Opera Scotland

Curtain falls on Opera Camerata

Posted 15 Oct 2017

Opera Camerata gave their final performance on Saturday 14 October 2017 at the Church Hill Theatre in Edinburgh. Their last production was of Offenbach's La Belle Hélène, first performed by them in 1998. After thirty-five years this marks a sad loss to Scotland's operatic landscape.

Origin and aims

The company was born following the demise of the Edinburgh Opera Company, which ran from 1909 until 1981. Aware of this gap, Neil and Inga Mantle led the formation of Sinfonia Opera, which from 1994 traded under the name of Opera Camerata. The aim was to stage small-scale, and sometimes lesser-known operas suitable for performance in the Church Hill Theatre, everyone participating as an amateur.

The work

Over the years, we have seen the company present a mix of work ranging from such popular favourites as Carmen and Magic Flute to relative rarities such as Nicolai's Merry Wives of Windsor and Vaughan Williams' Riders to the Sea.

The reason given for the company's closure is quite simply that the principals have been unable to identify members of the younger generation willing to take over.