Opera Scotland

Candide 1988Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Candide

The first of three American rarities introduced by John Mauceri was this new edition of Bernstein's enormously enjoyable operetta-musical (though further adjustments were made for Bernstein's recording a couple of years later). The leading roles of Voltaire and Pangloss were taken by Nickolas Grace, repeating his virtuoso display from the Birmingham Rep staging in Edinburgh a few years before. The other singers, led by the irrepressible Ann Howard's Old Lady, all did well. Both Cunegondes coped effortlessly with the coloratura, and Mark Beudert and Mark Tinkler both supplied plenty of character to supplement their lyrical voices.

The production by Jonathan Miller was full of imaginative touches, though the settings were perhaps slightly lacking in colour - it all seemed to be shades of grey, with less impact than the fondly-remembered and more intimate Birmingham version - even if the musical edition used then was more off-Broadway than full-blown opera.

When the production went south for its London run, the Old Lady was taken over by the experienced actress and musical performer Patricia Routledge.

The stylishly simple black, white and silver programme cover introduced for the season was highly attractive, but the idea was not repeated.

 

Scottish Opera's Season 1987/88

The 1987/88 season of Scottish Opera featured ten main stage productions. Six of these were new: Aïda, Lulu, The Pearl Fishers, Così fan tutte , La bohème and Candide. The four revivals were Seraglio, La vie Parisienne, Eugene Onegin (sung in Russian for the first time) and Death in Venice.