Opera Scotland

Elektra 2006Edinburgh International Festival

Read more about the opera Elektra

The 2006 Edinburgh International Festival was the last under the distinguished direction of Brian McMaster, though his skills in achieving a fascinating balance of music, theatre, dance and opera were undiminished. Undoubtedly the hottest tickets were for Claudio Abbado's final operatic performances in Edinburgh, in Die Zauberflöte. The Opéra de Lyon made a welcome return with Peter Stein's production of Tchaikovsky's Mazeppa and a double-bill of two Weill pieces, The Lindbergh Flight and The Seven Deadly Sins. The Festival mounted the world premiere of Stuart MacRae's first opera, The Assassin Tree, in a co-production with Covent Garden. In addition, three operas appeared in concert - Elektra to open and Mastersingers to close. Between those came a revelatory performance of Rossini's Lady of the Lake.

Quite what Elektra was doing in a concert hall now that an ideal theatre exists in Edinburgh is a bit of a mystery. But the opening performance of the 2006 Festival was thoroughly enjoyable none the less. Ian Storey, by now one of the world's leading heldentenors, was welcome back in a short role, and Iain Paterson rarely works on home territory. The performance was confidently controlled by Edward Gardner, with an astonishingly mature first attempt at the score. Two singers gave magnetic performances in leading roles - American dramatic soprano Jeanne-Michèle Charbonnet was making her first appearance in Scotland. The other singer who made the audience forget this was a concert was the Serbian Leandra Overmann. She had made a strong impression previously with the Hannover company, and here she dominated the stage with ease.