Opera Scotland

Inés de Castro in Scotland

Posted 3 Dec 2014

Inés de Castro is among the most successful of all the new works introduced by Scottish Opera. It opened at the 1996 Edinburgh Festival, with the first performance in the Festival Theatre on 23 August. During the course of three runs, Jonathan Moore's production, in highly atmospheric designs by Chris Dyer, received a total of seventeen performances, mostly conducted by Richard Armstrong.

That first cast was seen in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newcastle, and included Helen Field in the title role. Pedro was taken by Jeffrey Lawton, with Stafford Dean as the old King. Blanca was sung by Elizabeth Byrne and the Nurse and Old Woman by Anne Collins. The two baritones were Jacek Strauch as Pacheco and Christopher Purves as the Executioner.

The staging was revived in 1999, for six performances in the central belt, with most of the same participants. Pedro was now sung by Jon Garrison and Pacheco by Simon Thorpe. That cast re-assembled in 2001 for a further four performances. Two were in Glasgow, but the other two saw the company make a trip abroad, appropriately to Portugal.