Opera Scotland

Scottish premieres

Posted 17 Jul 2011

From time to time we are able to identify and put in our database the date for the first Scottish performance of a particular opera, something that is of necessity time consuming, involving as it does much work with databases, microfilm and archives. Recently, for example, we have verified and entered the dates for the first Scottish performances of Lohengrin (3 Nov 1875), Flying Dutchman (23 Feb 1877), Tannhauser (1 May 1893), Meistersinger (15 September 1894) and Valkyrie (12 Nov 1896).  We also tracked down Rienzi's Scottish premiere (1 May 1894) to complete the list of those given in the nineteenth century. In most of these cases, our work in the archives has overturned previously quoted dates and pushed back the date of premieres by some years. Reference books generally state the date of the first UK performance only, so we offer a real development in knowledge of Scotland's cultural history.