Opera Scotland

Entführung aus dem Serail 2007Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Seraglio

Scottish Opera's 2007-08 season consisted entirely of new productions, generally successful ones at that. The company was clearly still struggling financially, however. The autumn saw the start of a new relationship with the great baritone Sir Thomas Allen, who directed Il barbiere di Siviglia. The new Mozart staging was Seraglio. There was a small-scale version of Rossini's Cinderella, which toured with piano accompaniment in the autumn, then with a reduced orchestration in the spring. A Night at the Chinese Opera, the first full-length piece by Judith Weir, not yet seen in Scotland, was beautifully staged. There was also a successful new production of Verdi's Falstaff. A stimulating innovation also appeared - the first  of three runs of short new works called 5:15 - Operas Made in Scotland. The partnership with RSAMD also continued, with Eugene Onegin. There was another Highlands and Islands tour under the Essential Scottish Opera title, and the orchestra gave a group of Sunday afternoon concerts in St Andrew's in the Square.

It was a few years since Scottish Opera had mounted this work, even for a small-scale tour  Like the old Pountney staging, retired in the eighties, it treated the opera with greater seriousness than most directors seem to find in it. However the consensus seemed to be that the result, on this occasion, was rather bland.