Opera Scotland

Troilus and Cressida 1955Covent Garden Opera

Read more about the opera Troilus and Cressida

This 1955 tour provided the only chance for British audiences to see the piece outside London until Opera North produced a highly-praised staging of the original text in 1995. The tour gave single performances of Troilus at Glasgow King's, Edinburgh Empire, Leeds Grand, Manchester Palace, and Coventry Hippodrome.

This touring cast contained several of the original line-up, including the creators of the title roles. Frederick Dalberg and Geraint Evans, creators of Calkas and Antenor, respectively, seem to have sung in Glasgow, but not in Edinburgh. Peter Pears, creator of Pandarus, was not on tour. Neither did Sir Malcolm Sargent conduct outside London.

The cast for the Edinburgh performance is from a programme in the Scottish Theatre Archive (Glasgow University). A Glasgow Herald preview of the performance on Friday 4 March states that Dalberg and Evans would appear in their original roles, along with Magda Laszlò and Richard Lewis.

The schedule for the Scottish leg of the tour was as follows:

Glasgow (King's) w/c Feb 28: Mon Hoffmann; Tue Aïda; Wed Figaro; Thu Carmen; Fri Figaro; Sat mat Bohème; Sat eve Hoffmann.

Glasgow w/c  Mar 7: Mon Hoffmann; Tue Troilus and Cressida; Wed Aïda; Wed Traviata; Thu Carmen; Sat mat Traviata; Sat eve Aïda.

Edinburgh Empire w/c Mar 14: Mon Hoffmann; Tue Aïda; Wed Hoffmann; Thu Carmen; Fri Troilus and Cressida; Sat mat Bohème; Sat eve Carmen.