Opera Scotland

Nozze di Figaro 1976Edinburgh Festival Opera

Read more about the opera Marriage of Figaro

A further group of four performances of last year's Figaro, with most of the same performers, ran in tandem during the first part of the Festival, with Scottish Opera's (and David Pountney's) first attempt at Verdi's Macbeth in a luridly dramatic staging and a cast led by Norman Bailey and Galina Vishnevskaya. Somehow the Verdi seemed rather more interesting (and certainly more controversial). The last half of the Festival featured a second visit by the Deutsche Oper am Rhein from Düsseldorf, with an enjoyably bizarre programme at the King's - Parsifal, Moses und Aron, L'italiana in Algeri and two evenings of ballet. As a fascinating bonus, there was a rare concert performance of Mahler's completion of Weber's comedy Die drei Pintos.

The musical performance of Figaro was again dominated by the wonderful English Chamber Orchestra and Barenboim. While most of the singing was of a high standard, the international stars, with the exception of Judith Blegen, Birgit Finnilä and the ageless Berganza, all seemed visibly too mature for the characters, which restricted their effectiveness in a small theatre.