Opera Scotland

New to your Website

Posted 19 Jun 2020

The OperaScotland team have been working as best they can through lockdown to put more information online for you.  

For some time, we’ve wanted to help you move between different productions on the same tour by offering internal links between entries. 

This backstage work is time consuming, first because of the need to be sure of all the performances on the tour. Then once we have listed these, we have to identify casts.

Unfortunately, the only options for such historic performances lie in identifying newspaper reviews. However, reviewers even in Edwardian times when they were given generous space don't mention every singer, and rarely the conductor. To establish more detail we have to track down such programmes as survive across a number of libraries and archives.

Where can we see the results of all this work?

Well, as an example, see Carl Rosa Opera’s spring tour of Scotland in 1895. Go to Arthur Sullivan’s Ivanhoe here, being given its first performances in Scotland (illustrated). 

You should be able to scroll down and read reviews and cast information for their other performances by the company in Scotland that season.

For a more recent example, look to Scottish Opera’s Cosi fan tutte in 1967 here, then scroll down and check out the links to their other productions that year.

What next?

At present, we’re collecting casts for performances in Scotland by the British National Opera Company (BNOC).

The BNOC, a predecessor of Covent Garden Opera and of course the Royal Opera, was notable among other things for being the first European opera company to broadcast a complete opera (Magic Flute in 1923).  

Follow links through their season in 1927 - start with Samson and Delilah here.

We plan to continue populating the OperaScotland site with more entries and more internal links.

Historic portraits, either photographs or illustrations, are more difficult to track down but we are adding these where we can.

Keep watching for updates.