Opera Scotland

British National Opera Company

The BNOC was established in 1922 as the result of the Beecham Opera Company going into liquidation in December 1920. Leading performers of the day moved from that previous operator and became directors pf BNOC. These included the conductors Percy Pitt and Aylmer Buesst, soprano Agnes Nicholls, and tenor Walter Hyde with basses Robert Radford and Norman Allin. Operations were able to start with a wide and large-scale repertoire as the result of lavish sets and costumes from Sir Thomas Beecham's company also passing to the new set-up. 

Initially Percy Pitt was the company's artistic director, succeeded in 1924 by the Wagnerian baritone Frederic Austin, when Pitt moved to the BBC. The first season opened at the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford on 6 February 1922, beginning with Aïda.

On 6 March 1922 the company moved to Scotland, opening a three-week season in Edinburgh at the Lyceum. Promotional material is displayed below, along with extracts from reviews of earlier performances at Covent Garden. What impact the performances made in the rather more intimate Edinburgh Lyceum can only be imagined.

In the autumn Glasgow was added to the schedule. Visits to the central belt continued until 1927 when Dundee and Aberdeen also received performances.  By 1928, with the great economic depression under way, the company still visited three of those cities. The Dundee King's had become a cinema, so was not available.

In its early seasons BNOC's London visits were played at Covent Garden, but in 1924 that house began its international seasons, so BNOC transferred to His Majesty's in the Haymarket. It was, however, like Carl Rosa, an organisation thet toured extensively in the provinces.

While the mainstay of the company's repertoire remained the popular works of Wagner, Verdi and Puccini, several unfamiliar pieces by British composers were introduced. These included operas by Ralph Vaughan Williams (Hugh the Drover); Gustav Holst (Savitri, The Perfect Fool, At the Boar's Head); Dame Ethel Smyth (The Boatswain's Mate, Fête Galante); Rutland Boughton (Alkestis); Sir Alexander Mackenzie (The Eve of St John); and Ernest Bryson (The Leper's Flute).

BNOC's serious financial difficulties in 1928 included an accumulated deficit of £5000. Despite the fact that during its last year it had contributed Entertainment Tax of £17000 to the government's coffers, the company ceased operations,

Its productiion, sets and costumes were taken over by the Covent Garden Opera Company, which was able to return to Scotland very quickly in 1929.