Greek 2011Music Theatre Wales
Read more about the opera Greek
Scottish Opera's 2011-12 season was its fiftieth, with celebrations in order, though the tone was muted. There was a sense of relief that the company had survived recent turmoils, and the level of activity was much reduced. The full-scale productions began in the autumn with a revival of Thomas Allen's Barber of Seville staging. In the New Year there were new productions of Hansel and Gretel and The Rake's Progress, along with a welcome revival of the vintage Tosca production. In the absence of any invitation to play the main festival in 2011, the first item in the season was a staging on the Edinburgh Fringe of Weill's Seven Deadly Sins. This was followed by a third co-operation with Music Theatre Wales at the Traverse - the highly dramatic Greek. The autumn repertoire also had a medium scale tour of Orpheus in the Underworld. In January the Russian co-productions with the Conservatoire continued, with Prokofiev's Betrothal in a Monastery. There was also the expected Highlands and Islands concert party under the Opera Highlights label. In June, the company's 50th anniversary was celebrated with a single concert performance, well-cast, of those old stalwarts from days of yore, Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci.
Greek was one of a small number of successful new operas in the last years of the twentieth century. It immediately showed that Turnage was one of the most talented young composers of his generation. How pleasing it was to discover that the passage of two decades had done nothing to reduce its effect, and that it still carried a powerful punch. There was no sign of it having dated, as so many once-fashionable works seem to do.
While the cast was without any weakness, it was perhaps useful to be reminded that Sally Silver is equally adept at modern music, since her previous roles in Scotland had been Donizetti and Handel. Louise Winter hadn't appeared in Scotland for a while, and was perhaps remembered more for Mahler concerts than for opera.
