Opera Scotland

High Court of the Gods

Tours by decade

Tours by location

Music

Various

 

Premiere

First Performance: Glasgow (RCS Alexander Gibson Opera Studio), 15 June 2018.

 

Introduction

One of the regular programmes of Opera Scenes mounted with a mixed group of Conservatoire students for training and assessment purposes. These usually take the form of extended excerpts rather than just arias, duets, etc., so that the participants get practice with recitative, dialogue and acting, rather than just having to sing. They also do the occasional one-liners, while doing major solos elsewhere. They also have to perform confidently in several languages.

On this occasion, instead of merely being titled as Opera Scenes, the evening was called The High Court of the Gods, an indication that an attempt was being made to introduce a unifying theme. In this case, all the scenes were connected in some way with Classical Greek drama and myth.

Perhaps surprisingly, the repertoire excluded Monteverdi and Handel. Excellent training ground, but they have featured prominently in recent performances at RCS.  The operas that did feature were by Gluck (Orfeo ed Euridice, Iphigénie en Tauride); Mozart (Idomeneo); Cherubini (Médée); Berlioz (Les Troyens); Offenbach (Orphée aux enfers); Strauss (Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos) and Stravinsky (Oedipus Rex).