Opera Scotland

Così fan tutte 1948Glyndebourne Opera

Read more about the opera Così fan tutte

Nine performances of Don Giovanni and nine of Così fan tutte is a very intensive dose of Mozart opera for the second Edinburgh Festival,. Both productions had superb casts.  This year, the Royal Philharmonic, recently formed by Sir Thomas Beecham, took over in the pit from the Scottish Orchestra.

The 1947 Figaro and 1948 Don Giovanni were both staged in the pre-war Glyndebourne designs by Hamish Wilson.   His old Così sets dated from 1934 and had been used every season up to 1939.   Whether they were simply worn out, or no longer coincided with Carl Ebert's views of the opera, it seems that in a continuing age of austerity, money was nevertheless found for a completely new production.

Vittorio Gui was one of the leading Italian conductors between the wars, and here started a relationship with Glyndebourne (and Edinburgh) which would last more than a decade.  He had a wonderfully stylish approach to Mozart and Rossini in particular.  Stabile was also one of the great Italian singers, close to the end of his career.  Erich Kunz and Hilde Güden were young stars of the Vienna State Opera, still renowned equally for their performances of Mozart and of operetta.