Opera Scotland

Iolanthe 1995Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Iolanthe

Scottish Opera’s 1994-5 season opened at the Edinburgh Festival with a new production of Fidelio. The Glasgow programme saw this joined by a new Maria Stuarda and a revival of Madama Butterfly. There was also a short group of performances of Tristan und Isolde, a carry-forward from the previous summer with some cast changes. At Christmas the entertainment was the final run of Iolanthe, with the New Year bringing an interesting new modern dress Marriage of Figaro. The last group of operas, in the spring, consisted of an unknown recent Russian work, Schnittke's Life With an Idiot, in a co-production with ENO, and a revival of La forza del destino along with further performances of Madama Butterfly.

This was the third and final run for Keith Warner's vintage staging from 1986. It introduced several new faces, most notably Garry Magee and Ann Archibald, both ideal as the Arcadian couple. Bill McCue here took on the last new role of his long, distinguished career, while Eric Roberts and Harry Nicoll happily showed off their sense of comic timing. Elizabeth McCormack was well suited to this reading of the title role. The new Fairy Queen had the unenviable task of trying to efface memories of her wonderful predecessors, Gillian Knight and Anne Collins, though perhaps lacked the kind of projection required. The company's talented head of music staff was an excellent conductor.