Opera Scotland

Tristan und Isolde 1901Moody-Manners Opera Company

Read more about the opera Tristan and Isolde

Moody-Manners was the first company to perform Wagner's Tristan and Isolda, as it was billed, outside London.  Their production opened on 11 Jan 1901 in Hull, and then was taken on tour.  In March, Edinburgh then Glasgow each enjoyed a performance during the one-week season they hosted.

The critic of the Edinburgh Evening News praised the performers, but also said of Mr Hedmondt that "had he been less dishevelled and lugubrious in the first two acts, he would have suggested the romantic knight even more effectively."

Demand was high. The Scotsman critic explained that every seat in the Royal Lyceum had been sold before the performance, "and the overture was played in the presence of an overflowing audience."   Of Hedmondt, he said that the spirit in which he and Madame Moody threw themselves into the chief roles seemed to influence those associated with them.  "At the close of each act, and most of all at the final fall of the curtain, the warmth with which the principals were recalled to the stage proved how thoroughly they had succeeded in bringing home to the audience the surpassing beauty of the music and possibly also to some extent the greatness of the dramatic conceptions embodied in the work."

The week's programme in each city also included performances of Tannhäuser (twice),  Flying Dutchman, Carmen and  Faust.   On the Saturday evening though, audiences were treated to Maritana in Edinburgh and Bohemian Girl in Glasgow.

The company returned in October, with some different Wagner works.