Opera Scotland

EIF Concert Performances for 2015 announced

Posted 3 Feb 2015

Fergus Linehan, Director of the Edinburgh International Festival, has released details of the orchestral programme. In a break from tradition, concert performances of opera have been announced separately from mainstage events, news of which is held back for a month yet.

There are to be two performances, one by Scottish Opera of HMS Pinafore on 23 August,  which brings together a fine cast of British singers, conducted by Richard Egarr.  They include John Mark Ainsley as Sir Joseph Porter and Andrew Foster-Williams as Captain Corcoran, with Toby Spence (Ralph Rackstraw), Elizabeth Watts (Josephine), Hilary Summers (Little Buttercup), Kitty Whately (Hebe), Neal Davies (Dick Deadeye), Gavan Ring (Bill Bobstay) and Barnaby Rea (Bob Becket).

In addition, there is to be a performance of Stravinsky's Rake's Progress on 12 August, with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. The Royal Conservatoire Voices, under their chorus master Timothy Dean, are joined by Emily Birsan (Anne Trulove), Andrew Staples (Tom Rakewell), Gidon Saks (Nick Shadow), Elizabeth DeShong (Baba the Turk), Catherine Wyn-Rogers (Mother Goose), Peter Rose (Trulove), Alan Oke (Sellem) and  Ashley Riches (Keeper of the Madhouse). Stravinsky's opera, with libretto by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman, is a darkly sparkling morality tale on love, money and Faustian pacts.