Erwartung 2004Scottish Opera
Read more about the opera Erwartung
Scottish Opera's 2004-05 season consisted of six events, five being full-scale stagings. The proceedings opened with a double-bill of early twentieth century classics, Duke Bluebeard's Castle and Erwartung. The autumn programme also contained a revival of Tosca, the vintage 1980 staging by the late Anthony Besch. The new year began with a rare sighting in Scotland of an opera by Tippett, The Knot Garden. Handel's wonderful setting of Restoration comedy, Semele, followed, and the fifth full-scale production was a revival of Fidelio. The early part of 2005 also featured a concert version of Andrea Chénier, as well as the usual Highlands and Islands tour of Essential Scottish Opera.
This production was a bit of an oddity. Erwartung has not been performed often in Scotland, and then usually in concert form. This series of performances was expertly played and sung, but the staging did not help the piece. Nowadays we are accustomed to the literal instructions of composer and librettist being replaced by a director's concept, and frequently this is done with such conviction that it sheds refreshing new light on a work. It must be said that this production did not do that. Instead of a dark and frightening forest and a protagonist who may have killed her lover, whose corpse may just be suggested in the gloom, we had a brightly lit bedroom, a corpse by the bed, and little sense of mystery or panic.
Renate Behle, known on the continent for her interpretations of the heavier Wagner and Strauss soprano roles, here showed complete confidence in her handling of the difficult score.
