Opera Scotland

Siegfried 1936Royal Opera

Read more about the opera Siegfried

The 'Royal Opera, Covent Garden', as they were styled on this occasion, visited Edinburgh for two weeks from 24 February to 7 March, described as a Grand Opera Festival. The producer was the London and Provincial Opera Society Ltd, in conjunction with the Imperial League of Opera. The company then moved through to Glasgow.

Repertoire included Il barbiere di Siviglia and La Bohème in Italian; Roméo et Juliette in French; and Der Freischütz, Tristan und Isolde and Siegfried in English.

Conductors listed were Sir Thomas Beecham, John Barbirolli, Clarence Raybould, Robert Ainsworth and Eric Warr.

Our copy of the programme for 27 February has Roy Devereux written in as a replacement for Octave Dua as Mime.  Whether Dua was fit for the second performance is not yet known, though as Devereux later sang in Glasgow it may be that Dua dropped out altogether.