in 1957, when she sang in the final performance of La sonnambula instead of the 'indisposed' Maria Callas. Her superb interpretation won over an initially frosty...

Posted 25 Aug 2023 | Comments

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Scottish Opera's Golden Years: book jacket

Scottish Opera’s Golden Years John Duffus

There have been histories of Scottish Opera before: Scottish Opera - the First Ten Years by Conrad Wilson (Collins, London and Glasgow 1972); It is a Curious Story The Tale of Scottish Opera (1962-1987) by Cordelia Oliver (Mainstream Publishing 1987); and most recently Fifty Years of Scottish...

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Songs of Stevenson

Songs of Stevenson

That distinguished Scottish singer, Brian Bannatyne Scott, has annpounced the release of his first solo CD "Songs of Stevenson", produced by BBS Records and Birnam CD.

"Songs of Stevenson" features the first recordings of two song cycles by the Scottish composer Ronald Stevenson, "Hills of Home"...
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Progress on website

The team behind OperaScotland has been asked many times to consider expanding the range of entries to cover some non-operatic works with vocal content.   These would include concert items performed by important artists who did not appear much, if at all, in opera in Scotland.


We have made a...

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Controlling mission creep: how do you eat an elephant?

At OperaScotland, team members have been very anxious to avoid ‘mission creep’; there is so much history to tackle - from 1755 onwards, and perhaps earlier - that it always seems a struggle to focus on what is relevant. As the answer goes, we have to eat an elephant a mouthful at a time.

Having scoured different sources to come up with cast lists, we have become aware that every entry we make represents a considerable opportunity cost. Every time we enter a cast we could have to think in terms of an hour or more.

Musicals

Obviously we think mainly in terms of operas performed in Scotland. However, content could be not just opera but also works ‘carried out by opera companies’. So recently when Opera North brought Kiss Me, Kate to Edinburgh we found ourselves posting data. Other musicals have been placed on the site from time to time, as have the works of Gilbert and Sullivan. But the thought of identifying and listing all perforances of 'Messiah', for example, makes us feel queasy.  Surely life is too short for this.

What about other works of vocal and dramatic interest?

Choral works

It seems logical to include listings for Verdi’s Requiem Mass , and Rossini’s Stabat Mater. Were these the first performances in Scotland? The team have been entering performances on the website when the discovery seems of interest. Examples include entries for Mahler’s 8th Symphony and Song of the Earth.  Other examples include Janacek’s Diary of One who Disappeared at Ledlanet and Glagolitic Mass at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Other important performances are being logged.

For instance, we have listed this year’s West Side Story on account of its appearance in the Edinburgh International Festival.

Other events of significance posted recently include Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis , the Dvorak Requiem and Brahms Requiem and the Bruckner Mass No 3. Check out the links.

Future developments

Look out for more information as time goes by…  Please tell your friends about us.

We continue to post all the information we can about performances past, present and future.  One day, we hope to have listed the date of first performance in Scotland for all the works above and more...

And please, please keep sending information in...

Posted 11 Aug 2019

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What's On5 May - 5 Jun

Map List

Sensory O 2012

Scottish Opera

05 May 05 May 17 May 17 May 18 May 18 May 19 May 19 May 26 May 26 May 27 May 27 May 02 Jun 02 Jun 03 Jun 03 Jun

Friends of Scottish Opera - May 2012

Friends of Scottish Opera

06 May 23 May

Rosenkavalier (concert excerpts filmed) 2012

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (BBC SSO)

06 May 07 May

Tosca (Pre-show talk) 2012

Scottish Opera

06 May 19 May 27 May

Tosca 2012

Scottish Opera

06 May 08 May 10 May 12 May 17 May 19 May 23 May 25 May 27 May 31 May 02 Jun

Little bit of...Tosca 2012

Scottish Opera

08 May

Ye Cronies Opera Award 2012

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

08 May

Scottish Opera Emerging Artists 2012

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

11 May

Touch Tour Tosca 2012

Scottish Opera

12 May 19 May 02 Jun 02 Jun

Come and Sing Aida! 2012

Fife Opera

12 May

Masterclass with Jane Eaglen 2012

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

16 May

Bohème (live open air relay) 2012

Royal Opera

17 May 17 May

Barbiere di Siviglia 2012

English Touring Opera

17 May 19 May

Tosca Unwrapped 2012

Scottish Opera

18 May 24 May

Eugene Onegin 2012

English Touring Opera

18 May

Traviata 2012

Tayside Opera

18 May 19 May 26 May

Threepenny Opera 2012

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland

22 May 23 May 24 May 25 May 26 May 26 May

Carmen 2012

Edinburgh Grand Opera

23 May 24 May 25 May 26 May

Così fan tutte 2012

Opera à la Carte

26 May

Centenary Celebration with Humphrey Burton 2012

Wagner Society of Scotland

27 May

Falstaff (live relay) 2012

Royal Opera

30 May

Barbiere di Siviglia 2012

Opera Project

03 Jun

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