Opera Scotland

Lustige Witwe 1977Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Merry Widow

Scottish Opera were adapting their touring pattern to the long winter subscription season they mounted in Glasgow in the early years after the restoration of the Theatre Royal. Several of the Glasgow repertoire pieces were now shown elsewhere, sometimes with cast changes. The touring had opened as early as February, with two medium-scale productions - a revival of Pountney's Magic Flute and a new Figaro. Two Britten works, Turn of the Screw and Rape of Lucretia, were revived for a brief tour to Poland. The main stage pieces, in addition to The Merry Widow, were the Pountney Macbeth, new at last year's Edinburgh Festival, plus Don Pasquale, Fidelio, Jenůfa and Meistersinger.

The first eight performances were a continuation of Scottish Opera's Christmas and New Year season in Glasgow. They were followed by a further group of six in the spring that constituted the final sighting of the thoroughly successful and high-spirited Anthony Besch and John Stoddart staging from 1973. For the final two performances, Alexander Gibson entered the pit to conduct one of his favourite pieces for the last time.

The only newcomer at this point of the run was Eric Garrett - a long-term member of the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, who here made his only appearances with Scottish Opera, in a role which was not likely to come his way in London.

Details of May cast from free cast sheet for Edinburgh in the NLS.