Opera Scotland

Navarraise 1894Royal Italian Opera Company

Read more about the opera Navarraise

Touring to Scotland only three months after its première, La navarraise seems a strange companion piece for Gluck's Orfeo - as indeed was Pagliacci on the previous year's visit by Sir Augustus Harris's company from Covent Garden.  However Massenet packs a lot of powerfully effective music into three-quarters of an hour.

Philip Brozel was at the start of a distinguished career, while Armand Castelmary was nearing the end of one in which he created roles at the Paris Opéra in works by Meyerbeer (Don Diego in L'africaine); Thomas (Horatio in Hamlet);  and Verdi (the Monk in Don Carlos).

 

The national tour dates

The autumn tour was quite extensive, starting on 27 August in Blackpool.  The company then went to Newcastle (w/c 03/09); Edinburgh (10/09); Glasgow (17/09); Bradford (24/09); Dublin (01/10); Cork (14/10); Belfast 21/10); Liverpool (28/10); Sheffield (04/11); Manchester (11/11); Bristol (18/11).

The two weeks in Scotland were:

W/c 10 Sep - Edinburgh Royal Lyceum - Mon 10 Lohengrin; Tue 11 Falstaff; Wed 12 Carmen; Thu 13 tbc; Fri 14 tbc; Sat 15 mat Orfeo & La Navarraise; Sat 15 eve Mastersingers.

W/c 17 Sep - Glasgow Theatre Royal - Mon 17 Falstaff; Tue 18 Lohengrin; Wed 19 Orfeo & La Navarraise; Thu 20 Pagliacci & Cavalleria Rusticana; Fri 21 Pag & Cav; Sat 21 mat Faust; Sat 21 eve Mastersingers.