Opera Scotland

Cendrillon 2006Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD)

Read more about the opera Cendrillon

2006 saw the institution of an impressive scheme whereby the Academy in Glasgow mounted a production every January in collaboration with Scottish Opera, using the company's orchestra and technical facilities. For this first effort, students also came from the St Petersburg State Conservatory, dancers from the Senior Associates Programme of Scottish Ballet.

The enterprise got off to a highly promising start with this thoroughly enjoyable production which immediately showed the scale of justified ambition to be revealed in subsequent years. Massenet's lovely opera is rarely performed in Britain and was hitherto unknown in Scotland - indeed Massenet of any kind is a rarity here. Perhaps the designs were not ideally charming, but the only quibble in the casting lay with the decision to use a tenor as the prince - his music sounds sweeter at the original mezzo pitch, though there were certainly no complaints about the performance of Adam Magee in that role.