Opera Scotland

Nozze di Figaro 1947Glyndebourne Opera

Read more about the opera Marriage of Figaro

The first Edinburgh Festival was started up under the direction of Rudolf Bing, at that time on the staff at Glyndebourne, but soon to move to New York, where he would spend the rest of his career in charge at the Met. Glyndebourne provided the opera for most of the early festivals, and many of the performances achieved legendary status, and when you see the casts that is hardly surprising.

This first offering was nine performances of a revival of the production of Figaro which had started the whole Glyndebourne phenomenon in 1934. They alternated with nine performances of Verdi's Macbeth, also in pre-war settings. This Verdi rarity was here receiving its Scottish premiere. In this period of post-war austerity there was no complaining about the elderly nature of these stagings. The Scottish Orchestra was brought in to play for both.

The main source of data is the Glyndebourne archive website.