Tristan und Isolde in Scotland
(In preparation)
Tristan und Isolde was first performed in Scotland on 14 March 1901 at the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, with a second evening at Glasgow Theatre Royal exactly one week later. The performances by the Moody-Manners company began at 19.30, which implies that some of the music was cut - a standard procedure for Wagner operas until quite recently. Fanny Moody, for many years a star of the Carl Rosa company, herself sang Isolde with Canadian tenor Charles Hedmondt as Tristan. Other...
Posted 30 Dec 2025 | Comments
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The Bear in Scotland
The Bear received its first performance in Scotland on 3 August 2013 as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The venue was the Greyfriars Tollbooth Highland Kirk. Helios Chamber Opera performed it as part of a triple bill The Bear Goes Walkabout, with new works composed by Philip Ashworth and Joel Rust.
The cast of young British singers included Urszula Bock (Popova), Angus McPhee (Smirnov) and Sam Carl (Luka). The Scottish mezzo Helen Stanley, who played one of the walk-on roles, went...
Posted 13 Aug 2025 | Comments
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L'Heure espagnole in Scotland
L'Heure espagnole received its first Scottish performance at the King's Theatre, Glasgow on 29 May 1963. This was during Scottish Opera's second season, which consisted of a week in Glasgow, followed by, for the first time, a week in Edinburgh. The production was a collaboration with the New Opera Company, based in London - an organisation that produced unusual modern operas at Sadler's Wells Theatre. The manager was Peter Hemmings, who was in the process of transferring his activities to...
Posted 12 Aug 2025 | Comments
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La bohème in Scotland
La Bohème was first performed in Scotland (under the title The Bohemians) on 30 April 1897 at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow. As the title suggests, the performance was given in English, a policy set for his touring company in 1873 by its founder Carl Rosa.
Just eight days previously in Manchester, Carl Rosa Opera had given the first British performance attended by Puccini himself, as well as his publisher, Tito Ricordi. The Glasgow soloists were identical. The conductor was Claude Jaquinot, and...
Posted 30 Jul 2025 | Comments
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