Opera Scotland

Cynthia Buchan Suggest updates

Born Edinburgh, 1 July 1949.

Scottish mezzo-soprano.

Cynthia Buchan studied in Glasgow at the Royal Scottish Academy and in Vienna with a Richard Tauber scholarship.  Her Scottish Opera debut, while still a student, was at the 1968 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, singing the final solo in Monteverdi's Ballo delle ingrate.

With Scottish Opera she went on to sing a range of roles including Mozart (Cherubino, Second Lady); Tchaikovsky (Olga); J Strauss (Orlofsky);  Massenet (Charlotte);  Humperdinck (Hansel); R Strauss (Annina);  Janáček (Varvara)  and Britten (Hermia). Having directed a student production of Carmen at RSAMD, she later directed Scottish Opera's small-scale tour of Don Pasquale.

She appeared at the 1973 York Festival as a member of the Wexford company, singing Varvara in David Pountney's first production of Kátya Kabanová, which was sung in Czech.

Roles at Glyndebourne included Mozart (Cherubino, Dorabella) and Tchaikovsky (Olga). With ENO she also sang Mozart (Dorabella) as well as Rossini (Pippo The Thieving Magpie).  Her roles at Covent Garden included Bersi in the 1985 production of Andrea Chénier, which has appeared on DVD.

She sang L'Enfant (Ravel) in concerts with the SNO in 1975 and later at the 1979 Proms.

Performances on the continent included Rosina in Paris, Dorabella in Brussels, Toulouse and Bordeaux, Cherubino in Frankfurt, and L'Enfant in Munich and Madrid.

Sources: Various programmes.