Opera Scotland

Orfeo ed Euridice 1894Royal Italian Opera Company

Read more about the opera Orpheus and Euridice

Sir Augustus Harris brought his Royal Italian Opera  from Covent Garden for single weeks in Edinburgh and Glasgow, the first city receiving the Scottish premières of Meistersinger and Falstaff.

Gluck's Orfeo, featuring the Ravogli sisters, had in 1893 been coupled with the local première of Pagliacci. This year the coupling was another new piece of verismo, in Massenet's La Navarraise.

While the Gluck was admired, it can hardly be said to have been entirely respected, at least by management - the curtain fell after the moving performance  by Giulia Ravogli of 'Che farò.  Were the audience aware that they were missing some excellent material?