Opera Scotland

Elegy for Young Lovers 1974Scottish Opera

Read more about the opera Elegy for Young Lovers

After the Edinburgh Festival Alceste, with its brief excursion to Aldeburgh, Scottish Opera's autumn tour in 1974 centred on the first revival of the 1971 Der Rosenkavalier using the Scottish National Orchestra, and being sung this time in German. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra played in further performances of Elegy for Young Lovers and The Magic Flute. With the addition of some more players the SCO became the Scottish Philharmonia, who were in the pit for the new production, Lucia di Lammermoor. The tour took in Glasgow, Leeds, Newcastle and Aberdeen. In October, a strongly cast revival of The Barber of Seville was taken to Stirling and Ayr. Then in December the company played in Edinburgh, when Rosenkavalier and Lucia were supplemented by a revival of La bohème, not seen since 1967.

This was the only UK revival of Henze's 1970 staging with a couple of cast changes, as well  as a different conductor and orchestra. It opened in the annual summer week at the Edinburgh Lyceum, in rep with The Magic Flute, before they both joined the autumn tour. David Pountney redirected it with a sure hand, and it was every bit as unsettling as before, with its strange combination of acerbic wit and tragedy. The final performances were given, with most of these participants, on a European tour early in 1975.