Scottish Opera's third winter season at the Theatre Royal (1977-78) opened with Thea Musgrave's Mary, Queen of Scots, premiered a few weeks earlier at the Edinburgh Festival. It was followed by Fidelio, Otello, Ariadne on Naxos, The Golden Cockerel, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Falstaff, The Marriage of Figaro (launched earlier in the year), Madama Butterfly and The Bartered Bride - this last being the only completely new production.
The perfect Christmas present would have been a ticket to this final revival of the Peter Ebert Falstaff production.
The cast was almost identical to that of the previous year, led by Sesto Bruscantini's distinctly dyspeptic Falstaff. These were the final appearances in Scotland by this great singing actor. The only two cast changes were for Nannetta and Fenton, where Patricia Hay and Dennis O'Neill came in, both near ideal. And there was one night when O'Neill was ill, and Ryland Davies, the Fenton from 1966 and by now long the resident interpreter of the role at Covent Garden, came in, phrasing sweetly as ever.
Dennis O'Neill (Exc Dec 23)
Ryland Davies (Dec 23)
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