Opera Scotland

Edinburgh Players Opera Group

The Edinburgh Players Opera Group was founded in 2000 by Mike Thorne (conductor) and the late Philip Taylor (orchestra leader).

An orchestra of musicians of varied backgrounds come together for a weekend, self-funded. They study a major operatic work that has not come their way, either as amateurs or professionals. Rehearsals take place on Friday and Saturday, with a concert-style run through on the Sunday, with young professional and local amateur singers, usually attended by a small audience of supporters - paying a charge of £15 towards expenses. In 2019 the venue was changed from Portobello Town Hall to Broughton High School.

Initially they chose to concentrate exclusively on the music dramas of Wagner, but since 2014 Richard Strauss has also found a place.

The works performed so far are as follows:

2001 Das Rheingold; 2002 Die Walküre; 2003 Siegfried; 2004 Götterdämmerung.

2005 Tristan und Isolde; 2006 Parsifal; 2007 Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

2008 Das Rheingold; 2009 Die Walküre; 2010 Siegfried; 2011 Götterdämmerung.

2012 Parsifal; 2013 Tristan und Isolde.

2014 Der Rosenkavalier; 2015 Die Frau ohne Schatten.

2016 Tannhäuser.

2017 Elektra; 2018 Salome.

2019 Das Rheingold.

The next session will last from Friday 27 to Sunday 29 September 2019 - the opera that will feature is Das Rheingold to initiate a third Ring cycle.

Previous casts we still need to obtain are Das Rheingold 2001, Siegfried 2003 and Götterdömmerung 2004.  Links to the other casts are given below.

EPOG are always looking for talented players, particularly strings. If you are interested in joining in this great and foolhardy endeavour, please see details on the contact page. See their website at www.epogwagner.org