Opera Scotland

Barbiere di Siviglia 1955Glyndebourne Opera

Read more about the opera Barber of Seville

The 1955 Edinburgh season by the Glyndebourne Opera consisted of three masterpieces of the Italian repertoire. Rossini's Barbiere di Siviglia and Verdi's Falstaff were generally acknowledged as such. Perhaps the jury was still out on an earlier Verdi piece, La forza del destino, but this revival certainly helped to establish it.

Alberto Erede first worked at Glyndebourne before the war, and had been an important member of Jay Pomeroy's 1947 Cambridge Theatre team in London, where he first encountered Ian Wallace. This was his first appearance in Edinburgh, though he would come back fairly often in future.  He was brought in at a relatively late stage. The Festival performances were originally scheduled to be conducted by Vittorio Gui, who was also booked to conduct Falstaff. However Gui was unwell that season and ordered to rest for the summer.

Glyndebourne's chorus has always been a training ground for notable young singers. This year was no exception, with names including Heather Harper, Patricia Kern, Kevin Miller, Leon Green and David Kelly.

Sesto Bruscantini, Juan Oncina and Ian Wallace were regulars in the Glyndebourne Rossini squad at this time.