Opera Scotland

Hortense Schneider

Posted 21 Aug 2011

The arrival of Scottish Opera's new production of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld seems a good time to remember the great French performer Hortense Schneider (1833-1920). She brought a sense of authentic Parisian theatre to the boulevardes of Glasgow and Edinburgh in April 1870 when she sang Eurydice in the first Scottish performances. The matrons in the dress circle seem to have gone expecting to be thoroughly shocked, but ended up clapping for encores of the can-can just like everybody else. On this tour, Schneider also sang roles she had created in Paris - Boulotte in Bluebeard and The Grand Duchess.